My 2003 has 60K miles. I bought her last september with 57K miles. Not sure if previous owner ever changed the tranny fluid but it still looks really clean in the resevoir under the hood. Should i change it now anyway?

 

You have a reservoir for your trans?

 

If you think you have a trans reservoir under the hood, you better pay someone to do work on your car.

 

Lol yeah going on 36 hour shift being on call. I typed tranny fluid While thinking of power steering fluid. Damn I need to be getting more sleep.

 

Mine had 160K, and drained and filled with the Nissan Matic J I think. Took 5 qts. I recovered in 1 jug, and then poured the new fluid in a similar jug to the right level, and added it. 500 miles later, and its smooth with no problems. Make sure to torque the plug to the right spec.

 

In the 80s I knew folks that had a transmission shop and had been burned several times doing a fluid change on a high mileage car only to have the new fluid dislodge all the gunk that was holding the tranny together, that they stopped fluid changes if there had been none over 60k mi. I would think that with over 20 yrs of technology improvements in both the transmissions and fluid, that this would no longer be an issue.

 

How many quarts does it hold if I do drain and refill?

 

Read above...

 

curious, why stay away from flush machines?

 

In my years spent as the manager of the local Midas I've seen the damage done by flush machines. Generally on lower milage cars we would always suggest a trans flush, it's a good way to get 100% fluid change, so we never had any problems. Occasionally we would have a customer come in with like 150k miles and request a trans flush, but what they didn't tell us is they were having some minor trans issues, delayed shifting etc and have ever changed the fluid before. Well we do the trans flush and afterwords the trans would be slipping and jerking, they of course would be really upset and say we made their transmission worse. Also there were instances when we would do a flush on a high milage trans, again with fluid that had never been changed, and they would return in a few weeks with complaints that the trans stared doin weird things after we did the flush. I just made it a policy to not flush any more high milage transmissions unless we had documented fluid services at the factory scheduled maintenance intervals, instead we would do drain and fills and never had any problems.

 

2003 sedan with 170K miles... tranny fluid never changed. My driving style is fairly aggressive, and I use the manumatic everyday. Two months ago, in March, I did a drain and fill with 4 quarts of Matic S. Within a couple of weeks, tranny started slipping and got progressively worse every day that passed. Finally had it rebuilt.

Back in 2002, had a Mazda 626 with 160K miles that got a flush and fill that killed the tranny (I had forgotten about this incident, otherwise I would have left my G's tranny alone).

I also have a 2002 Sequioa with 283K miles, changed fluid every 40-50K until about 175K miles. I will not be touching that tranny fluid until it dies.

2strokenut... let us know how your drain and fill worked out.

 

Did a drain and fill about 250 miles ago, (in the fall). Used Valvoline Max Life. No issues so far. 137k miles, pretty sure this is the first drain & fill. Just purchased last June and was stored for winter.

 

What about a "natural" flush frm the return line from the tranny cooler? Start the car and at idle let 2 quarts pump out, then top off the system with 2 more additional quarts. Continue to do this until you are naturally pumping fresh clean fluid throughout the system. I have done this on my Pathfinder and on my old LS400... I have yet to have any issues.... Any thoughts?

 

I think that's the way the dealer does it. I wouldn't recommend that if you're new to cars though or working alone like I do, lol. I can already see myself setting myself up for failure...

 

I'm no trans expert but flushes are a crap shoot on high mileage trans. I flushed my 95 Altima at 120K and it was fine... sold it with 180K. On my G, I've flushed mine every 30K. I'm approaching 120K and will be flushing it for the 4th time