2006 x model 86k miles.
symptom: when it is cold outside the car shifts harshly into first / second gear. once the car warms up it shifts fine.

Any harm in ordering a case of j-matic and draining / refilling it? I thought I remember reading on the forum that when a car gets close to 90k miles it makes sense to drain 4 quarts of fluid with every oil change from 90-100k miles. I am hoping to keep this car for another 4-5 years and want it to continue to be dead on reliable.

Thanks

 

No harm on a drain & refill in my opinion. Harsh shift when cold in lower gears is not uncommon from what I've read.. I've done 3 drain & fills on mine about 2k apart. I bought it with 130k on it and it now has about 137k. I'm quite sure the tranny fluid was original when I first drained it. Brownish and slightly burnt smell. By the way, I use Valvoline multivehicle which is less than half the cost of Matic S. I believe S has replaced J. One more reason multivehicle was my choice.

 

Doing a drain & fill never hurts our ATs! Harsh shifting might be caused by low or burnt fluid before it warms up. Living in a warm climate area I change mine every summer since I had the warning on my dash and went into limp mode only to discover after only two years the fluid was burnt. For the cost of the fluid it's good insurance to change it frequently...Gary

 

this is exactly the advice I was looking for. The Valvoline will save me a few bucks and likely something I can get at my local car quest. The Nissan fluid is available at the dealership but if memory serves they get around $13 a quart for it.

one follow up question - a quick google search revealed this link that states the Maxlife ATF is recommended over the multivehicle.

http://www.carquestprofessionals.com...%206.10.13.pdf

 

Regardless of what other members recommend I wouldn't use anything but Nissan AT fluid! Even the best oil company's like AMSOIL recommend staying with Nissan fluid because they can't come up with anything better...there's got to be a damn good reason!
Gary

 

do you have a link to back that up? Per their application guide they list an appropriate transmission fluid.
http://www.amsoil.com/mygarage/vehic...INFINITI+G35+L

From Valvoline's website
http://www.valvoline.com/pdf/maxlife_atf.pdf

 

It's Maxlife that I use. As a side note, I did 3 drain & refills on our I35 4-5 years ago, with Moble 1 multi. The car has gone about 60k miles since without issue. Therefore, I believe that other manufacturers can make a viable substitute for Nissan tranny fluid. After all, you don't think that Nissan makes it's own tranny fluid do you?

 

I've gotten my fluid from Ebay. If you buy in bulk, it's pretty cheap even with shipping. Sometimes even cheaper than Nissan.

I've done a 4 qt drain/fill on my AT since new every 30K miles. I'm at 153K miles and my trans shifts like it did at 3K miles. (knock on wood)


I've only used the OEM Nissan fluid here. I'm sure other fluids are perfectly compatible, but the extra few bucks is cheap compared to transmission work in case there really is something unique about the Matic-S. I've changed out everything else to Mobil 1 diff oil and ATF (in transfer case)