Hi everyone, I picked up a 2003 G35 about a year and a half ago with 78k miles on it. It has barely over 80k now.(I almost never drive) It had like 8 previous owners so I was able to get it for pretty cheap, but It's probably not a huge surprise that it seems to feel a little older than the mileage listed.

About 6 months ago I felt a strange shift in the automatic transmission. I shrugged it off as a one-time thing, and decided I'd worry about it if it happened again. Well, this month it did something similar.
I'm guessing there was never a flush or even a fluid change, so I'm looking to do a little maintenance. At minimum I want to see if the fluid is low. I grabbed a 10mm socket to see if I had one with a dipstick, and I do not. I have read somewhere here that some 350z's have a dipstick that will work - is that all 2003-2006's or do I need to match the year?

Also, I've learned from the search function that the dealerships have changed from Matic-J to Matic S. If I just do a drain and fill (which I probably will do since I've read here that a flush could make a damaged transmission worse), does the Matic-S mix okay with the OEM fluid?

If I choose to be lazy and take it to a dealership instead of working on it myself, do most Nissan dealerships know what they are doing with the G35, or should I try to go to Infiniti whenever possible? My Infiniti dealership is like double the miles away as a few closer Nissan dealerships. Will they be able to do fluid maintenance without my old car having a dipstick?

Thanks for your time reading through this! If there is anything else you think I should know about the 5AT, by all means please chime in.

 

Matic S is fine, Nissan knows how to work on the vehicle but things like the transmission service is absolutely highway robbery and they should be ashamed of the price they charge.

 

The transmission holds about 10.5qts, instead of doing a complete flush at once a lot of us do multiple drain and fills. You'll use about 3.5 quarts each time, then drive around for a few days and do it again. I usually do it 3 times and after that the fluid coming out looks mostly new. And cleric is correct, Matic J was the OEM spec until Nissan replaced it with Matic S and they are compatible with each other.

 

I always suggest dropping the pan and checking the magnet for debris whenever you buy a new car, just to give you an idea if the car was beat on or not and they tried to hide it with a fresh fluid swap.

You'll need to pick up a transmission pan gasket which Nissan should have in stock and approx. 6 quarts of fluid (I used 5, but better safe than sorry)

 

Also a seal cutter but those are cheap.

Edit, I THINK you'll need one anyways, thought those factory pans are RTV sealed on.

 

Here's a strange question - if I do a drain and fill then drive around for a half hour, and do another, would that be enough of a drive to make the transmission fluid mix?

 

so, I just decided to take it to the dealership and have the flush and fill done. they said the fluid looked a little old and now everything seems to shift fine and everything...

...but halfway through the drive home the speedometer stopped working and my SLIP and VDC off lights are stuck on. I'm sure I'll take it back to have them see what happened, but does anyone have any idea what could have happened?

 

Sounds like a bad cam sensor but the speedo problem is something else. Need to run the codes and see why it's not happy.