I plan to have the transmission fluid flushed in my Infiniti where they use the machine to flush 100% of the fluid out with a cleaner additive and replace all transmission fluids. Change the filter and gasket also. Is this a good idea? 168,000 miles on the car.

Clean ATF is never a bad idea. Install an auxiliary ATF cooler, replace the internal and external filters.

I would guess that since you are doing it at the Infiniti dealer, it means that they recommended it to you. Correct? Have they warned you of any potential issues?

Having it done at a Goodyear auto repair shop

Sounds good, do it you wont regret it. Add a few oz of lubeguard red at the end.

Has the fluid ever been changed before this?

You have guts using a shop not a dealer or independent who specilizes in Infiniti.

Over the years we have interviewed hundreds of would be employees, it is scarey beyond imagination!

Over the years we have been forced to try to bring Infiniti's back to life after being destroyed by generic shops.

Why it is SAFER to take the $120.00 goodyear charges, and go buy 20 quarts of Mobil 1 ATF.......do 6 drain/fills at 3qt each,and use the 19th quart to fine tune level and as spare fluid....take the 20th quart and drain/fill power steering system. Total spent, the same 120, just more wisely

Above procedure will effectivly replace 85+ % of the old fluid with no risk of monkeys damaging your car!

Plus,you will end up with MUCH higher quality ATF this way, as I am sure goodyear uses the cheapest generic atf in order to be able to offer the service at that price

qship, Q45 Tech,Is synthetic ATF really much better than regular Dexron III? Do you get any noticeable improvements in how the tranny shifts, or is it just more durable? Tks.

Mint Q45A wrote:qship, Q45 Tech,Is synthetic ATF really much better than regular Dexron III? Do you get any noticeable improvements in how the tranny shifts, or is it just more durable? Tks.

Yes it is better. It doesn't sheer as quickly. I could actually break it down but it's soooo much info already here once you use the search button.

qship96 wrote:Why it is SAFER to take the $120.00 goodyear charges, and go buy 20 quarts of Mobil 1 ATF.......do 6 drain/fills at 3qt each,and use the 19th quart to fine tune level and as spare fluid....take the 20th quart and drain/fill power steering system. Total spent, the same 120, just more wisely

Above procedure will effectivly replace 85+ % of the old fluid with no risk of monkeys damaging your car!

Plus,you will end up with MUCH higher quality ATF this way, as I am sure goodyear uses the cheapest generic atf in order to be able to offer the service at that price

Qship,

Are you saying just do six drains/refills back to back? I know I know SEARCH!

2 different ways to do it...one way is just to simply perform 1 drain/fill procedure every day for a week {with normal daily driving in-between to thouroughly mix new and old fluid}

The other way { originally posted by Q45TECH here on this site} is do all 6 drain/fills back to back with A TIMED 2.000000 MINUTE running of engine at idle speed after each drain/fill procedure.

The 2 minute engine idleing between drain/fills allows the trans pump to move the newly filled pan of fresh atf out of the pan and into the cooler lines/trans body...so when you shut down motor after 2 minutes the pan is holding old atf which you again drain/refill and move the newest ATF out of pan again by idleing motor 2.0 minutes....over and over till you do it 5-6 times to effectivly replace 85=90% of old atf- this is how I do it, every 25K miles{overkill}
Modified by qship96 at 10:41 PM 2/7/2008

One more thing... During the two minutes (timed with a stop watch) you should manually shift: 1-2-3-N-R-P-R-N-D-3-2-1, slowly, a few times....

Q45tech wrote:You have guts using a shop not a dealer or independent who specializes in Infiniti.

I got the trans flush at a local oil change place. They are a chain, but the have the same management and quite a few of the same employees each time I go there. They were allowed to flush my transmission on the condition I got to watch. I can see how an incompetent and/or untrained person could get contamination in the transmission when hooking up the adapters to the machine.

Mine was done with the BG machine after I did a pan drop and filter/fluid change. One BG flush probably would not have got it clean without the prior pan drop.

I did it this way as well, I dont like anyone working on my car. Even the dealer can be questionable

mxr662 wrote:
I got the trans flush at a local oil change place. They are a chain, but the have the same management and quite a few of the same employees each time I go there. They were allowed to flush my transmission on the condition I got to watch. I can see how an incompetent and/or untrained person could get contamination in the transmission when hooking up the adapters to the machine.

Mine was done with the BG machine after I did a pan drop and filter/fluid change. One BG flush probably would not have got it clean without the prior pan drop.

Much better than all the extra materials, labor and time drain and fill takes. And the fluid is at least 95%- 98% new.

Q45tech always did a mechanical fluid exchange with M1 on his long term (173K) transmission. Shift times only increased .5 seconds at the end that.

Running an ATF cooler will always help, especially on early Q45.

Q45tech wrote:You have guts using a shop not a dealer or independent who specilizes in Infiniti.

Over the years we have interviewed hundreds of would be employees, it is scarey beyond imagination!

Over the years we have been forced to try to bring Infiniti's back to life after being destroyed by generic shops.

But what if this shop shows up under BGfindashop? I got mine done at a Sunoco. The Sunoco was listed as a certified BG shop. My Q's been tap-dancing ever since. Bojangles. I spent $150 and it's been ok.

mxr662 wrote:
I got the trans flush at a local oil change place. They are a chain, but the have the same management and quite a few of the same employees each time I go there. They were allowed to flush my transmission on the condition I got to watch. I can see how an incompetent and/or untrained person could get contamination in the transmission when hooking up the adapters to the machine.

Mine was done with the BG machine after I did a pan drop and filter/fluid change. One BG flush probably would not have got it clean without the prior pan drop.

Exactly how I did mine. I went to one shop and got a pan drop/filter change along with a drain and refill. The next weekend, I got the BG flush.

Haitian_King wrote:But what if this shop shows up under BGfindashop? I got mine done at a Sunoco. The Sunoco was listed as a certified BG shop. My Q's been tap-dancing ever since. Bojangles. I spent $150 and it's been ok.

If one were to purchase the BG flush machine and jump thru a few hoops you would probably get listed on the website. So of the non backyard mechanics here can probably answer that better.

Once I took my work truck to one of the large chains to get the oil change done. It was in an old gas station where they still used a lift, so I was able to watch. The guy come out with a 1/2 drive impact gun and proceeds to try to remove the oil drain plug by turning it the wrong way. The only thing that saved the plug from being twisted off was that the guy did not have the socket on the plug squarely. I start yelling at the guy and he reverses the wrench and got the plug out. Then he casually came over to me and suggested I purchase a new oil drain plug because mine was stripped.

Maybe that guy has now graduated to transmission flushes.

mxr662 wrote:Maybe that guy has now graduated to transmission flushes.

Ah, the old Peter Priciple.

"One rises to their level of incompetency."

Ugh. Awful.

This is why I need to procure the proper equipment and learn everything I can. I'd hate to be a casualty in the war against terrible mechanics.

Mechanics used to be among the list of people I trusted. Who's going to turn out to be an incompetent idiot next? The mailman?

I still have a concern about contamination in the BG machine finding its way into my transmission.

mxr662 wrote:I still have a concern about contamination in the BG machine finding its way into my transmission.

The fluid is completely seperate. new fluid goes into one side, the old fluid goes into the other side. Nothing to worry about.

Yeah. There are two separate tanks.

or them using the right fluid, or then not turing on the fill tank. I just dont trust it I would rather do it myself. The drop pan multiple refill method. I will take my chances with a 85% exchange vs putting my money on a mechanic putting mercron IV into my transmission. To each thier own, if I had a T3 or Jerry Tucker close it would be a different story. As always to each thier own.

Just make sure you have the technician trained on the machine do the exchange.

Most BG Shops are not a problem. One of my local ones is the Nissan dealer.

A lot of my locals are Ford and Chevrolet dealers. I just went to the Sunoco 5 minutes away. I watched.

Put it this way, if they do something grossly negligent, sue the **** out of them. Especially if it's something that you can prove.