Jiffy Lube offered me two options;
1- 69$ service that flushes only half of the fluid.
2- 139$ service flushes all (including fluid in Crankshaft).

But neither of them includes opening the pan and cleaning parts or replacing the filter.
They told me that there is no need to do that for 98 models.

Should I try either one of the options? if so which service worth spending $$? Or should I try different service center?

Thanks

Call and ask a shop if they will perform the service as specified on this board.

Parts from Joe's crew:

http://www.infinitpartsusa.com

B&M ATF cooler from

http://www.summitracing.com

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You should try to drain and fill the system yourself (or have a shop do it)and see if just putting in fresh fluid helps. If the fluid looks a little dark, but doesn't smell burnt, then you might get lucky. However, if the fluid is really dark or brown and smells bad, you might have to start saving for a lower mileage trans to swap in.

Any other members feel free to chime in. IIRC, a complete drain and fill to get all/a majority of the old fluid would take about 11 quarts.

Ted , Chicago

Made sure I was able to watch while they did the flush. The machine shows the fluid color as the flush is taking place. If it does not get clean have them flush more while the machine is still connected.

Quote, originally posted by tfvesquire »

1.) At 140K with no history of trans service I don't think a flush is a good idea. What may happen is that all of the crud and varnish on your clutches and seals may get washed away and it will slip, stutter even more. 2.) You should try to drain and fill the system yourself (or have a shop do it)and see if just putting in fresh fluid helps. If the fluid looks a little dark, but doesn't smell burnt, then you might get lucky.

2.) Color change from new is in direct correlation to ATF degradation. What sense does it make to leave 60% of a degraded fuid in the AT by doing a drain and refill? Not removing, inspecting and replacing the interior screen filter and O ring is a sin or omission.

People are entitled to their opinions and deciding their own course of action or inaction, but the fallacies of their reasoning must be exposed.

Yeah, I think this may qualify as an urban myth. In years of reading this forum, not once has an Infiniti transmission suffered any problems from a flush.

My local Jiffy Lube franchise is great - one of the first 100 and VERY well run. I've trusted them with my cars for 15 years. But ... not all are great. If you trust your local Jiffy Lube, their flush is virtually identical to a BG flush.

Just kiddin'. I went the Full Monty and sprang for 14 quarts of M1 and had a local bg shop do the work. The trans is an expensive Achilles heel and will probably send my car to doggie heaven when it goes, so to my mind the expense was well worth it. Did it help? I dunno but it probably had 120K on the factory jizz when I bought it so it was way overdue.

Modified by oldmako at 10:30 AM 1/7/2009

If you really want to drop the pan and you wanted to save some money you could clean the "filter" and blow out the debris. BTW, I also reused the pan gasket and pan bolts and have had no leaks in 30K miles but this is also not recommended.

I would change all the fluid and hope for the best.

Good luck!

Because time is money many shop short cut the 20-30 minutes of FLUSH recirculation. Because time is money many shops fail to recommend another complete cycle when the process doesn't deliver clean as new ATF due to excess clutch material or internal out of standard cross leaks.

Purchase 16 quarts of ATF from your local auto emporium and a 99 cent drain pan, get out your wrench and simply unscrew drainplug, let the 4qt drain, replug and refill....go for a 5 mile drive...........repeat entire process 3 more times, and you will have effectively replaced 85% of your old fluid- fast,easy,cheap,safe, and effective.

I see no savings here, only partially mitigated abuse.

Brian, you might want to let the engineers at Nissan know that, as they ONLY recommend the drain/fill procedure{ no machine flushes} for the G50 and Q41, and you can also let my 222,000 mile perfectly operating original tranny know that also!

Note:
The fluid coming out of radiator return line is extremely fast. So be sure to have new ATF ready to be poured.

Doing the above is another option if you don't want to flush. The old fluids are pretty dark compare to the new ones (Castrol ATF for import).

The care seems to drive normal. I can't feel any improvement though.

007

Tech, you speak about the "things" that should happen with shifts, but never gave a time period. That info would be great for people to know when dealing with flush machines. If you are speaking about the 3-5 solvent flush in each gear...then I'm good because I did that at 175k.

Along with dual heat exchangers and extra atf filter.

Really not possible to correlate 90-93 with later years.....................unless you duplicate the dual coolers and external filter and have a oem factory remanned replacement.

My 1994 replacement lasted 200k+ with an external cooler and frequent ATF replacements which might compare to ATF filtering. Tranny #3 with 120k+ is operating fine with zero signs of problems yet and I expect 200k as did the previous one even with the 20% higher torque than the Q41

Miles is such an effimeral concept without knowing the exact number of shifts per mile and the power output coupled thru each shift!

Paul
1993 Q45
Modifications done: 1994 auto dimming mirror, 1994 Q45 tweeters, 1994 Q45 trunk net, 1990 Q45 Seat controls, Rare Mike Goodwin wooden cup holder and more to come.

http://www.magnefine.com

A magnafine might be worse than no filter at all unless you use chemical flushes to dissolve the friction material periodically or change filter BEFORE it causes any restriction?????????? BIF oil/paper type can hold more crud so maybe two in series parallel

Study J30 TSB for RE4R01A.

The dual heat exchangers on the later G50 do help stabilize the ATF temperature, but on hills, at high speeds, or in hot summers in the south, the owner installed auxilary ATF cooler is beneficial in avoiding ATF temperature spikes into damamging heat ranges.

Seems like an external ATF microfine filter changed annually or more often would work fine.

I did the BG flush / M1 jizz / Lubri-guard routine and installed a cooler. I'd gladly pony up the minimal bucks and time necessary to add a filter. However, I don't want to just toss crap on my ride that might do more harm than good.

As you all know I bought mine at 120K and would like it to go to 220K (at least...there are many guys here who have gotten that longevity out of their cars without major surgery). Since it's used primarily for interstate driving my shift per mile quotient is very low. Or would that be ratio???

A drain and fill replaces maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of the ATF. If I do it again, it simply is going to mix old ATF with new ones.

I bought my car (Y33) with 120K and now is 193K miles. Not sure when ATF got replaced last time so I've decided to replace all. I've used a bottle of lubegard red and don't see any improvement compare to when I got the car 4.5 years ago. I am confident it will make it to 200K and can get lucky (250K).

007

Quote, originally posted by JOHNQ »

a drain and fill is all you need to do. maybe repeat it once more and add redlubegard and if desperate the lucas trans fix but if your trans shows no improvement then your trans is toast and will not get better with a 100% fluid flush.

If you disconnect the trans fluid return line from the radiator and do the drain and refill while the car is running by draining the old fluid into a bucket or drain pan and adding fluid until the return line fluid looks new again, then you should get 95%+ of the old fluid out.

As far as my suggestion against doing a flush on a trans with no work history being an urban myth, that is just what it was, a suggestion. I have wrenched on more cars than I can remember and even when I was dealing with my 4th Gen Maxima, it was not recommended to flush a trans with high miles when it had not been flushed before or with unknown history. In fact, there are plenty of reputable places that ask consumers if they know the last time the trans fluid was changed or whether a flush was ever performed just in case the customer's transmission starts having problems or dies shortly after performing a flush.

Now, if the Y33 trans is a better design and doesn't suffer from sludge and/or varnish like other transmissions, then I still suggest doing a flush at your own risk. I do agree that if there is a major problem with the shifting that a flush won't help anything. It would be cheaper in my opinion to simply replace the fluid yourself and save the $100+ trans flush fee.

Good luck.

Ted

0007

Also good as a temporary fix for leaky ATF.

I wonder if there is a product that they make that is 100% safe to use without any negative side affects such as BG44K.

2.) BG Power Steering Conditioner or as an alternative, a small amount of MMO if changed annually.

If your fluid is yellow, something is terribly wrong. Used transmissions are for those who have to mcuh time and would rather perform repeat labor on their car than enjoy driving it.