1993 J30 Transmission Drain and Fill

[purplesignal]

The anwer to this question may be obvious to some, but it sure eludes me. I've got a '93 J30. I've put a transmission cooler on it and had it flushed and filled with Mobil1 synthetic a few months back. The fluid is still in great shape, but I want to start doing some drain and refills on my transmission everytime I do an oil change (6,000 mile oil change intervals). The problem is that when I look at the transmission pan, I cannot see an obvious bolt that I can drain from. I was expecting an inverted square or hexagonal bolt, yet I see none. Am I looking in the wrong place? Is there suppose to be a drain bolt on the pan somewhere? The J30 manual states that I can drain, but does not show exactly where the bolt is. Any help would greatly be appreciated.

[Defiant]

As with many modern transmissions, draining is done by dropping the pan. The logic is that the pan won't be dropped without replacing the filter.Yearly servicing of an automatic is more than enough. All the more so with synthetic ATF. You'd be ahead to do fluid monitoring, where a sample is actually sent to a lab and the entire health of the transmission is determined by what is in the fluid. It'd be much cheaper than wasting that synthetic.

[yodawill2000]

my 94 has a drain plug.

[vishesh]

my 94 has a drain plug.

so does mine. it was kinda hard to see/access, but if you feel around the bottom of the pan, it's there.

[purplesignal]

Is the drain plug inverted or it is protruding? Is it on the pan? All I see on the underside of my pan is what looks like a hexangonal bolt (with the head not being very thick for a bolt). Should I just take my 19 mm socket to it and see what happens?

[gr8scott72]

Is the drain plug inverted or it is protruding? Is it on the pan? All I see on the underside of my pan is what looks like a hexangonal bolt (with the head not being very thick for a bolt). Should I just take my 19 mm socket to it and see what happens?

Is it over toward one corner of the bottom of the pan? If so, that's the one.

[chiller]

i don't know what it looks like but i'm sure that the 93's have a drain bolt, i have a 93 and i took it to the local shop to do it and i saw them drain it from a bolt without having to drop the transmission and saw them refill it as well...

i think changing ATF every oil change is too much...waste of money but to each his own I guess....I do mine every 25-30k KM (which is about 15-20K miles) ...

[purplesignal]

Thanks for the replies all. My 93 does, in fact, have a drain plug. It is simply a hex bolt and looks a lot like the one at http://www.cardomain.com/ride/335521/3 (in fact, I think the maxima in the article uses the same transmission). I guess I have never seen a transmission drain bolt that was not inverted and with the head so thin.

I am kind of paranoid about my transmission because it was bought used (so I don't know how the previous owner treated the car), and I want to extend the life of my J30 transmission as long as I can.

Again, thanks for everyone's help.

[DominickJ30]

If you plan on dropping the pan dont forget to go to the dealer and get a new bolt kit. Those bolts are torque to yield bolts and once loosened they lose tension.