Changed The Fluids

[lomita]

Changed the fluids on the G35 for the first time. We bought the car last December (05 Sports Coupe 20,000 miles). Dealer said all fluids had been serviced, yeah, right! Here was our experience:

transmission oil, 3.5 quarts @ $8/qt. Matic J fluid. Dealer quoted me $11.08, found out it retails for $9.98, then found a nice little lady in Oceanside, CA, who gave us the skinny and we went back to our local dealer who honored the $8/qt. after we threw the skinny at them.

Went with the Valvoline synthetics for the power steering pump, engine oil 5W30 and the differential oil 75W90.

A word on the differential drain oil plug, 22,625 miles, fluid obviously never changed before. There was a nice film of black junk on the magnetic drain plug, it was doing it's job.

And that darling engine oil filter. Sure is cute, bout the same teeny size I used to run on my Suzuki 1497cc Intruder engine.

After starting it back up, sure was quieter and smoother. Nothing like a little TLC to make the car purr like a cat. http://youtube.com/watch?v=9Hc_expHAJo (Our favorite commercial)

There are plenty of fasteners up front on the splash shield to be removed to get to the oil filter. We took the splash shield off to get a birds eye view of everything.

An inspection of the suspension was truly impressive. Nice to see all the chassis stiffeners and all the beautiful forged suspension parts. Loved all the beautiful welding on the rear end suspension. Nice and pretty.

Over all we are happy with the design of the car, with exception given to the plastic valve covers and the door locks not functioning automatically with engagement of the automatic transmission.

Next up, coolant change.

[C-Kwik]

transmission oil, 3.5 quarts @ $8/qt. Matic J fluid. Dealer quoted me $11.08, found out it retails for $9.98, then found a nice little lady in Oceanside, CA, who gave us the skinny and we went back to our local dealer who honored the $8/qt. after we threw the skinny at them.

The AT on the G35 has a 10.3 quart capacity for AT Fluid if you completely swap out the fluid. 3.5 qts sounds like you just drained the pan and refilled it. Not a big concern at 22,000 miles as it has a service life of 50K (I believe), but I wouldn't consider it a replacement for the full fluid swap. It may however extend your service life slightly.

[lomita]

Since we service the A/T fluid every 7500 miles, we don't do a full flush out and refill, that's the whole beauty of it. Out with the junk, in with some new. No need to change the whole load, just keep refreshing it somewhat.

BTW, since implementing this procedure on our vehicles, we have never had any further transmission problems. Go figure.........!

Do you service your transmission or have a garage do it?

[TeflonG35]

I went to sears for a simple transmission flush. I leave my car and an hour later i get a phone call saying they can't change my fluid because it doesn't have a dip stick.

[lomita]

Sears? OMG. Now there's a real speed shop.

Yeah, the transmission dipstick is the first one we've seen (bolted down) in our vehicle.

Love the procedure called out for your 03 fluid change:

To replace the A/T fluid, pour in new fluid at the charging pipe with the engine idling and at the same time drain the old fluid from the radiator cooler hose return side. When the color of the fluid coming out is about the same as the color of the new fluid, the replacement is complete. The amount of new transmission fluid to use should be 30 to 50% of the stipulated amount.

According to the shop manual, pictures of the dipstick gauge look very similar to our 05 for the 03 model.

Are you sure your vehicle doesn't have a dipstick gauge for the transmission? On our vehicle, it's sandwiched between the firewall and engine, just under the hood on the right hand side of center.

[TeflonG35]

I never looked for one.

[C-Kwik]

Since we service the A/T fluid every 7500 miles, we don't do a full flush out and refill, that's the whole beauty of it. Out with the junk, in with some new. No need to change the whole load, just keep refreshing it somewhat.

BTW, since implementing this procedure on our vehicles, we have never had any further transmission problems. Go figure.........!

Might be okay to do it this way (I had assumed this was your first change). Though, based some quick and crude math, it looks like as you get over 100K miles, the contaminant levels will increase over time tapering off near 50% of what would be the the 50,000 mile contaminant levels for the recommended service intervals and remain there. This is based on a linear increase in contaminant levels based on mileage alone. Not sure if this is a realistic representation nor if there are any long term advantages or disadvantages.

Once you reach around 50K miles, about 95% of the fluid will be newer than 50K miles with the majority being under 25K miles. Not a bad thing either. And this will continue with each change.

Frankly, though, if there isn't a major benefit to doing your procedure (There could be but I'm not sure), then its not really worth it. Not sure about the G35, but Nissan quoted me $225 to do my Titan. That would be about $450 for 2 50K services. Certainly doesn't appear to be saving money. Perhaps a small savings if Infiniti charges more for the same service.

Do you service your transmission or have a garage do it?

I actually did the full procedure on the Titan a few months ago. Looking back, I would have rather paid to have it done. I spent nearly $150 on fluid alone, made a mess of me and my driveway and took quite a bit of my time. Not to mention the frustration of getting that damned transmission fluid line off (clamp was facing the wrong way).