So I did this job with a buddy earlier today.
I used 5.5 quarts to re-fill. I drained about 5 quarts via drain plug and pan combined and used a bucket to measure it. I guessed around a quarter of a quart lost to drippage and fluid stuck in the filter. No idea why the first post said 7 quarts, unless I did something wrong
IMO it's rather difficult to read the dipstick. Do I pull it out, wipe it off, then insert it
all the way or just until the rubber stopper hits the metal clamp thing, then read that? I did have to add another quarter of a quart after reading the dipstick after I let the car idle for several minutes then shifted through all the gears and revved to ~1750-2000 RPM; it seemed barely above the "low" thatched section of "HOT". I'm almost certain there's enough fluid in there right now though as I filled at least as much as I drained if not slightly more, but it never hurts to make sure.
My pan's magnet had some sludgy black stuff all over it, along with a fair bit of metal fuzz. Glad I cleaned that off. Filter looked ok, just some small metal flakes visible in the screen, and its exterior was dark grey with dirt or something as can be seen in the first post in one of the pictures (I thought it was painted grey, heh). The fluid was pink on the dipstick pre-change, but during draining and in the pan it reeked pretty badly as old PSF would. It also looked rather brown as I was pouring it into a recyclable container; I did not smell the fluid to check if it smelled "burnt," however. This change was done at 120,340 miles; no idea whether transmission fluid was changed before.
740fizza, I had no issue with removing those brackets (hooray for Florida),
but I forgot to reclip them when reinstalling the pan! Also, I noticed that the two pan bolts that hold those brackets are slightly longer than the rest; Nissan just gave me 18 of all the same size. Unfortunately I absentmindedly disposed of all old bolts. The lines in question are supported by brackets on either side of the pan too, so is it really necessary to go buy two slightly longer bolts and install these brackets?
I did use gasket sealant (
not that gasket-in-a-tube stuff) on the pan itself, then stuck the gasket on and aligned it with the screw holes. I guess it stopped the gasket from sliding around too much while my friend held the pan up, but maybe it was completely useless. Hope the sealant won't cause any issues.
I was unable to find the torque spec for the pan bolts themselves in the FSM, so we tightened the bolts hand-tight with a socketed screwdriver then until resistance was felt with a ratchet. No idea whether I torqued them too much or too little (if anything, probably too much). Does anybody know the correct torque spec? I suppose if there are no leaks I won't have an issue. Not only that, but we had to back out a couple bolts that were cross-threaded, which made the orange sealant flake off. I assume that if one of those bolts causes a leak, I can just buy a new bolt and swap it out? Though I think that if the gasket seals properly the bolts won't be an issue; I've read that people just clean and re-use the old bolts. I tightened the filter to just before I couldn't tighten anymore, after cleaning off the four bolts with brake cleaner.
The entire process took us about 3 hours to do. We didn't ramp or jack up the car, since I could fit under there easily (I'm rather small), though my friend didn't have such an easy time. We still got the job done, though. I think if we had ramps it would've been somewhat quicker since there's more room to work with.