Ok this one has been considerably delayed because of the winter, but it's finally done First of all, this is for everyone that experiences clunky shifting, hard to go in a lower gear, abrupt gear matching, or that just wants smoother shifting.

What you have to do if you want to really get rid of those problems is change the MANUAL TRANSMISSION FLUID to a synthetic one. Wait until you get to around 4500 miles or when you are sure that the production of break-in wear metals is finished. Then, when you put in the new MTF mix in, it won't be further contaminated with any more break-in metals.

I STRONGLY suggest using REDLINE's product for our trannies. It makes the shifting BUTTER SMOOTH.

You should use a mixture of 60% MTL /40% ML-90 manual transmission fluid to have the right viscosity. I found out that this ratio is the best one for me.

That is pretty much the best stuff you're going to get for our tranny. It seems to provide the best shifts out of all other fluids I've tried.

oki now here's the how-to!

you need- TWO 2-ton jackstands- ONE Cheapo jack from the trunk- ONE ratchet with a...10mm socket and a10mm Hex bit socket- ONE metric measuring cup (must go up to at least 700ml)- ONE pliers- ONE plastic hose about 5feet of lenth- ONE funnel- ONE two liter bottle (Pepsi, Coke, whatever , I used a windex bottle)

You can start by making the mixture of redline oil first, or do everything up to that part. It's up to you

Car jack first:

Jack the car up.see my other tutorial for that here:http://forums.altimas.org/zerothread/332588

Remember to jack both sides for safety measures and for better access.so now that the car is jacked up, pop open the hood.(if you have the dampers you can now pat yourself in the back , if not then you can regret having missed out on the GB lol)

Now i'll show you where is the filler plug:

A shinny intake

shinny

What's this I see?

could it be?

Why yes! It's the FILLER PLUG!

ok we located the filler plug, now let's open it. Take your ratchet with the 10mm socket, and then put your hand down there to unsrew the bolt.

Looks farther than it is

Unscrew! Unscrew!

Done

Now to remove the plug, I suggest using some pliers. Watch out not to let go and lose the plug!!

It's easier to go down behind your intake

Now take a bite out of crime

Crime bitten!

We are done with the top of the transaxle for now, let's go under the car to get to the drain plug.

We can see the transaxle

The drain plug

closeup

now take your ratchet with the 10mm Hex bit socket. Put a bucket or something right underneath the drain plug and start unscrewing! just before its completely unscrewed, finish with your hand so that it doesn't fall in the bucket. watch out! there will be lots of dirty brown disgusting oil coming out lol.

10mm Hex bit socket

unscrewing the drain plug

I used an old lunchbox for the oil



Wait a bit untill there is no more oil dripping down, and then screw back the drain plug!

The mixture of redline oil

Nissan calls for API GL-4 oil with 75W-85 viscosity. We want BUTTER SMOOTH,so we'll be using Redline fluid, but since they do not offer the exact oil viscosity we'll need to mix them:

The two bottles of different MTF, the mixing bottle and the measuring cup

the bottle contains each about one litter.empty the whole bottle of MTF in the mixing bottle.Now take your MT-90 bottle and pour 700ml in the measuring cup and then put it in the mixing cup where there is already the 1 litter of MTF oil.



Close the bottle and shake it up! Shake, shake, shake! Now the mix is ready!You just made a 60% MTF / 40% MT-90 mixture of redline oil

super windex bottle

take a funnel and combine if with a plastic plumber type hose and go back to the car!



This part is trickier, you might need a friend.

Put your hand back down in the hood to guide the plastic hose so its right above the hole where the filler plug was and have your friend pour ALL of the mixture, up to the very last drop in the funnel, but not all at once lol.

Screw back the filler plug and voila! You're done!

P.S.: If you have no ABS on the car, the filler plug will be different than mine, there will be a speedometer pinion gear attached to it. should not change installation

If you do not have an aftermarket intake like me, you'll likely won't be able to reach the filler plug from the hood without removing first the air box. You can either remove the air box (check the injen intake tutorials for that) OR go underneath the car and access it from there since its right on the transaxle. You'll need a bottle pump to pump the liquid up to the hole from bellow. They cost like 10$ at wallmart.

Hope you like the tutorial!

wow another good write up, sticky-worthy. how often do we have to change the tranny oil?

wow great wrote up

Awesome freakin' write up!!!! I don't have a manual but if I did, I'd definitely be saving this link!

What's a shinny intake?

Great stuff man! Two writeups in a row!

Excellent write up!

Perfect pics!

ok maybe I am a complete retard here but won't 2 fluids with different viscosities eventually separate unless you use heat mixing or some other method? Of course every time you start the engine it would partially remix it, but could this cause problems down the road if the car is ever sitting for long periods (i.e a week or more)?

Don't worry, they won't seperate

Glad you guys liked my tutorial, I went in Hyper drive and made two in a row

Nice write up. But how do you know that mixture gives the right viscosity?

Why would you want to do this to your new A/C just wait until it's called for on you service schedule then take it to nissan and be done with it.

Because this MTF makes the manual transmission smooth as butttaaa

mhm1170 wrote:Why would you want to do this to your new A/C just wait until it's called for on you service schedule then take it to nissan and be done with it.

umm....why do you want to wait until it serviced and pay lots of cash instead of doing mehdi's easy tutorial

Great write up please make this a sticky! You must be an engineer as I have done things like this myself from guitar tab to installing a new satellite dish!

Here we go again. Another great write-up by mcheddadi. Red Line is the S*#T guys. I run it on my 98 Jetta VR6 toy car, 05 Frontier and soon on my Coupe. Great write-up dude, Good info and pics as well.

Ricky C.

lol, I'm only a med student

TheBourneAltimatum wrote:umm....why do you want to wait until it serviced and pay lots of cash instead of doing mehdi's easy tutorial

Can you say warranty voided

mhm1170 wrote:
Can you say warranty voided

Dude if the people in here including me that have changed their Intake, Exhaust, Audio system, exterior and many other things I don't think that we are worried about the Warranty that much. When S*#T goes bad then we will think of something to do and get the car fixed by the dealer. We want to mod our cars so they can run better then the factory specs and if we have can change tranny fluid to get better performance then let it be. Warranty comes later and after.

Ricky C.

You are probably right, you guys have fun with you new cars...........

mhm1170 wrote:You are probably right, you guys have fun with you new cars...........

Not just us dude. You as well have fun with your new car. We bought these cars to enjoy them and DAMN IT that we shall do.

Ricky C.

Actually, this oil WILL NOT void your warranty for the tranny. The Nissan Service manual states the manual tranny must use Genuine NISSAN Manual TransmissionFluid (MTF) HQ Multi 75W-85 OR an API GL-4 Viscosity SAE 75W-85 equivalent. Redline exceeds API rating and is GL-4. When you half and half mix the 70W80 MTL from Redline, and the MT-90 75W90 from Redline, you get an API GL-4 75W-85 manual tranny oil from Redline! Which is exactly what the Nissan Manual calls for

adidas2go wrote:Actually, this oil WILL NOT void your warranty for the tranny. The Nissan Service manual states the manual tranny must use Genuine NISSAN Manual TransmissionFluid (MTF) HQ Multi 75W-85 OR an API GL-4 Viscosity SAE 75W-85 equivalent. Redline exceeds API rating and is GL-4. When you half and half mix the 70W80 MTL from Redline, and the MT-90 75W90 from Redline, you get an API GL-4 75W-85 manual tranny oil from Redline! Which is exactly what the Nissan Manual calls for

WOW... Dude this is one hell of a counter argument. Great info and research on this topic. adidas knows his S**T.

Ricky C.

Great write up bro! Just curious to know if you looked into using Amsoil transmission oil?? I used it on my 02 SpecV and loved it. I might change my trans. oil soon

I would trust Amsoil and Redline both, for the life of the transmission. From using both the oil in my trannies over the years. They both come highly recommended

don't got the service schedule here w/ me but what about the CVT transmission? do we have to do this once a year?

After two days, all I can say is, WOW, with my new heavier shift knob plus the new MTF my shifting is UBER SMOOTH. Dare I saw SMOOTHTACULAR!

BEST and easiest mod to do for a 6MT (knob+MTF)

So ruffly, how many quarts of tranny oil is needed? I know I could look it up but....

1.75 qts according to what mcheddadi posted.

yeah, that's about right 1.7liters