transmission question

[vanzant]

'98 Q45 Y33 133kI bought this car at 30k mi. and have never had the transmission serviced. It is slow to shift from rev to D especially in cold weather. Any thoughts as to my course of action should be? I'm told not to flush it.

[qship96]

Why not just perform a simple drain and fill yourself- simple to do, just remove drain plug catch fluid in a drain pan, measure amount drained and refill same amount with new atf through the dipstick.You can do a few of these drain/fills til the fluid looks new. Might consider dropping pan and replacing filter screen if it has never been changed,even though mine was clean when changed at 115,000 miles.

Parked nose up in my driveway{incline} I can get 5.0 quarts out in one drain- which is 45% of total in the system- I now just perform this 1 drain/fill operation every 15,000 miles instead of a full exchange every 30,000 miles.Quick,simple,effective,and only costs $40-50 using top notch synthetic atf

[vanzant]

Sounds like a plan. BTW how brown is brown when it comes to dirty ATF? Mine is redish brown.I'd like the ol' girl last as long as possible.

[qship96]

Should never let it get to that color!!! With my 15,000 mile drain/fill, the fluid I take out looks exactly like the new fluid I put in. You will need to do multiple drain/fills til you get it looking new, probably 5-6- just do it once per day or once per week until it looks like new, then maintain it by doing 1 drain/fill every 15K or so.

[NightRiderQ45]

The MOST you will get out the Y33 is 4qts with nose up. That's the most that came out of mine when I had it suspended on ramps (the old skool iron ones). I also am doing drain & fill every 15k. I use two old milk jugs to measure the old fluid that came out and I pour the new fluid inside the other clean jug to the exact level of the old fluid.

With your fluid being brown, damage has already happened so it's best for you to change fluid asap with Mercon V or Dex-VI.

[vanzant]

Great. Sounds like I may be screwed...will do the multi changes & report back. Dex III?

[Datsme]

I have had really good luck with the quick oil change places using the system that ties into the cooler lines. The car runs and pumps out the old atf out of one line as it draws in fresh atf from the other. Your filter of course doesn't get changed but the atf in the torque does.

[NightRiderQ45]

they don't sell Dex III anymore because the GM license has expired. They only approve/license Dex-VI now. Either Dex-VI or Mercon V will work.

[vanzant]

OK, now the debate resumes. For everyone who says to have it pumped out, another says don't do it because it will cause the somewhat neglected transmission to break down. Do these places warrant their work?

[Q451990]

No one will give a warranty on a 12 year old slow shifting transmission with 133K on the odometer! You're in emergency surgery territory... "Mr. Vanzant, she's in bad shape but we'll do what we can..."

Heath

[qship96]

your choice, have a shop do it if you dont mind spending an extra $100 or so, or do it yourself....I would rather do it myself , that way I dont have to worry about some minimum wage monkey screwing it up,and I can put the savings into purchasing a top notch synthetic ATF of my choice . This is truly one of the easiest, quickest projects you can do yourself.

[NightRiderQ45]

I did the full mechanical exchange (15qts) back when my car had 175k with "then" syn M1 Mercon V aft. I think they changed it to a one flavor fit all (thats why I'm staying away from the new product). I pushed the new fluid to 35k and I did a drain & fill @ 210k with 4 qts of Dex-VI (semi syn product). I will do another drain & fill this weekend @ 218k. After that, I won't do another drain and fill until 233k.

[Q45tech]

The 97-01 4AT is much improved thanks to lower vehicle weight and engine power [torque] compared to 96-94 which was better than 90-93. Internally the 90-01 are the same just some tweaks and repositioning of externals/bell housing.........rematching TC to fit lower torque curves.STILL

200,000 miles is tremendous life for Nissan V8. Takes lots of work or luck, sometimes both.

I thought MB and BMW were great until I replaced both V8 transmission just after 105k.

Early Lexus was no doubt the world leader in V8 AT longevity everything was great until they developed 5AT in 1998 and a down hill process started to save weight and cost. We have changed more 98-02 Lexus than the 8 year previous models combined. Too early for more recent data.

[maxnix]

BTW how brown is brown when it comes to dirty ATF? Mine is redish brown.I'd like the ol' girl last as long as possible.

Then you are a little late. Color degradation is directly correlated to ATF degradation. Ideally, you want teh mechanical exchange to take place before there is any color degradation.

Read Q45tech's post on his second new transmission where he details the maintenance regime for 173K miles.

[NightRiderQ45]

to the op, i just performed a 4qt drain & fill and with dex-vI and it took 15mins max to perform this. I won't worry about this again until 233k

[qship96]

I agree, this is easier than changing the motor oil, or even washing/drying the car!!!!! I do not even need to raise the car- just slide the drain pan under there and unscrew the plug and let her drain......get 5.0000 quarts out every time when parked on inclined driveway, much more than when parked on a level surface.