Transmission trouble??

[captluv]

Hey all,

Planning to do a fluid change/pan drop soon and have a few transmission questions.First off, when running the car for the first time in the day, the transmission doesn't shift too well. It runs up to 3000 rpms or so and when it doesn shift, it shifts a bit hard. Not joltingly and not with any loud noise, but definitely not butter smooth like it does after the car's warmed up.

Second, where can I get replacement pan bolts? I've read that it's best to use new bolts with the loktite stuff to seal them. Is this so, and where can I get the bolts? Any other info on changing transmission fluid or transmission operation in general would be helpful too. I just bought this car and have no idea how it's been cared for over the years.

Thanks in advance.

[maxhopper]

The 4th gen automatic transmisions have a known flaw with the shift solenoids. That could be your problem, or someone could have used a generic AT fluid instead of Nissan Matic-D fluid. You can actually take your car to the dealer and have it flushed without dropping the pan. The flush will replace 100% of the fluid as opposed to ~60% by just droping the pan. I'm going to have mine done next week, so I called around to a couple dealerships. The best price I found is $119.95 for the flush.

[captluv]

Should have mentioned this before, but the car is a 96 I30 with 136K on it, so it's no spring chicken. I wouldn't do a machine flush because of the damage it could cause. So, I thought a pan drop and fluid change would be best.

Anybody know where I can get detailed (with pictures) instructions on how to do this and should I use synthetic atf from now on?

Any help is appreciated.

[maxhopper]

What damage would a flush cause?

[Beancooker]

Over 100k miles you're lookin' fo' trouble if you switch to synthetic. Get the flush from your dealer like maxhopper said and use Nissan Matic-D fluid. Your transmission will love you for it!