# ATF change!!!!!!!!!



## xgrave (Aug 11, 2007)

hey guys! im trying to change the ATF to my 93 altima, but im not sure how much atf to buy...i know when you just drain it, theres still some in the torque converter, but im not sure how much, i know it takes about 10 qts TOTAL, but what about minus what's left in the TC? thanks!


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## metronet (Dec 12, 2005)

When I did mine, I bought 4L (a galon?) and i still have some left...


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## xgrave (Aug 11, 2007)

REALLY!? man i thought the TC only held about 35-40% of the total atf? are you sure? i just dont want to buy a whole lot and have it sitting there til i change it again, what 2 years later? you see my point? so i wanna know how much it takes minus the TC...


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## xgrave (Aug 11, 2007)

any one have ideas?


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## goofy123 (Jun 10, 2007)

Consumerguide recommends that we replace the transmission oil with Nissanmatic "C" transmission fluid only. I think it depends on how much oil you can get out of the transmission I spoke to my friend who works on altimas and he once said that we can get more oil out if we drop the pan and let the car idle. I don't know if this helps you.


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## xgrave (Aug 11, 2007)

but wouldnt it hurt the transmission if you let it idle without any fluid in it? i have heard of that but at the same time ive heard that you are supposed to add fluid at the same rate...man this sucks ill just buy the equipment and hope for the best...*sigh*


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## Altima SSS (Oct 10, 2007)

goofy123 said:


> Consumerguide recommends that we replace the transmission oil with Nissanmatic "C" transmission fluid only. I think it depends on how much oil you can get out of the transmission I spoke to my friend who works on altimas and he once said that we can get more oil out if we drop the pan and let the car idle. I don't know if this helps you.


Haynes manual says Dexron II or Dexron III. If you research Dexron, you will see that all the newer Dexron is backwards compatable with the old stuff.

Dexron III will definitely be OK to use. No use buying anything super special.


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## Altima SSS (Oct 10, 2007)

Just go buy a case of Dexron III and do 3 changes over a years time ... that will essentially give you clean fluid throughout the tranny after the 3rd change.


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## rod_88 (Jan 13, 2007)

Just get apump and suck it out throught the dipstick. What ever you suck, you put in, plus a bit more to be on the safe side.


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## rod_88 (Jan 13, 2007)

BTW, no need to change the filter.


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## Altima SSS (Oct 10, 2007)

rod_88 said:


> Just get apump and suck it out throught the dipstick. What ever you suck, you put in, plus a bit more to be on the safe side.


Sucking it out the dipstick won't get any more out then simply removing the drain plug. Question was how to get it out of the torque converter. The simplest, cheapest and least risky way is to change it 2 or 3 times in a short period.


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## xgrave (Aug 11, 2007)

why dont i need to change the filter? youd think itd be dirty so might as well change it since its gonna be there for 2 years....also my original question was how much atf it uses excluding the torque converter...???


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## Altima SSS (Oct 10, 2007)

Look at post #2 ... sounds like about 4 qts drains out, so the rest is in the converter and various cavities in the tranny.

Just go buy 5 qts, and if you only use 4 then take the un-open one back.


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## xgrave (Aug 11, 2007)

would opening the drain plug and letting the engine idle be safe? i wanna change it in one sitting...


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## Altima SSS (Oct 10, 2007)

xgrave said:


> would opening the drain plug and letting the engine idle be safe? i wanna change it in one sitting...


No, I wouldn't do that as there might be a risk of causing damage.

In order to change out all the fluid, including the converter, a special machine is used to replace the fluid as the engine is running. There is no real good way of doing that without the machine.

When I change mine, I'm just going to change it 2 or 3 times over a year and it will essentially make it close to all new. Draining is super simple. Drain, and fill. Of course, you could remove the pan and replace the filter the first time, but the other changes would just be drain and fill ... easy.


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## xgrave (Aug 11, 2007)

ok thanks! i wanna change the filter and gasket cuz i bought it 5 months ago and im not sure when was the last time it was changed...


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## Altima SSS (Oct 10, 2007)

xgrave said:


> ok thanks! i wanna change the filter and gasket cuz i bought it 5 months ago and im not sure when was the last time it was changed...


Let me know how the filter change goes ... I'd like to do that to mine too during the first ATF change.

Also, according to the manual, there are two big magnets on the inside of the pan that need to be cleaned. How much crap is stuck to the magnets is also an indication of how healthy the tranny is. Don't want to see many metal chips stuck to those magnets.


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## I'm3rd (Dec 24, 2003)

The filter doesn't need to be changed, it's only a metal screen and won't plug up unless there are big chunks of something in the fluid. Do NOT remove the pan unless you still want to change the screen, because the risk of damaging the threads in the soft aluminum case is too great unless you know what you're doing and are very very careful when you replace the bolts. It is very easy to cross thread the little bolts and damage the tranny case so I believe it's best to just leave the pan alone. There is no need to remove it anyway since there is a drain plug in the pan and the screen is very unlikely to be clogged if the tranny is shifting OK as it is. 

If you want to replace the fluid in the torque converter too, which is a good idea by the way, just do what a previous reply said, change the oil in the pan 3 or 4 times in succession and most of the old fluid will be drained out and replaced by the new fluid. It takes about 3 quarts of ATF each time you drain and refill so buy a 12 quart case of Dexron 111, drain the pan while hot and replace with new fluid, then drive a few miles stop and go with lots of shifting until it's good and hot, then drain and refill again, repeat draining, driving, and refilling until the 12 quarts of new fluid is used up and you're all set for another 30K miles. I have been doing that for years on my 94 Alty and at 181K miles it still shifts and operates as well as it did when new.


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## I'm3rd (Dec 24, 2003)

I want to comment on the post about the magnets in the pan. I had heard that too and after about 140K miles i decided to drop the pan, install a new filter, and check the magnets. What I found was a very clean pan and screen with nothing on the one magnet and no metal chips or dirt in the pan. Then I found out how easy it is to cross thread the small bolts in the soft aluminum tranny case. I damaged the case threads the first time I tried to put in a bolt and had to wrap thin brass wire on the bolt to get it to hold in the case which was not a very good solution to the problem and it dripped a small amount of fluid around that bolt for a while afterwards. The alternative was to have the hole bored out and threaded for a larger bolt which would have been expensive unless I did it myself and I don't trust my work with taps and dies that much. After that I was as careful as possible to not cross thread again, but it's very easy to do if you aren't extremely careful, and unless the bolts are carefully torqued to specs in a cross pattern with an accurate torgue wrench you WILL have fluid leaks.

My advice based on personal experience is to leave the pan alone unless the tranny is not shifting properly, because chances are very good that the screen and pan are clean unless the car has high mileage and the fluid has never been drained and refilled.


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## xgrave (Aug 11, 2007)

Thanks a lot I'm3rd, that really helped...well im trying to remove the pan and change filter simply because it takes a bit of force (not very much) but a bit to change from P to L, i would think it should shift smoothly right? and it also gives me a thump every time i go from P to R or D...so maybe a filter and complete (or almost ) complete fluid change would help....what do you think?


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## I'm3rd (Dec 24, 2003)

If your tranny is shifting hard with a thumping noise it may be something that fresh ATF would help but I kinda doubt it. If you didn't buy the car new you probably don't know what kind of care or servicing it had from a previous owner, so it may never have had a fluid change. When I dropped the pan on mine at about 140K miles I found everything inside that I could see looked clean and like new including the filter screen so I just wiped the inside of the pan out with a clean shop towel and put it back on. If yours is like the one on my '94 it has a coarse metal screen for a filter and if it's dirty I think you could wash it out in mineral spirits and put it back on, or I guess you can buy a new screen at a Nissan dealer if you think it needs a new one. The pan on mine doesn't use a gasket so I just put a bead of that black silicone sealer on the two surfaces and carefully torqued the bolts to 22 ft lbs if I remember correctly. The flange on the pan is thin and easy to bend so be careful to not overtighten the bolts. I can't remember the name of the silicone sealer but any auto parts store should know what you need. I remember reading on this forum once that some Altima trannys do use a pan gasket instead of the sealer so yours may too.

I think it would be a good idea to replace the fluid in the way I described earlier. After 4 drains and refills there is only maybe 1/2 pint of the old fluid left in the tranny and mixed with the fresh fluid so it's almost like a power flush and fill job that a Nissan shop charges $195 for. If you drop the pan be sure you have a good torque wrench so you can torque the pan bolts to the right stetting which I think I found in my Haynes book to be 22 ft lbs. I had leaks at first because of the stripped threads on one bolt hole but if you do it right you shouldn't have that problem. I'm not good at explaining these things but I hope this helps a little bit at least.


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## Altima SSS (Oct 10, 2007)

Just a suggestion about assembling fasteners. To prevent cross threading, always start the threads by hand and ensure they are engaging and turning easily by hand before tightening with tools. Never, ever try to initially start fasteners with power or air tools as this can cause thread damage if it starts cross threaded and then the power or air tool drives it in without you knowing.


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## Altima SSS (Oct 10, 2007)

xgrave said:


> Thanks a lot I'm3rd, that really helped...well im trying to remove the pan and change filter simply because it takes a bit of force (not very much) but a bit to change from P to L, i would think it should shift smoothly right? and it also gives me a thump every time i go from P to R or D...so maybe a filter and complete (or almost ) complete fluid change would help....what do you think?


If the shift lever is hard to change from P to L, then is might be more related to the cable or mechanism between the lever and tranny. Maybe it can be lubed and/or adjusted to move better.

One point of interest. The Haynes manual shows how to check the automatic tranny's computer for trouble codes also. It's layed out in the automatic transaxle section. I haven't tried it on my car yet, but plan on it just to see if anything comes up.


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## xgrave (Aug 11, 2007)

thanks guys, i think ill drop the pan on it and check to see if any metal shavings are in it, ill do that next weekend as i couldnt do it this weekend, thanks again! i think my tranny would be really thankful if i did an atf change...like you said over a year's period...thanks!


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## Altima SSS (Oct 10, 2007)

Altima SSS said:


> One point of interest. The Haynes manual shows how to check the automatic tranny's computer for trouble codes also. It's laid out in the automatic transaxle section. I haven't tried it on my car yet, but plan on it just to see if anything comes up.


I did the test on the auto tranny computer yesterday per the Hayne's Manual. No trouble codes found, which is good. The procedure to test the auto tranny computer is kind of strange, but if you follow it per the manual it works out fine. There are 10 different sensors the test checks out.

If you get one long flash on the "OD OFF" light, followed by 10 short flashes, then all is OK. But if you get any long flashes in the 10 flashes after the first long flash, then something is wrong with the auto tranny. The manual tells you what could be wrong.

Those of you who have the Hayne's manual can find the test procedure in the automatic transaxle section.


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## xgrave (Aug 11, 2007)

yeah i was thinking that...dont you have to turn something in the ecu? or something, ive read it, but wasnt sure about it...ill try it one of these days...maybe tomorrow...thanks for the tip


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## Altima SSS (Oct 10, 2007)

xgrave said:


> yeah i was thinking that...dont you have to turn something in the ecu? or something, ive read it, but wasnt sure about it...ill try it one of these days...maybe tomorrow...thanks for the tip


No, you don't have to turn anything on the ECU for the tranny computer test. You have to go through some crazy steps with the ignition key, shifter and gas pedal to make the "OD OFF" light flash the codes.

It's all layed out in the _Automatic Transaxle_ section of the Hayne's Manual.


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## xgrave (Aug 11, 2007)

cool, i have the manual anyways, ill check it out! thanks to all for the help!


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## mPATHY (May 20, 2007)

i just had my son do a flush on 94 gxe auto, used most of 12 litres


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