# Is it gear oil or tranny fluid? & that's the breaks!



## bloonman (Jan 25, 2006)

Howdy from Texas!

I got the okay to "blend" different spline sizes on my passenger side drive shafts, but now face an even stranger situation. It didn't even register at the time, but when I removed the drive shaft from my "automatic" tranny in my 91 MAX, a fluid the color of gear oil poured out. I know that these things take "type II" tranny fluid(the book that came with the car says so) and tranny fluid is red in color, isn't it? The bottle I just opened is. My guess is that I should drain a bit and do the smell/taste test to be sure what's in there and put like fluid back in. That or just drain it all out, replace completely with the right stuff, run it down the road a bit, drain and fill again and again until I am sure the other stuff is all gone. I would prefer the former to the latter, since it could get quite costly. 

Also, I had to replace the spindle. Of course, too much of the brake fluid leaked and now I have a mushy brake peddle. Do I need to but a quart and bleed all the lines or can I just get a pint and do the one wheel? 

I have all the pads to replace on my Volvo and may need to replace some fluid there as well, but that's the "OTHER" forum, right?

John, The Balloon Man


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## MyGreenMax94 (Dec 17, 2005)

bloonman said:


> Howdy from Texas!
> 
> I got the okay to "blend" different spline sizes on my passenger side drive shafts, but now face an even stranger situation. It didn't even register at the time, but when I removed the drive shaft from my "automatic" tranny in my 91 MAX, a fluid the color of gear oil poured out. I know that these things take "type II" tranny fluid(the book that came with the car says so) and tranny fluid is red in color, isn't it? The bottle I just opened is. My guess is that I should drain a bit and do the smell/taste test to be sure what's in there and put like fluid back in. That or just drain it all out, replace completely with the right stuff, run it down the road a bit, drain and fill again and again until I am sure the other stuff is all gone. I would prefer the former to the latter, since it could get quite costly.
> 
> ...


Your auto trans fluid is old and burned,hence the dark color...I recommend you go to the dealer and get the "nissanmatic" auto trans fluid,It is a ashless fluid...This will extend your transmission life...But unfortunatly it may be to late for the trans already, it may be so gummed up from the old fluid that when you put the new trans fluid in it, the detergents in the new fluid will start to clean the gummy old fluid off the casing inside the tranny. This gummy crap will be floating around in the fluid,getting into the valve body and other critical parts, causing premature failure of the tranny...

You should be able to bleed just that side of the brakes that you took off...It would be better to bleed the whole system though just to get the old fluid out of the system completely...


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## bloonman (Jan 25, 2006)

*Light in the darkness?*



MyGreenMax94 said:


> Your auto trans fluid is old and burned,hence the dark color...I recommend you go to the dealer and get the "nissanmatic" auto trans fluid,It is a ashless fluid...This will extend your transmission life...But unfortunatly it may be to late for the trans already, it may be so gummed up from the old fluid that when you put the new trans fluid in it, the detergents in the new fluid will start to clean the gummy old fluid off the casing inside the tranny. This gummy crap will be floating around in the fluid,getting into the valve body and other critical parts, causing premature failure of the tranny... You should be able to bleed just that side of the brakes that you took off...It would be better to bleed the whole system though just to get the old fluid out of the system completely...


The color was not really dark, it was really more like the color of semi-new oil, but actually a tad thinner consistency than oil. Does that make any difference? There was absolutely no red tint whatsoever.

So, should I fill it with regular tranny fluid, say, run it around the block a time or two, drain out all this "gummy crap" and then fill it with "nissanmatic"? Mightn't that help some? Or am I suffering from wishful thinking?

I'll buy the quart bottle of brake fluid!

John, The Balloon Man


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## MyGreenMax94 (Dec 17, 2005)

bloonman said:


> The color was not really dark, it was really more like the color of semi-new oil, but actually a tad thinner consistency than oil. Does that make any difference? There was absolutely no red tint whatsoever.
> 
> So, should I fill it with regular tranny fluid, say, run it around the block a time or two, drain out all this "gummy crap" and then fill it with "nissanmatic"? Mightn't that help some? Or am I suffering from wishful thinking?
> 
> ...


Yeah...It would probably be a good idea to drain and refill the system several times with clean fluid in the hope you will get all the crap out in time...I would use just regular dextronIII fluid from the auto parts store for the flushing of the system,its waay cheaper then the dealer fluid...I would run it a little longer then a time or two around the though,maybe a few days or a week....


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