I picked up an 01 altima with 80k mi and auto tranny. the previous owner said he never changed the tranny fluid. My mechanic suggested that i DON'T change the fluid at this point since it would probably cause it to breakdown. is this true? never heard that before.

 

Sounds like crap to me. Ive been reading up on AT's a lot lately (My 350z has one) and this runs completely counter to everything I've learned. Certain Nissan vehicles (like the 350z) require special non-standard AT fluids though, so you might want to give a dealership a ring and ask them.

Autoway Nissan Of Brandon is really good about answering questions I've had in the past.

 

im getting different responses depending on who i speak with. what i'm not going to do is a trans flush. but i will probably do a fluid change,.

 

If it's a high mileage pos then you normally don't want to flush it. You should change the fluid regardless. After a while its just not doing its job any more. I don't think flushing an 01 with 80k will be a problem.

 

i had a escort with 71k miles on it thats after i bought it from a dude! he told me the same thing don't change the fuild but it developed a locking forward ack it wouldnt' shiftinto rev so took it to the shop they changed the fuild and it worked awsome after that. i told them and they laughed and said that the fuild after a time breaks down and dosen't work anymore so id change it

 

I had an Isuzu Rodeo with 88k miles on it and I was told the sludge was holding my tranny together, that is until I "accidentally" drifted a corner in it then I had to simply put more in, nothing about changing it though.

 

fuck this subject. it's becoming a fuckin toss up. 50/50 across the board.

 

they dont reccomend flushing a high mileage transmission because the clutch packs inside the transmission will eat themselves apart. change the fluid and change the filter it's just common sense and normal maintence. they say that stuff because a tq converter holds in alot of fluid and its difficult to get it out so they might not want you to overfill it or somthing.

 

That really only applies to old cars with old fashion fluids from the 60s. It doesnt apply anymore. And you cant completely flush the fluid unless you hook it up to one of the machines at some shops. When you pull the drain plug only about 4 qts comes out I think on those trannys, theres still another 8-10 sitting on the converter. And make sure you goto Nissan and get their fluid, you cant use regular Dexron/Mercon with the those Nissans like the old ones.

 

He's dead on here. Also, be prepared for a bit of sticker shock on that Nissan specific fluid. The Matic J mine takes ran almost $260 just for the fluid.