Jump to content

Transmission Fluid Types


02silverpathy
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hey Guys and Gals, I changed my fluid in the 02's tranny-->empty pan and run truck about 2 minutes to flush a little more out-->refilled with Mobil 1 synth tranny fluid. The truck only gave up about 5 qts, so that is what I put back in. It appears to be close to perfect on the line but I get a terrible waaaaa ba bahhhhh from 1st to 2nd under heavy acceleration....my questions are:

 

Is there a wrong type of tranny fluid to use?

 

Is it really possible that disconnecting the OEM tranny cooler in favor of a larger external tranny cooler could be keeping the tranny from getting warm enough?

 

Your thoughts.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

never heard of running the truck to flush it out, always though they pumped new fluid to flush it out. Had that with my old truck but it soon when away. The transmission was screw in it though....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I should re state, I probably only ran the truck 20-30 seconds, this could be an attribute, but with only 46K on the truck I doubt that this is my main problem...I am really curious to see if anyone thinks that I am OVER-cooling the tranny. I need to take a longer drive or better warm up and try again to see how it acts. My main concerns were that the fluid is not acceptable, or that the cooler is over doing it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Was the Mobil1 fluid Dexron III? If so, it's fine. Over cooling shouldn't be an issue, as many folks have bypassed the stock cooler in favor of an aftermarket external type.

 

I think, if anything, your issue is from the period of fluid starvation, and/or you had an issue in the tranny before that was masked by the old, dirty fluid.

 

Try going for a little longer drive, get it warmed up, and and have the new fluid run through the tranny....it may clear up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry to contradict Simon (Pezzy is so going to squash me) but my dealer said that yes, bypassing the stock cooler for a bigger one in the VQ motors can result in a trannie not getting warm enough. I had that issue but dealt with it in 2 ways: put the stock cooler back in the loop, ahead of the aftermarket one and added a winter front. No issues now.

 

But I never got any noise, just rough shifts. So I can not answer your question about that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lol, the noise was my weak attempt at describing the shift pattern! I was thinking that I should get the stocker back in the loop, at least for the winter. My cooler is tough to put your hand on for more than say 4-5 seconds, then at the bottom where the fluid goes back in you can put your hand on it for quite a bit longer (almost until you are tired of reaching behind the grill!). I am going to add the stocker back in line after the add on, I will try this for a few days. It is much much colder here now, we had our first frost and the high for Tuesday was 60 something.

 

***Mobil 1 is dexron III***so the fluid is the right type, just though that mayb the tolerance for non Nissan factory fluid could be possible.

Edited by 98silverpathy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This noise you are talking about, are you eleventy billion % sure that you have enough fluid? or is this just lack of the torque converter to lock up due to that transmission not getting up to temp? I am going to assume that since you have 98 in your name that you have a 1998 with the VG motor? It really shouldn't matter as the trannies in the VQ and VG are similar. Currently in my 99 Q I am over cooling the transmission a little more than I like and am running the fluid into a large cooler -> back into the stock cool and to the tranny. It is always best to keep the stock cooler inline unless you fear the cooler is clogged. These transmissions like to see a little bit of heat in the fluid and they do run cooler with Mobil 1. Also, when flushing your transmission:

 

 

This will require about 13 quarts. I disconnected both rubber cooler lines where they meet the metal lines to the passenger (USDM Left hand drive) side of the crankshaft pulley.

 

Lines.JPG

 

Take some 5/16" rubber hose and run it from the discharge line to a bucket.

 

discharge_line.JPG

 

Run the vehicle until no more fluid comes out of the hose and immediate shut it off.

 

Add fluid until you are full again and repeat until you see clean fluid come out of the line.

 

 

 

Also, running an auto when there is no fluid in the pan is nothing like running your engine without oil. The automatic transmission is not producing power and does not have to handle the loads that a crankshaft does. When an automatic has no load on it little heat is being generated by the torque converter and fluid pressures are not as important. Now, you can damage things if you run it for too long, but the residual fluid left in the torque converter and transmission should be enough to provide lube for 30 seconds or so. When I flushed my transmission I never shut off the engine, I just kept pouring fluid down the spout and it could come right back out the discharge line. That transmission was put into a WD21 and has over 200k on it right now, not to mention some of the loads I pulled with my R50 before I started wheeling.

Edited by systemf
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah-ha, gerat pics and explanation! I thought about draining mine that way. This time I did not try that, I left a magnet on the pan by the plug and then drained out of the plug. I had heard before that as long as you don't starve the tranny that thism ethod would work. I do have the VQ and probably should ask 88 to change me to 02silverpathy, anyhow, I agree that I am over cooling, and I actually think that I have too much fluid. I am not sure how that happened with measuring what came out but re attaching the OE cooler after the large arftermarket cooler yielded a quicker response when shifting....after checking the fluid 10 times (no kidding), it seems that I am about a pint over....I checked during COLD and HOT. My Haynes states that the difference between cold and hot is 1 pint to go from one extreme to the other.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...