ATF change

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Kestral
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ATF change

Postby Kestral » Thu May 07, 2015 8:03 pm

Ok so I can't seem to find my Maintenance guide for my 2012 Pathy so when should I be changing my ATF fluid? I consider my usage tough considering I will be towing my 5,000 lb camper this summer. I have around 20,000 miles now.


skinny2
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Postby skinny2 » Fri May 08, 2015 4:54 am

Well the maintenance guide gives you three schedules as follows:

Schedule 1: Severe conditions such as repeated short trips, stop and go traffic in hot weather, low speed driving for long distances. Driving in dusty conditions, rough, muddy, or salt spread roads. Towing a trailer or using a camper or car-top carrier.

Schedule 2: Highway driving, temperate conditions, and/or conditions other than schedule 1.

Premium service. This reads like a "how to enrich your dealership" guide and tacks on additional service to schedules 1 and 2.

To answer your question about transmission fluid, the manual shows no service required for schedules 1 and 2. Premium service calls for a fluid change at 30k mile intervals.

I've basically stuck to schedule 2 for most services but I do a drain and fill on the transmission fluid every 30k miles and all the other fluids (differentials, transfer case) at 60k mile intervals.

You can download the maintenance manual here: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q ... Wc&cad=rja

alecsey
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Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2009 3:19 pm

Postby alecsey » Fri May 15, 2015 7:05 pm

skinny2 wrote:Well the maintenance guide gives you three schedules as follows:

Schedule 1: Severe conditions such as repeated short trips, stop and go traffic in hot weather, low speed driving for long distances. Driving in dusty conditions, rough, muddy, or salt spread roads. Towing a trailer or using a camper or car-top carrier.

Schedule 2: Highway driving, temperate conditions, and/or conditions other than schedule 1.

Premium service. This reads like a "how to enrich your dealership" guide and tacks on additional service to schedules 1 and 2.

To answer your question about transmission fluid, the manual shows no service required for schedules 1 and 2. Premium service calls for a fluid change at 30k mile intervals.

I've basically stuck to schedule 2 for most services but I do a drain and fill on the transmission fluid every 30k miles and all the other fluids (differentials, transfer case) at 60k mile intervals.

You can download the maintenance manual here: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q ... Wc&cad=rja
Why do you need to change transfer case and differential fluids? I've been asking my dealership same question over and over again about changing differential and transfter case fluids and I've been told many times those fluids don't get changed ever unless there's been repair done on differentials or on transfer.

skinny2
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Joined: Sat Dec 26, 2009 10:07 pm
Location: BFE, Ohio

Postby skinny2 » Sun May 17, 2015 6:04 am

alecsey wrote: Why do you need to change transfer case and differential fluids? I've been asking my dealership same question over and over again about changing differential and transfter case fluids and I've been told many times those fluids don't get changed ever unless there's been repair done on differentials or on transfer.
If you downloand/read the Nissan maintenance guide attached to my post, all those fluids are listed in the premium service recommendations. Those fluids are also recommended if you're towing of offroading (page 12). So unless you're towing, it's completely optional to ever change those fluids. But just like anything else, obviously there are benefits to doing more maintenance than is required. I'm not super anal about maintenance, but the expensive things like transaxles, differentials, transmissions....it seems to be a good practice to swap the fluids semi-regularly. I'm over 130k miles and haven't had any mechanical repairs.


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