Infiniti FX Owners Forum (The Org)

I called the local Nissan dealer to get my transmission flushed (I am approaching 120,000 miles). They said you can't flush a CVT transmission. You should only change the fluids, which was last done at 60,000. I did not call the Inifiniti dealer to confirm, but this seems at odds with what I've read in other threads here.

So my thought is just have my local mechanic do the tranny fluid change. I no longer have a warranty to be concerned with, so should I still buy the Nissan Matic-J or go with the ATF they use, which I believe is Mobil 1?

Thanks,
Terry

ONLY use the NISSAN J-matic... JUST in case... but you don't have a CVT... the FX has a regular transmission... and honestly I don't think there's any reason to do a full flush... just do the regular fluid change... if your mechanic says your fluid looks a bit dirty, next time do it at a shorter interval... but if the fluid looks good, then nevermind....

Thanks DatMan. It sure shifts smoothly for a regular transmission. I guess that is what had me thinking I had the CVT.

With CVT you don't see the RPM's change, they just stay at like 3k during regular acceleration. It's really weird to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlWYTnaDnK0

Ifthe Nissan dealership was talking about your FX they don't even know what kind of tranny you have. The Murano has a CV. Your FX is a plain old 5 speed automatic transmission. I've heard good and bad about tranny flushing. Some say it shouldn't be done on higher mileage vehicles. Some say it's just fine.

Ha ha yea if they said that then do not go there. If they are that dumb to think you have a CVT then perhaps its not a good idea to go there

Called my dealer a couple weeks ago about a tranny flush. They want $279 to do it. He also said that just doing a change doesn't actually drain out all the old fluid.

But a flush sometimes uses too much pressure damaging internal gaskets and seals... IMO just do a normal drain and fill and check your tranny fluid... if it still looks good then you don't REALLY need to get all the old stuff outta there...

I posted the following thoughts at another thread on 4/14/10:

Just a thought: I once owned a new 2000, V8, 5-speed, FWD Ford Explorer, and when the time came to have the transmission fluid replaced for the first time, the dealer recommended that I should not merely have this fluid gravity-drained and replaced. Rather, he recommended (at a significantly higher cost, of course) that I should have them "power flush" the tranny, in which they pump or force fluid into the tranny, followed by refilling it with fresh transmission fluid. Their argument was that merely gravity draining the fluid leaves behind lots of metal shavings and other nasties, while power flushing the tranny gets rid of all of these contaminants.

Well, at the time it sounded like a good idea, so I (being naive at the time) gave them the go-ahead, but forever there after, the vehicle's AT, instead of smoothly shifting through all gears as it did before... as soon as I drove away I noticed that the vehicle roughly lurched each time it upshifted through gears 1, 2, and 3, and it behaved similarly when downshifting through the same lower gears.

So, I took the truck back to the dealership to complain, and of course they claimed that it drove just fine, etc., etc., and that if there was a problem, they certainly didn't do anything to cause it.

I next sought the advice of some very reputable and experienced mechanics, all of whom who told me that in general, they did not recommend power-flushing an AT (except perhaps in the most expert hands), because a very common and damaging mistake is too force too much fluid pressure ("power flushing!") back through the tranny, which in turn may damage delicate gaskets, etc. (And of course, many Nifty Lube outfits may also offer this sort of transmission service. Flush away your cares and woes.)

Thanks for the input guys. You've convinced me to just stick to a transmission fluid change, if needed.

when should i change the oil ? 60k or 100k?

I'm assuming miles? I changed mine at 45K cause I had some transmission issues... most will change at 60K... some wait even LONGER... it all depends really... my dealership doesn't charge very much so I just decided to do it early as I had tranny issues... and I'll probably do another at 90K...

And I hope when you say OIL, you mean FLUID cause you should change your OIL much sooner than 60K...

I think the recommended service interval for the transmission fluid for normal wear is the 60k mile service. I did mine at just over 60k miles.

FYI, you might want to browse these threads on other things related to the 60k mile services:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15765
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20339

thank you, im almost at 70k, need to sort it.

one more thing, should i do a flush or just a regular drain and top up?
just called nissan dealer and one liter of j matic is more than 25$ and i need around ten liters for the flush or more, plus i need the dif oil plus the labor.
so realy shuold i flush or not ?

Read the above posts...

the above post dont say much, i dont think i will use nissan matc-j, it seems a total pile of bull , a scam by the the manufactures, what do think?

You can do whatever you want. But 99% of owners here will tell you that they will only use Nissan Matic-J on their transmissions. You only change the AT fluid once every 60k miles, so while try to be cheap? Plus, the first thing Infiniti will check if the AT has problems is the AT fluid, and THEY say it voids the warranty. If they are able to say that any fluid other than Matic-J will mess up the transmission, I'm not about to take that chance. Also, the price should be about $12 per bottle at Nissan; you can buy it online for that much.

Definitely go with the Nissan Matic-J. Doing otherwise will void your warranty. There's no where else in Europe where you can find it cheaper than $25/L?!?

Well, apparently enough was said above that this guy decided to do a regular flush and fill... it's your FX... you decide for yourself...