Frank- Auto-RX in transmission but no T-Tec flush

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VK56VD

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I am thinking of adding Auto-RX to the automatic transmission of a '99 Nissan Maxima. After the clean phase, I'd like to do a simple drain and refill twice, with a few hundred miles in between. Will this hurt the transmission by not replacing all the fluid after the Auto-RX phase by having debris circulating throughout the unit? I can get approximately 40%-50% of the old fluid out of a simple drain and refill in this transmission.

I would like to avoid using a T-Tec and am not comfortable enough with the cooler line flush method.
 
I'd highly recommend exchanging as much as possible. No need for so many miles in between. The last thing you want is "diluted with new fluid" stuff getting drained.

What is the challenge of the cooler line flush? Hard lines? It takes 10 minutes (just about).
 
I've never performed the cooler line flush and would be afraid for air to get into the system or starving the transmission from oil. Plus, I don't have a helper.
 
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The cooling line flush is pretty easy and can be done alone, I've done it many times w/o issue. I put a rubber hose on the line that the fluid is coming out of and place that into a 1 gallon bottle, about 3/4 of the way down. I place that into my oil catch container, start the vehicle up and watch the fluid drain, when it slows down, shut the engine off, reconnect and refill. Start it up, run it through the gears and repeat, or take it for a spin. Not messy at all if you do it right!

What's nice is the 93 Aerostar I have has rubber hoses connnecting the tranny cooling lines to the cooler mounted in front of the radiator, works great.

HTH,

Frank D
 
Sprintman, From my experience the 1000 mile run with ARX installed in the tranny fluid will remove most contaminants from the torque convertor into suspension in the trans fluid. Therefor getting a very good or at least better drain. I would say that it is still advised that the filtering media be exchanged out.
 
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
The cooling line flush is pretty easy and can be done alone, I've done it many times w/o issue. I put a rubber hose on the line that the fluid is coming out of and place that into a 1 gallon bottle, about 3/4 of the way down. I place that into my oil catch container, start the vehicle up and watch the fluid drain, when it slows down, shut the engine off, reconnect and refill. Start it up, run it through the gears and repeat, or take it for a spin. Not messy at all if you do it right!Don't you just drain into a can,run till it runs out,add more oil into the trans and keep doing it that way? I thought i read this somewhere here.

What's nice is the 93 Aerostar I have has rubber hoses connnecting the tranny cooling lines to the cooler mounted in front of the radiator, works great.

HTH,

Frank D
 
Originally Posted By: demarpaint
The cooling line flush is pretty easy and can be done alone, I've done it many times w/o issue. I put a rubber hose on the line that the fluid is coming out of and place that into a 1 gallon bottle, about 3/4 of the way down. I place that into my oil catch container, start the vehicle up and watch the fluid drain, when it slows down, shut the engine off, reconnect and refill. Start it up, run it through the gears and repeat, or take it for a spin. Not messy at all if you do it right!What's nice is the 93 Aerostar I have has rubber hoses connnecting the tranny cooling lines to the cooler mounted in front of the radiator, works great.HTH,Frank D
Is it easier if you disconnect hose,insert into a catch can, then run engine till none comes out,turn it off, add more oil to trans then repeat till it runs out again?
 
You will never get it all out, I guess I should have been a little clearer in my writing of this. It will slow down to a point where its just a fast drip coming out, that's when I turn it off. You will get a little more than about 2-3 qts depending on the size of the pan. You are not going to pump the full capacity of the tranny out doing it this way. That's why you have to repeat the procedure several times, to fully flush it out.

I never trusted the T-tech method because I was never sure what kind of fluid they were running thru the machine. If you bring your own fluid and watch to be sure they are using it I guess you're GTG. I don't have the time to sit and wait, to me that's spending more $$$$$$$ on the job.

JMO,
Frank D
 
My transmission holds 10 qts. With a simple drain, I can usually get between 4-5 qts. out depending on the jacking points.

I am worried however that the gunk after the ARX treatment will still be floating around as not 100% of the fluid will be replaced with simple drain and refill's.

This gunk can probably do more damage than good after the treatment.

I'd love to do the cooler line flush as it is praised by many on here but do not have the experience for such work. I'm also afraid of introducing air into the system and having the unit run dry.

I actually have exactly 10 qts. of Amsoil ATF at home that would be perfect for this. I also have a few qts. of genuine Nissan Matic-D fluid that I could have started pushing into the system first, followed by 10 qts. of Amsoil to insure the most mixture of Amsoil and as close to 100% of clean fluid with the cooler line method flush.

I may hold off on the ARX treatment all together as I have Mobil1 Synthetic ATF in the transmission now and will probably just do two drain and refills with the Amsoil ATF (w/ few hundred miles in between each) and call it a day. Hopefully the Synthetic ATF and frequent drain and refill's I have been doing in this transmission will do enough cleaning to keep this transmission healthy for many years to come.

I bought the car almost two years ago with 103k miles on the odometer. I've had the car for almost 25k miles to date and have since done 7 drain and refill's- 3 drain and refills with Nissan Matic-D fluid & 4 drain and refill's with Mobil1 Synthetic ATF. In the next few weeks I'll do two more drain and refill's with the Amsoil ATF and hope for long, smooth, and well cared for transmission life.
 
Can you put a drain plug on the pan after you do the A-rx treatment? Or another way of swapping out fluid is to suck it from the fill/dipstick tube. There are pumps that can be used, I don't know about Nissan transmissions but I seriously doubt you are going to introduce air into the system that would cause a problem using any of the methods. Even dropping the pan leaves more than 50% of the fluid in the unit, and when you top it off its not going to be running dry, besides you've done that before w/o issue, so its safe.

If you drain off fluid replace it, drain it replace it,etc, your end result is going to be the same as an exchange. The only thing is you've saved some cash and know exactly what fluid you put into your tranny.

I've never had a fluid exchange done. Tranny services are one thing I let my local mechanic do about every 25,000 miles. I bring the fluid and filter he does the job. I figure if it leaks its his headache. Then I drive home and either disconnect the tranny line, or pump fluid out and refill, I do this a few times, maybe 6-9 qts worth and call it a day. In over 30 years of driving I had 1 transmission replaced and that was in a used car I bought that was used for towing a full trailer and race car. I still got over 120K out of the transmission in that car.

If you decide to do one of these methods check with Frank from A-Rx maybe he can give you an idea of how many qts to run through it.

One last thing, I do use Lube-Guard as part of the fill.

Frank D
 
I guess Frank Was typing when I was. He wants to see the T-Tech flush method, so I guess all bets are off. :)

Frank D
 
No I just want to stop the convuluded applications when cleaning the transmission is so very simple. T-Tec pressures are safe and for 45 minutes and $99.00 to clean the transmission and refill with new fluid, why not ?

Transmission life, performance should be the goals.

Please visit the Auto-Rx Tech Board and click on "Transmissions"
easy to read and the comments informative.
 
Quote:
I'd love to do the cooler line flush as it is praised by many on here but do not have the experience for such work. I'm also afraid of introducing air into the system and having the unit run dry.


There's no issue of putting air into the system.

None of us had experience in such work before the first time ..and this is really low on the list, in terms of complexity, of acquired skills. The only complication for the totally intelligent, but inexperienced, DIY'R is if you have hard lines that may require some care in putting back together (flared couplings, or oddball connectors) versus flexible hoses/hose barbs/hose clamps.

There's no big liability here that can result in some "Sunday afternoon fear factor" for the DIY'R.
 
IS there such thing as "air in the system"? It would seem to me that it would quickly get out of the system,if it even makes a difference if air gets sucked in.
 
There's no air in the system that isn't there with a pan drop (almost true). You pump until the pickup is exposed ..which it is with a pan drop. You may have some minor difference between the pump proper and what would drain out of the passage to the pump itself.

It's no different than pulling too high a G-force with a low(er) sump (like coming to a stop and having it slosh forward exposing the pickup). The flow is restored when the pump gets prime again.

It's a non-issue.
 
Spartuss, it really isn't hard to perform a cooler line exchange on the fourth generation Maxima. Locate the cooler lines in front of the transmission. Take off the plastic splash guard underneath them. Disconnect the return hose from the transmission. Proceed.

The return hose is connected to a straight metal pipe with a hose clamp to secure it.

The output to the cooler is the connection with a banjo bolt, this side you do not open.

Others have already described the procedure well.
 
Spartuss,
You cannot harm the transmission unless you let it run dry for an extended period of time. Here's what I suggest:

Remove the return line
Run the engine until 4 quarts of ATF is pumped out
Add 4 quarts of Nissan Matic D
Pump out 4 more quarts
Drop the pan and clean it, replace the filter, and reinstall the pan
Add 6 quarts of Amsoil ATF
Pump out 4 quarts of ATF
Add 3.5 quarts of Amsoil ATF
Reconnect the lines
Drive around and use the remaining .5 quarts of Amsoil ATF to use for topping off as needed.
 
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