Drove 1 km with one quart low on ATF any possible damage??

[Dominik]

Last night I drained ATF on my dad's 2003 Altima, and thoufht I had put in as much as I had drained out. Took the car for a little test drive around the block (all under 20 mph and four stop-and-go's )the tranny shifted rougher than before. so I checked the ATF level and it was one quart low!

Toped it up and drove around the block again and it started to shift normally.
Have I inflicted some damage this way? I mean something that will creep out later?
Please let me know if it ever happened to you I am really worried.
The tranny shifts better now but I think when shifting from 2nd-3rd the rpms kinda fluctuate a bit (didn't have that before)no jerk thogh like it had before shifting from 1st-2nd, have I damaged something??


P.S.
The old ATF was dark even though it was in service for only 4000 km, the car has had four drain/refills with Motomaster (store brand bottled by Shell I think/hope) Dexron III.
The new ATF is Valvoline DexIII the new H-spec.

 

[drive it forever]

I would say no, especially driving only 1km. If you dont have enough fluid in a automatic tranny, you cant even move the car. You obviously had enough fluid in it if you drove it, so if my experience of rebuilding a few automatics in the past says anything (GM turbo 350 and turbo 400's), I wouldent worry about it. New fluid can sometimes obviously change shift feel, and sometimes the clutches go through a short period where they feel a tad different, good or bad. The new fluid cleans up the varnish or whatever on the clucthes. If you drove the car a long time low on fluid, it would heat up and oxidize and cause other problems.

 

[rgl]

Don't worry about it. It is very hard to get the level exactly right on the first go without driving the car a bit. That's what short test drives are for. Make sure that the transmission is supposed to be checked cold and that you followed the procedure in the owner's manual (e.g. if it says check with engine running, running the shifter through all the gears). It makes a big difference. And make sure you check it again while warm (after a 20 minute drive or so) if the manual says so.

 

[Ugly3]

quote:

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Originally posted by Dominik:
The old ATF was dark even though it was in service for only 4000 km, the car has had four drain/refills with Motomaster (store brand bottled by Shell I think/hope) Dexron III.
The new ATF is Valvoline DexIII the new H-spec.

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This suggests to me there is some other problem with the trans. 4,000 km is about 10% of the distance the fluid should last.

 

[Dominik]

Thanks for chilling me out guys!
If I may advice the Canadian BITOG'ers try not to use Motomaster Dexron III fluid in Nissan automatics it just does not look good. It may be bottled by Shell or may also be SafetyKleen, untill we know who bottles it I would stay away from it. Forgot to mention the car has had 4 drain/refills with Motomaster DexIII over 10,000km, and it still comes out brownish.
The car was bought with 64,000km it probably never had a transmission service but could it have accumulated this much gunk? after all 4 drain/refills would replace close to 95% of the original fluid.

 

[55Test]

Nothing to worry about. Back about 13 years ago, I had an 88 Reliant (K car! Wooo!) and when I bought it I noticed the tranny was acting weird, sometimes the car wouldn't even move whne it was in gear. I drove it around like that for almost a week then I had a guy at a gas station check my tranny fluid. There was nothing showing on the stick! Poured about 3 quarts into it and all was seemigly well after that. Another time, my mother was in the hospital and I was driving her old Chevette. Visiting hours were over and I was about to leave, but I didn't feel like paying the parking fee. There's a university just across the parking lot from the hospital, and there was a little dirt walking trail that just happened to be wide enough to get a car through, so I thought I'd drive the car up it, leave through the university parking lot and save the parking fee. As I was going up this trail, I managed to hit a big pointy rock, it made quite a bang on the car. It broke the exhaust pipe about 6 inches off the manifold, and also cracked one of the transmission cooler lines open. I drove the 40 miles home, and it wasn't til I was about 10 minutes from home that I noticed the tranny start to slip in gear. Fixed the cooler line and the exhaust the next day, poured a gallon of transmission fluid into the car, and I was motoring again. The car was no worse for the wear.

 

[Dominik]

Molakule I am itching to do another drain/refill
next weekend, can't wait 5 or 10K. This new fluid seems to have "almost" cured that rough shift from 1st to 2nd (placebo effect ????) Is the new H-spec more friction modified than the old stuff, it really seems to have helped just after some 15 minutes driving.
If Matic-D is almost the same as Dexron III G then the H-spec shuld be a bit better than Matic-D I would stick with it, or should I use Matic-D? But around here even dealers use Dexron III

 

[unDummy]

I'd skip the D-matic. Dealer markup is usually high for a nothing special ATF.

Stick with the III-H.
Or, use a Mercon-V.

A partial fluid change shouldn't have a dramatic effect. But, since you've already done some tranny cleaning with all the other ATF drain/refills, your transmission is responding to the new fluid.

III-G to III-H comparison:
http://www.penrite.com.au/techbulletins/43_ATFDX3_UPGRADE.pdf

III to M-V comparison:
http://www.penrite.com.au/techbulletins/55_DEXRON_III_HandMERCONV.pdf

 

[MolaKule]

I would stay with the DexronIII(H) spec fluid and do a pan drain/refill in another 5k to 10k.

 

[pbm]

quote:

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Originally posted by MolaKule:
I would stay with the DexronIII(H) spec fluid and do a pan drain/refill in another 5k to 10k.

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Molakule: I was wondering why you recommend changing the fluid again so soon?