Thanks for all the good info on that! I have learnt a lot. I have decided not to do flush at all. I was hesitant about dropping the pan and replacing the filter. There are a couple of posts that made me believe that draining only will do good.
- It is not that east to replace the filter as somebody already experienced on this group:
"Changing the fluid would not be a problem since there is a drain plug but to anyone considering changing the filter - DON'T do it it's a trick. Let me clarify that this is the 4-sp auto tranny paired with the 1.6L engine. You see, Nissan decided to make an otherwise simple job into a nightmare. One of the bolts that holds the filter threads through a washer into a nut on the top of the valve body. When you remove the bolt, the washer and nut get lost in there...." It goes on and on ..guy might not be skilful enough to do that ... neither am I !!!
- This is what some Nissan mechanic got to say :
"have done allot of services on Maximas and have never changed the filter on one. Two reasons the valvle body of the transaxle has to be removed to remove one of the bolts holding on the filter. Aswell the filter is a fine metal mesh unlike the American cars which are paper and require replacement. I DO NOT sugest removeing the valve body unless you are realy sure you want to possily damage the transaxle the smallest peice of lint of dirt could and will stick or damage a valve causeinf a poor shift and an overhaul." ..kinda follows up on the unlucky guy's experience
- Owner's manual says nothing about pan dropping let alone filter replacement... drain/refill is all they mention
- Some 12-15 rotten screws hold the pan. I do not have any wrench (nor ever used one) that would tell me how many pounds I need to apply to screw the pan in order not to damage gasket and not to make the whole thing leaky... As automatic transmission is a freaking precise mechanism I better not touch what's inside
So drain/refill is all that is left on the table. Two things that can happen are : overfill, drain screw will leak (rotten again) Do you think I should buy this thing and apply it to the screw (bottom of pan).
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Perhaps there are some good sealants that can be applies to prevent the leak ? Again thanks a lot for you input !