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wurk4fordboughttitan said:
Other people's fluids have turned black because they have been cooked or filled with clutch material.
I look forward to your results. I am not going to argue, it is pointless because you know more than anyone else on this board, in fact you know more than the companies, their engineers and their chemists do about their own product. :)
 
Blanket statements that using a different type of fluid will void your warranty on the transmission are wrong. Nissan can only legitimately reject your claim under the warranty if they can show that you did something to cause the failure. That said, I have no idea if using a different brand of fluid can cause the transmission to fail. I doubt it.
 
I'm not making a blanket statement. If you will look on page 8-11 of your owners manual you will see the attached warning. I am not going to risk having a transmission problem that Nissan won't repair under warranty just to save a couple of dollars per quart of fluid. That is my choice. Everyone else makes their their own choice.
 

Attachments

I can attest to the using different fluid will void the trans warranty. I had a trans charged bak because they said it was contaminated with the wrong trans fluid. I stead of going after the customer for the $4000.00 repair we just wrote it off. But we could have gone after the cust.
 
Shailey, SCR, BIXLL, et al: Stick to your guns guys, I never could figure out those custom blended home remedies. I'm having a home cooked meal with some friends tonight, should be at least 5 dollars less than eating out. I'm satisfied with that.

:money-big:


Savings vs. exposure (liability/risk) is the problem, pride the killer.
 
scr38 said:
I'm not making a blanket statement. If you will look on page 8-11 of your owners manual you will see the attached warning. I am not going to risk having a transmission problem that Nissan won't repair under warranty just to save a couple of dollars per quart of fluid. That is my choice. Everyone else makes their their own choice.
Regardless of what the owners manual says, if there really is a fluid out there that is the same as Nissan J they can't legally deny your warranty claim when the fluid had nothing to do with the failure of the transmission. They might try, but if push came to shove they would lose.

However, I agree with you in that it probably isn't worth saving a couple of bucks when nobody seems to know for sure if these other fluids are equivalent to Nissan J.

My point was, that it isn't correct to say that just because you used a different transmission fluid you have kissed your warranty goodbye. That seemed to be the gist of some of the original posts.
 
Greenlee said:
Blanket statements that using a different type of fluid will void your warranty on the transmission are wrong. Nissan can only legitimately reject your claim under the warranty if they can show that you did something to cause the failure. That said, I have no idea if using a different brand of fluid can cause the transmission to fail. I doubt it.
For one, it being a 5 speed automatic transmission is one of the reasons for this. There are not many ATF fluids that are safe to use with a 5 speed auto, call the ATF companies yourself and ask them. Do not take our word on it. Get it in writing and change your fluid.

Two, the metals that are used on internals are NOT compatible with a couple of ingredients that are in the other fluids out there. By the way I am still waiting on our resident chemist to answer what they are. This metal WILL BREAK DOWN if these chemicals are used. It is not hard to understand. There was a post just a couple of months ago where someone used a different trans fluid and within 14,000 miles it was black.

I have been with Nissan for over 10 years and I can assure you, Nissan will deny a warranty claim if it has the wrong fluids in it and legally they can. They have been sued over it before and they won and here is how. Since they have put it in writing in the owners manual and you have access to the owners manual before buying it, it is like agreeing with a contract. Yes, if there is an equivalent you can use it without problem UNTIL an analysis proves that it was the cause for failure. This is the problem, I have contacted two companies myself and they said over the phone, sure it will work, but would not put it in writing that their fluid will NOT cause failure and they could be held responsible.
 
shailey said:
For one, it being a 5 speed automatic transmission is one of the reasons for this. There are not many ATF fluids that are safe to use with a 5 speed auto, call the ATF companies yourself and ask them. Do not take our word on it. Get it in writing and change your fluid.

Two, the metals that are used on internals are NOT compatible with a couple of ingredients that are in the other fluids out there. By the way I am still waiting on our resident chemist to answer what they are. This metal WILL BREAK DOWN if these chemicals are used. It is not hard to understand. There was a post just a couple of months ago where someone used a different trans fluid and within 14,000 miles it was black.

I have been with Nissan for over 10 years and I can assure you, Nissan will deny a warranty claim if it has the wrong fluids in it and legally they can. They have been sued over it before and they won and here is how. Since they have put it in writing in the owners manual and you have access to the owners manual before buying it, it is like agreeing with a contract. Yes, if there is an equivalent you can use it without problem UNTIL an analysis proves that it was the cause for failure. This is the problem, I have contacted two companies myself and they said over the phone, sure it will work, but would not put it in writing that their fluid will NOT cause failure and they could be held responsible.
I don't think we are disagreeing with one another. If using a different kind of fluid causes your transmission to fail, then they can deny your warranty claim. My argument only applies if there is some other fluid sold at Autozone that is the same as Nissan J. Apparently, there may not be another transmission fluid that is equivalent to Nissan J.
 
Greenlee said:
Regardless of what the owners manual says, if there really is a fluid out there that is the same as Nissan J they can't legally deny your warranty claim when the fluid had nothing to do with the failure of the transmission. They might try, but if push came to shove they would lose.

However, I agree with you in that it probably isn't worth saving a couple of bucks when nobody seems to know for sure if these other fluids are equivalent to Nissan J.

My point was, that it isn't correct to say that just because you used a different transmission fluid you have kissed your warranty goodbye. That seemed to be the gist of some of the original posts.

don't you read? they can, they will and they tell you. it is part of the contract you sign when you buy your vehicle. the warranty is part of that overal package.

doesn't matter if it is equivalent, it cannot be. it is a proprietary nissan fluid and they have the absolute right to roast a stingy customer who wanted to save 10$ and roasted a 6k transmission.

you would figure they have tested it before they wrote what will happen when you use the wrong fluid.
 
And they will test it, too. We send out fluid samples for testing as part of the claim process. We take 3 samples. One that we have tested, one that goes to Nissan for their testing and we keep one in case we need to for the customer to take a sample from (that is not required, it is for our own protection). If we don't, Nissan will deny claims.

Since this is in the owners manual, you are accepting the terms that they give you. You have full access to the manual before you buy. Funny thing is, most people don't read it AFTER they buy it, let alone before. LOL
 
It's been a couple weeks now and no answer to what the metal is and the chemical in ATF that will break it down. So Shailey, can you let us in on the answer?

Interesting conflict of materials. I don't recall hearing of this before from my extrememly limited exposure to metallurgy as a welder. Looking forward to getting an education here. Since you say it is obvious, then I'd suppose the metal is no skunk works secret. Thanks. :)
 
First of all, I never said it was obvious. All I did say was that it was not hard to understand, meaning that it was not hard to understand that it does not work.


But sulfur is the trick here. Any sulfur compounds (sulfur hexaflouride in particular) will corrode the internals on this tranny as well as any others that use a "yellow metal" (and teflon o-rings), which is used in most automatic transmissions.
 
is everyone doing their first transmission flush at 30k? and just checking it regularly before that?

thanks!
 
Gyrate said:
don't you read? they can, they will and they tell you. it is part of the contract you sign when you buy your vehicle. the warranty is part of that overal package.

doesn't matter if it is equivalent, it cannot be. it is a proprietary nissan fluid and they have the absolute right to roast a stingy customer who wanted to save 10$ and roasted a 6k transmission.

you would figure they have tested it before they wrote what will happen when you use the wrong fluid.
If you use a different fluid and it roast your transmission, then that fluid must not be an equivalent. You guys are missing my point.

What if Nissan told you that you can only use gas from Chevron? If you use gas from Exxon, Texaco, or Valero your warranty on the engine is void. I don't care if it said this in the owners manual or not. They could not legally enforce this provision because it doesn't make any differene what kind of gas you use. The same thing applies to transmission fluid if they really are the same. I don't know whether there is any other fluid that is the same as Nissanmatic J. Somebody else said there were other fluids out there that are the same as the Nissan stuff.
 
Wow I just go to nissan buy the fluid and a gasket and change it myself. It cost me around $78 dollars to do it myself, and I keept all my reciepts from nissan if there is a problem I have proof.
 
And you Save $$$$$
 
plm7878 said:
Wow I just go to nissan buy the fluid and a gasket and change it myself. It cost me around $78 dollars to do it myself, and I keept all my reciepts from nissan if there is a problem I have proof.
Not such a good deal as far as I am concerned. I had mine flushed and refilled at the dealer for $92.00!!! No fuss, no muss or mess. It is on record I had it done, they did the work, well worth the $14.00 to me?
 
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