[nitely]

TC capacity is 310. If you only got 150 you are already half empty. NO GOOD. Fill it a bit more than less.

 

[BlueHorse]

Nitely,

Just to clarify - I put in 280~300ml fresh oil after draining. The 280ml is a conservative estimate. I stopped pumping after fresh oil started to flow slowly from the filler hole. Don't think continuing will do any better, right?

I am really interested in finding out how soon I will lose 40% again from this point on. If over a year and 10K miles, then I am OK to keep the car and just top off annually. Otherwise, time to trade in and move on. Unfortunately, ski season is coming, I need to make a decision in a few weeks whether to buy a new SUV. Sad to say it will not be a Nissan. Murano is a good car, but not reliable in my standard. My wife's BMW 5 series, 2004 build as well, not a single drop of oil consumption, no power steering leak, original struts still work well, original cam sensors are all good.

Welcome thoughts on speed of losing transfer oil.

 

[Pilgrim]

I don't know that you can do much to track it except drive it and check monthly. I doubt you can get enough mileage in a few weeks to make an informed decision - but unless you have been checking often, I doubt that it's leaking fast enough to get away from you. Mine has a "seep", but in six months it hasn't lost enough oil to require topping off.

 

[kelroy]

Bought my 06 SL 2 weeks ago and changed TC and diff. oil today. Started last night but didn't get pass the TC fill plug, very little space. Bought a stubby set this morning and took more than 1 hr to get it moving, very very difficult the first time but doing it a second time would take less than 10 mins. Experience: the greatest teacher. The TC and diff. had 600 ml total, TC was just over 100 ml, dark oil never touched, and diff. oil was clear, recently changed. Both took 946 ml with over flow.

 

[EricB]

Got around to doing these two procedures this weekend on my 07 w/ ~150k miles (bought used, previous owner hadn't done them).

Observations: Having the correct tool in this case is more than half the job. I struggled with insufficient tools for hours and couldn't get the bolts/plugs to budge. I almost took it to a shop & paid $130 for both services, until I came to my senses and had the opportunity to visit harbor freight. Essential tools needed for the job (that I previously lacked) were the 6-pc 3/8 dr metric hex socket set, the 3/8 dr breaker bar, and the 8-pc metric offset boxend wrench set. With coupons and sale prices it came to under $30.

Armed with the correct tools, loosening even the transfer case fill plug became actually possible. I did it w/o resorting to slipping a cheater bar over the wrench, which is saying something (I'm not exactly a bodybuilder). Attached are some pics of the tcase work, with notations.

In fact, the hardest part about the whole job was refilling the oil (made a HUGE mess everywhere, even soaked part of my hair!). If I had to do it again I'd definitely use a larger inner diameter tube - the 1/4" size simply took too long to fill, and having to constantly break the bottle/tube seal to refill air in the bottle caused an instant spill. I used the Castrol Hypoy-C stuff, btw.

The only strange thing was when I took out the tcase fill port plug, a TON of nasty oil came out. So much, that the drain plug didn't really have much to dump. I made sure to fill it up until oil dripped out the fill port, then screwed in the plug tight. Is there another fill port above the one I accessed (shown in the pics)?

 

[srT4URBO]

Doing this to the rear diff very shortly. Still wondering if I should grab the dealer stuff..and about how much, two quarts?...or get some aftermarket stuff? I will try to go to Nissan to get the new crush washers for the plugs, if possible....but i see that some have reused theirs.

 

[Pilgrim]

The worst that can happen if you re-use the crush washers is that it leaks a few drops. Boo hoo. I put that in the category of "nice to do."

 

[srT4URBO]

The worst that can happen if you re-use the crush washers is that it leaks a few drops. Boo hoo. I put that in the category of "nice to do."

Went to the dealer and bought 2qt's of their Pennzoil 80w90 gear oil. I asked about the crush washers and they told me that they never replace them, they just re-use the same washers currently on the plug/bolt. I will do a full flush and throw in fresh gear oil in the rear diff, but whatever I have left I will just top-off the TC with that (I'm guessing I should have about 1/2 a quart left?)... that is only IF I get a chance to gain access to the TC fill plug.

 

[turbizzy]

They're not really crush washers like the copper engine drain plugs are. They're just flat aluminum washers that conform to the case as you tighten them. You don't need to replace them however I always do as I don't want a cheap piece of metal to be the cause of some catastrophic failure after I just worked on it.

 

[srT4URBO]

They're not really crush washers like the copper engine drain plugs are. They're just flat aluminum washers that conform to the case as you tighten them. You don't need to replace them however I always do as I don't want a cheap piece of metal to be the cause of some catastrophic failure after I just worked on it.

Yeah, the only thing is that I do not know where to get them. I'm sure I could find something similar at a local Ace Hardware but I know the dealer said that they do not have them as individual sale parts.

 

[Pilgrim]

CarQuest in my town carries lots of generic crush washers. I'll bet that NAPA does too. You should know where your local NAPA is - they carry professional quality parts. You don't need the Nissan washer, just one of the same measurements that will squish.

 

[srT4URBO]

I just changed rear differential oil today. My car is 2004 AWD SE, with 110K miles.

The old oil looked really clean. The magnetic drain plug has about 2mm thick black gunk on it (see the first photo). The gunk is probably fine metal? They are not going anywhere given the magnetic plug, so I doubt whether this oil change is indeed necessary.

Is the transfer case used no more than the rear differential gear? If so, I would not want to change its oil.

For those who still wants to do the rear differential, you don't need to remove the plastic box behind the rear frame. I used a L shape 10mm Allen wrench, plus a box wrench as an extension for leverage. See the second photo. You need to slide the shorter end of the L shape Allen from the rear differential side to the back of the car, into the whole of the rear frame. The longer end of the allen wrench, depending on its length, may get stuck. In my case, I had to slide it just between the two plugs while rotating slightly to get it in.

My filler plug has two aluminum washers and drain plug has one. All 3 in good condition, so I reused all of them.

I just did this using your exact method and I recommend it to everyone..worked like a champ! At first I thought I broke something when the plug went loose but both ended snapping like that once they let go. My old oil looked like chocolate milk and not much came out (probably not too good)...also the plug was gunked like the other pics posted. I have a ton of miles on it but ended up filling it up with the dealers Pennzoil 80w90, until it started slowly pouring out of the top (Took about 1/2 a quart of oil). I'm glad I took care of this before doing some towing for the first time in the near future.

 

[Pilgrim]

I just did this using your exact method and I recommend it to everyone..worked like a champ! At first I thought I broke something when the plug went loose but both ended snapping like that once they let go. My old oil looked like chocolate milk and not much came out (probably not too good)...also the plug was gunked like the other pics posted. I have a ton of miles on it but ended up filling it up with the dealers Pennzoil 80w90, until it started slowly pouring out of the top (Took about 1/2 a quart of oil). I'm glad I took care of this before doing some towing for the first time in the near future.

Sounds like this may have been the first time in a very long time it was checked. I agree, the color of the outgoing lube doesn't sound good.

 

[srT4URBO]

I'm not sure if I have missed it, but how do you guys jack up the car to keep it level? I was able to do the rear diff in the garage without having to jack it up, so it sat as level as it will get. Is this also possible for the TC? I am looking into replacing the fluid as well because I purchased more oil than needed and prefer to flush and replace if I could get to it (I believe I'll be grabbing the offset box wrenches to help me out with the job).

 

[Pilgrim]

For the TC I just jack up the front. With the placement of the filler hole, if you fill it to the point where lube starts running back out, the level will be just a touch higher after you drop it back down to the ground. In a transfer case, that's a good thing.

 

[srT4URBO]

Got around to doing these two procedures this weekend on my 07 w/ ~150k miles (bought used, previous owner hadn't done them).

Observations: Having the correct tool in this case is more than half the job. I struggled with insufficient tools for hours and couldn't get the bolts/plugs to budge. I almost took it to a shop & paid $130 for both services, until I came to my senses and had the opportunity to visit harbor freight. Essential tools needed for the job (that I previously lacked) were the 6-pc 3/8 dr metric hex socket set, the 3/8 dr breaker bar, and the 8-pc metric offset boxend wrench set. With coupons and sale prices it came to under $30.

Armed with the correct tools, loosening even the transfer case fill plug became actually possible. I did it w/o resorting to slipping a cheater bar over the wrench, which is saying something (I'm not exactly a bodybuilder). Attached are some pics of the tcase work, with notations.

In fact, the hardest part about the whole job was refilling the oil (made a HUGE mess everywhere, even soaked part of my hair!). If I had to do it again I'd definitely use a larger inner diameter tube - the 1/4" size simply took too long to fill, and having to constantly break the bottle/tube seal to refill air in the bottle caused an instant spill. I used the Castrol Hypoy-C stuff, btw.

The only strange thing was when I took out the tcase fill port plug, a TON of nasty oil came out. So much, that the drain plug didn't really have much to dump. I made sure to fill it up until oil dripped out the fill port, then screwed in the plug tight. Is there another fill port above the one I accessed (shown in the pics)?

I went out to Harbor Freight and purchased the offset box wrench set. I was able to pull the plug out in just 10minutes..and that was me being slow since the engine was hot. I was going between this offset wrench and a regular box wrench, only since I did not have a ratcheting box wrench handy...nothing else fits in there. One thing that sucks is that the dealer gunked too much red RTV sealant (at least it looks like red RTV) in the threads on the filler hole the first time around when my CVT was replaced, so some of that homemade gasket fell into the transfer case and there was no way to pull it out afterwards. I've been driving the last couple of days without any issues and hope that since it is a rubbery material, it will not ruin anything internally. Then I filled it up with roughly 300mL of the dealers Penzzoil 80w90 gear oil till it leak out the filler hole. I also then used some of the "same" high-temp red RTV and only put a little bit of it on. I tightened the plug back up as much as possible (would have went tighter but the angle of the plug didn't allow me to go any further and as I mentioned, I do not have a 12mm ratcheting style box wrench). I did check both plugs today and there does not seem to be any leak there, I'm sure the sealant helps from any leaks also. Anyways, the offset box style wrench is the way to go for this plug!

Oh..and I wouldn't say this is the toughest job. Actually, everything is very visible and the working area is somewhat tight but not as tight as I thought it would be, hearing from some of the members. The correct tools do make the job WAY easier.

 

[Pilgrim]

You should be OK - I really doubt that the stray bit of RTV will cause any problem. I wouldn't worry too much about the filler plug tightness - snug should be enough. It's not holding pressure in.

 

[srT4URBO]

You should be OK - I really doubt that the stray bit of RTV will cause any problem. I wouldn't worry too much about the filler plug tightness - snug should be enough. It's not holding pressure in.

I thought about it a little and said the same to myself. I wanted to pull the RTV out but it ended up slipping inside the case. Regardless, I am happy I have done both this and the rear diff and now have the piece of mind that it should run a bit longer than it would have if I didnt touch it at all. The only thing that I guess I regret about this, is that I didnt do it any sooner.

 

[touring-jay]

I just finished replacing the fluid for both the differential and transfer case. Total costs for parts and supplies was $30. Can only imagine how much a dealer would charge.

Earlier post were very helpful.

I would like to add my experience and the tools I use:

Front:

You will need an offset 12mm wrench. No other tool in my tool box would fit. I am a mechanic with tons of tools and only this type of wrench worked; harbor freight has them for cheap. The bottom drain plug is super easy.

I also bought a pump that you can put directly onto the gear oil container.

 

[touring-jay]

Rear:

Removing the black box, charcoal canister, makes the job super easy. It is held in place with a 12mm bolt and it slides out. You don't have to disconnect anything from the black box, just slide it out.