Well Hello There Fellow Technicians And Hivers

Today we had a request to do just an oil change on a Nissan X-trail it of course is an automatic transmission but it's quite weird actually the vehicle is already bumby and thumpy. Even though we told the customer it really isn't any use to do a oil change on the vehicle since the condition of the transmission is in a very poor state.

The vehicle runs dirt roads on a daily basis so it's safe to say that every now and then it's slogging through mud and well most people never even bother to rinse off all the mud that splatts everywhere and as I said in my previous post these automatic transmission despise a muddy situation. Well all vehicles for that matter but auto's even more so.

As I said even though we said it would be a waste of money and time and that we recommend to do a thorough checking by removing and tearing down the transmission. But they insisted that we do just that.

Well sorry the very first photo I took came out like crap. 😂

Now this photo doesn't show much but I took it anyway because I knew what was waiting for me on the other side. I am expecting this oil to come out all ganky and smanky with a smelly smell tied to it.

Wait for it!

See, I frikkin knew it, some nasty liquids pouring out of this transmission.

With that said it doesn't have a burning smell to it but it does look like it has some metal shavings in it or clutch material. We will have to dig a little deeper to find out exactly what it might be.

Now pushing my finger through it, it doesn't really seem like the light of the camera is actually reflecting against any metal shavings but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's not grinding any metal up. it might just get hot in certain places burning the oil up, but as I said earlier it doesn't have a burny smell... well not yet at-least.

Fixing transmission is somewhat a grey area, you can never really pin point what exactly is wrong without opening it up.

Manual transmissions are a different story.

Now for a simple oil change most people or workshops would never remove the oil sump pans of the transmissions. You see that's all fine I mean you get what you pay for but where I work we tend to go the extra mile.

Here's why.

Automatic transmissions well you can NEVER get all the oil out. NEVER, anyone can argue with me but I've been down that road many times. You can even remove the sump and leave it for a week it would still be dripping like mad in two weeks time. So what we do is we remove the sump to get that extra liter, sometimes two liters out before we fill it back up again.

Another thing we do is we take the magnets and scrub them off clean everything as far as we can before adding the new oil.

A bit more effort but always worth it and it's nice knowing that things are alot cleaner than they need to be. BUT it still has no use if the transmission is buggered in some way.

Well I didn't see any steel shavings on the magnets in the previous picture, but the condition of this oil tells me that something is indeed wrong within this transmission.

I was feeling generous today, I even took the effort of unbolting the oil filter inside the transmission as it also tends to release another 200-400 ml of oil, it's almost as if it creates some sort of suction inside and when the filter is removed it comes lose.

But over all it's not in a bad shape except for the oil and the thumpyness it has.

I'll be wiping off most of those droplets hanging about and reinstall the oil sump pan and then we are good to go to the next phase of this minor service. Adding the oil and leveling it properly.

Now I acquired 8 liters of oil and we will be adding exactly 7.5 liters to this transmission, and since it is a CVT pouring in anything except that would be a dire mistake. CVT stands for Clutch Variable Transmission and that's exactly what it wants or else you might really burn it up.

This transmission has a fever and I hope that this oil can cure it up a little bit. But I am doubtfull.

Automatic transmissions have to idle while filling it, ofcourse you need to get it to the level before starting it and when started you need to relevel it again. Don't just go ahead and start that tranny with no oil inside. 🤡

BUT since we know this one is completely empty and it has a long dip stick tube we can add the whole 7,5 liters at once and just crank it and see where the level is at and then add some if necessary.

The other thing is that these transmissions have a torque converter and getting the oil out of it is without a doubt impossible since you have to remove the transmission and cut it open for you to get every last drop out. Now what this means is that we will be adding fresh oil only for it to mix up with the old oil still stuck in the converter. As life would have it one liter of dirty oil can mess up 7 liters of fresh oil.

But at-least it had a oil change.

Dated 28/03/2023

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Take note this is not a how to guide, merely myself talking about the work I do and my thoughts around certain things.

To everyone who made it this far into my post Thank you for the read and the support.

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Most of all please leave a input in the comments below, whether is good or bad critic I would like to know, whether its your opinion or your way of doing things in a different manner I would like.

_{Connecting the people of #HIVE across South Africa. #hive}