Altima Coupe Redline Manual Trans fluid tutorial

First of all, this is for everyone that experiences clunky shifting, hard to go in a lower gear, abrupt gear matching, or that just wants smoother shifting.

What you have to do if you want to really get rid of those problems is change the MANUAL TRANSMISSION FLUID to a synthetic one. Wait until you get to around 4500 miles or when you are sure that the production of break-in wear metals is finished.Then, when you put in the new MTF mix in, it won’t be further contaminated with any more break-in metals.

I STRONGLY suggest using REDLINE’s product for our trannies. It makes the shifting BUTTER SMOOTH.

You should use a mixture of 60% MTL /40% MT-90 manual transmission fluid to have the right viscosity. I found out that this ratio is the best one for me.

That is pretty much the best stuff you’re going to get for our tranny. It seems to provide the best shifts out of all other fluids I’ve tried.

Now here’s the how-to!

you need
– TWO 2-ton jackstands
– ONE Cheapo jack from the trunk
– ONE ratchet with a…
10mm socket and a
10mm Hex bit socket
– ONE metric measuring cup (must go up to at least 700ml)
– ONE pliers
– ONE plastic hose about 5 feet of length
– ONE funnel
– ONE two liter bottle (Pepsi, Coke, whatever, I used a windex bottle)

You can start by making the mixture of redline oil first, or do everything up to that part. It’s up to you.

Remember to jack both sides for safety measures and for better access.
so now that the car is jacked up, pop open the hood.

Take your ratchet with the 10mm socket, and then put your hand down there to unscrew the bolt.

Now to remove the plug, I suggest using some pliers. Watch out not to let go and lose the plug!!

It’s easier to go down behind your intake

We are done with the top of the transaxle for now, let’s go under the car to get to the drain plug.

Now take your ratchet with the 10mm Hex bit socket. Put a bucket or something right underneath the drain plug and start unscrewing!
just before its completely unscrewed, finish with your hand so that it doesn’t fall in the bucket. watch out! there will be lots of dirty brown disgusting oil coming out.

Wait a bit until there is no more oil dripping down, and then screw back the drain plug!

Nissan calls for API GL-4 oil with 75W-85 viscosity. We want BUTTER SMOOTH, so we’ll be using Redline fluid, but since they do not offer the exact oil viscosity we’ll need to mix them:

The two bottles of different MTF, the mixing bottle and the measuring cup.  The bottle contains each about one liter. Empty the whole bottle of MTF in the mixing bottle. Now take your MT-90 bottle and pour 700ml in the measuring cup and then put it in the mixing cup where there is already the 1 liter of MTF oil.

Close the bottle and shake it up! Now the mix is ready. You just made a 60% MTF / 40% MT-90 mixture of redline oil.

Take a funnel and combine if with a plastic plumber type hose and go back to the car!  This part is trickier, you might need a friend.

Put your hand back down in the hood to guide the plastic hose so its right above the hole where the filler plug was and have your friend pour ALL of the mixture, up to the very last drop in the funnel, but not all at once.

Screw back the filler plug and you’re done.

If you have no ABS on the car, the filler plug will be different than mine, there will be a speedometer pinion gear attached to it. This should not change installation.  If you do not have an aftermarket intake, you likely won’t be able to reach the filler plug from the hood without removing first the air box. You can either remove the air box (check the injen intake tutorials for that) OR go underneath the car and access it from there since its right on the transaxle. You’ll need a bottle pump to pump the liquid up to the hole from below. 

Tutorial by mcheddadi