Hit 900 miles last night. Went change out my Motor and Transmission Oil. Replaced them with Motul. After its done, the tech asked me if I want to replace the LSD oil too. I never thought of changing it before...but then I told them to go ahead and change it. First of all, the LSD oil came out dark as hell. 2nd, its equipped with a magnetic plug. Wow, you wont believe how much metal debris is sucked on there. I have to remind you again, I have just hit 900 miles and it was my first oil change.

So for those of you that have never change your LSD oil before...DO IT NOW!!

BTW, the ride is much smoother now. Shifting, idle and acceleration.

 

I agree, i did mine at 1000 miles with royal purple. Peace of mind...

 

Is this something that has to be done often? I have about 10k on it now and never changed it.. Never know it even need an oil change... Can someone please explain!

 

what weight oil goes in the lsd?

 

Rear end fluid is always dark and dirty when you change it. That is the nature of your first change. Put some Redline in it and forget it until 30K miles. Check my old thread...

https://my350z.com/forum/showthread....rear+end+fluid

 

Very informative thread, thanks.
I could sworn that I read somewhere that if you replace the trans fluid with anything other than Nissan fluid, you would be voiding your warranty, does anyone else know about this?

 

i changed my diff/tranny fluids at 5k and then again at 20k.

 

I don't see how it will void the warranty.. if it's the oil that causes failure of tranny and differential, then maybe..

I changed mine to Royal Purple... it works great!

 

I didn't check the Service Manual but it is probably something like 90W gear oil...love the smell of gear oil

 

how does one go about getting a service manual at a good price...?

 

Check eBay

 

oh yeah, I still remember the smell.. I changed them in my garage, and the smell stayed for 2-3 days!!

 

You will void your warranty probably if you dont run the Nissan stuff, just like BMW does it.

 

You won't void your warranty as long as you run fluid that is the same spec that Nissan uses. For the auto trannys I believe only Nissan has the proper fluid for now. For the manual trannys you can use Red Line, Royal Purple, and maybe others as well. As for the LSD the specs calls for 75w90 gear oil which Red Line and Royal Purple makes.

 

I don't think anyone who has played in that stuff will forget the smell.

 

Phatmitzu & FLY BY Z....

Thanks for the heads up !

I've got 7,100 miles on my Z and after the first checkup at around 700 miles, I've been religiously changing my oil and filter every 3,000 kms/ 1,900 miles... while neglecting the transmission and LSD.

Well.. it will be done when I take it in for the 1 year checkup within the next few weeks.

 

You can't replace the auto transmission fluid with just "any" ATF fluid. It must match Nissan specs as it is a special and different formulation. IIRC, you can't even remove the dipstick on the AT.

Here's what the manual says about fluids. Note the two equivalents - Castrol J and IDEMITSU HP.

 

I just hit 14K miles. I 've gotten my oil changed on schedule but I never thought about the transmission and lsd. This is my first manual transmission so this is all new to me. How often should I get the transmission and LSD fluid changed? They've never mentioned anything when I take my car in for an oil change. Man, now I'm worried.

 

When I went to change my tranny oil to Redline in NJ, they said my warranty would be voided if I used anything other than what Nissan puts in...I said, "ok, no thank you," and let them put the Nissan stuff in. I'm assuming this is because of the large number of tranny replacements. The safe bet is to talk to the dealership that works on your carl...not all are created equal by a looooong stretch!

 

according to the owners manual,
manual transmission is API GL-4, Viscosity SAE 75W-85
automatic is Genuine Nissan ATF Matic Fluid J or exact equivalent. *5, *6

*5 Using automatic transmission fluid other than Nissan Genuine ATF Matic Fluid J or exact equivalent will cause deterioration in driveability and automatic transmission durability, and may damage the automatic transmission which is not covered by the NISSAN new vehicle limited warranty.
*6 Currently available exact equivalents to Genuine Nissan ATF Matic Fluid J are Castrol Transmax J or IDEMITSU ATF HP.


So, as I read it, any manual trans gear oil that fits the specs is ok, but you better have one of the 3 above oils (nissan, castrol or mitsubishi) [which I suspect are all made by castrol and the same stuff] or you are SOL. The owners manual doesn't specify Nissan only fluid anywhere.