I brought my Z to Jiffy Lube yesterday to change the tranny and diff fluid and gave them Redline MT-85 and 75W-90. I checked it today and the transmission is leaking every time I park. So I have a few questions, do I bring it back to them, and ask them to add some of their fluid in with the redline and tighten the bolt more? Do you think a seal is busted? Is it possible they overfilled it? I gave them 4 quarts of MT-85. One more question, why can't anything go right?

 

To answer this question one must backtrack and self reflect.

1. You went to Jiffylube.

To solve the issue:

1. Raise up the car (evenly) and take off the fill plug. If it leaks it's overfilled. Let it drain until it stops.
2. Redline is has a pink/salmon color, if it's not they Jiffylubed you.
3. You can put some Ultragrey (silicone gasket maker) around the threads to seal up the fill and drain bolt. If you take out the drain bolt, then you have to have oil ready to refill.

 

I just got underneath to take a look. Here's the state of the transmission:

Drain plug:


Fill plug:


It doesn't look reddish to me but neither is the remainder of mt-85 bottle they gave back to me. Yes, I still have some left over in case I need it and they didn't use all 4 bottles completely. I wiped it off and am waiting to see if it drips again.

I don't have the tools for this and I need the car tomorrow, can't I just ask Jiffy Lube to make sure the plugs are tightened and use what's left of the fluid if needed?

 

Yes.

 

I'm relieved to hear that. Do you think from the pictures it's just not tightened enough? Do I need to seal it? How soon would I start to notice shifting problems from a leak like this? Thanks for your help, mr.sparco.

 

Are you asking us if you should go back to jiffy lube? I understand you asking us what could it be but questions like this make me facepalm. As stated you fcked up going to that fcking wreck of an establishment. Take it to a performance shop in your area that can be trusted

 

Because I have no time to have the car off the road. The rear differential isn't leaking and they did that too.

 

If you are out of time, borrow a socket wrench and 10mm hex socket from Autozone and tighten it yourself. Just don't break the threads (alumnum), no need to use a breaker bar or anything.

 

they probably did not replace the crush washer that is part of the drain plug (FSM states to never re-uses them), maybe it is for this reason...

 

There is also a correct torque value for that plug. The combination of the crush washer and a properly torqued plug are what is needed.

Maybe you got lucky in a sense; at least they under-torqued it as opposed to over-tightening it and stripping the threads out.

Avoid places like that. Either get the means to do it yourself or find a shop that will properly torque the fasteners on your car. Can you imagine what's happening when they use an impact wrench to hammer on your wheels well beyond the spec'd torque?

 

So yeah I think Jiffy Lube stole my oil and used theirs. I'm starting to feel law-suit happy over this, because my transmission feels like **** and I'm worried about the diff now.

EDIT - Nope it should be the redline they put in, but they screwed up somehow, I'm bringing it to nissan to get refilled the right way this morning.