General auto repair questions answered

[2016 Versa]

Originally Posted by me and my metro

I would look in the recommended maintenance section of your owners manual. I always follow the shorter intervals that are recommended for city/taxi use. Even if your car only sees highway use I would use the city interval.
If there is no recommended oil change interval then 30k miles should be ok. CVT is a great idea in theory however in reality they have been somewhat troublesome. I would love to hear how the success stories CVT cars are driven. I would bet that people who drive for economy have much better success with these transmissions and vehicles in general.

I think Nissan recommends 60K mile intervals but, they have lots of CVT failures, that's the reason I was thinking of going with 30K. When I change it at 30K I'll see how everything looks, fluid, filter and how much metal shavings are on the pan magnets and adjust it from there if needed. Nissan also is supposed to be able to check the deterioration number by how much the fluid has been overheated but, I don't trust that.

[me and my metro]

A friend of mine that used to tow a lot installed a drain plug in the pan. That way he could change the fluid often and only drop the pan for the filter every third time. Worked well for him the transmission lasted a long time and it was a 700r4 GM and they had a bad reputation stock.

[Ecky]

K24 4 cylinder engine, I find I'm very slowly (and possibly only intermittently) losing coolant. I'm nearly certain it's neither going into the oil or the exhaust, but how best to find where it's leaking? I suppose there are only so many coolant lines, but there are also a few gaskets it could be coming out of.

[me and my metro]

I always start with a pressure check. Pump it up cold to the cap pressure, see if it looses pressure. If so how quickly does it loose pressure? Down flow radiators sometimes leak above the coolant level and leak air cold and only loose fluid when hot.

[Piotrsko]

A cheap Chinese white LED flashlight might put out enough UV blue to cause the leak tracing additives to glow.

[Ecky]

I'll probably need to power wash the bay and plastic underbody panels, I know for certain I've spilled some coolant.

[me and my metro]

I work on a fleet of trucks and over the years antifreeze has evolved. We use seven different coolants in our fleet. I know that some companies make a one size fits all coolant but I choose to use whatever the OEM recommended at the time of manufacture. The easiest to spot leaks is the gold coolant used in the International powered Ford trucks. When it dries it leaves a white crust so it is easy to trace back to the source. The biggest source of leaks on our truck fleet is EGR cooler hose connections. Even the factory silicone hoses have trouble with the heat. Hose clamps have become better over time and we use the best stainless screw clamps available.

[2016 Versa]

Originally Posted by me and my metro

A friend of mine that used to tow a lot installed a drain plug in the pan. That way he could change the fluid often and only drop the pan for the filter every third time. Worked well for him the transmission lasted a long time and it was a 700r4 GM and they had a bad reputation stock.

At least the newer Nissan CVT's have a drain plug. I don't know about the older ones. The CVT doesn't use a standard automatic transmission filter but instead a cartridge type filter inside a housing on the transmission. It would have been nice if they'd have just used a screw on filter. There are also a couple of large magnets in the transmission pan that I want to check, especially at the first fluid drain/fill. I've saw a few pictures of those magnets online where they were loaded with metal shavings. I don't know how long it took for them to accumulate that many shavings but, I don't want shavings turning loose and circulating through the transmission.

Years ago I had a '76 Chrysler that after the fluid had been in it for awhile the transmission didn't want to engage the gears as soon as it was shifted into gear. I'd change the fluid/filter and all would be fine for a few years. One thing I really liked about that Chrysler was that they put a drain plug in the torque converter so you could change all the fluid not just a small amount of it. When I got rid of the Chrysler it had 231K miles and the transmission was still fine.

[Tahoe_Hybrid]

Originally Posted by me and my metro

I am a life long professional mechanic and am offering advice on auto and truck repair issues. I have been a moderator on a Saturn specific site for a couple years but the site does not like my vpn. So I am offering my services here. I will try to provide correct information to all.
Andy

is it normal for a transmission to shift very hard like a trans with 140k miles on it

it's newer car it only has 2,300 miles on it 2018 sonic model still has some warranty left .. should it be lemon law? no leaks he spent 16k on it and now having this problem bought it brand new off the lot 6 speed auto it's also getting poor mpg like only 22mpg

[Fat Charlie]

A problem that shouldn't be there is what the warranty is for.

A problem that has been repeatedly "fixed" under warranty without being fixed is what lemon laws are for.