Dirty Automatic Transmission Fluid?

KansasKid · Sun Sep 06, 2015 6:10 am

I took Azumi into my favorite NTB shop for an oil change and tire rotation, and they said that I should consider doing a full fuel system cleaning ($109.99), and that the CVT fluid was "dirty" and should be drained and filled ($199.99). What it looked like to me was that the fluid was mostly clear with a little bit of brown. NTB was implying that it was pretty dirty and needed to be replaced.

Azumi only has about 26,300 miles. The severe maintenance schedule says that you're supposed to check for CVT fluid deterioration every 18K miles. I'll admit that I haven't done that. Anyone have any insights into what dirty transmission fluid looks like, and how often they've changed the transmission fluid in their Kizashi?

Woodie · Sun Sep 06, 2015 11:16 am

Sounds as if your favorite NTB has a new manager who has decided to make things up in order to extract some extra money from his regular customers. Fuel system cleaning is BS, buy a bottle of Techron and pour it in the tank, The CVT is a touchy system of the car which is not supposed to need service until it gets a lot of miles on it. I'd take that to a dealer and get their opinion before allowing anyone to mess with it at all,

eatrocks · Mon Sep 07, 2015 7:12 pm

There is NOTHING in the manual about changing the cvt fluid. Just says to add if low. Powertrain is covered till 100k....after that idk....if you could changes the cvt filter without taking the entire trans out...at that point you would have to do a fluid change anyway.

The cvt holds about 9 quarts...only 4 comes out with every drain an fill...a proper flush would need 3-4 drain an fills to replace 90% of the fluid with new.

Anyone else get the pinkish looking cvt fluid from the factory?! I think that's the better full synthetic compared to the green color.

eatrocks · Mon Sep 07, 2015 7:19 pm

I wouldn't trust NTB for anything but tires an batteries. Cvt fluid doesn't get old, the filter could get clogged and prevent flow leading to overheating. The cvt in the kiz makes that whirring noise when stomping the gas and letting off. I have changed my driving habits to not let this happen....but it still happens sometimes....why couldn't they just have put a normal 4 sp auto....sigh

Tue Sep 08, 2015 4:29 pm

eatrocks wrote:I wouldn't trust NTB for anything but tires an batteries. Cvt fluid doesn't get old, the filter could get clogged and prevent flow leading to overheating. The cvt in the kiz makes that whirring noise when stomping the gas and letting off. I have changed my driving habits to not let this happen....but it still happens sometimes....why couldn't they just have put a normal 4 sp auto....sigh

4 speed? Haha. It's not the 90's anymore, but I agree that the Kizashi should have had a proper geared automatic. A 6 speed auto would have been nice but for a number of reasons, Suzuki went with the CVT. I personally think CVTs should only be in cars weighing under 3000 lbs. They start sucking in cars weighing more in both performance and reliability from my readings on them.

KansasKid · Wed Sep 09, 2015 12:43 pm

eatrocks wrote:There is NOTHING in the manual about changing the cvt fluid. Just says to add if low. Powertrain is covered till 100k....after that idk....

I forgot that they fluid is supposed to be kinda pink. That'd probably explains why the NTB guy tried to get me to change the CVT fluid under the pretense of it being "dirty".

Thanks!