Finally decided to change the fluids in the car (front and rear diff and the transfer case) @ 66,000 miles now.

Ordered all the fluids from Amazon.. had them the next day, nice to have the Amazon warehouse across the street.

Problem is that they accidentally mailed my Matic D and not the Matic J/S I needed.

I only noticed after I drained the old fluid. In the past I used the Valvoline Max Life transmission fluid in the transmission and had some left overs. I used that in the transfer case instead of the Matic J/S.

Since I actually used it in the transmission and have been running it in the transmission for about 25,000 miles now without any issues I am hoping that it would be fine in the transfer case too.

Anyone have experience using Valvoline Max Life in the transfer case?

 

Here's a post that Cliff (vqsmile) posted, might want to replace that transfer case fluid w/ matic J https://www.myg37.com/forums/general...ml#post3896979

 

Thanks blnewt,

Even though I still think that what I use should be okay, I am still going to stop by the Nissan dealer tomorrow and pick up 2 qts. of matic J.

 

Better to side w/ caution, and it's not a lot of capacity there.

 

Went to the local Nissan dealership, they don't have Matic J and don't carry it. Called closest Infiniti dealer 20 miles away and asked the parts department for specifically Matic J if they had it in stock. They said, "We don't have it, we don't stock it, matic S replaced J."

I said please check to see if you have it on the shelves. He came back and said no.
I asked what they put in people's 'transfer case' when they replace the fluid as it specifically calls for matic J. He said they don't do transfer case fluid changes.....

Great.. The next closest dealer that does carry it is 1 1/2 hour away...

May just order it online.

 

I ran this by the service department and even spoke to someone at infiniti directly. Matic S is fine. I've had it in there for about 20k, no problems. I don't see why maxlife wouldn't work either.

 

if matic s works just fine why does the manual specifically say matic S for transmission and matic J for transfer case.

Also rumor has it that Nissan send special bulletins to Infiniti saying to only use Matic J in transfer cases.

 

i used royal purple, its not matic J and my car is fine

 

I buy my fluid from Nissan dealership. It's cheaper & can b use on our Infiniti. Check your Nissan dealership

 

Because the original spec was Matic J, which has been superceeded by matic s.

Given thar neither my dealership nor Infiniti had any special bulletins on the matter and we haven't found a single service department that has matic j available, I'm going to say it doesn't exist.

Every dealership service department has been using matic s in this application for years and we have yet to hear of a rash of transfer case failures

 

Actually Matic J does exist and I bought two qt. (the bottle also looks a little different than the older version)

Called around and two of three Infiniti dealers around here had it in stock.

 

If you're really that concerned about using a low-viscosity ATF, generic Dextron III is widely available and should do everything matic j does. It's just a wet clutch pack, not rocket science.

 

I just replaced my transfer case fluid. Used Matic J. Took a couple days to special order it from the local dealer, but you can certainly still get it. As far as how different it is from Matic S, I couldn't tell you. I used Matic S for the transmission, and Matic J for transfer case, per Infiniti fluid specs.

 

The difference is that it's a higher viscosity fluid, basically, Matic J = Dextron III and Matic S = Dextron VI

 

Nice! Good to know!

I did screw up one thing. I put 75w90 synthetic gear lube in both the front and rear diff on my X. Well, I guess the front requires 80w90. I'll change it out in a week or so just to be on the safe side. (Sorry, not thread jacking!)