I just couldnt stomach spending over $300 for a transmission service from my local dealer, so I went hunting. I remembered a buddy of mine owns an AAMCO Transmission shop not far away. I gave him a call and he invited me in for the service. He has owned this shop for over 25 years. He assured me he has serviced many many Nissan vehicles and Matic J was a Nissan rip-off. He said AAMCO uses Mercon V with an additive (friction modifier) that changes the characteristics to match Matic J. He said if Nissan ever sampled the fluid they would not be able to tell it from Matic J, it was chemically the same. Needless to say, my Mada runs alot smoother and shifts much smoother. He said all Automatic Fluid bases are essentially the same, just each spec has different wear additives and friction modifiers and that Matic J and Mercon V are the same underneath minus the additive package. I hope this helps. Oh, he also said AAMCO does this in all Nissan vehicles and if it was bad for the tranny, AAMCO would not offer lifetime warranties on these transmissions.

hmmm... good to know! :)

I had a "power flush" done on my Ford Explorer at AAMCO (Hicksville, NY) and they did a fantastic job. When I looked under the car I found that they had cleaned the bottom of the pan so it was the only gleeming silver amongst a sea of rust.

It gave me about a +1 MPG increase and really smoothed out the shifts.

However, I really want to run synthetic for the Armada (ie: Royal Purple). Does this not match the factory specs? :confused:

I hope you're right but it will be a thousand dollar mistake if you're not.
I agree that Matic J is expensive, but your messing with a very complex and expensive tranny.

It's $2 more per quart. It's not that much more money to use the real stuff.

$2 more per quart? Where do you get your fluid from? Its $14 per quart at my local nissan dealer. Thats $11 more per quart than regular ATF fluid, no matter which kind or brand it is.
Its not a complex tranny. Its a 5 speed automatic. There are no magic bells and whistles in the tranny, its got clutches and gears like any other automatic tranny out there. Nissan doesnt make any "magic clutches or gears". They arent made out of any kind of space-age, martian material, they are made out of the same or similar material everyone else makes their automatic transmission parts out of. On the same note, Matic J is not a space age, martian-like fluid either. It is a base stock automatic fluid just like every other automatic transmission fluid on the market. The only difference is the additive package that makes it a Matic J spec. My earlier post stated that AAMCO starts with Mercon V and adds an additive package that turns it into the same characteristic as Matic J. Chemically they are the same. A mechanic or a lab would not be able to tell the 2 apart. Matic J is a marketing ploy to make you spend your money, alot of it, at the dealer. Go ahead and spend the extra money for the "genuine fluid". Its your buck. I have no issues with my recent tranny service. It acutally runs smoother than it did before I did the service and the tranny temp guage show it runs cooler.

$2 more per quart? Where do you get your fluid from? Its $14 per quart at my local nissan dealer. Thats $11 more per quart than regular ATF fluid, no matter which kind or brand it is.
Its not a complex tranny. Its a 5 speed automatic. There are no magic bells and whistles in the tranny, its got clutches and gears like any other automatic tranny out there. Nissan doesnt make any "magic clutches or gears". They arent made out of any kind of space-age, martian material, they are made out of the same or similar material everyone else makes their automatic transmission parts out of. On the same note, Matic J is not a space age, martian-like fluid either. It is a base stock automatic fluid just like every other automatic transmission fluid on the market. The only difference is the additive package that makes it a Matic J spec. My earlier post stated that AAMCO starts with Mercon V and adds an additive package that turns it into the same characteristic as Matic J. Chemically they are the same. A mechanic or a lab would not be able to tell the 2 apart. Matic J is a marketing ploy to make you spend your money, alot of it, at the dealer. Go ahead and spend the extra money for the "genuine fluid". Its your buck. I have no issues with my recent tranny service. It acutally runs smoother than it did before I did the service and the tranny temp guage show it runs cooler.
Like I said earlier, I'm glad AAMCO is working for you. But I'd rather have Nissan do it so there's no question of liability. Specially on a tranny. I personally couldn't pull they tranny off, take it apart, and rebuild it. so to me it's complex.
I'm with you that its a rip off and it's probably just a normal synthetic or something, but for this, I personally choose to not mess with it.