Kizashi Club

I was looking through maintenance schedule and I noticed that it says to inspect the tranny fluid every 15000 miles but it never says when to replace it. Also. It says to replace the coolant every 15k miles but at the end of the book it says 30k miles. I'm confused.

I think I remember reading there are two different types of coolant that the Kizashi can come filled from factory. The change interval is determined by the coolant type (denoted by the colour of it.)

You're right, must be magic fluid in that CVT, never says to replace it. I'd replace it at 60K just to be safe.

Green coolant gets replaced at 30K miles, Blue coolant at 90K miles.

A lot of manufacturers send vehicles out with "filled for life" transmissions. Some don't even have dipsticks to check the fluid levels, let alone drain plugs.

"Filled for life" fluids are a joke. Many of the vehicles filled with these will experience premature transmission problems. Engines these days last longer, but transmissions won't keep up without proper care.

Even with CVTs, my understanding is that they still use torque converters. The fluid is very important for these things as the fluid is transferring the power.
If a transmission is sealed, then dropping the pan is necessary to replace the fluid.

If you want your automatic transmission to last a long time, you should have a full transmission flush done at least every 50,000 miles. The flush machine cleans out the sludge, metal particles, and deposits from the torque converter in ways a simple tranny fluid change won't. I am not sure how much this applies to a CVT, but I would be wary of "non-serviceable fluids".

Manuals are caveman simple. Fill hole at top. Drain hole at bottom. No filters, no pans. A magnetic drain plug if you are lucky. The fluid is basically gear oil.

I wasn't suggesting "filled for life" was a good thing.

There are apparently a few different types of CVT and only one design uses a torque converter. So chances are the Kizashi doesn't have one. (I was researching them a while back as I thought they'd have to use one too.)

I do believe the Kiz CVT has a torque converter. Filled for life (of warranty) that is. I agree w/ Kuro...foolish not to regularly service an automatic if you intend on keeping the vehicle long term.

On the topic of flushing, I haven't found any credible information regarding the pros, cons, possibility or harm in flushing a CVT yet. I have 2 of them now in the Suzukis and the Kiz is approaching the point in which I'd flush a conventional trans if that's what was in it. I've flushed my conventional automatics every other service interval since a BG system was purchased by my GMC dealer. It works plain and simple. Our 94 2500 suburban has 185,000 miles on it, a fair amount of towing and hauling....the thing shifts as crisp and smoothly as it did when it was new.

Okay I was going by what somebody else posted regarding the torque converter not being on the Kizashi. I've found some articles indicating the Kizashi does have a torque converter: eg. http://www.familycar.com.au/app/article ... izashi-awd
http://www.webwombat.com.au/motoring/ne ... izashi.htm

Then there are articles like this http://ericpetersautos.com/2010/10/13/2 ... i-kizashi/ that say it hasn't got one!

There this video from Suzuki but it doesn't mention one way or the other:

There's a Wikipedia article that I found (when last researching) that suggested the type of CVT in the Kizashi didn't use a torque converter..... it's all very confusing! I'll stick with my manual trans.

I don't see what difference it makes if there's a torque converter or not. Any automatic is a tenuous and fragile thing, a CVT even more so. Can't imagine not changing the fluid.

The Kizashi does have a torque converter ... thats the reason why the acceleration from standstill isn't stellar. Until the torque converter locks up, there 1.) some slippage which is natural for any torque converter 2.) engine power is limited because this torque converter is smaller.