1 hour ago my newly bought 1993 Maxima SE 5speed broke down.
Here's what happened: last night we got a foot of snow. Tonight at around 9:30pm I turned the corner to get on main street. Got it up to 3rd gear then the next light had just turned red so I pushed the clutch in and shifted down the 2nd gear thus down-shifting to slow down for the red light, I then pushed in the clutch and put the brake to come to a complete stop. While stopped at the red light I put it back into 1st gear to get ready for when the light turned back green, when it did I slowly let up the cluth putting some gas to take off, the all of a sudden this big kind of grinding noise started, everytime I would put the shifter in gear released the clutch this noise would start. I was stuck there, the tranny doesn'r want to pick up the gears. I tried starting in 2nd or 3rd gear but no luck, still same problem.

Then my friends came and pushed me in a parking lot.

What the f**k is this!!!???

 

1) does the shifter shift into gears easily (like normal?)
2) does the car budge at all when you let the clutch out?
3) any other previous tranny trouble?
4) how old is your clutch, any idea? does it grab well?

This can range from a freak occurence (snow getting stuck up in the shifter forks or something?!?!) to a bad clutch, to a bad tranny. But it's weird it happened all of a sudden. I say try again after you let the car sit for a while. You might just have to adjust your clutch pedal.

 

1) putting it in gear is easy but painfull when you have to hear that grinding noise.
2)The car doesn't move at all, the more gas I give, the more the sound becomes intense
3)The tranny was working perfectly, I had it checkedd by mecanic before buying it and he said the tranny was fine and that the cluth was excellent
4)I think it's as old as the car, sometimes it's har putting it in 1st gear.

 

it might be snow related. maybe some snow got into the bellhousing and is making your clutch slip enough so you can't engage the gears. Your tranny is fine. Let it sit and see what it does next time you try it.

 

Ya cause I've been driving in deep snow alot.
But I mean no sound came from it telling me that it wasn't working. It started all of a sudden.
How can you establish that my tranny is fine ( and I hope to god you're right)

I just bought this car and i LOVE it, I don't want to give up on me 1 week after I bought it.

 

usually when a tranny goes out, it'll loose one or two gears at a time, not ALL of them..
have you tried reverse?

I would also agree with the snow/ice theory.. if you've been diring in dep snow, you may have hit something on the shifter with a chunk of ice.. I dunno there because I don't even know where these parts are on a max (mine's an auto), but I had something similar happen in my old mitsu truck..
give it a few days until the ice melts and try again..

 

It's at the shop right now but I'm at work so I don't know what the problem is yet. I'm going there straight after work. Could it be the gear box?
I don't think it's the clutch cause the car acts normaly until I put it in gear, the clutch works fine. I was also told it might be something like slave something and master something in the tranny, don't remember the exact term though.

 

Yes..could be master or slave clutch cylinder. Thats more likely than your manual trannie dying. If when you press down the clutch and it grinds in reverse just like the clutch wasnt in, its one of those probably. Because if the clutch was working, nothing in the trannie would be spinning TO grind.

 

I have a 5sp and I had tranny problems two years ago and ended up replacing it. I agree with Matt though, usually the tranny will loose a gear or two before dying, or start slipping/ popping out of gear on you during acceleration. My main shaft went out. The main shaft turns even in NEUTRAL! Therefore the tranny is turning when it's even out of gear. Mine made this noise for some time and gradually got worse and louder, if it makes the grinding noise even in neutral, then it's probably your main shaft. It itself can be changed depending on how much damage is done to the rest of the gears, as I said, mine was still drivable and had to be completely replaced, so you may be looking at a new tranny and might as well put in a new clutch. Having mine done cost parts and labor, around $2,100. As far as the slave cylinder, if my memory serves me correctly, that is just the term for the cylinder that seperates the clutch inside the tranny from the flywheel when you push the peddle.

 

If the trannie still grinds or does anything with the clutch in, its probably a clutch problem. Nothing in the trannie turns with the clutch in.
Put the car in 1st with it off, and try to crank it with the clutch pressed in. If the car tries to move or motor wont crank, something in the clutch setup is f'd.
If it cranks, and when u let out on the clutch it works ok in first, but you cant take it out of first and put it BACK in with it running, its also a clutch problem.
Be sure that the e-brake is on and noone is in front of you before trying any of these things of course

 

I had it checked and turns out that the people before me had had the clutch changed on it. The clutch is in excellent condition put the people who installed it didn't do a good job and didn't attach it properly to the axle. When I had it checked before I bought it, my mechanic told me my axle seal was leaking. Just a minor repair (100$)
Turns out that the reason why is was leaking oil is because the cluctch wasn't pushed all the way in on the axle so the oil was leaking out and then it completly fell off, thus giving me the grinding noise, my clutch and tranny were fine, it's just that when it was trying to make the front axle turn, it couldn't because it wasn't hooked on anymore.

I have to change the part that attaches the clutch to the axle because when I was trying to put it in gear I used up all the teeth at the end of it. it'll cost me about 150$ total repairs.

scared me though, didn't really feel like dishing out 2K to have the tranny changed after having the car for only 2 weeks.

 

Damn.. you got out lucky man.. even that much diagnostic work arund here would cost you $4-500, PLUS the parts. in order to get to those parts, you gotta drop the tranny. $$.
usually you damage much more than that too. you got really lucky!

 

well I've got a good mechanic who checks my car out for free
then I pay for whatever needs to be done