I never have been a fan of automatic transmissions but somehow I have ended up with one, and a dying one at that, in my 1991 SE. The Transmission had been working perfectly but with a 120,000 miles on the car the dealer suggested that it was time for a transmission flush. I get the car back and almost immeadiately I noticed that the transmission seemed to be slipping more than usual. At first I had a bad case of denial but last weekend I was driving down the highway on cruise control and the next thing I knew the engine redlined.

The dealer says that I need a new tranmission, roughly $5K or a rebuild which they say could easily be the same price. A respected local transmission shop quoted $1900 to $2800 depending on the extent of the damaged parts.

Does anyone have any thoughts here? Is 120,000 miles the normal lifespan of a Maxima automatic transmission?

Thanks in advance,
Jeff

 

Sorry to hear that, man.

For Maximas, yes, that's about the normal lifespan. Mine is at 134,000, but the previous owner was an old man, so he took good care of it. It all depends on how well the transmission has been treated, but under normal conditions, you can expect it to start slipping after 120k miles.

 

Whatever you do don't spend the money to get your **** heat treated. I spent over $2K on a tranny to be treated and made bulletproof (at least it was supposed to be) and now I have a really expensive paper wieght sitting in my parking lot. Apparently, there was a "glitch" or something in the treatment process that caused the gears to get too hot on the outer edges, making the teeth brittle. Combine this with a busted y-pipe causing heat to pour out onto my tranny and heat up the main seal, and you have a major disaster and an ugly tow bill.
Anyone want to buy a Maxima???

 

I got my 92 SE rebuilt because right after i changed my tranny fluid, that very day it started slipping. I talked to a tranny guy and he said once they get old, and you flush through new fluid, it uncovers a lot of problems that you never noticed before. My tranny lasted 178,000, not bad. I got mine rebuilt at Speedy Transmissions for $1800 and that was with both drive axles replaced and a one year warranty on the tranny. Everything but the casing was replaced in my transmission because it was so old and torn apart. I'd give them a call if you have any near by.

 

Thanks for the input. Where is Speedy Transmissions located? It seems weird that flushing the transmission would cause it to fail. My original hunch was that the wrong viscosity fluid was put in the tranny but that does not sound like the case.

Jeff

 

http://www.speedytransmission.com/locations.html search is your friend. this is the internet.. just took me 15 sec after reading your post..

 

Not really, it's kinda like taking an old Chevette engine that hasn't had the oil changed EVER and changing the oil with full synthetic. Your tranny's seals and such were probably being held together by all the gunk and crap in there, and when you clean that gunk it leaks. Most reputable tranny shops won't even do a flush on an older car without documentation that it has been done on a regular basis...