Based on what I am reading in this forum, I think I have found the right place to answer my questions, so here they are:

I have a 1991 Maxima, which is driven by my daughter. The car has 139K miles on it, and based on the previous owner (we've had it six months), it seemed to be well taken care of. Since we've had it, we've had three "major" issues - a broken master cylinder; a bad left bearing; a broken power steering pulley - all repaired. I have driven the car a few times and noticed that during shifting at moderate speeds, the rear tires sometimes made a "skidding" sound. I checked the transmission fluid and added some once, but it did not need any since then, about five months ago. After the broken PS pulley repair, about three weeks ago, my daughter indicated that the RPMs would go rather high between 3rd and 4th gear before it shifted. Three days ago she is driving it and suddenly she accelerated, but the car just coasted, finally to the side of the road. I went out to the car, started it and was able to go through all the gears, but the car would not engage any of the gears. Had it towed to our regular mechanic, who advised that it was tranny related and he could not help us. The transmission shop indicated that it was transmission related, but wants $400 to tell me what exactly it could be. The $400 would be applied to the repair.

So here are the questions:
1. Is it worth fixing (after all of the aforementioned repairs, I have about $3800 in the car) with the 139K miles? Other than the fact that it will not move right now, the car is in excellent condition.
2. Is this a common issue with '91 Maximas?
3. Is $400 too much to pay for an estimate?

Any feedback would be greatly apreciated by not only me, but a 16 year old girl who was really looking forward to summer with her car.

Thanks

 

1 - your call..do you want to keep the car?
2 - common issue with 3rd gens..esp w/ high mileage cars w/ lack of fluid changes
3 - $400 too much? yes...give me $40 bucks and i can tell your your transmission is toast. unless it's a shop that you intend on having them repair it i wouldn't bother. if it doesn't drive right then it's tranny..simple as that. what you described is similar to tranny slipping. expect to pay about 1500-2000 for a decent rebuild.
good luck

 

My advise? Well, coming from someone who's gone through 3 transmissions in a 3rd gen Maxima: take the transmission out. If you can change your oil, you can probably figure out how to get it out. It's not too bad, really... and people on here can help. Then, hit up eBay and look for auctions on remanufactured transmissions for automatic 3rd gens from Phoenixhardparts.com. Bid and win. This will cost you around $850, but only after you spend around $1200 and send in your old tranny. They will refund you the core charge (your core is probably okay if it's just now slipping in 3rd gear). Put the transmission from Phoenix Hard Parts in, and you will be good to go. If you're not comfortable doing the labor, ask the mechanic that you trust and originally looked at if he'll do it. It sounds to me like he's not up to doing a rebuild, but he would probably swap the transmissions for you. That may cost you around $200 or so. Your final cost for this whole thing could be less than $1000! Expect a tranny shop to tell you that your entire tranny needs to be rebuilt, and then expect them to buy some cheap used tranny from a junkyard and swap it in there. Then, expect it to break even worse in a year (or one month after the warranty expires, which ever is first). I finally got so sick of being screwed by various transmission shops (Aamco was the worst with two seperate horrible experiences at two different shops, Cottman being runner-up) that I learned how to do a rebuild myself on the fly. I rebuilt my own transmission, had a friend help me put it in, and my car's been better than the day I bought it ever since. Good luck to you, and let me know if you need help.