I have seen numerous numerous post about auto trannys failing Im thinking of making my next Maxima a stick. I have had four 3rd gens and they have all been autos. I want to know do manual last longer than autos and if so what makes manual trans last longer than autos.

 

my tranny died at 148k, had it rebuilt. one factor that makes automatic transmissions wear out faster is heat (correct?).plus, they're more complex and have more work to do since there is no physical clutch.

 

borg warner sucks. that's the main reason, lol.

but like said above, auto trannies are more complex than manual trannies and that's generally why they wear out faster.

 

depends on how you drive it

 

in general all autos will die faster and cost more to repair than manuals dont matter who made it and manuals do suffer from bearing ,syncro and clutch failier but usaually last longer except when you drive like me mine needed repair at 105k but if i drove an auto (which i never will) i would estimate it would die at about 80k if you get my idea

 

actually, it does matter who makes it. different companies make things of different quality.

our brand new chevy express van with the 6 liter v8 and automatic transmission is at about 20,000 miles now. at 14,000 mile the tranny had already started to slip. we took it in to have it checked out and for some strange reason the tranny fluid was low. the guys refilled it and it has still slipped again since then. more than likely we'll have to get a new tranny installed (under warranty luckily). i'm not sure who makes the tranny in it but i know it's of low quality.

 

Borg Warner Transfer Cases arent too bad though

Klown is right though, it all depends on how you drive them.

 

the 92-94 maxima trannies seem to hold out better than the 89-91 trannies do. i wonder what they did differently.

 

i hope i dont get tranny troubles

 

the manual trannies in 90-91 had improved bearings.

supposedly the autos were beefed up (better internals) starting in 92. my 92 auto gave out at ~75K, but's that's because i didn't check the tranny fluid. got it rebuilt and put in a tranny cooler too. now at 115K, and it slips every so often.

driving style and maintenance (flushing, etc) are probably the COD of autos/sticks.

 

do you mean 92-94 had improved bearings? my input shaft bearing went out at 13x,xxx miles which would have been a cheap fix if i had caught the problem sooner. although, it still only cost me about 350 to fix it since i did it myself.

 

VE trannys are built up more.
Probably because of the power.

 

well the 90-91 had improved bearings over the 87-89 manuals (for VG). i assume the 92-94 manuals were different than the VG trannies.

 

I believe you can bolt up all VE trannies to VG's, and since they have larger axles, I'd consider doing it for a higher HP VG

 

the internals are probably different though.

 

you are right. they can be switched. you just need to get the driver's side axle if i remember correctly. the case is a bit bigger due to the lsd making the axle shorter. if probably wouldn't hurt to use both axles though. i am planning on using the lsd ve tranny sometime since i have the turbo engine.

 

don't forget the VE hubs too.

 

i didn't think those had to be changed. do they have a different amount of teeth?

 

not having done the swap, i couldn't tell you first hand. but i would ask kaleb or a junk yard. my feeling though is that you will have to.

 

hmm... thanks for the info. i'll check that out.

 

If you do go for an auto be sure to get a tranny cooler installed. Less than $100 and will lengthen the life of your tranny. Mine started slipping at 172k but it seems to work ok after it gets warmed up. The car is now at 180k with the same problems.. my next 3rd gen will definitely be stsick.