I own a Z and a maxima. The Zs tranny died completely one day (no prelude to it's death at all). It felt like I was totally in neutral. Gassing it did nothing but rev the engine. After shelling out way too much for a rebuild, I prayed my maxima wouldn't suffer the same fate... at least, not so soon after my Zs died. Anyway, I own a 93 maxima, 110,000 miles on it. For the last two mornings when I start my Max, the tranny seems like it's aching to call it quits until the engine is fully warmed up. If I turn on my car when cold, then immediately kick it into reverse, the tranny will shift, but it will shift with a VERY bad 'thunk'. The whole car jolts from the force of it. Popping it into neutral is smoother and drive is somewhat smooth as well, but reverse is near murder! If I start driving while it's still cold, the gear shifts while in 'D' are very harsh and sudden even at very low speeds (and the setting on 'comfort'). This morning, it didn't even shift into a lower gear as I sped up slowly.

But again, once the engine is warm, the tranny acts fine.... absolutely fine. So this leads me to wonder if it's not some other problem? I've had the Max since it had 67,000 miles and ever since it's been pretty much a freeway driven car so I don't want to call excessive wear on it, but at the same time, the tranny doesn't feel dead either. Perhaps of note was that I had the shift cable tightened as I was having to fiddle with the shifter to get it to drop in a few gears sometimes.

Anyway, is this fluid related? There are no problems once the car is warm whatsoever so I'm trying to convince myself this isn't as major as it seems...

If any of you guys can offer me some potential tips, I'd greatly appreciate it!

 

Check your transmission fluid level NOW! The procedure is in your owner's manual, follow it!

I'll bet you're a quart low on fluid or so.

-Kaleb

 

Is your Max a GXE or an SE the GXE tranys are not
Nissans strongest auto trans and I have seen a lot
more of them die than SE tranys. If you have a GXE
sorry about the bad news, but all may not be lost
DO check your fluid level and if posible flush the trans

 

hehehe.. actually, I don't know. No wing, cloth interior, 4DSC on the back window (4 door sports car! . Not the top model for sure.

This morning the tranny symptoms got worse so I'm sweating buckets here... I added fluid per Kalebs suggestion though reading the stick was a pain as the fluid was all up the charge pipe it seems... dark red/brownish in color too. I waited for the engine too cool down, started it, but the symptoms were still there. This morning though, despite letting the engine warm up, the tranny acted so bad that I limped it back home and am taking it to my mechanic tonight. Symptoms this time included not wanting to shift into another D gear at all from a standstill until a bit more gas was given (so I could sit in D, give it a bit of gas, and go no where... no idle pull either). At one point I was turning my wheel hard to take it back home and came to a stop and my entire Max was shaking hard. Heavy vibration in the wheel. I'm preparing for the worst. My Zs tranny was a $3100 rebuild (and it died at a mere 94000 miles)... the last thing I need is even a $2200+ payment to deal with my Maxs' as well. I'll post again once I know if it's officially dead or not.

Thanks for your help guys.

-Tim

 

Ohh yuck that sounds dead to me. Sorry about that
man those GXE trannys can be troublesome.

 

The transmission became overheated (that's why the fluid is the color that it is) and the heat damaged some internal seals. This allows the fluid to flow into the wrong places which causes poor/no shifting. It's worse when cold because the fluid pressure is higher.

 

It's official... the tranny is dead. There were no error codes for electrical parts related to the tranny which meant it was internal... So now a rebuilt one straight from Nissan is $2200. $300 labor and $70 flush. Cha-ching.

There were other error codes (timing related one he said) but once he finishes the tranny he'll rerun the check and see if they're still there. This leads me to wonder... how long can I expect the engine to last? My old 91 max that was handed off to another family long ago has 176,000 and is still rolling. For the near 3k this is costing me, my max better roll well into the 200s

Thanks for your help guys.

 

When you get a new/rebuilt transmission put in you must get an external transmission cooler, and the cooler in the radiator should be bypassed. When a tranny goes it leaves lots of crud in the radiator cooler, and because of its design, it can't be fully flushed out. (This is out of a Nissan TSB.) Since the radiator can't heat the cold, thick ATF get synthetic ATF put in. If you don't do this, the rebuilt tranny may only last 2 years.
With regular oil changes the motor can easily go past 200k miles.

 

a tranny cooler can be your tranmission's best friend, 30 bucks at your local auto zone