I was driving in traffic today, 25 mph, and went to pull out around another car (4-lane). I goosed it a little (perhaps 40% throttle) and started out around and my transmission (Automatic) suddenly felt like it had jumped into neutral. I had enough momentum to pull it into a parking lot, but I have no gears -- no forward, no reverse.
Park still keeps the car from rolling, but all other gears do nothing (as if they were all neutral). There was no noise -- no grinding or breaking, and the engine starts and runs as normal.

Did Mr. Tranny go away?

Thanks;
Geerhed

 

did it make any noise before it stopped working?

 

dosent sound major, if it made any kind of grinding or a loud bang b4 it broke then it might be but if it just pulled out of gear it could be quite a few things. get it to a tranny shop for an estimate thats your first step.

 

How many miles on the car?, original tranny? have u tried putting it in second and driving from a stop? maybe u just lost first gear

 

179K on the car. Tranny had always been strong before this. Only thing was that sometimes, around 45-55 mph it would 'lug' a bit and shudder in overdrive, rather than kick down into 3rd (like a manual transmission in 5th gear at 15 mph).

It made no noise or indications that anything was wrong. No noise before or after (no grinding, no bang, etc.). When I switch gears, I can see the tachometer deflect slightly, but no physical 'bump' as if it were going into gear. Is it possible I broke a CV or something? You'd think I'd have heard it...

I spent $50 to tow it home today with a car dolly (thanks to my Tahoe), which I have already returned, so I'm not in a real hurry to spend money to tow it to a transmission shop just yet. But, keep those thoughts and ideas coming. There may be hope for the old girl just yet.

thanks;
Lonnie (a.k.a. Geerhed)

 

179K, Tranny was replaced at 116K, and Torque Converter was replaced at 151K, no forward or reverse gears whatsoever -- only Park and "everything else" which = Neutral.

 

Check the fluid? Maybe your seal broke and you lost fluid. I would have thought you should have noticed a puddle, but worth the check just since you didn't mention how the fluid looked......and smell it. Torque converter gone out? Busted axle? Just some thoughts on some things to check.

 

sounds to me like the torque convertor is gone again.

if you had a broken axle, you wouldn't be able to hold it still with Park.

since all gears are gone, it doesn't sound like something internal to the transmission.

 

Hope its this, slight chance:

If A/T drops to neutral during hard braking, tranny goes to safe mode. Allows 10mph... Might need reset =take batt of for few minutes - 30? Happened to me, shutting engine was enough.

From this viewpoint, check tranny voltages, do tranny selftest. Clic here:
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/748507/15

 

That is most probable the valve problem I had. Especially when cornering and at the same time put the pedal to the floor... mine always stuttered a second or two before the kick down geared down.

My guess is you've got that same valve broken down. That makes the tranny lose oil pressure. If you start the car, put it in R then give it about 70% gas, if the valve is wrecked the car will stutter and move just a little. Try that, if you get what I just said you'll know the valve's dead. Unfortunally there's no guarantee the other way around though.

 

so oyu can hurt a tranny while cornering and flooring the pedal??? does it matter how sharp the corner is?

 

From Wiking's page:
"...Nissan with an automatic that just won't move, don't start pulling the transmission until you check the soft gear on the governor shaft -- Lightsey says they tend to strip out or the pin shears, and without governor pressure you're not going anywhere. Fixing it's an easy, external job. (Note: Dunno if this relates to this maxima tranny, but its better to check, tip from www.parttrackers.com/library/1/93/104/) "

Anyone know about this?

 

Take care: engine - tranny - fanny - will fail while driving.

IFflooring, youll at least have fun when it fails. IF idling down the road, u can have fun blocking others (?) while its filled with soot. IF just keep it in garage, car-ages an rubber tingies rot down cause youre not flooring or idling...

Any tingie, human fabricated, starts rotting from day one.

 

To what valve are you referring? Did you have to pull the tranny to replace it, or was it a deal where the whole tranny had to be replaced?

Wiking: Which voltages should I be checking for? Or, just check them all?

 

No no... not saying that, just that the problem with the valve was more clear when doing that... don't imagine there's any relation to the tranny being worn any faster or anything... honestly don't know.

It's probably so because the one drive axel spins faster than the other or something like that...

S*it it's hard to explain these things in english!

 

You should definatly check wikings stuff first, if you're lucky that's all you need. He's a guru with electronics so you should definatly listen to him.

About the valve. I don't know the first thing about what valve it was, because by the time I found out the valve was my main problem I had already taken the tranny down 5 times and spent close to a thousand bucks on it, so I kinda gave up on it. I bought myself a parts car with manual tranny instead, and are planning to do a swap in about 3 weeks.

Don't take my word for it, go ahead and check everything you can before doing anything drastic. As the boys said, check fluids and electronics, do a reset (like wiking said) and everything else first. If it still doesn't work after that then maybe I'm right, in which case you would need a replacement tranny or a rebuild. Just to let you in on a little secret... if you haven't been inside an auto tranny before it's probably best to let someone else with experience do it, coz it's quite advanced stuff.

 

Refer to mentioned web page.

Start with batt voltage. Next open the plastics beside accel pedal, take tcu cover off: check for bat voltage level there. Clean all related connectorS.

Then check solenoid conditions, ohms measurement. (these may be replaced with tranny on)

 

Thanks for the continued replies. So far:
Reset (disconnected battery), no joy.
Fluid level is fine, fluid is reddish with no burnt smell
Car will start in park and neutral, but not in "D" or other drive gear (normal operation, but shows that the transmission position sensor is probably OK
Tried the "Reverse" test, car revved just like it was in neutral.

If the torque converter goes, what does the transmission act like? Wouldn't it have done a lot of slipping first if that were the case? I wasn't beating on it, just passing another car through a normal lane change (I wasn't in 'oncoming' traffic, but 4 lane urban driving, pulling around a slower vehicle in front).

Thanks again!

 

If the torque converter has blown you'd probably have heard a loud noise, but that's just a guess. I figure you'd at least hear a grinding noise but since you said that didn't happen then I wouldn't think that's the problem.

And it's probably not the lamellas either. I had that problem (that too!) and that causes slipping over a long period of time, different on all gears.

My guess is that either some electronics that controls the valves or a valve itself has gone. As I said there's no guarantee that this R test of mine shows anything, still you can't be sure it's not a valve. Unfair isn't it

Your best bet would be to find a wrecked/parts max and buy it's transmission, replacing your old auto. Check scrapyards if they have one with low miles on it. Or, do a 5 speed swap. Or lastly, if you're not used to DIY then turn to a shop for advice. Ask around to see who's got the best prices for a rebuild etc. If you're planning on having your car for awhile I'd say a rebuild is the best thing to do, becuase you could be fairly sure it will last which is not the case with a used tranny.

 

my sister let me driver her ford taurus rent a car, and i had fun flooring it around corners, making the tires smoke, thats the only way it would smoke with that traction control. i know this is a little off topic, but NEVER buy a rent a car when the rent a car companies retire it. just food for thought

 

Exactly.

Same goes for company cars. I drive a Ford Focus at work and I know I'm beating the living crap out of that car... My buddy does the same. These cars that we have are roughly about 2 years old and already there's been more service on them than you'd normally give a car in say 5 years. Then again, U.K made Fords have never been that tough over here though. All they do is leak and brake.

 

Mmmm yess. Rusting is a UK-feature not worth mentioning: best thing there is that its NOT yours...

 

Oh yes. Ask me, I was working on a Ford Transit (U.K made) a few years back. It was like a first-time project to learn how to dp rustwork, to weld and stuff like that. Well, I was amazed over the fact that there was nothing to weld new pieces onto. There was only rust! I ended up rebuilding almost all the car.

Just as a pointer of how bad it really was... in the emissions test the car failed on 19 accounts, where 14 of them was rust. Pretty bad

Anyway, I patched it up and sold it to a volunteer organisation for 200 bucks and they used it to ship old computers to Namibia or something like that. That car sure had a history

 

The Basic Fact Is Maxima Transmissions Suck. I Had Mine Replaced 2 Times In The Past 3 Months. Haha Thank God For My Warrenty, The Mechanic Was Trying To Blame My Driving Habbits To Void The Warrenty, But It Didnt Work Like That. I Told Him Im Going To Drive How I Want To Drive And Hes Going To Replace It As Many Time Is Breaks In The Next 4 Months To Come Lol

 

Thanks for replying to my thread. However, I must ask: how do you manage to capitalize every word? Also, what does your reply have to do with my question?

 

Oh I Work At A Bodyshop And Some Of These Computers Only Let Me Type In Caps.