Hey, I'm new to these forums and i couldn't post a new thread, dunno why, but my problem is related to my auto transmission anyway!

I've been handed down a 92 max, on its 2nd tranny, first one died only 18 months after my old man bought it! Quite often after starting it up it shifts very rough / hard into drive, but the other day after i reversed out from a parked position, it refused to shift into drive! The shift leaver was in D but it just stayed in neutral. After about 30 secs of nothing i shifted back into reverse, which worked fine and then when i shifted into D again it decided to work this time!

Does anyone know what this means and how to fix or at least slighty aleviate the rough shifts into D after starting it up?

Thanks.

You need 15 posts to post your own thread.

Id replace the shifter bushing, its about $5 at the dealer.

Was the tranny a used one that was rebuild or just lower miles? Id put on a bigger tranny cooler and by pass the stock one, and change to mobil1 ATF.

~Alex

What exactly is the shifter bushing? Have u experienced a similar problem and this fixed it? Oh and sorry it wasn't a new transmission, it was a rebuild at 40,000 km's.

Anyway i mucked around more with it and now to refuses to go into D. The only way i can get it into drive mode is if i put it into 1 or 2 (which works fine) and then put it into D.

Any help greatly appreciated!

Edit: I think that maybe its not the tranny, but the shifter. It's really loose when i move it from N down to D, like unusually loose. When i move it up from 2 into D it works fine. Anyone heard of a problem like this before?

I've been selling it for years. I've used it too.
Never had a problem from it.

My ve tranny locked up 4000 miles after i put lucas in it..

maybe you ran it to long when it was already shot

Maybe,but i still think it was the nail in the coffin for it,when i opened up the tranny case i acually found my input shaft bearing to be still in pretty good shape,[only misssing one bearing cap]and the missing cap was on the magnet in the corner of the tranny...I will try to find the pic of the bearing tonight..


I only also noticed very shortly after putting lucas in the trans,my gearshifter shaft/**** started to get extremely hot during driving..

Never used it in a manual tranny before. just engines and automatics

Shifter Bushings are "rubber" rings that are placed on the connections of the shifter linkages to make them quiet. They wear out and the linkage becomes sloppy. I just had them replaced on my car. gad trouble getting car into park and finding drive.

my 89 gxe's tranny took a dump on me around 191k. the tranny wouldn't engage until the car was sufficienty warmed up. the engine would just rev up and down like it was in neutral. reverse worked fine though. so imagine this...you're in the middle of a big metropolitan university parking lot, blocking the path of other cars while you're in D revving up and down trying to get the tranny to engage. not a good thing.

after that scenario i decided to let the car warm up all the way before i backed out of my spot.

Hmm, Wayne...you are the first person I've encountered to say anything negative about Lucas. I've used it in several applications with no problems. Just recently I added a whole bottle to my sister's 200K Toyota Tercel which burns a good amount of oil. It seems to have significantly helped with oil consumption.

I am just going by my experience with it,it just seems too ironic to me that my tranny started on a quick downhill slide just a few thousand miles after adding lucas.

Is that your only experience with it?

Yeah......

Here is my 'Tranny Story'... (Well FIRST the 'backstory')
It all started with a:
1. Weird driver side 'bed squeak' noise... Hmmm... Brakes? Maybe: Change pads
2. Fine for a day. Squeak returns. Bearing? Nope. Loose spindle nut: Tighten.
3. Fine for a couple of days. Squeak returns. Nut loose again: Decide to replace bearing.
(Thanks for the 'how to' info forums.maxima... You ROCK!)
4. Get a local shop to press bearing out: Find out hub is trashed.
5. New hub from Nissan is ridiculously expensive: Buy whole spindle from junk yard and replace.
6. Fine for several days. Squeak returns.
7. Give up and take it to a shop. Lug nuts are loose (Yikes!): Tighten... All is good... Well, not really

Now to the transmission:
The car has suddenly become sluggish... (Like driving with the brake on) and shifts kind of hard. (Sometimes you have to push the RPM's up higher than usual and it 'clunks' into gear... Which can't be healthy.) Just noticed the fluid was a little higher than usual and of course had the bubbles talked about in other threads. Ran the tranny diagnostic thingy and it passed.
I planned on flushing the tranny but a couple of shops said it would do more harm than good if it is shifting weird.
Since this all started with a loose spindle nut and turned into this whole fiasco which now involves the transmission I am not sure what is going on. Maybe the wheel is bogging down the tranny in some way? It turns fine on jack stands and there is no 'shimmy'.
The power steering leaks (of course) and there is some play in the steering and one guy thought it might be my rack and pinion.
So what is up with my car?
Anyone have any advice?

Just took out some tranny fluid... and it seems to be shifting slightly better and the bubbles are gone.
Didn't have the tool for the plug so I got creative and stuck an aquarium tube down the dipstick hole and sucked my car off...

Filled the hose and dropped the lower end into a cup in order to syphon the fluid out and was surprised to find out how black the fluid was when it looked so pink and clean on the stick. So for now I am taking out another quart, putting in some clean Mobil1 ATF and taking it for a spin. If that works out like I hope it does... I plan on flushing the whole system.

dude I gotta say, that is hilarious

Did you spit or swallow?

you have now learned the reason why overfilling is bad

My car seems to like me better now... Woo-Hoo!
I spit of course but the car didn't seem to mind.
In fact, the car just bought me jewelry!

Uh... Oh... It drove fine for a while but it's slipping now. Especially the higher gears. Would a flush at this point be a waste of money?
The 2 quarts I syphoned out was pretty black.

While shopping around for a flush... Big10 Tires had an add that says:
'Transmission Fluid Exchange featuring T-Tech'
What the heck is 'T-Tech'?

your tranny = done. Start shopping for rebuild prices. or get a Ve auto.

I picked my car up cheap because it didnt move. I swapped in a 5speed and I was good to go.

~Alex

Eeeek! Well THAT'S a bummer

Sorry to bring this thread back, but I wasn't clear on some things. Does the auto tranny from the 92-94 GXE (VG30E) cars hold up better than the autos from the 89-91 cars? If so, does the 92-94VG tranny hook up to the 89-91 cars with no problem? Also, where can one get a VB upgrade from? I heard of some company called force10, is that right?

Thanks.

all VG 3rd gens got the same shatty trans
period

1989-1994 GXE's are VG Engine And Transmission
1989-1991 SE's are VG Engine And Transmission

1992-1994 SE's are VE Engine And Transmission

The VG Transmissions are crap, very weak internals and have to be babied.
The VE Transmissions are basically the same internals as a 4th Gen Transmission, meaning much stronger and durable, Many VE Auto's last the life of the car itself.

The VG 5-speeds are all non Limited Slip Differential.
The VE 5-speeds are all Viscous Limited Slip Differential.

So, since that's the case, what are my options to make my trans any more reliable/stronger to hold up to performance upgrades, besides regular maintenance and a tranny cooler? Would stage1, 2, or 3 upgrade from Level10 help, and/or a VB upgrade? Is it possible to make our autos "bulletproof" like other trannies out there? Wouldn't a full rebuild with much better quality internals be what the doctor ordered? If so, has anyone on here done this? What would it likely cost?

-Just some thoughts, considering I want to do FI or CI-increase in the future and have thought to keep it auto, since I will get another 2-door sports car later that will be my shift_rocket (Can you say M6?).

Thanks.

my friend was trying to do a burnout with my auto transmission maxima 94.... he went on neutral gassed like crazy and drag to D1 all i heard was "pop" and my transmission was history.... got it changed for like 800 bucks

I guess your "friend" won't be doing that again. I wonder what he was thinking?...

Hmmm, I remember T-Tech as a testosterone-boosting supplement made by a company called MuscleTech.

In any case, back to the topic, my story is that my tranny is still the original 1993 unit with 176K, and it shifts like butter still even though it's been through 14 brutal Canadian winters. Its longevity is my draining of the ATF every other oil change (i.e. every 6-8K) over the past several years.

One thing you NEVER do is neutral-bash an auto, EVER.

Anyway, that said, when the oil pump in mine died at the 120,000km mark, I got mine rebuilt by Level 10 to a PTS3 with the 4000RPM stall speed torque converter and an external transmission cooler which is what I needed for my performance needs. At the time it was on nitrous but now it's on turbo. Either way, the transmission doesn't skip a beat although it still gets a little warm at 210F maximum on the open highway at high speeds (i.e. 100mph and up). That's why I exclusively use Amsoil synthetic ATF.

Thanks Max! And how much HP are you putting down with that Auto? Reason I ask, is I am planning to go turbo in the future also, and would like to keep the car as a cruiser- thus the auto...

The NOS was an 80 shot back in the day so I was getting about 210hp at the wheels. I'm not sure what I'm getting with the turbo at the moment as I haven't done a dyno tune on it yet (I've tuned it on the "road dyno" if you get my drift, heh). But given what I remember feeling with the NOS and the fact that I'm now ripping 2nd's and even the occasional 3rd at around 10 PSI from my GT35R turbo, the butt-dyno tells me I'm probably just on about 230hp. I'm aiming for 500hp out of the next VG build though and Pat from Level 10 did say that the tranny was good for 600hp. I never asked if that was at the wheels or input to the tranny though so I'm being conservative and assume that it's at the input/crank.

Truth be told though, the economy went downhill thanks to the higher stall speed of course and you can definitely feel the TC slipping away turning a corner at low speeds, etc. Having said that, I don't think I could live with a lesser stall speed given the slight torque steer I'm experiencing now. To give you an idea, city driving, I lost about 100km to the tank (500 -> 400km/70L) and about double that on the open road (800km -> 600km/70L). That's still pretty high though but only because of the Jacobs Pro-Street ignition system which significantly increased my mileage and gave me about another 25hp.

I'm pretty much back to that economy with my current tuning in the MoTeC but it really needs to sit on the dyno and get the right ignition mapping since the best mapping involves observing the torque curve and the point at which it drops off which then gives you an indication to dial the timing back a little.