On my 93 GXE Auto, I recently had the transmission rebuilt about 9 months ago at AAMCO Transmissions. About 2 1/2 weeks ago my car started to make a scraping noise and a moaning noise coming from the passenger side front wheel. I was about 15 minutes from home so I figured that it was probably nothing and that I would just look at it when I got home. The further I drove, the worse the noise would get. Eventually, I got home and when I put my car into PARK, the engine made an extremely loud grinding noise that sounded like it was coming from my rear bank of cylinders. If you rev up the engine, the noise got louder and faster. I took my car to Nissan and they said that my transmission needed to be replaced (keep in mind that this had just been done not long ago with no problems since.) After they looked at it, it was to the point where the car would stall out whenever you try to put it into gear. Since I could no longer drive it, I had it towed back to AAMCO so they could look at it and repair it free of charge under my one year warranty. They said that they Torque Converter was shot. They rebuilt it and then they told me that my car was still making the noise. They took the rebuilt Torque Converter out and installed another refurbished one. Then they told me that the car is now making a different noise and that my planetary gears were shot. They replaced those and finally told me that my car was done after it had been there for about 2 weeks. I drove it home yesterday, then I drove it around to some stores and over to my friends house. We both noticed that when I pulled up, my car was making an unusually large amount of exhaust fumes (yes, the engine was fully warmed up, and it normally produces very little exhaust fumes) but we didn't think anything of it since there wasn't that much of it. While I was driving it home, it started to make the scraping and moaning noise from my passenger side front wheel again. I had only driven it for about 10 minutes when this started and the noise was only getting worse the further I went. I got home and parked it but it wasn't making the loud grinding noise coming from the engine yet. I believe that if I drive it more, it will start doing that relatively soon. I would just bring it back to AAMCO but I don't think that they know what the problem is because they kept changing their story on the phone and because they are keeping it for way longer than it should take. Does anybody know what the problem may be?

 

no clue what the problem may be on it, but it sounds like you need to go to another AAMCO for the warranty work.. get it fixed, then don't go back to aamco again.

 

I guarantee that once this issue is resolved, they won't be touching any more of my cars. Anyone even have a guess at what it could be?

 

Which aamco did it?
where in the city are you anyhow?
several of us on here live in the city

 

Here's an update: I drove to Blockbuster which is all of 1 mile, round-trip, from my house and when I stopped at a traffic light to make a right turn, my car stalled on me. I started it back up and fortunately it went back into gear without stalling and then I drove strait home. I really need help with this so if anyone knows anything, please post it. Thank you.

 

I live in Orland Park and I had the work done at AAMCO at 6435 Cicero Ave.

 

dam, don't know anyone at that one.
I'm at the other end of the city myself.
check in at chicagomaximaclub.net for someone closer

 

At this point I would call around to other AAMCOs and see if they honor other AAMCO's "warranties". I would take it to a different AAMCO shop and let them know the history behind the issue. There really isn't much you can do unless you want to pay some other place to fix the problem (possibly another rebuild or whatever). It's a pretty crappy situation but it sounds like your hands are tied.

 

Oh and clearly raise hell....

 

LOL Believe me, I gave them plenty of hell already. They took weeks to replace my torque converter and I was without a car for a long time.

 

http://www.aamco.com/faq/home.html#W...rranty_honored

 

Hey I got my old Caprice's tranny done there for $1,235...it was alright although the tranny ****fed super rough from 1-2 but oh well, It was the AAMCO by Cicero and Palmer (Armitage) is that the same one you got where your tranny fix?

btw I know some friends that live in Orland Park

 

I also forgot to mention that when you shift from park to reverse or neutral to drive, the shift is extremely hard and makes a funny sound. I have already called a tow truck to have it towed back to AAMCO and it will keep going back until it is fixed right. This rebuild cost $1600 and now I am beginning to think that I should have sold the car then instead of keeping it till she dies. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now.
I believe that is the same place. BTW ColumbianMax, what part of Chicago do you live in? And did you notice the big sign above the counter that says "thanks to our computer diagnostics service, we'll make sure that we fix it right the FIRST TIME." What a load of crap that is.

 

VG auto trannies are grenades waiting to explode...it's too bad it is already paid for, because you wouldn't have much trouble finding the parts or the people to help you do a 5-speed swap in Chicago...

 

When I got my current max, it had a blown auto tranny. And I had a 166K perfectly working tranny laying 2 feet from it. I waited a year and got a donor 5 speed max and swapped my car to 5 speed. Its worth it. VG autos blowup almost like clockwork.

~Alex

 

Yea, I wish that I could swap it to a five speed, but I will probably be getting a new car at the end of the summer and I didn't think that all of the work would be worth it. Also, my parents gave me this car and they had the transmission rebuilt when it was still their car so I didn't really have a choice.

 

I dont remember what it said on the counter as this was in 1999...but I live on the North Ave between village of Oak Park and Chicago. know where that is?

 

could be a bent flex pl8. or stretched holes on the pl8. that would cause a torque converter to go out quick!

 

That is a horrendously common misconception perpetuated by people with no concept of regular and preventive maintenance. My VG auto had 197,000 miles on the original transmission and it still functioned properly thanks to regular drain and refills combined with an additional cooler that I installed at 112k miles. I am not alone; there are plenty of people with the same experiences.

 

My VG auto had over 120k on it when I totalled the car, and 70k of them were HARD miles. Part of the deal is that I performed regular maintenance on it using quality fluids, as well as a tranny cooler as Austin mentioned.

Also keep in mind that there was a major revision on the transmissions for the 92-94 models and they are much stronger than the 89-91 trannies.

 

Only the SE's were different...GXE's still had the same unit.
I bought my car at 87k and it always shifted rough. It blew up at 129k, I believe...That's when the serious modding fun began...

 

170,000 here and still going strong.

 

I got about 130K Mi on mine before it gave out which is not bad but it definatley is not good. Just remember, if you had a Chrysler, you would be rebuilding your transmission every 30,000 miles LOL. I've heard a lot of stories about how their transmissions go out all the time.

I think I know where that is

 

This is what the receipt says that they replaced last time and made my car work again for about 4 hours:
__________________________________________________ ____
TRANSMISSION SERVICE

VEHICLE: 93 NISSAN MAXIMA BLUE
ENGINE SIZE: 3.0L
TRANSMISSION TYPE: RE4F02A

AAMCO RECONDITIONED TRANSMISSION WITH AN EXCHANGED REBUILT TORQUE CONVERTER WITH AAMCO 12 MONTH/12,000 MILE LIMITED WARRANTY

1-NEW-ASSEMBLY KIT TRANSTAR #K8200A-LS
1-NEW-FILTER-RL4F03A
1-NEW-BAND-BRAKE
10 QTS. DEXTRON III/MERCON TRANS FLUID

EXCHANGE REBUILT TORQUE CONVERTER

1-U-CLUTCH DRUM COMPLETE, HIGH
1-NEW-PLANET CARRIER-FRONT
1-U-HUB, HIGH CLUTCH
1-U-SHAFT, INPUT
1-U-BELLHOUSING
6-NEW-STEEL PLATE - HIGH
1-N-BUSHING, PUMP

1-NEW-SOLENOID-CONTROL
__________________________________________________ ____
That is exactly what is printed on my receipt and like I said, this did work great but only for about 4 hours and then the same symptoms started to show up again.

 

i'd sell you my whole a/t setup if i had the money to do a m/t swap. ungortunately, nobody is willing to help me out with that, so i'm kinda screwed...

 

Pff you already started killing your a/t by doing crazy **** with it...now you wanna sell it after some abuse?


btw, my VG a/t lasted 165k miles and I was told it was original. Only reason it went out is because I did not put in axle seal properly and I constantly had to keep putting ATF in there, which caused my tranny to start slipping.

 

i'm not really doing crazy shat with it, and it's not even showing the slightest sign of giving up. my fluid is still 90% pink 10 months from the date of purchase... and even if it is a bit used, i wouldn't charge him as much as a tranny place anyways. a couple hundred just to let him have it for as long as it lasts, which could be 6 months, could be 6 years. i'm not aggressive enough of a driver to kill a transmission without tampering with it anyways.

 

I'll let you have my 187K tranny to rebuild, for $40 plus shipping. It came out of my current max, and it had a bad TC. Id assume the tranny if fine, but if your going to make them rebuild the tranny again see if they will start over with this better tranny. I think yours is just gone and no rebuilding will help.

John, why not sell him the 166K tranny I sold you? At worst it needs a new case from the accident...

Pervis & Matt- I should have said for tranny's that don't get their fluid changed. My first max with 166K on it shifted perfectly. It had one fluid flush in its life but other then that nothing. If people would actually change the fluid every 40-60K and use a cooler I could see most of the trannys surviving 250-300K no problem.

~Alex

 

I wish my Chrysler trannies had lasted 30k between rebuilds.
I went through 4 in 88k, that I know of.

 

Thanks for all of the offers but I think that I should just keep bringing it to AAMCO until they fix it right. They told me that they will make my car a "top priority". They better because I miss my car and this is becoming more and more inconvenient every day. If they can't fix it, I guess I could settle for them giving me a brand new 2007 Maxima, I wouldn't mind that at all LOL

 

Random but just wondering, do you have any pics of your car?

 

No, but I could take some once I get it back. They said I should have it on Wednesday or Thursday, but something tells me that they will end up keeping it longer or they won't fix it right again. Once I do get it back, I will be sure to post some pics.

 

Take it to pm you 2..

 

why do you have to scare me more than i am allready!...... .....rollin on my 2nd rebuild.......and when goin in to 2nd.gear.(mainly only 2nd).....if i dont accellerate hard into it and baby it (say in dead rollin traffic)...it bangs. ...

 

My car is finally done! Unfortunately, I won't be able to get it until tomorrow since I will be busy all night. They also said that they will give a 1-year extension on my warranty. I will post an update tomorrow on what they did and how the car is working. Hopefully, I will get to drive it for more than 4 hours LOL.

 

good to hear that...its nice of em to give you an extension, at least it looks like they care about their customer service

 

So john did your tranny get rebuilt again as well? That winter abuse paid off I guess :-P

~Alex

 

Yea I took that shizzle back, its better now but I might go back. Should the driver side wheel spin with a bit of force while car is OFF and on PARK?

 

Unfortunately, I got my hopes up to much about my car being fixed right. I was getting ready to go pick it up, when they called me and said that something is wrong with it. They said that it is making another strange noise. They told me this at about 10:00AM Saturday, and they won't even be able to work on it until Monday. This has really gotten ridiculous and it is really inconvenient. I'm starting to get pissed off, and they better have it fixed soon.

 

Tell them to stop messing around and swap a 5 speed in. It all bolts in.

John- with an open diff (VG=open diff) and both wheels off the ground, in park, with some effort the tire should spin, the other side will spin opposite of the one your turning.

~Alex