going through some old stuff today i found a stacked tranny cooler...
i had it in my legend, my integra.

put it on my maxima today and man the tranny runs way cooler than the engine...

guys especially the vg guys this is a must do!

 

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=405266

 

nice...
i got mines out of a caddy seville sts (few years back).
the tranny hoses on my vg were long enough to mount it....

 

You can brand new ones at Jegs or Summit for about $20. They aren't expensive and they are WELL worth the time for ANY slushbox. Manuals will also benefit.

 

where would you put one on a manual?

 

While I haven't looked to see if the Max has one, almost every other car I've looked at had place for one. On a manual it's usually just a small loop of steel or copper line that enters and exits the case.

 

Since the manual doesn't have a fluid pump, you would need to add one of these also to make a cooler effective. I can't say I have ever heard of anyone putting a cooler on a 'normal' manual transmission..

 

i guess that well need an oil pump. but then where would we suck the fluid from, and where would it return?

 

Good question?? 'Shoult' said that some manuals have a cooler line, so therfore must have connection points. I can't say I have ever seen these on a manual transmission, but I haven't seen that many different types either. Can't see how even a loop of copper/steel tube would be that effective without some sort of pump.

 

if you could fab up a threaded pipe that will take fluid out the drain plug on the bottom straight into a fluid pump... push it through the cooler then dump it back in the normal filler on the front, that should work.

 

For normal ppl, just keep the box case outside clean, swap new oil every 2yrs. And read the Greeny's link, what Matt says: the original cooler also works as a heater. Tranny has to be warm before real power is to be delivered onto wheels.

 

There is no need for a pump, the action of the gears through the gear oil provides enough motion for the oil to move through a cooler. When I was racing my MR2 (which also doesn't have an internal pump on the e52) the difference the small oil cooler made was significant (~10-50 degrees depending on ambient air temp).

 

So you're saying you don't need a pump in the manual transmission to pump the gear oil?

C'mon dude, seriously?

 

SERIOUSLY. Think of what the oil is doing while manual gears are spinning through it. Just because there is nothing CALLED an oil pump doesn't mean there isn't some pumping action going on. Were not trying to push the oil through the cooler at huge velocities or volumes. We're just trying to shed a few degrees of heat. It DOES work.

However, if there ISN'T a cooling loop designed into the stock tranny I wouldn't go randomly drilling two holes for just to install a cooler.

 

ummm okay...
well kevin was able to "diagnose" my shifting problem.

he belives that my fluid is old and once it warms up the fluid gets thinner and perform the way it should.

also someone correct me if im wrong but i think the reason why the vg tranny does'nt last long becuase the pan is on top...which seems to me the gears are being bathe in the fluid??

 

it could be that your fluid is old and contaminated, thus changing the properties from pure atf to some atf and some.. other. the 'other' could have vastly different behavior under pressure, and cause wonky shifting. Kinda like my clutch...

 

Change the fluid!!!!

Drain(about 3 quarts at a time will come out)/refill..drive a few days or 75-100 miles whichever comes first/drain again/refill/repeat about 4 times..

I recommend using valvoline maxlife transmission fluid.

 

oh man valvoline max life...man that made some drastic changes when i had my grand am.
drain about 3 quarts...okay now when i drain three quarts is that all that comes out (of course the t/c fluid is still in there)?.

 

yes, that about all that will just "drain" out.

 

cool....
sorry to sound like a noob..would you recondmend if i use some seafoam trans tune??

 

just change the fluid, no magic potions needed...

 

okay will do...thanks!

 

This mixes old with new, better than none. If one prefers to get all new, hoses have to be disconnected, drain/fillup, engine idle for12s... fillup/repeat... http://www.cardomain.com/ride/748507/24

Tranny will not last w/o scheduled oil change, pan location nonissue. The RE4F02A pan hides the brains =valves, no bathing rotating tingies...

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/748507/24

 

Someone said you could get a tranny cooler for like 20$, can someone point me in this direction?

 

http://search.ebay.com/search/search...ler&category0=

 

local part store typically has them on the shelf.
just ask them for a trans cooler.

 

Greeny, your avatar makes me feel like i've done something bad, regardless of what i've posted or if I've even posted it... damn uuuuu Terminator.

 

capecadaver is selling one also...
but wiking thatr is cool as hell.
very well thought out!

and thanks for clearing that up also.
apparantly the vg tranny are'nt that bad, i've only seen one slipping vg tranny.
it was pretty loaded too digital gauges, a/c etc....

now i replaced the p/c switch and now it only does it in comfort mode.
but yea i'm gonna do that drain and refill.

 

Heh, you haven't been here very long, have you

We usually get around 20-30 "My vg auto is toast!!" threads per year..

 

oh...damn.
and i've only been a member since october.
but i can say this...my ve tranny was on it's way out.
and also it could be worse you could have a ford tranny...

 

or even worse, a Chrysler tranny, or a Chrysler 2.7 V6 for that matter...

 

maxima a/t is made by Jatco which also makes chrysler trannys.......

 

And the new Evolutions...

I dont really believe in the whole vg autotragic bs, a higher than normal percent may fail, but many live on past 150k and much more. Mine gets beaten daily and has 170k on it, no complaints from me, and i believe Wayne's wifes started slipping but he changed it like 3 times and it stopped, thats pretty impressive. Either way, its odd that one company can make some really good and really bad trans's. I guess its based on the $$ of them and complexity? I dont know...

 

probably based on the amount that the carmaker is willing to pay, as to what materials are used. I can guarantee you that a jatco made for a lexus is going to use premium materials, rather than one for a hyundai...

 

Actually, it still slips in second if you get on it, it's just a matter of time(short time at that) before it dies, their is many documented threads in this forum of the past 8 years providing much proof of the vg autos weakness, it is much more then a little percentage.

Have you owned your vg auto it's entire lifetime? Or do you have it's complete mechanical history written down? I'll bet dimes to dollars that the transmission has been either rebuilt or replaced before you bought it, and if by chance it hasn't then it is a rare exception, not the norm.

 

not to mention that mine worked FLAWLESSLY until it decided not to work at all anymore. Sudden, total failure. Up until that point it shifted great, didn't slip an inch, nothing. time of death: 163k

 

Reason of death: car diag arrest? (=lockup bypass sw ON, low speed)

 

163k doesn't seem TOO bad. I guess I could understand if people were coming on here *****ing about their dead tranny at 90,000 miles but if VG trannies are consistently getting more than 150,000 I don't see much cause for branding them "autotragic". Maybe I'm naive. Are trannies supposed to last 200k? Is anything less a "tragedy"?

I have owned mine since 48k and I am now at 180. I've changed the fluid one time. Granted, I don't drive it too hard but it's a GXE. It wasn't designed for racing.

As far as people coming on here regularly and saying their tranny has died, well, they're 14-18 year old cars. Suppose that makes sense.

 

well, i always supported the shifting as though it were a manual, ie, lifting to upshift and tapping throttle to support manually-shifted downshifts. maybe it used up too much more of the friction materials but the way mine failed didn't seem friction related.

 

you certainly should have changed it more often than that. every 20k isn't such a big hole in your pocket i wouldn't think. especially if you buy such a young car, it's probably still almost-newish, so you can keep it that way. i bought my car with 143k so most of all the damage done to it was already that way.. not much i can do to reverse it. I didn't change my a/t oil b/c i planned to change the tranny anyways. but just once in 130k miles is simply not enough. And the trim/engine/driving style don't really mean that much in terms of basic scheduled maintainence.. besides 'comfort' mode kills tranny faster than 'power' anyways or so i've heard. but just b/c it's a gxe doesn't mean you can't drive it like you stole it. My GXE ran a 16.3 at the dragstrip, as the best of 4 passes. Look at grnmaxdmon he's got a GXE but he drives it however he sees fit.

and i think the "autotragic" designation is just as much about the tranny lifespan as it is about the fact that most of us would rather have manuals.