92 maxima se dohc auto...
so I went to go pick up some dog food, drove fine to the store. I pull out of the parking lot and as i go through the lot its like stuck in first gear. moving the shifter to 1 2 D or N didnt do anything. As i picked up speed on the road and got to about 3.5k rpms and let go of the gas it would downshift and go into overdrive doing about 40mph. with me coasting 40mph its in overdrive and as soon as i give it gas, it shifts into 2nd and rpms rev to about 3.3k and stay. it wont downshift. basically when I got my foot on the gas it wants to be in the lowest gear possible, I should be able to have my foot on the gas and cruise with it in overdrive doing 40.

I had a problem with the inhibitor switch not being adjusted properly when i had the tranny rebuilt 5 years ago. the installer had bumped it and put it in limp mode, he troubleshooted and and found the switch got bumped and adjusted it for free, and its worked great since then. It almost seems like maybe the switch is bad or got bumped..I was driving the car around when it had snowed alot and it was deep enough for maybe a piece of ice or something to hit it.
Does it sound like a inhibitor switch problem? I was thinking as soon as it stops raining so much, few local rivers have flooded, I would drain the fluid and refill with fresh. I did this 6 months ago tho.. any suggestions on what I should try or what could possibly be wrong with my tranny?

 

Can you run the tranny diagnostics?

Any ECU codes?

 

so if you moved the car to N would it shift into netural or is it stuck in first gear?

you picked up speed and let go off the gas it would DOWNSHIFT and go into OVERDRIVE? did you mean upshift?

once you give it gas again it downshifts into 2nd gear and acclerates like normal but it won't downshift? again do you mean upshift?

all that switch will do is allow you to start your car in P or N...i think that's about it.

please clear it up for me since your post is VERY VERY confusing.

 

sorry i answered the questions in your quote

I drove it this morning and everything was working fine...I smelled the dipstick and it had a slightly different smell to it than it normally would, smelled slightly burned, not sure what that smells like but it just had that slight smell to it, didnt seem normal to me.

 

change the fluid NOW. pray it's still ok.

 

will do right now. about how many quarts is it to fill when just draining the pan? i think the TC holds like 2-3 quarts so that wont drain, correct? what fluid reccommend?

 

pick up a few extra quarts. since your fluid is on it's way out and there's no real way to drain the TC you might need to drain and fill...then drive around for a little bit and then repeat the drain and fill.
make sure you change the filter...(i believe the VE autos have serviceable filters).

It sounds like a shift solonoid in the valve body got weird on you or there's something floating in the valve body. when you car shifted weird it caused slippage and probably cause the fluid to over heat and burn.

like someone said run the diagnostic on the tranny ECU and see what you find. you might have a dying shift solonoid on the VB that's causing weird shift patterns. check to see all your electrical connectors are clean.

 

I drained and refilled 5 quarts to get it to proper level. Don't you have to drop the pan to get to the filter? I check all the connectors around the tranny, all were ok.
We have alot of rain lately and im thinking maybe water got into a connector and bugged it out, I did go through a big puddle shortly after I pulled out of the parking space.

drives fine, shifts fine. hope it lasts!

Thanks

 

are all of those rubber things inside the connectors still sealing ok? they're like, orange or black i think.

 

yes you would need to drop the pan. it's cheap insurance.

 

IIRC, the ve auto is like the vg auto, it does not have a true "serviceable" filter. It's a small screen buried somewhere in the trans, where, i don't know.

 

REALLY?!?!?
the VG tranny pan is on TOP of the tranny.
the VE tranny pan is on the bottom...why wouldn't there be a filter?

if no filter then i learned something new today.

 

Not 100% sure on this dan, brian will be here soon to confirm/deny this info..

 

it has a screen at the bottom of the trans which is easily removed, cleaned/replaced.
pull the trans pan, make sure it has baffles in it, drop the bracket over the filter, unbolt the filter, replace filter, rebolt bracket, put gasket on trans pan , rebolt pan up.
total time should be under an hour assuming that you aren't doing it on the street in the cold.