I noticed when driving on the highway my tranmission wasn't wanting to go into the last gear. I was at 60mph 3.8k rpms. It did this to me a few times and after a while it would finally shift. After that happened I've noticed the power setting isn't lighting up when its switched on. I haven't had it switched to it in a while so I can't remember if it lights up or not, or does the power setting get disabled if it has a transmission issue?

 

Do you always have it set to Power setting? Power setting would upshift later than usual compared to Auto and Comfort.

The P light should turn on when you have the switch set to Power. It could be that the light bulb went out. When you get a chance replace it. That light will also turn on when there is a transmission related electrical problem (when you don't have the switch set to Power).

When there is a problem, the transmission can go into limp mode which keeps the transmission in 3rd gear, so that may be what you are experiencing. How is the acceleration?

 

do you have overdrive on or off?

also you shouldnt really be using Power mode unless youre towing a trailer (which shouldnt happen on a 20 year old car either). just keep it in comfort mode

 

What you might be reffering to is starting the car on a cold morning. If you are just starting the car, and drive off before everything fully warms up, then this may be your issue if you are driving 60mph. The transmission fluid has not warmed up all the way, and it wont shift into overdrive until the fluid has warmed up all the way, only when its warmed up will it shift into overdrive. hope this helps.

 

I do usually run it in comfort mode. It just happened like 3 times and it got me scared the transmission was going out. Its been okay since then. I'm just worried something is beginning to go out. Since I bought this car I put over 1k into replacing every little knick nack crap on it(water pump,ps pump,steering rack,altenator, etc) I had one of these before a 5sp se vg with 185k and never had as many issues as this one is having, its like its falling apart. I paid 1200 so i guess i shouldn't really complain. I guess I better look into replacing that bulb. I mean every other part of that switch lights up but not the P. So I dunno. Oh yeah and overdrive was on.

 

You know what, it was cold that morning. I had no idea these tranmissions do this. Well at least thats a sigh of relief.

 

Well I wouldn't rule it out to just temperature bud. I've lived in temperatures as low as -15 and my tranny didn't act like that. Though I may have a different trans. than you depending on whether you have a ve or a vg.

 

yeah i drove my GXE in some cold temperatures and it never did that

 

There are many reasons why it won't shift to overdrive. Easiest, AT fluid, coolant and leak check. Then try to warm up your engine until operating temp and check if o/d works (but it should still activate o/d even it's cold just higher rpms). If that doesn;t solve your problem, then you should go into more advanced inspections. Test o/d system (normally the solenoid) and a tranny pressure test.

 

Yeah, first thing I checked was the AT fluid. I ended up having to replace the water pump recently too along with the thermostat. I really doubt I will have time do anything with the transmission with all the holidays coming up. I will have to put it on hold and hope nothing nothing happens but, I haven't been having very good luck with that.

 

Well look at the bright side man, at least you can still drive your car, i replaced my transmission last year, now this year ive got to replace the motor, i dont wanna junk the car just yet, so ill fix er up, rite now shes takin a break.

 

What ............... Too much beer + turkey yesterday to try and make sense today?

"Never rules on temperature"? ................. the AT being allowed to be shifting into OD sure as heck is dependent on temperature.

 

exactly man @ LVR I knew that I wasnt going crazy, for the at to shift into overdrive it has to be at a certain temp.

 

lolwut? even our company trucks auto tranny doesnt like it cold, it lags on the 1-2 shift until it warms up. also, get the spam out of your sig

 

my maxima just recently started giving me similar problems but my car starts out in second even when shifter is in first gear and OD does not enable and it sounds like it wants to shift again( when overdrive is On)
i was told it sounds like a solenoid but the one mechanic told me there is a resistor on the left fender that works with that so i am very confused why would there be a resistor on the fender someone please help me

 

the only resistor that i know of is near the battery tray for the automatic transmission on the gxe.

 

first gear is starting to function again every once and a while after i am driving it for a while what would the resistor look like for the transmission

 

Now exactly how did you figure that - ie - its not shifting to 1st even when the selector is in 1st?

In the AT section of the FSM there is a simple quick TCU diagnostic procedure (AT30) - does yours show any malfunctions there?

Apart from that, there are very comprehensive and well explained fault-finding trees in there to quickly and efficiently identify just about every failure mode of the AT

 

it did not shift into first even when selector was in first plus overdirve still does not take affect where is this resistor and what does it look like

 

In the AT section of the FSM there is a simple quick TCU diagnostic procedure (AT30) - does yours show any malfunctions there? HUH?
you lost me what is the FSM

 

FSM = Full service Manual .................. something you should already have downloaded and used by following links in the stickies section above .................... there is nothing on the whole car this manual in combination with reference posts in the stickies cannot address.

 

So if it didnt shift into 1st with the selctor in 1st into what gear did it shift ? ....................... as for any other info the previous post is the answer.

 

In my experience with the A/T on the GXE models the OD can sometimes stick and not want to shift into OD if the temperature is still near cold portion of gauge. My Max doesn't do this but personally I don't drive my 3G until she's warm during the winter season and during the summer season I still let her warm up. I've done quite a few drain & fills though on my A/T and even some tranny treatments(Lucas trans treatment). I also use synthetic trans fluid with a bottle of Lucas, I originally used specified fluid but changed over to synthetic for both engine oil and trans oil. My Maxima seems to like the oils so far and it's been over a year(I used synthetic blended engine oil at first for a year b4 using full synthetic oil). I did the drain & fills until the trans oil was bright red like it looks in the bottle. I'd drain & fill her and run her for a couple of weeks. I repeated this process many times before I was satisfied.

 

ok i see no stickies section it starts out in second gear when the selector is in first then it will shift down after i start moving

can anybody please tell me where this resistor is