I just bought my 96 GXE not long ago and I've noticed an annoying quirk. I'm not sure if it's normal or is a symptom of a larger problem. Here's the deal; when I'm driving in 1st gear, like starting off at a light, it accelerates smoothly as long as I stay on the gas. If I let off (stop and go traffic for example) the car immediately stumbles like it's about to stall, and I have to depress the clutch to smooth it out again. This happens if the RPM's drop below 2500 or so. It effectively makes it impossible to drive smoothly at 5-10 mph.

To be fair, this is the first 5 speed I've owned but I've never had this kind of problem in my friends' cars. Can anyone offer me some advice?

Thx,

-Ace-

 

i have a friend that has a 96 5 spd and his car does the same thing. (well, not as badly as yours)

i been tring to find something wrong...

 

This is a problem associated with slack between the gears in that particular gear. 1st gear is never meant to be a cruising gear, only an accelerating gear. If you are taking your foot off the gas, you should move it into at least 2nd. I've had many manual transmission "bounce" off the first gear play and jerk around. Its not good for the transmission and puts a lot of stress on it. The gearing ratio is way too low to smoothly turn the engine as it does in higher gears when you take your foot off the gas, just shift into 2nd.

 

Thanks for the reply MacGyver. That's very reassuring.

-Ace-

 

mine does the same thing...
i never stay in first for long....if its stop and go, i accelerate in first and either shift to neutral if slowing down...or second to speed up.

it makes stop and go traffic that much more annoying with the jerkiness of first gear, but you'll learn to get around it by using first gear a lot less

 

clean the throttle body, it may help alot!

http://www.motorvate.ca/auto/maxima/...isassembly.htm

 

Thanks for the reminder, I've been meaning to clean out the TB. I appreciate all the input fellas.

-Ace-