When releasing off the accelerator, my car sometimes lightly jerks a little. This only happen at certain speed, eg. 40+ mph. Is this common? Thanks.

 

Manual or Auto transmission?

 

I got an automatic And it does that around 50.
It only does that when over drive is on.
when I turn off OD it doesn't do it.
I posted this a while back and no one could help me.

 

Okay, I had written a big explanation about this, but I accidently deleted them whole damn response. So I'll just tell you that this sounds normal. I just has to do with gear ratios.
max808 - try shifting into a higher gear at 40 and then let off the gas. See if it still happens - it shouldn't.

BIGMAX - Is it when you turn the overdrive on or off that this happens? Do the RPM's go up or down when you do this?
If they go up, then you are actually turning the overdrive off, which will effectively change the gear ratio.

 

If I'm off way off with this, and there actually is something else going on, then hopefully someone esle will jump in and correct me.

 

You may be feeling the torque converter locking up. It's normal.

 

It's the torque converter locking up JUST BEFORE the car shifts

You may notice that at these low speeds, when you ease up on the gas, you will feel that slight jerk and then the Tach will drop a bit QUICKLY.

Don't worry, I've had that on my auto ever since i bought it new. It's something you get used to

I tell people in my car, since you are going to get jerked when I jump off the line, might as well get jerked when I'm slowing down too

 

It happens when OD is on, I'll be cruisin down the road around 50mph, and when I let of the gas (lightly or hard) the car jerks back andforth a little.
It's got something to do with the OD.
It doesn't do this whenOD is off.

 

You are right, it has something to do with the Overdrive.

Overdrive is nothing more than 4th gear in the 4-speed automatic transmission. When the driver presses the O/D OFF button he is restricting the automatic transmission to operating in gears 1, 2, and 3. It cannot shift into 4th.

The Torque Converter Lockup reduces engine rpm at highway speed and thereby reduces fuel consumption. There is some slippage in the torque converter, and this slippage is eliminated when the torque converter clutch is activated. Lockup can occur only when
- the signal from the Automatic Transmission Fluid Temperature Sensor indicates "warm fluid"
... and ...
- the automatic transmission is in 4th gear.

That's why you don't feel the lockup when you have O/D OFF.

 

Same here. I bought my 97 GLE (automatic) over a month ago and noticed the same type of problem. Anywhere between 20-40 miles an hour I feel a bit of hesitation. It's intermittent though. Car feels very "torquee" at times too. Not very smooth through and through. I wish it were, it would make the "maxima" ride more enjoyable!

 

The VQ seems to come into its power/pulling range at around 3000 RPM. Unfortunately at 40 MPH, the car is at about 1500 in 4th gear. Keeping it in 3rd would eliminate most of the problem, but gas mileage will suffer.

 

It only happens in OD. It's a slight jerk, I'm glad to hear others of you are experiencing this occurrence. When OD off, it's no problem. Thank you for all your input on this subject.

 

i've noticed this lately, only happens when O/D is on, and when i release the gas, at 40 or so

 

Yup, happens to me too.

 

I'm kind of relieved that others are having this symptom becuase I thought my tranny maybe shot. One my car, this only happens sometimes. Like today for instance, the car is running perfect and it's not doing that jerk before shifting in to 4th. At least not as noticeable as other times. Sometimes it's really noticeable. Has anyone found anything that can help remedy this problem or is it something that I should just learn to live with?

 

I had the same question a few months ago. And the good guys here also said that it was normal and that it was indeed the torque converter......Thank good, it almost feels like there is slack somewhere in the car- you feel it in your butt

 

Why bring back a thread that is 3 years old?

 

Thas the cool thing to do. DUH!!

 

same thing happens to me.. and yea this thread is ollllllldd

 

Sorry guys. I didn't realize this was such an old post, but this was new news to me when I came a cross it. I thought my tranny was toast, but now I can relax and troubleshoot other things.

 

wow this thread is freggin old!! Maxima.org.. where old threads never die