i think my tranny is going pretty soon. car got 38k and i DO abuse the car but rarely ever above 5k rpm.

anyways, a week ago i floored the car to run an orange light. i came to a stop few miles ahead at another red light, when i press the accelerator when light was green, the car didnt move for 1-2 second then it felt like it jumped into gear and started moving (kinda slipping). this happend twice that night. car was back to normal for a week untill today when i floored it once more and this time i parked in a shopping center afterwards. i came back and turned on the car, put it in R and it didnt wanna move, i tried D, 1 and 2 and same thing, it didnt wanna move at all. i reved it and RPM's had a hard time getting past 3k. i turned it off and let it sit for 15 minutes then i tried it again. I put in R to back up, car didnt move, i put in D, car didnt move. i gave it some gas in D and put it in R after, same ****, it didnt move. i also gave it gas in R and then put it back in D and it barely moved forward. then i put it in R and gave it gas (up to 3k rpm) then it went into gear and the car flew 3-4 feet backwards and now everything is back to normal. is my tranny going or what? some people say it might be the oil which i doubt, some say might be the tranny vacuum lines or something. I need help !!! thanks in advance

 

did you check trans fluid level and condition? low fluid will cause this problem. since it's been slipping, it's probably burned- dark and stinks. if low add some fluid and have the trans serviced soon!

 

have never done anything to the tranny oil ever. it slipped like twice only i hope thats the problem tho...

 

bump.........

 

slipping with 38K.....do check your tranny fluid and get it looked at

 

do you by anychance burn out alot or do nuetral drops? if not do what a flood99 said

 

Check the fluid condition before you top it up. Buy 4 quarts of ATF so you know what fresh stuff looks/smells like.

Take out the transmission dipstick and wipe the ATF onto a kleenes (white) so you can see the color. The fluid in your tranny should be red and NOT smell burnt. If it's brown and burnt smelling then the tranny has been burning up. Heat will kill an autobax VERY quickly.

If it's brown then you need to drop the pan and do a fluid/filter change. I say drop tha pan rather than a flush because you need to see whatg's in the bottom of the pan. If you wipe your finger across the inside of the pan then you should find a very thin layer of fine black particlate matter, worn clutch material. If it's paper thin then it's ok. If it's deeper or sludgy then you've burned off all the friction material and you're going to need a rebuild soon. If it's sparkly like metallic paint then that's metal filiings and that's NOT good.

 

the EXACT SAME THING happened to me...ended up i was missing gears and had to get a rebuild.

 

yeah check ur fluids, but looks like ur tranny might be going out. seems strange with only 30k something miles ur tranny is messed up. doing lots of crazy driving mike? hope things work out

 

yea i abuse this car a lot but i neva take it outta D. i push it hard.... oh well what can i say, i need a 5spd

 

hey mike, my max only has 34k miles on it.. and ive already run into an o2 problem AND a coil pack went bad(but mines a 99) i have a feeling we with the low miles are getting screwed over here.... haha

 

as everyone else said, check your fluid, you abused the tranny, and created a ton of heat. your oil is probalby brown and burnt, by that time its usually too late.

 

get oil cooler - get it flushed and then drive it and see if ya need a rebuild

 

haha no doubt about that buddy, 3 new O2's here, alternator is going soon as well !


to everyone else, most of the time i abuse the tranny when im rolling, like i floor the car all the way. i always take it easy at redlights when beginning to roll and stuff. ill take it to mechanic tomorrow, thanks.... hopefully its nothing too serious since its been acting VERY normal and SMOOTH except 1-2 shifts has gotten a LITTLE harsher. everything else is just damn fine like day 1

 

i just went and checked tranny oil color. its a dark red/ brownish. i forgot to mention that lately, when i put the car in D or R, i hear this loose metal sound as well !

right now car operates perfectly fine...

 

38K? Was your screen name DoGGy before?

 

scraping metal sound? say bye bye to the tranny then

 

red/brown = no good. a tranny fluid change is way overdue at 38k. change it!

 

yes.....


im going to change it today erty

 

weren't you banned

 

Your tranny is done, kthxbye.

 

but how come it never slipped, it shifts smooth, it goes into gear smoothly rather than hard and etc ????

and i can guarantee you that it will run perfectly fine for another week unless i floor it and push it hard again

 

The same thing happened to me, but I completely lost my reverse, so I took it to the dealer and swapped it out and 2 weeks later I had a new tranny, I love warrenties

 

how often are we supposed to change the tranny fluid?

 

I have experience with this because my tranny is outside broken, .. Yes, it will drive fine unless you floor it or give it too much gas to handle and it will freak out and start slipping and missing gears and things like that.. Time for a new tranny I say..

 

yep same thing happened to me... sorry man, but your tranny is done... you will probably have to replace it within the next month or so... if you have COTTMAN TRANSMISSIONS in your area, do NOT take it there!

 

yeah, i give it a month or two before the max becomes a 3,000 pound paperweight...

 

where should i get it fixed

 

welcome to the club....5 spd swap would be bad a$$, or go with LSD like me

 

i would love a 5spd swap but this is my daily driver and its gonna cost me a loooooooot of time and money. i do really want it BADLY !!!

 

Thats the standard Nissan automatic for ya...

 

I read many different answers to that question, and I made up my own answer to that.


I came to the conclusion to change ATF every 30 000 milles or so, or every second year. The reason is: ATF fluid costs very little , and the procedure is simple to do for a DIY'er, compared to the cost of rebuilding a tranny.

Generally speaking, regularly changing all fluids in a car is a sound and wise preventive maintenance decision, and fluids are inexpensive too.

 

yea, I think it's every 30k miles too. Even with only 38k on his car. I wouldn't take the chance on going 7 years without changing it.

 

WTF?? My dad's 95 SE has 276k on the original auto, no rebuild. Treat it right and it will last.

 

UPDATE

well i put about 100 miles on the car this week and no complains..... everything is working perfectly fine and i am still experiencing harsher 1-2 gear changes (have been noticing this for the past 8k miles). the tranny kinda DROPS into 2nd rather than smoothly shift into 2nd. maybe this will go away when i do tranny flush tomorrow. i have "raped" the car and taken it all the way up to redline numerous times last night and this morning to see if the problems are going to come back and knock on wood they havent.

hopefully everything is fine, tranny flush tomorrow !!

 

Well...that just doesnt sound good...knowing me I would fly forward into another car

 

.

 

let us know after the tranny flush cuz mine's not shifting smoothly on the 1-2 gears either......i think i'll need tranny flush too......where do i buy the kit or those bolts from if i need them?

 

How did your flush turn out? Still having problems? I was havig some similiar problems and was planning on flushing in the next week or so...

 

Not always too late. My lil bro's $500 170K honda had brown MUD in his auto tranny. It was shifting late and harsh. Now that we've flushed, it feels great. I'm sure this is the exception tho.

Brown oil mud I tell ya.

BTW: On our maxima auto tranny, you might want to check the drop resistor. It's located on the front side of the driver side strut....inside the engine compartment...it should read anywhere from 12-14 ohms. Other than that, not considering your mileage on the transmission (I Have 253K miles)...I've heard VB upgrades or fixes will solve it. I've learned just to barely untap the throttle when you expect hard shifting/throttle.