I bought a used manual transmission to replace my old one with bad bearings. It was out of a 99 with 40K miles on it. My question is that I noticed that my shifter sits back farther now. To put it in 5th gear, I don't have to push up that far anymore. As a matter of fact, in 1st gear my shifter sits pretty much straight up. I knew that putting a 5th gen transmission in a 4th gen would cause this but again my car is a 98 and the transmission is out of a 4th gen too. Anybody know why?

Here is a breakdown of the costs with this, just FYI:
Used transmission found on car-part.com: $800
Labor to install it, new rear main seal, new OEM clutch: $850 (I know I got jipped on this a little but I insisted on an OEM clutch and Nissan only had their Key Value POS in stock so I had to pay more for the clutch plus next day air freight charges to get it to my mechanic. Rear main was $45 and the shop charged me an extra hour of labor to install this).

 

Newsflash: 99 is not a 5th gen

 

They definetly should'nt have charged you an extra hour to put the rear main seal in.....they had the tranny off already...

-matt

 

You don't think? I think that to take the old one out, clean up all the oil and old sealant, prep the new one and carefully put the new one in, is worth an extra hour labor. They certainly aren't going to do it for free.

 

The tranny shop I had mine done in put in no charge....I guess an extra hour isnt much of a big deal

Its probably normal

-matt

 

I didn't say it was. What I was saying was that if you put a 5th gen transmission in a 4th gen, the shifter supposedly sits back further. Since my transmission is out of another 4th gen, I didn't expect this to happen.

 

They mentioned exactly what you just said when they were trying to justify the hour labor charge.

 

I noticed something else under the hood today. The snorkel part of the intake that runs under the hood is just kind of hanging there. Is it supposed to attach to the intake box or just sit there against it? If it is supposed to attach to the intake box, how does it? Mine is just sort of pushed up against the intake box. It seems like something is different. I think the mechanics took it off to get to the top tranny bolts and didn't put it back on right.

 

Anybody know why my shifter sits so far back now? 2nd and 4th are awful awkward to get into. I almost have to lay the shifter straight back.

 

For as much as you paid, I would take it back and make them adjust it. I'm not sure what would cause it to sit back that far, but hopefully when I get my car back from the shop I won't have the same issue. I am having the same list of issues taken care of, except that I opted to rebuild my tranny, instead of buy a used one. Good Luck.

 

You should have told them in advance since the tranny is off when you guys do the real main seal I wont be charged for labor because the tranny, clutch and flywheel is already off. Its like getting a new tranny put in but they charge you labor to put in a new axle.

Key value clutch will get you down the line.

 

I didn't get the key value clutch. I made them order the individual OEM parts from the factory. The key value was only about 40 bucks cheaper but I have heard bad things about it and didn't want to take the risk. The charge for the rear main seal install is crappy I know. I was just so tired of dealing with this transmission problem that I didn't have the energy to argue with them.

 

It's not a big deal really. I don't think its worth having them possibly pull the tranny out again. I just want to know what it could possibly be that is causing it.

 

Sometime in 99 (ie. 99.5), they started making the transition over to 5th gen...maybe your tranny was among these. I'm assuming you don't have a short shifter because most with it say that the new position is even better. There really isn't much possibility that they botched something with the shifter assembly to make it sit further back and of course, they can't be accountable for the used 99 tranny being slightly different.

 

If u dont mind me asking, how many miles on the max when ur transmission bearings started to go bad

 

I noticed a leak at about 80K. It lasted to 98K.

 

Oh man I still have a little bit of drip of gear oil under the car on the ground. It was such a mess under the car by the time I got the transmission swapped that I expected it to continue to drip for a day or so. Im getting nervous because the gear oil on the ground looks fresh. I checked the driver side axle and it fits in tight into the transmission. I hope this transmission doesn't have a leak somewhere. I'll f'ing burn this car down to the ground I swear....

 

I had to get my tranny replaced at 100k. I drove on it for 10K before I finally dumped all my traffy fluid in a parking lot and had to drive home with 3rd gear only. I had it replaced with a used one and they replaced the bearings in it as well to be safe. Well about 4K after it was replaced it is leaking again. The shop is telling me it is the tranny axle seal and they have tried 4 different seals of them, including aftermarket ones, but it is still leaking.

 

I don't know what to think. It looks like the leak is coming from the other side of the transmission rather than the driver side axle. Im going to take it back up today after work and have it looked at. It had better be residual oil from the work done on it or something. I will flip out man no joke.

 

If it makes you feel any better, I noticed a leak from the axle seals after I did a 2k1 tranny swap. I thought that maybe if the tranny was slightly overfilled, there might be some leakage. After a month or two (I followed it closely, including checking the tranny level), the area was dry on both sides. I never had any puddling though -- that would indicate a LOT of oil leakage in my opinion. You sure it's not motor oil? It is actually quite easy to botch a rear main seal install (I am guilty).

 

It smells like gear oil. It is just a small spot on the ground. Im leaving in a minute to go up to the shop and have them look at it. It kind of looks like its leaking from the bellhousing but I can't tell.

 

maybe an axle seal was damaged during re-installation.

 

Thats what they said. First off, they used the old f*cking seals on the used transmission. They should have used new ones. Anyway, they said the passenger axle seal is leaking and of couse the tech denies that he is at fault so I am going to have to pay for a seal. I dont know guys, the axle sits in the transmission tight and it makes absolutely no noise so maybe it is just the seal. I hope so. I have been told this before though on the last tranny.

I tell you what I have always wanted a maxima but now I don't know if I can ever buy another Nissan product again. How many people have had bad manual transmissions on these 4th gens? How can Nissan deny that there is a bad design that is at fault and not recall these things. MDeezy I seem to remember you saying that you have had a couple of trannys put in your car. I'll bet the first one didn't last 100K am I right? Mine didn't. That is ridiculous!!!! You know, knock sensors and coil packs are one thing but FAILING POWERTRAINS at 60K, 80K, 100K on a car like this??? WTF??? There is no way to rationalize this. Too many people have had to replace their manual transmissions too early!

 

on a lighter note....
Yes, that snorkel just hangs there. It does not "snap into" anything. Seems a bit odd they designed it that way, but it is a normal thing.

 

Wow, you sould exactly like I did about 5 months ago. Tranny went bad, boots were breaking, axle problems, radiator leaking, some other little stuff. I was pissed at nissan, then most of it got fixed. I am still haveing the same problem as you with the tranny though. They are denying any fault. I don't know why those seals are so hard to put in. Did they put a plastic or metal seal in there?

 

Alright, I'll get off my soapbox now.
I went out and looked at my old transmission and while I was turning it over a bearing and another unidentified sliver of metal slipped out of it.

I wonder how much gear oil you have to lose before your bearings start to spall like this one. Im worried about my newer transmission because the pass. seal is leaking now. Maxima Lover: Im not sure what type of seal is in there. I should have thought to ask them to put new seals in there from the get go but I didn't think of it.

 

how common are bad bearings on 5spds?

 

Thanks. I would have put a popcharger on there by now and gotten rid of the whole airbox but my money has been tied up in the transmission lately. Your lucky to have an auto.....I never thought I would say that but.....

 

Tranny one was almost dead when I first got the car. Now I'm on tranny 2 and it need to go. so 2 trannies crap, 3rd better be the last.

 

I have a 95 5speed. My car has a little over 146k miles, same tranny, and no leaks whatsoever....knock on wood. I've done a clutch job on it several months ago. If my tranny starts developing this, I'm putting in a 5th gen tranny. It seems like once these bearings go, it is pointless to replace them because they will never seat correctly. That is why I'd rather find a low mileage 5th gen manual tranny. Most likely, they won't have this problem.

BTW, many 4th geners who aren't boosted opted for the 5th gen clutch and PP which yielded really good results. I have a 5th gen clutch in my 4th gen. The clutch grabs noticeably better than the 4th gen clutch. Do a search in the forum, there's a huge thread about this.

 

Shockingly common.

 

I don't plan on ever putting down significantly more power than stock so I just got the 4th gen again. It grabs just fine but my old one with 98K miles on it still didn't slip at all either. Nissan actually did alright IMO with the clutch they just forgot about the tranny. You're one of the lucky ones. I would inspect your axles and axle seals every oil change if I were you though.

 

Yep...just did last weekend while I did my oil change. Everything still looks good. I am shopping for a 5th gen 5 speed now and putting that money aside so that when my tranny decides to crap out I won't be sweating it.

 

My experience is if you drive em hard the driver side diff bearing goes first, it gets loose and the seal wears and out comes the oil.

 

Your statement isnt exactly valid, why did you choose to say the driver side? I've very mildly driving my car for as long as the tranny has been slowly dying on me. Mis aligned shims, or wrong pre-load or which ever reason it is this time, happened due to me driving at speed limit like a normal person going to class or getting groceries.

 

It is definitely the drivers side that is the problem. The passenger side axle is kept axially centered by the support bracket--it doesn't see the kinds of loads on the bearings that the drivers' side does. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there is a single case where the passenger side differential carrier bearings are shot. It's not that the seal wears, it's that the free play of the axle end is too great for the seal to contain.

 

the differential bearing is inside the transmission.

 

I know it is. The axle ends interface with the carrier.

 

My leak is coming from the drivers side only. I think that is where most people have the leak.

 

Good luck man. I have had two maxima's with over 120k+ and all both had original trannies and clutches. My 98 has a new clutch in it only because I got a nitrous kit. The stock clutch was still fine when I took it out. I guess I'm one of the lucky ones to not have tranny issues. Knock on wood. I've been running nitrous with an exedy stage one clutch, and fidanza lightened flywheel with no problems at all.