After driving in rush hour traffic my transmission doesn't like to hook up. From a dead stop it will start to go and then it will finally fall completely into gear, like I had a slipping clutch... but its an auto. Is this a bad torque converter or is it just the tranny is overheated.

 

Check the fluid level, drop the pan and clean the screen and change the fluid. If that doesn't help you probably need a rebuild.

 

I'm sorry to break it to you, but maxima auto trannys are complete crap. it's almost like it's built to NOT compensaite for the power of the engine. I'm willing to bet you'll need a rebuild, and if you keep her long enough, you'll need another trans all together.

 

Mine did the same thing a month or two ago, to the point where I had to manually shift it to get any kind of smoothness out of the ride - taking off in D was like doing an N-drop every single time.

Got it rebuilt, it's a lot better now but still has some roughness in the 1-2 shift. 5 speed swap soon, so I don't really care all that much about it.

 

5 speed is always the way to go. My auto gave me so many problems, then i payed for a rebuild, 2200...i did my manual swap for a little more than 900. The 5 speed is sooo much better than the auto, in reliability and performance.

-Freddy

 

Wow, not what I wanted to hear. Time to look for a 5 spd. The car only has 70k on it though, could a transmission really go bad that fast? I drive it kinda hard but I've only had it since 63k, and I bought it from an old lady. WTF?

 

The old lady was the 20 year old crazy driver's grandma

 

The auto tranny's are far far from crap. Mine is all original with 300,000+KM on it and it still shifts very smoothly.. Abuse it and it won't last.. pretty much like any other tranny. With the Maximas I have come across some mild issues like slight hesitation in engaging when slowing down (without coming to a stop) and then accelerating but every car I've owned with an automatic transmission has had a small quirk or two.

 

It shifts fine otherwise, its just that start up doesn't hook up properly.

 

where did you do the swap? didi you have all the patrs and tranny? how much was everything?
my tranny so fricking slow when shifting! it stays at 4000rpms when i press on the gas just normally(slowly accelerate) from a stop. it is really annoying.
Im a new max owner with a 95 with about 80k mi on it. got it for $3700 but there are a lot of problems coming up all the time. the tranny however is the most irritating. if I flore it it goes pretty good butit still has to think about what it has to do for abot a couple of seconds.
Im sorry, mayby I am used to my 300ZX TT but this seems rather odd.

 

Well I reset the ECU and it seemed to wipe away the problem. Maybe the computer was just being retarded, like it always is. I'll keep an eye on it.
If the tranny was going bad it wouldn't act normal ever would it? It would act like crap all the time right? Warmed up, cold, shifting 1-2 as well as 2-3 and 3-4, 1/4 throttle all the way to WOT, or am I mistaken?

 

it might seem like a stupid question buthow do you reset your ECU
Ijust got my max a month ago

 

How do you reset ECU?

 

My Maxima (1997) is automatic and the tranny has never given me any problems. My car has 114,000 miles on it the tranny shifts as smooth as the day I bought her. As long as you keep up with the tranny oil changes, she should go the distance.

I love my Max!!!