I am transfering colleges and will be moving from the suburbs of Chicago into the heart of the city. With this, I will be selling my wrx for something cheaper so I dont have to make car payments. I looking at a 4th gen as a replacement but I am not sure which tranny would be better. I am well aware of performance differences and such between the two... As of now I am not sure which I want... Manual tranny because I love driving manual and the extra power/torque, or automatic because it will be easier to drive in the city/traffic.

In the end, I think the deciding factor will be reliability. While I owned my 2 prior 4th gens I head stories of 4th gen manual trannies needing to be rebuilt in many cases after 100k miles. The car I purchase will have ~ 100k miles. What tends to be more reliable to drive upto nearly 200k miles, the auto or manual?

Thanks

 

Well, my manual tranny 98 SE has survived to 140k with the original clutch, with no maintenance after the 60k dealer service. It definitely engages higher than when I bought it, but not nearly as high as the 2k2 6-spd (abused in my opinion) I drove at the Maxwell North dealer here in Austin, TX. If you are really considering a car of that age, you should assume a certain amount of maintenance, not necessarily anything specific.

All I can attest to is that my 4th gen '98 se served me flawlessly from 61025 to just under 140k miles! Would not change a thing if I coud do it over.

Good luck!

ABC

 

Go with the automatic. I've seen enough 4th gen manual trannys requiring a rebuild between 100k-150k. I have no idea how many do make it past 200k to quantify this risk though.

Dave

 

I've got 180,000 on my auto with no problems.

 

Yeah, I seem to find a good number of auto's that make it to 200k miles.

However, when I owned my 4th gen's I remember a lot of people complaining about needing a rebuild after 120k miles usually. I dont know if this was because of all the ACT clutch upgrades or just because the 4th gen tranny only lasts that long?

On average will the auto last longer?

 

My auto just died at 145k, I bought it 5k ago.

 

It's my opinion that as long as the auto tranny is properly cared for (not driven abusively, and given fresh fluid every 60k), it will easily outlast the manual tranny. There are plenty of manual trannys which have had bearing failure before 200k despite proper care for the whole life of the car.

I caution against experiences with high-mileage cars where the past maintenance history is unknown. EdgeVetto, it's not hard to imagine that a seller would have damaged the tranny and done something (slipfix, etc) to get it to run just well enough to re-sell.

Dave

 

yeah thats probaby what happened. I bought the car for $400, so I'm not suprised at all.

 

Ok if you are taking it to the city, I recommend auto. A lot easier to drive in stop and go traffic. When you consider reliability, I wouldn't know what to say cause it depends on the previous owners.

 

My 5 spd tranny went out at 159,000. The whole tranny case cracked due to the previous owner beating the hell out of it. It still drove fine before I got the new one put in. My only complaint about the 5 spd is the shifting compared to other cars. It seems to be notchy compared to most other cars i've driven with a stick. On the other hand my friend has a 97 auto with 156,00 miles and his tranny is starting to slip. I have another friend with a 96 auto with 190,000 miles and her tranny is pretty much shot. It's on it's last leg. It slips bad and doesn't shift into any gear right. I think it all depends on how they are maintained. Neither of my friends changed the fluid since they have owned them and the one made it to 190,000 miles.

 

180k on my manual, rebuilt at 165k.
Jae

 

I live in the "heart of the city" and traffic is not really annoying.... but I guess it all depends on the person. My tranny currently has 180k, my friend's tranny is on the original clutch at 170k [slipping clutch], and my brother's VQ35 4th gen is at 227k. What college are you going to anyways?

 

Bought mine with 140k on it. At around 152k now, it still shifts smoothly with no problems. My first gear seems to slip at little bit at full throttle though.

 

DePaul University.

Hmmmm..... Seems like either way I am screwed. The auto's seem to start slipping past 150k miles and the manuals seem to need to be rebuilt around the same time as well..

This sucks... The last thing I want is to shell out cash for a car and then have the tranny go on me within a year.

 

my auto tranny has 168,000 and the only thing wrong with it is the hard shifts which are common with our trannys. No slipping just hard 1-2 shifts.

 

btw, if you do go 5sp, skip the ACT clutches... they give u a real left-leg workout cuz they're heavy... add to that, my clutch engages (the meaty part) about 1/2 down the travel.

Jae

 

My auto tranny is original, and has had the fluid replaced only once. I also am a very very hard driver (full throttle starts at least 10 times a day). Ive got about 250K on it

 

My 5 speed manual has 110K on it and shows no sign of wear. I have simply changed the oil, brakes, and coolant. I expect the car to last another 100K easily...

 

Oh Yah, and the spark plugs...

 

Is the hard 1-2 shift just the nature of our trannies or is it a sign of bad things? I have an auto and the hard 1-2 shift has me terrified that this is the start of the end of my tranny. Are you suggesting that my tranny is probably perfectly fine and that this is just how our trannies shift?

I have 138k mi on mine and everything else about the tranny is fine. I drive it normally with infrequent hard accelerations.

I would love to hear that the hard 1-2 shift is normal for our cars. Can anyone confirm?

 

It seems there are more auto's lasting longer than manuals.

I really do not like driving auto though. I guess we will see what pops up. If I can find a lower mileage (100k) 5psd I will jump on it. Otherwise, in the mean time I am going to try and find a Prelude.. but in the end, because a low mileage 5spd in my price is hard to find and a good condition prelude in my price is hard to find I very well may end up with a 4th gen auto for my city beater.

I guess I could alway throw in an intake and ypipe though to make it a bit more enjoyable while having an auto tranny.

 

My 2000 maxima had a bearing failure at 59k and ANOTHER failure at 100k.

 

wow....2 failures?

 

Yep, and the tranny put in at 59k miles was a brand new factory tranny. Only lasted 41k miles and it had synthetic gear oil in it as well.

 

I suppose it wasnt covered by warranty huh?

 

1st time it was, 2nd time it wasn't.

 

i have 192k on my car on original 5 speed AND original clutch.
previous owner was a middle aged lady who drove all highway.

the maxima 5 speed manual overall is quite smooth. the only b1tch i have is its such a long throw.

the worst manual shifter was my old car, the matrix xrs 6speed. it was never smooth.

i drive in the city and have no problems w/ a manual. its great. in fact, i like it more than an auto, b/c u never have to worry about the car lurching on u.

 

Got 300k on my 3rd Gen. automatic. Hopefully, my 4th Gen automatic will go as far.

 

138K on my auto tranny 98 GXE, it still shifts perfectly, but seems to hold 2nd gear too long sometimes. do i need to have it flushed???

 

Flushing would not hurt, but it may NOT help because the trannies made for the 97-98's all had that same problem.

NOTE: if yours does not, consider yourself lucky.

Before I bought my present '98 I30, I test-drove a different but essentially identical '98 I30 (same color, too) with about 5k less in mileage. That car also had 1-2 shift problems (lags, shudders) like my current car, but a whole lot worse.

I learned to live with it and avoid it by (1) modulating my pressure on the gas pedal, (2) turning off the O/D at speeds below 30mph, and (3) sometimes manually shifting from 1st to 2nd.

You probably have noticed that the 1-2 lag is minimal when accelerating slowly versus more spirited acceleration.

I am wondering whether a switch to a lower stall speed torque converter and/or getting a valve body mod might get rid of that lag.

I've been told by a number of Nissan mechanics that the torque converter is the culprit and not the transmission gears themselves.

 

my 98 se auto has 118,000 miles on it and shifts like it was brand new, my 98 5spd im guessing the tranny needs to be rebuilt it has 181,000 miles on it. leaks and makes some horrible rubbing/grinding noise. But it has the original clutch and engine so it is reliable. But other then that you will find the 5spd is like 100x more fun and who cares about how heavy the clutch pedal is, my 5spd clutch pedal is as heavy as a 5.0 liter mustang. no clue why i can only assume its the amount of miles on the clutch and the springs require more force to seperate it.