I have a 1996 manual transmission with over 150k. A few weeks ago i noticed a noise coming from the clutch or transmission at all times except when the stick was in neutral and clutch depressed. The noise was a spinning/clicking noise. The transmission was loud (could hear gears moving almost) all the time, especially when downshifting for turns and letting the clutch back out.

Today, I did a hard 1-2 shift and something happened. It was not a smooth shift and i dont know if I messed it up or if it wasnt smooth because of the tranny but afterwards, I put the car in neutral as i approached a stop sign. Once i was stopped I could not get back into first gear. I was trying to jam the shifter in but no budge. 2nd gear wouldnt work either. I slipped the clutch and started in 3rd. I fooled around with the shifter, wiggling it etc. and got itback into 1st and 2nd. I tried driving home but then it broke again. Along the way home mostly 1st and 2nd were broken but every couple of minutes somehow the gears opened back up.

THings to consider:

1st and 2nd are broken at the same time or work at the same time. 1st doesnt work without 2nd and vice versa, but all other gears work fine.

The shifter feels awkward now, as if the positions of the gears is different, like the tranny mount broke or something. When first and 2nd dont work it feels like the cogs are not even there, like i am trying to push the stick somewhere it is not supposed to go.

The shifter is notchier in all the other gears as well.
Lastly, I have a b&m short shifter. I dont think this is the problem though because I have had it for 2 years and so far its been good.

Is my transmission screwed? How much does it cost for a new one and is it hard to find a manual tranny replacement? Can mine be rebuilt? What kind of damage am i looking at, physically on the car and financially?

 

It depends what broke, but if it works intermittently I think you have something inside that broke and is blocking the 1-2 shift mechanism.

Get it checked out right away - they will need to take it apart to fix anything, but there is a good chance it can be repaired without doing a full or major rebuild.

Dave

 

I got word from the mechanic that the transmission has internal damage and needs to be removed to be diagnosed. They are charging $720 for removing and putting the tranny back in, plus whatever parts they need to rebuild it. They said an estimate would be 1200-1800 total to rebuild based on whats broken.

Does any of that sound reasonable? Should I bring it somewhere else? The problem is the car is stuck in Ithaca, NY where I go to college and I dont know where to bring it.

 

It will have to come out for diagnosis, no question. I rebuilt me max's 5spd tranny a few years back after the same grinding noise you described. It was the input shaft bearing. I didn't let it get any further than that before fixing it, though, so no 1-2 problems for me.

Total parts cost for me (I did all the work) was about $600 but that included new clutch and axles, plus new seals for the axles plus input seal and engine rear main seal.

I messed it up the first time because a c-clip on 4th came loose on the test drive, so I had to open it up again. Second re-install showed up a leak. from the input seal. The reason I'm telling you this embarrasing story is that on the 3rd removal/installation I was able to get the tranny out of the car in 1.5 hours from driving into the shop to putting the tranny on the bench. 2.5 hours to reinstall. I don't know what the book quotes, but it sounds like he is billing you for like 10 or 12 hours. First time I ever pulled the max tranny it took me 6 hours out, 6 hours back in. I'm sure a professional can do better than that!

Plus, unless you have ripped that thing to pieces inside there's no reason it should cost more than a couple hundred in parts and labor - and only if they have to start pulling gears, dogteeth and synchros off the shaft. Bearings cost about $20 each. 1-2 is on the same fork, so there's a few things that could have gone wrong, mostly simple, but I don't see $1800.

I say run away, get a 2nd opinion. Sounds very high to me. I didn't have the 1-2 problem you have, but mine only needed a $20 bearing to fix it. I'll begt you have a piece of the inpujt shaft bearing race jamming the 1-2 fork.


I'd expect them to charge 5 hours tops to r&r and only about 3 hours to open it up and replace the bad bearing, clear all the gunk out adn recheck the endplay as they put it pack.. About $200 in parts. At $70/hr labor that would come to 800-ish. certainly no $1800.

 

yeah that happened to me, all sudden when i was driving to work i lost 1st and 2nd gear, mine was a cause of bad clutch fork, it cost about $1200 for my transmission to get rebuilt, bad clutch, bad bearnings

 

However bear in mind that $400 of that $1200 is for a new clutch assembly. $1200 for the tranny alone is too much.

OP: While the transmission is off you might as well spend the money to replace the clutch assembly, resurface the flywheel and replace the rear main seal. (unless it has already been done in the last 30k) That's what I did while fixing my transmission. If he charged you $1200 and that included the clutch and rear main seal then I'd say it's a good deal.

 

I would say to shop around first and make sure that the mechanics know Nissan. A ford dealer may be the wrong place I agree that the flywheel and clutch should also be inspected. If these are at all worn, it will cost you bigger in the end.

 

The input shaft bearings might be $20/ea, but the other roller bearings on the diff and mainshaft are not as cheap. In any case, I would hope the tranny shop is smart enough to be replacing all 6 of the shaft bearings. If they're really smart, they'll also measure the endplays and reshim the tranny.

The rebuild part might be as low as $200 in parts. Dunno how much labor other shops require, perhaps 3-4 hours if they have everything onhand.

I'm just speaking about the rebuild of the tranny once it's off the car. I know i"m slow at pulling trannys, so I won't comment there.

I agree to get a second opinion, but without seeing all the line items in the estimate it's hard to say if the price is good or not.

Dave

 

Don't let the shop open your tranny and then tell you how much of the total charge would be.

I got ripped of by AAMCO in this way.

 

Tough situation you're in. I paid $200 for labor to replace my tranny. As stated above, it took 1.5-2.0 hrs to take out the tranny, and much quicker re-installing.
I took my old tranny to a rebuild shop and they quoted me for $450 parts/labor [cash, out the door price, 6month warranty] to "rebuild", whatever that meant. They wouldn't be more specific. I said screw it and went on car-parts.com, called a few local places and had a tranny at my mechanic's shop the next day. Been about 4k since then and no probs, except the shifter sits a lil farther back (I got a 2k1 tranny with 59k miles).

Jae

 

I spoke to them again today and they said it is 10 hours of work to take it out, replace as many parts that need replacing, and rebuilding. I then called the Nissan dealer to see how many hours they would take and they said 15, so i left it at the first place.

Hopefully it will get done quicker. They are taking the tranny out tommorow so i should know by the end of the day what went wrong.

 

I'm glad you didn't leave it at the dealer.

I've seen trannys that were done by a dealer with parts in the wrong place, check ***** rolling around inside, etc. Scary stuff, considering they have the same damn manual I do.

I suggest you have them call you as soon as the tranny is apart and they can get you an accurate estimate. Then you can decide if you want the gearbox rebuilt or another one put in. If you decide to have it rebuilt, HAVE THEM REMEASURE THE SHIMS. In many cases that wasn't done right from the factory.

Dave

 

I lost my 1st + 2nd Gear over the weekend. I have 140k on orig 5 spd trans. It has been leaking and bearing whine (skateboard noise) for the past 40-45k. The leak started as just a very small one. But the past month or 2 it has been extremely bad. Also a few weeks ago it got stuck in 1st gear. I was able to get it out and continue onto the highway on-ramp... guess it was trying to warn me. A local shop wants to charge me approx $2,000 to replace the bearings and seals and all that jazz to rebuild it. I used to think of maximas as awesome reliable cars.. recommending them to friends and stuff. Seems sadly thats not the case. This bearing problem seems to be like a plague on these 4th gens. Pretty sad.
Anyways, I'm trying to find a reman or low mileage VLSD 5 spd to throw in here. Seems that will cost 2k about or cheaper and I will get more out of it instead of just rebuilding my current trans to its original state. What year I30's can this interchange with? Also would it be crazy to ask the shop to rebuild my trans as a vlsd? As in, get the parts for the vlsd trans from the dealer or wherever they are getting it from and they will have no trouble putting it together as a vlsd? I'm not trying to hijack this guys thread, I feel this would be useful info to him as well, because ya man. Your going to have to make these same decisions very soon heh. Sux

 

!!! That's about 40-45k more miles than anyone should ever drive on a problem. I'm surprised you didn't at least get it checked out.

Well if you drive on anything for 40k with bad bearings, pretty much everything inside will end up as junk. Worn bearings leave the gears out of position, which if they don't break will wear very rapidly. The output gear and mainshaft pinion will be shot for sure - that's $500 in parts alone.

Yep. You'd need new housings and differential. That would cost more than a brand new VLSD tranny from Nissan.

Yeah, unfortunately a lot of the factory 5 speeds don't last the life of the car. But if you take care of it when the problem first surfaces, the costs will be a lot lower.

Dave

 

Well, I got the car back today. It drives MUCH better than it ever did since Ive owned it. I used to hear the gears and the transmission made a whirring noise that varied with speed and rpm. Now it drives really smoothly with only intake and exhaust noises and the new clutch feels great.

I replaced the input shaft bearing, which was the part that originally failed and took out everything else with it. The other parts that got damaged were the 1st and 2nd gear synchros, 1-2 synchro hub, 3 synchro sliders, and a new hub gear.

While it was apart I replaced the clutch pack and machined the flywheel. The total damage was $720 labor, $450 parts for the transmission and $260 for clutch and flywheel machining, so $1430 total.

I may have been able to get it cheaper somewhere else but I think they did a good job and were honest, which is worth something to me. Lets hope for no more serious repairs for my car.

 

Well, my plan was to drive it till it failed, then get a VLSD trans put in. Well it failed.. and after a week of the car being ripped apart in the shop, and the shop + me + 3 other shops looking for a used, rebuilt, new, anything, VLSD trans and none can be found. So they are just going to rebuild my crappy open diff trans. They said they are going to replace the parts that failed with gears that will make it 430 gears? Currently they said its 383 gears. They said it will help my 1/4 and make the car much faster. Something with a pinion gear having 13 and them putting one with 17 on it or visa versa? I dunno but whatever. I never heard of anyone doing this on the .org but that doesn't mean nobody did it. I have no idea where these gears are coming from or from what car. I am very bummed about not having vlsd though. Extremely bummed. So bummed in fact that I think I am done with maximas. Going to get something else to play with in the spring and strip the nitrous out of my max and just use it for basic transportation...a 'pooper' if you will.
"ep, gotta get some grocerys, guess I'll take the pooper!" Unbelievable I can't locate a vlsd. I searched for 95-99 max 96-99 I30 and 01 Max trans when I was calling around and thats what I had the shops looking for. What a rip. Total trans over hall and after approx $1800 I'm going to be back to my one wheel wonder. I can only pray that this will be the last major repair I do on this car, and that it lasts at least another 100k.

 

You can buy a brand new vlsd for just a few hundred more.

 

From where? Japan? The nissan dealer had 1. It was in japan and they said it would take a few weeks before they could get it to me. Over a week my car has been down while this easter egg hunt went on for a vlsd and with no luck, I finally had to tell the shop to just get it working because I need my car man.
Can't find any vlsd anywhere.

 

That man trying to rip your ***** off

 

I don't know what the lead time/availability for it is, but it's $1896 from here:
http://www.trademotion.com/partlocat...97&catalogid=1

That guy is not necessarily trying to rip you off. It costs that much to rebuild a tranny with broken internals when you don't have a good core. Each gear or shaft is a couple hundred bucks. The cost also depends on how risky the rebuilder feels w.r.t. reusing slightly damaged parts.

Dave

 

Thanks for the search but its a little too late now. Would end up costing me too much anyway. The trans you found is probably 2k shipped + 200 for clutch + 100 for flywheel + 400 labor. Add tax and misc fluid and disposal fees and all that BS I'm looking probably at least at $3,000 for a freaking trans. The max probably isn't even worth 3k.

Any info on this 4.295 gears this ship says they are putting in? I am real curious about that.

 

Higher reduction means your engine will run a slightly higher rpm for a given speed. This will bring down your highway fuel economy. But you'll get a little more torque. By comparison the ratio change will bring your highway cruising rpm up a few hundred. IMHO, it's not a big deal for a street car, because when you want power you're going to downshift 1-2 whole gears. If you take it to the strip and run against a clock, yes it should help.

I think because your max is a 97, that it will use the mechanical speed sensor that will read the new speed/rpm properly without any adjustment.

Dave

 

ya if I was told that price from a mechanic just to fix the trans im better off just buying a used trans for like half that price. Ebay got a few good used 5pd trans im looking at because im trying to convert.