I recently purchased a 98 Maxima SE, black, 32K miles, excellent condition. I have read some comments in auto magazines and on this forum about the less than fluid shifting with the automatic in this gen. of maximas. I had noticed this myself, even before reading about these complaints. My Max pulls wonderfully in first gear all the way to redline, but when second gear jerks in, the revs go dead and acceleration feels very flat for a bit until the revs build again. Also, when punching it at 40-50mph, I find it difficult to get this thing to downshift in sufficient time. it just seems to want to hold the high gear. Maybe I'm just used to my 5spd MX-6. Despite these flaws, I love the car! Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

 

I think we (automatic owners) have all experienced this. Nature of the beast unfortuantely. I think Don's Valve Body mod will make the shifts a lot more snappy from what I understand. A transmisson cooler might help to keep fluid temps lower. I tend to manually shif the gear lever around to keep it in gear longer. It's a great car, and will take a ton of abuse. I've got 93k relatively hard (higher speed) miles on mine and it has had no problems other than the usual wear and tear (brakes & tires).

 

Hjerrod - I think you are just used to your old MX-6. Anything in particular make you want to switch from manual to automatic? Personally, in my recent car shoppage in the past few months, I wasn't even considering automatic maxis or legends (the two sedans in my list).

Like the_quorum said, the VB mod might help somewhat (from what I've read on other posts), but it sounds like you're looking for advantages a manual transmission can provide in a car that's an automatic.

 

THe VB will speed shifts, but does nothing for the hesitation to downshift, thats a Maxima TCM problem. As for the lack of power right after the shift? The VQ is MUCH more powerful after about 2600 RPMs. Under that it lags a little bit.