allright, got car inspected today and passed with no issues except one. lower crossmember, ( rad support ) is getting close to needing replacement. now, here's the decision and question: my tranny's been slipping and mis-shifting or " flash " shifting in first to second, and second to third but not bad yet. i know to do the trans you have to drop the motor which intails removing the bad lower support. the trans job was going to cost me around 1,200 for a low mileage one, since he is going to have to tear it apart will it be easier and cheaper to do both at the same time??? i've been worried about the trans and i'm not sure if i want to keep her if i gotta spend another 2,000 even with all the repairs and mods i've done. i love this car to death, but its a major decision right here. its got 173,000 on her, and she runs pretty good most of the time. i have time, since trans still seems to be ok and rad support imo still feels pretty strong b4 doing this to her. how much to do both repairs at same time, and is 2,000 about right for both. anyone with extensive knowledge of this please step in, hints suggestions, advice welcome from expierienced engine guru's only as i'm not onto wasting time and money right now. also, anyone near collegeville pa, ie philly, main line that could help, please let me know. thanks waaaayyy in advance..

 

the crossmember and the rad support are two different parts. which one exactly is bad on your car? i'm guessing it's the lower radiator support as the crossmember is very easy to change. the radiator support does not have to be removed to drop the engine and tranny, but the crossmember definitely does.

for what it's worth, I just paid $200 to have my lower radiator support re-welded, because the point at which the crossmember bolts up to it had ripped off and separated after slowly tearing over time. If they want to charge you $1200 for the tranny work, I would try to talk them down to about $1700 for everything if you can. There are a bunch of spot welds holding the lower rad support in place so it will be some labor. The OEM part from nissan costs only about $150. so, if you can have them agree to $500 for parts and labor on the lower rad support, I think that's more than fair - I had my entire front end rebuilt in '06 and the total labor was $1000 which included painting and straightening of the frame.

Take my advice. be SURE to have them order an OEM NISSAN rad support. The guys who did mine went cheap on the parts and installed an aftermarket one. It started to crack after a year and completely broke a few weeks ago. Good luck man.

 

you can get a trans with lo milage cheap from www.car-part.com

 

If you get a used low-mileage trans it isn't nearly as expensive. I would say to go ahead and keep the car seeing how Maximas easily last up to 300k miles. So long as it's running good of course.

 

how do you know if you have a locking differential or not??? can you give them the code off the firewall or just tell them how many bolts are on the pan??

 

i bought my 01 AE 5spd tranny on car-part.com
you can know its locking diff get the number to where the tranny is located and call and get the VIN and search it on carfax and if it doesnt say ANNIVERSARY EDITION THEN ITS NOT dat is how i did it

 

Do what?

 

pmohr, what is that??? i asked for helpful responses only. not stupid little quips like that. if you know so much, how about a helpful response. what i'm tryin to figure out since my rad support is rusted is if it would be easier to replace the trans and support at the same time, thats all. and from what i gather from other orgers responses, it might be. if you've done this, any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

You dont have to drop the motor to replace the trans. That is what he was talking about.

 

Here's a helpful response: trans can come out seperately, you don't have to drop the motor...I can't imagine why anyone would believe such a thing

 

yes, i knew that. i was tired and was'nt paying attention to what i typed. but the rad support will be easier to do with the trans is all i was asking. thanks>>>>

 

I believe that the whole bumper assembly needs to come off if you are going to replace the whole lower rad support. See if a body shop will just do a spot repair and fix the sections that is bad.