jas1203

'95 SE Auto, 226,470 miles Original Transmission

For the past 5000 miles or so, the transmission has been acting funny, but only when it's cold. For instance, it would jitter the car when you were coasting at about 40 after letting off the gas. Sometimes it wouldn't want to kick down from overdrive without really stepping on it, the tach would fluctuate when coasting in overdrive, or it would constantly switch between 3rd and 4th while coasting. On a couple of occasions, it was like it never dropped back to first at a stop and it felt like I was accelerating in 2nd (or once, I think it was 3rd...I had to floor it to move and it accelerated slowly). Lately, it would also have a lack of power in reverse when cold...I would have to use half throttle or more to back up the driveway. A bunch of quirky stuff, I guess. It would almost always be fine after a mile of driving, though.

Today I left the driveway and it was acting much worse It went through first, and seemed to skip 2nd and 3rd all together and went straight into OD. I could tell something definitely wasn't right as just looking at the tach the RPM was all over the place. I slowly stopped at the end of my road and it stalled as soon as I hit the brakes. Put it in neutral and restarted, as soon as I shifted to any gear other than Park or Neutral it would die. Put it in neutral and pushed it back out of the way of the end of the road, restarted it and it went into drive, so I headed home...and the transmission acted fine.

I just bought an 04 Outback H6, so I'm not too concerned with fixing this, but if it might be something other than a blown transmission, I might as well look into it. I imagine it's gone (or very close to it), but I'm sure someone has more expertise than I do here! At this point, I think if I took it anywhere it could potentially act perfectly fine, or it would do something similar to what it did today...so I'm not going to chance it.

So, what say you, maxima.org?

chrome91

iTrader: (1)

check your fluid, if the fluid level and colour is good, try manually shifting from 1st to 2nd. that should tell you if it can still go to 2nd

when i blew my 3rd gens tranny it was unfortunately doing stuff similar to like what yours is doing

jas1203

Thanks for the reply!

Fluid level is perfect and cherry red. I know it will still go into second because it did on my way back home. If I manually shift from 1st to 2nd, it will do it but it's an extremely rough shift.

I imagine it's toast, but I guess there's a chance something else could be the cause.

Weird thing is it's worst when cold (usually perfect when warm, actually), and some days it is perfect but others it will have issues. This was by far the worst, though...I thought I was going to have to have it towed.

asand1

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like your solenoids. Not an auto trans expert, but sounds like it. The stalling would be a stuck TC lock-up solenoid.

jas1203

That sounds promising. I'd say most of the issues it has arise when it's gone into 4th gear...fluctuating revs, jittering when you let off the gas, not wanting to kick down, and often, you'll hit the gas when it's in 4th and the revs will climb immediately, but it takes it a few seconds to actually move it, and when the power kicks in, the revs drop back down. Things like that have been going on for quite a while, though...5000 miles, give or take.

This was the first time it's actually been anything more than an annoyance. When it stalled at the end of the road, that really surprised me...and it bothered me even more when I restarted it and it would stall trying to go in any gear. I actually pushed the gas down to about half throttle (figured nothing to lose) while going from neutral to drive when it did this, and it still just stalled instantly...didn't budge at all. For some reason, rolling it back in neutral seemed to temporarily solve that, but I don't want to drive it any distance because while that was the first time, I'm sure it won't be the last.

asand1

iTrader: (1)

From what Ive read here and there it could be hardened seals in the solenoids, piston/servos, or just plain sticking solenoids. I've also heard, although not on Maximas, of loosened valve body bolts allowing pressure to leak past gaskets. Dunno about electrical gremlins, but possible I guess.

I would try, in this order;
-fluid/filter change (NO FLUSH) and re-torque VB bolts
-conditioner
-(known good, used) solenoid pack

Test drive between steps to see if the problem is solved. If you wanna try new solenoids, there is a TSB with a lower cost part# than the regular replacement part. You'll have to ask around here or search, I dunno the TSB# or part#.

This is why I got mine with a 5MT. Don't like electronic autos.