I was messing around the other night seeing how well the car could shift....and I found out that this car can do some pretty cool ****z.

Try this

Get on a pretty flat strech of pavement and get the car up to 25 miles per hour and leave the car in second gear. The car will go forever and even go up some good hills at about 17 miles per hour without even putting your foot on the gas. Do you think that is normal? The engine would be turning at 400 rpm and still pulling that car up some good hills (at a snails pace) and I was even able to make some turns while going uphill without touching the gas. Wouldn't most cars just die if you tried doing this to them.

Another thing I tried was putting the car in fourth gear and get the car to go as slow as the car will go without killing it....and WOT her until you crapz in your pants. It is amazing that this car can be at 300 rpms and go to 6000 rpms and have the mph go from 15 - 120 pretty quick without even shifting.

 

while i didn't try the fourth gear thing, once when I was pulling out of a parking lot and was fumbling around for things and forgot to depress the clutch as the rpms dropped. The car just kept moving, slowly but moving nonetheless. I thought 5spds (all not just max's) normally die if your are in first gear and don't clutch when RPMS drop to low. I thought my car was possessed or something.

 

defenetly need to get another hobbie...

 

You are experiencing the "uncontrollable throttle" feature inherient on all 5th gen Maximas. I have explained this numerous times before here under the fuel cut problems, but our car does not like to slow down on its own under an unloaded condition and will exhibit such behavior mentioned. The easiest way to see the uncontrollable throttle is to drive to 45 MPH in 4th gear and let go of the gas... watch how the rpm's will not decrease until about 10 seconds or so pass. This also causes the bucking "fuel cut" in 1st gear with constant pressure being held @ 1600 rpm since the car actually keeps accelerating on its own at this point and then drastically cuts all the fuel the second you try to release pressure from the gas. Nissan claims all of this is "normal", of course.

Dave Z

 

Before I bought my car, I was reading all the Maxima reviews I could find. I found one (can't remember the source) that said the Maxima could start out in 5th without even juttering. I haven't tried it nor do I plan on it, but it suprisingly smooth at low rpms (compared to other sticks I've driven).

 

Fuel cut, uncontrollable throttle...whatever. There is nothing wrong with the way the five speeds responds to the throttle, in fact all fuel-injected manuals will respond the same, such as holding the throttle at a rpm sitting in your driveway. The unloading you describe happens in all gears including fifth, the reason you notice the abrupt change is first gear and its geared with large output gearing to allow the engine to have a large amount of leverage, any input into the tranny (input shaft or out) will have a large amount of leverage on the vehicle causing the bucking your complaining about. Use second gear in the parking lots or when cruising for hookers, and feather the clutch. With a little practice you can anticipate the change over and compensate.

 

Yikes... hope there's not another "unintended acceleration" lawsuit like the one that almost killed Audi.

 

I tried the start off in 5th thing...worked wonderfully. No studders or anything. I love this car!!
I've noticed the car seems to like to stay at around 15-25 mph with no throttle..I like it like that, but haven't noticed any fuel-cut stuff in first, or any gear for that matter.

 

I found the source for the "...pulling away in 5th gear from rest...". It's in the Road & Track June 1999 issue. An article on the 2000 SE.