drsprite

I'm driving along last night... I was at a stop sign and I gave it gas to get it going, and it went to shift from 2nd to 3rd (automagic) and it bucked pretty hard... I've been having bucking problems all week... except this one was different, it just felt different, it skipped my CD... I was fine until I was at the next red light. Light turned green and the car wouldn't move. No matter how much gas I gave it, it sat there. Finally it kicked in a little and I was able to get it off the road.

I had it towed to the dealer this morning for them to look at it.

I had the data dot recall and the cam shaft recall last month, would this have something to do with the transmission acting up and finally failing itself?

I'm still waiting for the dealer to call and let me know what the exact problem is with the car. I'm stranded at home because they couldn't give me a loaner.

drsprite

OKay, so the dealer just called. It's the transmission that broke... It's going to be a week at minimum to get it out to the shop and installed.

They are going to do a swap. Out with the old, in with the new. The longest part is for the transmission to ship.

Time to get a rental for a week!

Any ideas on the cam shaft recall messing it up?

NT2SHBBY

yup...happened to me bro 3 weeks ago....11k miles and boom, gone.....replaced with brand new crated tranny

nissan pays for rental if you have extended warranty, also, FYI

CBass69187

iTrader: (4)

Was the SES light on?

Do you mean crank position sensor recall?


At least the dealer is not going to hassle you with replacing it. If you need a car and the Nissan dealer won't give you one, you could rent a compact for pretty cheap for a week.

drsprite

Yeah they checked and apparently I didn't buy the extended warranty when I rolled it off the lot. Go figure! Oh well, I know someone who knows someone who owns a franchise of Enterprise, and he's going to get me a car for $20/day... shouldn't be too bad... still sucks though

drsprite

The SES light didn't come on. Yeah, I had it wrong, the crank sensor...

Thankfully, no hassles... the service manager said he's going to call Nissan for the authorization to do the work and when they get the OK they are going to order it. Once they receive it "I'll have one of my techs drop what he's doing and slap it in for you to get you back on the road..."

[maxi-overdose]

iTrader: (3)

It should be about a 4-hour labor or less once they got the tranny. I have seen ppl took out their auto tranny in their our garage in less than 4 hours.

sorry to hear about your old tranny. Glad that you are still under warranty. I just went over 60k last week and hopefully she will live.

drsprite

I was surprised when he called me.. He said he had to get authorization from Nissan Corp to do the swap because they aren't a transmission shop so they can't diagnose it to the exact broken part... so I'm going to be getting a new transmission out of the deal... not too shabby.

It should be covered under the warranty too.

[maxi-overdose]

iTrader: (3)

usually broken engine and tranny parts are going back to Nissan HQ for diagnose to test its strength to see if it is a weak component or it just received too much power (better hide the N20 bottle if you have one) .

maybe not for a rebuilt, but the dealer can definitly do the swap for sure. They just need nissan USA to ok the warranty work. Keep in mind, dealer usually doesnt consider warranty work as 1st priority because 1. they dont make any money of the parts, nissan is going to "give" the parts to them. 2. They dont make any money of the labor from Nissan USA. Nissan has already determined the reasonable amount of time for a swap like this. They will actually lose money if the tech is too slow.

drsprite

I haven't received a hassle, and they said I'll have it back next monday. He said 5 business days to ship, and once they get it, it's mine practically... so we'll see.

No NOS here... only mod I have are the anniversary door sills and a FSTB...

trey

What is with are trannies?? Are we all gonna blow a tranny before we hit 50k or what?

Mass_Media

I am almost at 40k and my tranny is still running like a champ

drsprite

better knock on some wood

GuZo

iTrader: (6)

I don't know why the dealer didn't offer a rental, my dealer offered me one when my tranny was in there for the 3rd gear grindn I don't have extended warranty either. He told me that if the car is there for over 24 hours, they usually give rentals.

drsprite

I don't know why either.. it's all good though, I have a ford focus for $20/day... hehe, it's better than nothing, and at $20/day you can't beat that... I guess *shrug*

GimmeTorq

drsprite, how many miles in your '02? Man, all these trannies bitting the dust lately are making me nervous... I did drain and fill the AT with Mobil 1 at 14k and planning to do another one this summer (expecting to be around ~25k). I hope this preventive maintenance helps because I'll be running out of warranty by Sept of this year...

Ferbs02SMMax

Welcome to the club. Mine blew a few months ago as well. Same symptoms as your car. You are owed a rental/loaner for duration of repairs. I don't exactly know why they are denying you this. And as far as them not having a car to give you, dollars to donuts, they have a gazillion Sentra's sitting in some lot, you figure it out.

Nissan transmissions = Crap

Bright side is now I get to track the car knowing the tranny is fresh.

KLOOGY

iTrader: (12)

Welcome to blown tranny club...

drsprite

22k miles... and no rental.. I'm paying for it myself

I should get the max back next Wednesday they said... possibly Tuesday

drsprite

So I called my dealership to find out what the status of my car was. Turns out the Parts Mgr got a delivery date of my transmission for April 11. APRIL 11! Argh... There's a "National Backorder on Maxima transmissions"... so they said they can try to get me a rental... try? So I hung up with them, and called Nissan USA Consumer Affairs and placed a formal complaint.

I spoke to a nice rep there and she asked what was wrong, so I told her I was without a car and I was denied a rental car at the dealer and I've been paying for my own rental.. yada yada yada... and she said she was going to see what was up. She confirmed the backorder on transmissions, and said she is going to call to get me authorization on a rental. I explained to her that I've been paying for my own rental, and that I'd like to be reimbursed. She is going to look into it and call me back.

I'm so frustrated with Nissan right now, it's unbelievable. This transmission problem has really set me over the top. The past incidents I just let go. I can't do that with this one.

Ferbs02SMMax

It's still beyond me how you were not given a loaner car by the dealer. A known manufacturer defect (weak AT) causes you to be out of your car, they go ahead and warranty the repairs (AT part delay notwithstanding) and they leave you out in the cold on a loaner. That is beyond reprehensible.

When they warranteed my trans repair, at first they gave me static about it being Saturday 1pm, Enterprise being closed , but my woman hissed a fit and cackled at them for about 15 minutes before they brought out a Sentra loaner and gave me the keys to it.

It sucks that you have to complain, but man, this is beyond ridiculous.

For all you 5th gen AT guys with slipping AT, surging between gears, hard 1-2 shifts even at 30% throttle, get ready to get bent over when its your tranny's turn to die. A part delay of 2+ weeks for an AT is bs! Good luck guys.

Fernando.

Nyc2kMax

Welcome to blown tranny club...
mine went at 52K (shifting hard from 1 to 2 )...
hey you're like family now

03SheerMax

Wow maxima.org with these tranny problems is starting to sound alot like Acura-TL.com forums.

NizanDrivn

I hope mine doesn't go....

I try to avoid flooring it from a dead stop....Usually when I punch-it, its from 30 or above....Are the trannies more prone to going if subjected to hard accel???....

What is Nissan changing in the "new" trannies???....

drsprite

heh, thanks. Unfortunatly I've been in the family for a little while.

New trannies are covered under warranty work. Well, at least mine is. And so will the rental car I'm fighting Nissan Corp for.

Nathan

iTrader: (28)

What exactly are the symptoms we should be looking for if we haven't yet blown our tranny? Lately I've been noticing harder 1-2 shifts and the surging you talked about at higher gears/ higher speeds. Could this be a sign of a dying tranny? I have a '02 btw.

Also, how long is the tranny warrantied for? I am at 64,000km's.

drsprite

I think the symptoms are somewhere in this thread... but hard shifting, or higher RPM shifting than normal and then that bucking feeling... that's all bad signs.

But, if you're pounding it to the floor and experience this, I'm sure the tranny might be in sport mode or whatever and shift differently.

I experienced these symptons during everyday stop and go.... then it bucked, and wouldn't go again.

Nathan

iTrader: (28)

Yeah I've been only experiencing these when I pound it. Under normal driving everything seems normal.

Do you know how many miles or kilometers the tranny is warrantied for?

drsprite

5 years, 50k miles?

Not sure though... anyone else know?

FanaticMadMax

the tranny is covered under the Powertrain warranty the 5yr/60k. I'm kind of surprise about the tranny gone dead. Mine is running like a champ since the day I bought the car new, now with 31k miles and counting. I'm knocking on wood.

Young04

man, that's rough...i'm sorry to hear that and i hope it works out ok in the end.

How bad/noticeable was this “bucking” of yours? I got about 20K on my 2k2 and it’s been acting funny for awhile…no real bucking except when it's cold out but it doesn't shake the car or anything…now it’s just slow to shift, sometimes refuses to find overdrive when I first get on the highway and the engine isn’t fully warmed up…sometimes when I hammer the throttle at like 20mph, instead of downshifting into 1st, it’ll just stay in second and rev slower…

BP

iTrader: (1)

hmm. i thought the 02-03 trannies were supposed to be strengthened some over the previous years to put up with the extra power...

either way there's always a couple bad apples in the bunch. doesn't seem like nissan transmissions are any better or worse than the rest as far as reliability. at least there's no doubt about the engine.

kudos to nissan for a decent powertrain warranty.

drsprite

kudos? kudos to nissan's lack of testing in the lab? and now they are shorthanded, and I will be out of a car for a month. That's a monthly payment I have to make without driving my car.

Nissan gets no kudos from me what-so-ever...

Don't mean to come down on you, but I'm just tired of all the problems I've had

My 3rd gen was so nice to me...

Ferbs02SMMax

Agreed. Sorry, but Nissan gets no kudos from me. For BP_3.5, let me know if you still have kudos if/when your tranny dies. Not much adulation going to Nissan when you're stranded, and you have the prospect of arguing with the dealer about getting warranty repairs done, and a loaner on top of that.

Considering this is the Nissan flagship sedan, it doesn't make me feel good about their r and d department. They have fallen flat on their faces with the Auto Tranny's...

BP

iTrader: (1)

your experience doesn't speak for the majority though. no matter how much testing you do it's impossible to account for all real world scenarios. meaning no amount of testing can make all cars function without error. it doens't seem that anywhere near the majority of maximas have transmission problems. there will always be people who complain when their transmission becomes part of the statistic. tranny replacement is inevitable for everyone at some point in time.

nissan put a 60k warranty on their tranny knowing that people drive the heck out of them. you could've been looking at a situation where your powertrain warranty was the same as the bumper to bumper. and you'd be footing the bill on your own dime. but that's not the case. so yeah, in your case i'd definitely say kudos to nissan.

i understand being inconvenienced. everyone who's owned a car has or will be annoyed by repairs at some point. but lighten up, you're getting a new freaking tranny.

Ferbs02SMMax

Quite a broad statement. Of course if you take a normal person who will own/drive several cars in their lifetime, the chance of some tranny failure among his/her cars is obviously quite pronounced. I don't care about everyone though, I'm just looking at the 5th gen AT contingent...

Nissan didn't put a 60K powertrain warranty on their tranny's as a response to people driving "the heck out of them", they could give a rats rear about their consumers, we are just #'s to them...They put a 60K warranty on their powertrain because this is the industry standard... Nowadays, some company's go with 6-10yr up to 100K warranties. This strategy might sell cars, but ultimately cars offered with the long warranties are crap cars anyway.

Oh, and no, I did my homework when buying the car. I knew it came with a 60K powertrain warranty. I don't buy cars out of warranty, that's just asking for trouble.

If anything, I'd give kudos to my dealer for taking care of my warranty repairs so quickly. Still no kudos to Nissan though, their AT are inherently weak, the trans solenoids malfunction regularly, causing abnormal wear and tear, which leads to trans failure. No, it's not an isolated case, there are quite the # of AT guys outta luck because of this. Use the search function and find out what I mean.

Inconvenienced is not the word when you're stranded and your $20K car is in the shop for a month waiting for an oem part.

I'm usually pretty cool about things, but I've been their before, not a nice experience. You are right about the new trans though, really enjoying it of late, going to the track in a week

BTW, welcome to the Org.

MyownNismo

iTrader: (13)

Mines getting there. 2000 auto here with 59083 miles on it. I had taken my car to dealership last week cause I said it felt like it was slipping. They drove it and said they could recreate the slip, I got to drive with a tech inside the car and got it to do it and had no idea what that was and said it was fine. I was going to work today at at everylight I noticed when just going it waited then shifted with a clunk. I called the dealer and now I am going back in the morning. Thing is it didn't act up on the way home.

DonGfun

iTrader: (19)

Damn!!! Drop Resistor and 112477+ miles and my trany is going strong!!! Mashing it all the way

Rich1

I have a 2000 Max SE as well with auto and noticed that there's a little slip of sorts around the 60km/hr to 80km/hr range just driving the speed limit. I'm thinking that it's the overdrive kicking in shortly after reaching the gear at 60km/hr that causes a definite change in running noise, a hum, a slight vibration. After 80km/hr it's fine. Anyone else having this problem?

I've taken it to various Nissan dealerships in Toronto (Village Nissan, 401-Dixie(I know I should stay away!) )and they all seem to say that they can't recreate it although it happens consistantly.

To echo what was said earlier for some CAN Max owners Powertrain is 5yrs/100K but check the warrenty guide for specifics as I had a service advisor say that all parts of the powertrain are not necessarily covered.

drsprite

Nissan doesn't deserve Kudos for this transmissions problem. Trannys shouldn't be dying at 11, 22, 36, and 48k miles like a bunch of people on the .org have been...

How are we to know that the new transmission won't die after another 22k miles?