I called up Level Ten today and Pat was going through what happened to my tranny with me....basically he said it was my PUMP (SOLENOIDS??) that caused this AND it was causing my slippage problems beforehand when i first got the car....My pump was totally busted and he said even he was surprised at how messed up it was...hes sending me pictures and Ill post them up once I get them

Im curious...could the solenoid TSB be another quick fix like the TCM was?? Alot of people were saying how when they first put in the TCM a few months down the road the slippage appeared again...im wondering if this will hold true with the Solenoid TSB because right now I trust the people who tore down my whole tranny and took a good look at it

On the other hand I could've been the ugly duckling and this could've been totally a problem that happened to occur to my car? I dont know...what do you guys think!?

 

The pump and selenoids are different things. The pump generates the fluid pressure inside the tranny that does the work of exerting force on the clutch packs. The selenoids control where the fluid pressure is exerted. The pump could have been defective from the factory. It is also possibe that from hard driving the fluid overheated. When the fluid becomes too hot the internal seals are damaged, and the pump doesn't work as well as it used to. (Not enough fluid pressure = soft shifts.) Lack of fluid pressure will also let the clutches slip. This causes more heat and the clutches will be destroyed. The loose clutch material blocks the fluid even more. This will cause the planetary gears to overheat and be destroyed.
If you have Level10 do a complete rebuild you should be good (better?) than new. If you drive hard, you need a tranny cooler, synthetic ATF and new fluid every 30k miles.

 

I understand that(well some of it) but what Im worried about is the Solenoids....am i still going to have to replace the solenoids?

 

I would try and get the solenoids replaced at well...THey made a significant difference for me....

 

The solenoids also stopped my slippage, but the tranny is still not perfect. The thing gets confused and has trouble finding the right gear sometimes. And I still question the longevity?

 

Excellent explaination! For all of u who like to drive their automatics hard, I would seriously recommend a big tranny cooler, especially those who live in the south where it's warmer. Bruebnstein do u have any suggestions for manual trannys that are driven hard? Are u a mechanic or something? Thanx

 

damnit...so even if i get the level ten rebuild...without the new solenoids im still going to have a messed up tranny?!...the level ten super pump wont fix this problem?

did i mention I AM SICK OF NISSANS TRANSMISSION ISSUES?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!

Why dont all of us automatic owners report this to consumer affairs because honestly Nissan has made MINIMAL attempt to correct this problem....100% of the service depts i have been to have no idea of these service bulletins....

 

I'm not a car mechanic, but I was a motorcycle mechanic a couple decades ago. I've gotten my recent information on Nissan auto trannies from posts from "q45tech" who is part owner of an independent Infinity/Lexus repair place. He is on the Yahoo clubs Infinti forum. (The transmission in the 4th/5th gen Maximas is the same basic one as the one in the Q45.) I'm going to have to ask him if it would be alright to repost some of his stuff on this forum.
Manual transmissions don't have the same sort of problems that autos do (heat). You're more likely to burn up the clutch on a manual than break the gearbox.