Recently, the tranny in my 01 AE Max w/53K miles started infrequently slipping. It seems to happen sometimes when I am coasting along at about 30/40 MPH and I go to accelerate a little - not punching it, just to keep up with traffic. It seems like the tranny is "hunting" for a gear but takes 5-7 seconds to find it (in the meantime the engine is revving freely), then pops into gear. The tranny feels a little weird for another 30 secs or so, then everything is totally fine. It happened the 1st time about a month ago, and again this past weekend. The tranny fluid appears to be OK - it's not bright red but it's not brown or smelling burnt either. The dealership flushed it a few months ago. I can't drop the pan to see if there are shavings. I can't seem to recreate the problem under any conditions. I know there's a TSB for a tranny slip in 00/01 Max's but I don't seem to have the symptoms specified in the documentation - there is no slip between 1st and 2nd gears.

The car is under warranty but I know if I take it in to the dealer and they can't recreate the problem, they're going to send me on my merry way without doing anything.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

I think selenoid. My car does that free revving thing when shifting from 2nd to 3rd, but only for maybe a second. Does anyone know if the selenoid is b!tch to replace or is it an external part?

 

I am experiencing a simulair problem. I have come to believe from a prevous thread that it could be the TCM. What you need to do with the stealership is to tell them the symptoms and take a rep on the road and try to get it to repeat. There is how-to on the seleniods somewhere but it is a total b!tch to take apart. It is inside the transmission.

Hope that helps!

 

I had the same problem in my car and i have 56000 miles. Between 2nd and 3rd it reved from about 2000 to 2500 rpm when it first started and and everytime i took it to the dealer they said nothing was wrong. This went on for about 2 months then it started reving from 2000 to 3000 rpm between shifts and eventually wouldn't shift out of first. Just took it to the dealer monday and they said i needed a new tranny but wouldn't say why... anyways i'm covered under warranty

 

Just replaced my tranny in my AE, 82,000 miles. Same symptoms, slipping from 2nd to 3rd. They first tried to replace the solenoid, but was still slipping. They said a new tranny is needed. Had it replaced udner my extended warranty and now runs like new again. Good luck and hope it is covered under warranty.

 

same problem here. there is a tsb out for the shift solenoid. but i haven't fixed mine yet.

it jumps from 1st to 2nd. revs up and slips into 3rd & either hunts or won't go into 4th! arrrgh

 

lol Same problem here car is in the shop as we speak. Would go from 2nd to Third slipping. Would go from like 3000 to 3500 rpm free reving then grap the gear. I wouldn't take it to the dealer unless you have to. I have extended warrenty and found someone in the area that deals with the company. I didn't even take it to the dealer because I figured they would say the infamous "theirs nothing wrong"

 

Good deal, Astley, I think I had spoke with you before regarding the warranty coverage when my max was at the dealer. If you have a different extended warranty other than a Nissan one, then you would be able to take it to any ASE certified repair shop as long as they honor the warranty, which it sounds like you have done. Good for you, Let us know how it shifts afterwards. Mine shifts smooth like butter, and the ECU is still learning my driving (shift points) so I'm getting used to it.

 

I'm not sure if I could take my car to any shop right now because I can't recreate the problem. I've been running the car hard since it last had the problem Sunday, making it switch gears suddenly, heavy acceleration bursts, and it won't do it again. Looks like I might have to let it get a little worse before I get it looked at - either that or find a way to get that TL type S I've been eye-balling. But that would blow the budget and I have the MAX exactly how I want it now - rims, system, tint, alarm, etc. It'd be a shame to strip it down to sell it/trade it in. My only fear is that I'll sit on the problem for a while and then 1 day it'll jump up and leave me stranded somewhere.

 

Before you do anything to it, try to COMPLETELY FLUSH the tranny using Lontar's write up. My sister's autotragic has soooo much metal shavings in the fluid that it is a lot more slippery compared to an unused fluid. I cleaned the magnet, screen and flush the tranny with 15 quarts of Redline D4 ATF; and the slip from 1-2 is gone. I'm not 100% positive if this will fix your problem but for the price of a regular fluid, it is worth to try. You can always replace with better fluid if it fixes the problem.

 

i actually changed the shift solenoids which mean dropping the pan & basically flushing the fluid. i also cleaned the magnets and my car was much bettter at 1st. the 1-2 change smoothed out but the car would never "learn" the shift pattern. the car will not go into 4th and slips into 3rd. apparently the solenoids weren't the problem. & yes these problems occurred before & after the sloenoid change, so i know i didn't create a new problem

 

also someone suggested it might be the torque converter clutch failing to lock up, but wouldn't that require the car to be in it's highest gear 1st? mine won't even get that far. My only idea is that it may be the tranny control module.

if i grandma through the gears it'll shift mostly smooth, 1-2 no prob, 2-3 will occationally rev up then shift, but still no 4.

if i 1/2 or 3/4 throttle it 1st may run all the way to redline then jump into 2nd. 2-3 rev up then shift, still no 4th, but if i hold steady @ a certain speed it'll float between 3k-4k RPMs as if it's hunting for a gear & it feels more like a downshift than an upshift.

i'm so baffled and it's quite frustrating, I don't have a load of cash to just throw at this problem, so i can't just keep changing things. I'm a technician at a Porsche dealer & the other tech is just as stumped. all we can come up with is the control unit, but i gotta wait for the cash.

sorry for the long post

 

I know on other makes of vehicle a bad VSS (Variable Speed Sensor) will make your tranny do strange things. Might want to check that out.

 

where does our tranny get the speed info from?? wheel speed? engine rpms?

 

Maybe I'll see if I can talk the stealership into doing the tranny service - flush, clean the magnet, etc. Being that they changed the fluid a few months ago, maybe they'll do it as a courtesy. I doubt it though - most probably, I'm going to have to wait for it to get worse and that's extra stress on the brain. Gotta hang on to the MAX - that's the only way I'll be able to swing that GT 'stang next year as a play thing.

 

Update just got the car back from the transmission shop and the slip is completely gone.Before taking it to the shop I tried using one of those transmission stop slip fluids and yes its a waste of money. The shop put in a new unit with between 15-20k miles on it and now it shifts perfectly. My advise is take it to an independent shop and have them fix your car.Good luck.

 

Glad to hear everything worked out good for you Astley101. I've noticed mine shifts as smooth as butter and sometimes I can't even notice the shift.

 

Astley, did they change the entire tranny? how much did it cost?

 

Yes they changed the entire transmission. The guy replaced it with a used one that had 15-20k miles on it. Chino12 if you dont have warrenty you can pick up an extended warrenty from most local dealers or online depending on the milage of the vehicle. I paid a $100 deductable but Im sure the job would be at least $1500+.The extended warrenty might be expensive but can save you in the long run.

NISSANLUVA did you ever get your car fixed?

 

UPDATE: I just had the tranny fluid flushed and replaced with RedLine Syn. My plan was for the new fluid to either worsen or fix the problem. That was 3 days ago. All was OK until today - was cruising along at about 30 MPH, had to slow down a little, then went to accelerate again and the tranny missed the gear - revved high then grabbed the gear. Slowed to a stop, then started again and the car wouldn't shift out of 1st. It did this for another few minutes until I parked the car. Left it for an hour, came out and now all is OK. I'm thinking the problem is linked to the tranny getting hot because I had just gotten out of some heavy traffic, but it's weird that the tranny goes back to shifting perfectly afterwards. Usually, if a tranny's bad, it's bad. I'm gonna drive it around for a while tomorrow and mess with it to see if I can recreate the problem. I don't care if the dealer says they can't reproduce it, I can't drive the car around like this - I drive 80 miles round trip a day and I can't wait for this thing to strand me. I'm preparing for a fight on Monday AM.