DOHCtorJT

iTrader: (3)

I voted "no" last week, and now it jinxed me. Not only do I have the 3rd gear crunch, but yesterday I was completely locked out of 1st and 2nd gears. Takes some serious wiggling to get it in gear. I have to put it in 2nd before I can get it into first. Obvious synchro problem, we'll see what the dealer says in the morning. I've only had the car for 2 weeks, 53,500 miles.

zgendron

Jason,

Have you tried double clutching? I noticed that the manual actually mentions this for getting the car into 1st or Reverse.

- Zack

MAXclipse

only when cold and i shift "hard". If I shift smoothly, no crunch at all in any gear. 66K miles

DOHCtorJT

iTrader: (3)

Didn't really help. Getting a new tranny from the dealer for free should though

Hopefully get it back tomorrow.

DOHCtorJT

iTrader: (3)

Update, got the car back, here's what they did:

-Changed tranny fluid, no improvement.
-Changed shifter bushings, no improvement,
-Tore apart tranny, found 1st and 2nd gear synchros cracked, scored input shaft, and bearings split.
-Replaced tranny (with another 02-03 tranny, ) and shifter cables. It's good as new!

Total charge, $0

Kevin Trout

iTrader: (5)

I have found so far that changing the stock shifter bushings to ES poly bushings and adding a watkins short throw shifter has seemingly removed the grind/crunch that would happen occasionaly when shifting into 3rd. I surmise that the shifter is allowed to center properly now where as before I had to be very deliberate between shifts. Now I can quickly hit 3rd gear without problems.

Too bad Nissan cancelled my warranty after I had the shifter mod in place for two days though, and refused to pay for a transmission repair and oil leak repair that they had previously agreed to fix.

oldskooljdm

iTrader: (1)

^^^i may have to try that. i noticed that when i shift into third if i carefully push it up and keep it a little to the left that it never grinds. just goes right in. but if i shift normally into third most of the time it crunches. im probably gonna change the fluid to some redline and see if it improves. who knows..54k miles on the car.

cobra21

iTrader: (7)

nothing...*knock on wood* i just clicked over 42k tonight...

pbn85

iTrader: (8)

just wanted to bring this back..

update: grind has almost gone away completely

6spd02

77k and no crunch as of yet

matt2k2max

happens most of the time 51k going to be calling nissan before 60k warranty

DaBoxSE

iTrader: (5)

Had the crunch at 52k miles replaced tranny under warranty. At 126k now, not only do I have the crunch, but I have loud rattling at idle, sounds of pieces bouncing around and massive grinding in 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Down shifting and engine braking make sounds you never want to hear your car make. I'm pretty sure syncros are all toast, bearings toast, etc. Car is not usually driven hard, I do all highway driving. Car still drives fine, but in addition to my tranny problem, Rear main seal leaking and getting oil on the clutch causing it to constantly slip. In two weeks, I will put in an 04 HLSD transmission and Stage I Clutch. I'm all set with the 02-03 tranny. Things are made of glass.

thoraz

96.000km, shifted well september 2006, started to get the crunch over the winter time (Canada, ~ -30C <g>).. Brought it to the dealer and had all of the synchros replaced under powertrain warranty (along with nissan MT oil change).. I no longer get the crunch/grind but the shifting is still pretty notchy.. Mind you the temperatures here hover at about 0C (-30F?) and it remains to be seen whether warmer weather affects the notchiness.

From what i understand by reading this and various other threads, the notchiness / shifting resistance can be cured by using Redlines MT-90? I'll in a while and post the results.

MaXsp023

I just read through this whole thread, and have a few things to say,
A) first post on the site, Happy to join
B) I've had a few other nissans before and other import cars that have all been MT... the syncro issue is common on all of them, some you can fix by adjusting how you drive, and other are just screwed... I've found that Redline has worked as a good fix on most cases, but if you have one under warrentee I'd get it fixed while you still could

Glad to join

DaBoxSE

iTrader: (5)

Agreed. This will be my 3rd transmission in this car, and I had to replace one in my 93. All with the same problems. Glad it seems they stepped it up after 04.

maximadave

iTrader: (10)

mine does it very rarely...generally when the car is cold

thoraz

Spoke too early, the 5th gear started acting up (did not want to slot in half the time). Brought it back for additional repair. It turns out that the required parts (syncho, fork etc) are on back order from Japan until Apr 6th 2007. No supplier in North America had one available.

Makes you wonder WHY the supply of those parts got so critically low.

alextothestars

its pretty loud and it sounds like youre smashing your tranny with a hammer at the shift.

as for the shifting down from 2nd to first, most cars have trouble doing that, you just have to be gentle and not bang it in to gear.

i do not like the shifters on maximas...a bit too long and notchy.
still looking for 02-03 6 spd, though, lol.

CoolMax

iTrader: (7)

pw'ing ...can't imagine why.

pbn85

iTrader: (8)

A question for those who did get their transmissions replaced:

Did the 3rd gear grind happen at a certain RPM? Low rpm or high rpm or did it not matter? State the rpm is you recall. thanks

Bufflomike

My 2003 has 52k miles and notches 1-2 and 2-3. Happens less since I changed it with Amsoil. I am going to say I get it more often when I shift quickly because the cable linkage allows the shift gate too much play. If I shift slowly this never happens and if I shift quick it sometimes happens if I do not slide it in precisely in the "spot". I am going to try the rev and input to see if I want the free tranny replacement or I just need the ES Bushing.

DaBoxSE

iTrader: (5)

It usually happened to me when I would down shift from lets say 5th to 3rd when slowing down on the highway or something. Doesnt like to go in gear when then the rpms are higher...

Just to let you guys know, I am replacing my tranny this week with an 04 HLSD tranny, I'll probably disect the 02 HLSD tranny to see what disaster happened in there. This will be the 2nd time I've replaced the tranny in this car. I will also let you know how the 350Z clutch works in it.

Madsci

I'd like to add to the data for whatever help its worth:

Right now I have a 2002 SE 6MT without HLSD (I'll double check on that). I have experienced just the slightest twitch every once in a while shifting up or driving a little bit harder than just cruising. Where I do tend to think I'm getting the 3rd gear cruch pretty consistently (and a bit of a 5th gear grab too come to think of it) is if I"m going highway speed (60 or so) and try to stuff it into 3rd (putting me in the 4500 RPM range or so in 3rd) I'll get a pretty noticable crunch and feel it in the shifter.

I'm going to get some redline MT-90 and post my results, considering I think I fall into the "very mild" 3rd gear issues. Maybe my synchs are savable...

Edit: BTW, 52,000 on the clock

matt2k2max

took mine to the dealer twice "we can't replicate the problem" is all i got... its getting worse so I am glad I have a extended warranty... 02 53k

brusk

iTrader: (1)

My 02 open diff does a slight 1-2 and 2-3 snick I added the ES bushings and redline MT-90 Saturday and doesn't seem to make a difference. The 1-2 seems to almost dissapear once it's warmed up but the 2-3 only gets a hair better after it's warm. Unfortunately I've got 63K miles on my car unless the Lexus warranty I bought with the car two weeks ago fixes it I guess I'm gonna eventually need a tranny. Will the 04+ trans fit in with no problems?

Theyears02

no 3rd gear crunch, but i get a sort of rattle at highway speeds that i need to check out...

'02_EMILBUS

iTrader: (3)

109,000 mi. on my 2002, non LSD. The alleged 3rd "crunch" happens sometimes. It's not really a sound the resembles grinding or anything. I just deal with it as someone else said, and I'm planning on doin bushings and a short throw sometime, when I get time.

I'd like to hear how your tranny swap goes DaBoxSE... keep us posted.

platinum03SE

get some motor mounts since the motor is "flopping" around in there with hte stock ones. i put motor mounts in my car and my car shifts as smooth as butter now.


stock maxima motor mounts FTL

Madsci

Something else that would be interesting to know is if somebody had a slight problem with their 3rd gear and switched to high-quality fluid. I'm sure it wouldn't cure the problem, but maybe it would keep it from getting worse. I wonder how long people have driven with this thing and not had it progress into something like a full trans failure.

pbn85

iTrader: (8)

mine did it 3x in a row yesterday but they seem to be more like "clicks" now...then it went away magically

pbn85

iTrader: (8)

for those who replaced your trannies, how often was the problem occuring? for example, the % of times you went into 3rd how common was it?

02Maximan

iTrader: (7)

I was wondering what the dealer charges to replace the synchros if they're shot or maybe the whole transmission? I'm just wondering in case I buy an out-of-warranty 6spd, what kina price would I be looking at?

97gshogun

iTrader: (1)

my 3rd makes that damn crunch all the time. it pisses me off! but i just deal with it.

02MAXSE

iTrader: (2)

No 3rd gear but I do have a 5th gear crunch!

brusk

iTrader: (1)

so what's the options for replacement. Are all the 6 speed FWD transmissions the same?

andyslone

no problems on my 2k2 at 50,000

Child_uv_KoRn

iTrader: (7)

about 75K miles and if I'm racing/speed shifting up or down it will grind into 3rd. If I double clutch and let the RPMs drop (or throttle up) to shift point, then it goes right in. It really sucks b/c I speed shift a lot It also makes me look like a douche if I start racing and someone is with me.

pbn85

iTrader: (8)

I want to make a new thread regarding this question b/c I feel no one will see it now but here goes...to those who replaced your trannies b/c of the 3rd gear problem, was 3rd gear problematic even when shifting at low speeds and low rpms or was it only normal-high speeds and rpms (3-4k)?

Madsci

Changed to redline, have driven about 500 miles since (had to drive to DC this weekend and back).

It doesn't make a difference. There are no lubricant fixes for mechanical problems, still holds true! Oh well, maybe it will keep it from getting worse.

pbn85

iTrader: (8)

Bumping to ask if anyone noticed that with the more warm mild weather if shifting into 3rd has been better

Yea I figured redline would not help...thats why I just stick to Amsoil