Son of a...This is the 2nd tranny I have gone through in 3 yrs! The first 6spd HLSD went with 41k on the clock. Now this one with 98k on the clock! WTF is wrong with these 6 speeds? I was coming down an exit ramp and did the casual downshift before making the turn and as soon as I went into 1st...glack glack glack glack glack glack... it sounded like I lost a rod into the block! I shifted to neutral and it stopped...reved the engine and no noise. Put it back in gear as I was coasting and glack glack glack glack in rapid sucsession and slowed as the car speed slowed! WTF! I stopped at my friends shop hoping he'd tell me a that it was the clutch or the TOB...no luck. I asked if I could drive it as far as my mother's house to pick up one of her cars and he's like yeah, but not further than that and don't drive at any speed. So I make it to my office...1/2 way from my house to my mothers house and it's getting bad...now it's making noise even in neutral. I pull into our lot at the office and go to reverse to back in figuring that the flatbed will have to pull it up on to the deck and cause more damage from dragging the front end. As I start to back up, the car lurches like I threw an auto into park while rolling! ***! I am now blocking in other peoples cars so I end up having to break it free by rocking the car and crunching what ever was binding. The car now sits in the parking lot at work and I got a quote for a new tranny from the local Nissan Dealer...$2220.81 before tax and labor to install for the 6 spd HLSD!

Anyone know if the part numbers/tranny is the same as the 6th gen? Can anyone bullet proof this thing? any suggetions as to where to look or who to call? I am thinking that I should be able to change gear ratios, build it with better parts or something. I have heard of BlackbirdVQ rebuilding them and using cryo treated gears...any links or feedback?

HELP! (yelling like a little school girl!)

 

The 6th Gen 6 speed bolts right up and has closer gear ratios but taller final drive. The HLSD is the same as what's in the 5.5s. Look for those in yards or get one from Dave B.

Two useful threads:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=509566

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=513408

 

you are the man...i thought that was the case but the nissan parts guy had me doubting myself. Thanks a ton!

 

I'm a bit confused. Did you try to downshift from 6th to 3rd, or what? How did it get into 1st? I have a 6-speed but it doesn't have the hsld, which I would like to get.

 

Have all gears from 2002 Maxima 6speed with 28K miles. I did sell housing to orger in Texas. Will sell all parts for $368 shipped and below are the pics

http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m...edgears001.jpg

http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m14/czarulek/

 

That sucks dude. 6-speeds are hailed as "all that" by the 5-speed people.

We are the ones that truly suck with weak trannies.

 

I'm almost positive that your not supposed to go into 1st at all while rolling. Its just like reverse if I remember correctly......can someone verify this?

 

rofl, I sincerely hope that a tranny is designed to downshift to 1st.
If not, for shame. I shift into 1st all the time at 20 mph roll to smoke some loser.

 

I never shift to 1st or reverse when the car is in motion.

I believe with my newbie knowledge of how a transmission works, that it's not good for the synchros.

 

i sequentially went down from 5-4-3-2-1 finally at about 15-20mph after a blip of the throttle. It went in easily in all gears even to first. even after it was making noise it was still easy to go between gears...it was noisy as **** but it shifted normally.

 

As long as you rev match, going into 1st while moving is fine.

 

You're not a good driver.

 

lick it! cheese nuts...you have another azz beatin coming when I get back to Wisconsin.

 

In what you aint got no car

 

I usually don't do it though. Above 15mph 2nd gear pulls fine, and you really don't need to engine brake at those speeds...

 

LOL! pwned.

Don't worry, at least the car looks hot parked.

 

is that a threat?

as stated, downshifting in to 1st is fine as long as you rev match. unless you are coming to a stop, there really isnt a need to do it. 1st is very short. when i auto-x i stay in 2nd even in turns.
i havent had a single problem with my tranny (knock on wood)

 

hahaha i just wish i had a 5 speed. but i'm trading my maxima in for another one with a 5 speed, and i'm not a big fan of 6 speed cause you are always shifting

 

The gear ratio's are almost the same

 

the 6th gear is really just a "cruising" gear (i hardly ever use it).
they may be a little closer but thats better for peak power band

 

the 6 speed is awesome. i sold my 5 speed 5th gen for a 6 speed. the shifting isn't as bad as you might think, or at least thats what i think. the lack of power is the biggest difference. the 5 speed is nice cuz of less shifting, but the car takes a little bit to pick up speed. even my girlfriend said so, it kinda lags in power. now with the 6 speed, the power just really makes everything else not so bad. to get a little more in detail, the car will pick up a lot faster in a broader range of the rpm, which makes shifting even less of a hassle, cuz you can drive at surprisingly low rpms. when im rolling at about 18 mph, i can put it in third, no rev matching, and it will pick up fast. it might be equivalent to 2nd gear at about 10 mph (no a 5 speed) and stepping on it from there...

im not gonna proof read, cuz its late, but i hope you can understand this. going from a 3.0 auto to a 3.0 manual is nice, but i think you might as well trade up to the 3.5 6 speed.

 

Audio clip??

 

TMI!

 

If you think hearing a school girl yell is gay, then you must be a FLAMING homo... like Cale







j/k

 

when ever i slow down from 20 i just take it out of gear and use my brakes...when i drive my 92 5sp that is...

 

my arguement is that i have all these parts for the 3.0 so i'm gonna just buy a 3.0 manual because i would have to buy all new parts for the 3.5

 

Not at this time...anyone got a lead on a 04 HLSD tranny? I am tapped for cash at this point and about 1700 is what I can swing.

 

Try here http://car-part.com/ mine was $850 shipped from Canada with under 40k. All the 6-speeds sent to Canada were standard with HLSD and the 6-speed is more common there. Shipping isn't as bad as you might think. I think Dave B. was under $2,000 for a new one.

Also, if you call around you can sell your old tranny to a rebuild shop. I got $150 for mine and they were happy to take it. I probably could have gotten more. You may have to call a few but someone will take it.

 

what I want to know is why some people have had tranny failures and why some havent. It cant be due to abuse b/c there were some who babied their cars and still had to replace their trannies...so whats the reason?

 

because some people are bad drivers; they grind gears, ride with their foot on the clutch, mis shift, slam it into gears, ignore rev matching, etc.

because some people downshift to slow down instead of using brakes which makes no sense tranny + clutch wear or pad + rotor wear hrm lets think. you only downshift to slowdown when you HAVE to so you don't crash (or when racing to remain in your powerband)


some things fail. but bad drivers make em fail ALOT quicker.

 

Hmmm, now I'm wondering if that applies to motorcycles too. I can't imagine not downshifting. Just seems strange because i'm so used to it. So you're saying you go from cruising in a higher gear, and when you want to slow down you put it into neutral, or should you hold the clutch in leave it in gear and then go to the next gear?

 

i do the same in my auto 3.0, but somebody told me that was bad... is that true?

 

My first goes to 50MPH.

 

That's it?

 

Your rod bolts > mine, mmmk? :

 

in the auto it's pointless. probably causes more wear if anything.

there is nothing wrong with down shifting. Down shifting to slow your car down creates more wear. USE YOUR BRAKES. much cheaper and easier to replace.

 

Derrick, thanks...I checked car-parts and there were only 3 avail...1 canada, 1 in PA, and one in CA... The one in Canada was like what price is everyone else askin? then told me 1400 to the door with tax and shipping...I'd rather spend a few hundred extra for the new one and know it is fresh.


I agree that in some cases that may be, but I have been driving manual trans cars since I was 13...I am 30 now. I have never had a trans issue in any of them. I have auto x experience and grew up in a family that raced as well. I also have several friends that have attended race schools and driving schools that have helped teach me along the way. I don't believe that is the case here. (Stardust may differ just to bust my stones). I think that Nissan had an issue with a supplier that build this trans and was slow to catch/note/fix the said issue. As I understand, the Tiberon has the same trans and is plagued with the same problems.
This problem didn't happen under an abusive situation, unless you call rev matching at a reasonable speed abusive. I had my 2yr old daughter in the car so I wasn't driving like an a55hole either. If it wasn't a known issue, Nissan would have left it alone and not changed anything in 04...bad drivers or faulty part? if it happens regularly, I am guessin it's a faulty part. The tech at the Nissan dealer explained to me that it was becoming common for the 6 speeds to be coming in with 3rd gear issues and failures...way more than the 5 speeds. Go Figure.

One last thing to consider...what kind of miles are these people driving? City driving up and down the gears will cause problems faster than the guy that drives 50k a year on the highway.

 

How much would a new tranny from Nissan installed cost? I better start saving now lol..no problems as of yet.

Lao2Max mentioned this test: Idle the car and rev to 3-4k then put the gear in 3rd. Its a way to find out how often the crunch occurs. Is it still an accurate test if the car is not moving? B/c I never get the crunch in that test but occasionally I get the crunch under normal shifting - 3krpms. I even took it to 5500 a few times and it shifted fine (Knocks on wood...)

 

$1,710.02 for the part, not the labor.

 

2005 Transmission Nissan Maxima LOCKING Part#:05H012 $750 Aragon Iron & Metal USA-CO(Ft.-Collins) E-mail 1-800-424-2577


buy it used...i'v had good luck with used gearboxes although my experience is somewhat limited...