Alright, so I have had my car now for a few months and have gone through the general up keep on the car (oil change, filter, plugs, wires, etc..). However, I have had this issue with getting into and out of 6th gear. Getting into and out of 6th feels like I am pulling through wet concrete. It almost feels as if something is getting bound up in the shifter cables, but after installing the ES bushings nothing was found at either end. Also, after coming out of 6th, if I do not go directly into 5th and then into neutral, it is VERY difficult to get into any gear. Is this a synchro issue? or what?

John

 

you use sixth

mine has always been more work than the other gears but i figured that was just because i rarely use it

 

its a 70 mph speed limit going to and from school, so cruising around 80..yeah I use it..

 

i rarely use it because the acceleration is so poor

 

I use 6th gear all the time as I hit 80+ on a regular basis. I suggest you change your transmission fluid to royal purple, you should notice a difference. Btw, I have almost 62k miles on the odo and have not experienced anything like you and Sooner have, albeit my car is an 03.

 

I will be changing the trans. fluid this week/weekend, as that was something that was not on the invoice from the Nissan dealer's tune-up that was done only 40 miles b4 I bought the car. However, if this was as simple as the trans. fluid needing to be changed wouldn't I experience issues with all the gears? This is 6th only that feels this way..

 

i use 6th gear all the time.. even when i'm cruising at 40mph... i figure the lower the rpms, the better the gas mileage.. is that bad for some reason though? (besides the fact that i got a ticket for going through a yellow light, where if i had been in a lower gear i could have accelerated through it before it turned "red" )

 

i have an issue with it being hard to get into certain gears... mainly 1 (when cold) and 2 (upshifting to 2 is notchy, but downshifting to 2 is like concrete as you say).. and when i changed to synthetic fluid, nothing changed

 

Your tuneup included plug wires? Did Nissan do said tuneup? May want to have a chat with the service writer...

High gear + low speed == lugging the engine. Not something you want to make a habit of.

Does it do the same with the car off, shifting through gears?

 

our cars definitely do not have spark plug wires



i did not know that.. i was thinking high gear + low speed = good gas mileage.. well.. learn somethin new everyday

 

Usually can cause worse gas mileage, actually. Requires more throttle input to maintain/accelerate.

Also, it's mostly so bad because high load with less than optimal oil pressure...

 

I had the same thing happen with 6th gear a while ago. I actually made a post about it as well.

http://forums.maxima.org/5th-generat...r-problem.html

It ended up just going away. I have no idea what the problem was...

 

My mistake on the plug wires, I by accident listed them, as I am used to the other car..

Lethal, thanks for the input, hopefully it will go away..

So does anyone have any ideas? I mean..I have gotten these replies with no direction or ideas..more ideas have gone to the guy jacking the thread..

 

lol... my bad about the hijacking buddy.. as far as you not getting ideas, you did mention you were gonna change your tranny oil, and i said when i did it nothing changed for me.. so that was a testimony to what didn't work.. as far as what will work, short of internal transmission work

you might as well swap your fluid for the hell of it though.. maybe you'll have better luck than me.. go with a good synthetic fluid like redline MT-90 or amsoil GL-4

 

No problem. Thanks. I am going to change it this week just in case.

pmohr- yes it does the same thing when the car is off and/or not moving.

 

I'm not a mechanic I'm only suggesting a fluid change due to problems I've experienced in the past with other cars. I had a 90 Saab 9000 and one day out the blue it dropped 5th gear altogether. My 87 BMW 320 dropped 3rd gear. I had an 87 Saab 900 that was hard to shift into any gear in the winter time, the rp did the trick. For me its cheap insurance for the most used part in the car. If this doesn't fix the problem it may at least prolong the life of the transmission.

 

what's an rp?


now there's a difference between yours and mine... mine is smooth as a woman's legs when the car is off and/or not moving (when it doesnt matter of course).. i'm like "why can't it feel like this when im driving!"

 

Ive got a 02 6spd, use 6th gear everyday and have never had an issue.. Motor/Tranny has 93365 on it. As someone asked, does it go through the gears fine with the vehicle off?

 

No, still an issue with 6th as I said above!

 

I doubt changing the transmission fluid would help this situation. If you did like me and unhooked the pin from the shift linkage @ the transmission and shifted through all the gears with no problem. The problem has to be in the transmission, or shift linkage. I talked to a mechanic about it and he guessed something in there must of been a bit out of sync and it eventually correct itself.

I'm actually glad someone else had the same problem as me. I thought it was odd at the time that I was the only one that had the situation happen.

 

my 6th gear works without any issues.

 

[quote=wyche89;6494532]what's an rp?



I'm sorry rp = Royal Purple.

 

Thanks..that was helpful..

I will unhook the pin and see if it changes anything this weekend after my fluid change..thanks!

 

hey what was the update on this...LEATHAL and JKPGT96? i was driving home tonight and all of a sudden 6th became concrete...goes in but its like theres something blocking it or being forced in...u have to actually pull and push it in and out of 6th..its not the syncros..almost feels like something got bent and it isnt going straight?idk scared the crap outta me.. and it does the same with the car off.. and only in 6th the others shift like butter.. WTF lol.. did both of urs end up going away...thanks.. this just has me stressed out...

 

No dice on my end, still have not figured it out. I am thinking it is a synchro issue due to the shifts getting smoother if I rev match going into 6th. A fluid change did nothing, and the car does this running and off.

 

Look at a FWD VQ35 dyno and tell me this car doesn't have enough power to maintain speed in 6th gear...I use 6th gear at 40mph all the time and the car has more than enough power to sustain speed without lugging it. Lugging it is when you have to use a higher than average throttle amount to maintain speed (or accelerate) at a low RPM. Now my dad's mini, on the other hand, you pretty much need to be in 3rd at that speed because it has no low end torque and you can feel the engine lugging in a higher gear. I get 25 mpg in the city with my maxima and it's because I accelerate with as little throttle as possible and shift around 2k. My engine is about as healthy as you'll find.

As to the thread starter, I haven't ever had issues getting my car into 6th gear...even when my 3rd gear synchro was worn, it still wasn't difficult to physically put it into gear. It's probably just the nature of where the gear is located

 

eh thanks.. well if u ever do.. post in here and i will do the same.. i know its not fluids..because 2 days ago 6th was perfect.. eh w/e ill jam it into 6th.. as long as it doesnt feel like that going into second u know.. it must be somewhat common if 3 of us 6spd guys have the same thing.. who knows..my tranny only has 25K on it too

 

If it was due to the location of the gear then everyone would have this problem...

As for using 6th..I use ut everyday going to work. 70-80 on the hwy..that is plenty of rpm to use 6th.

 

cables introduce a larger margin of error that I suppose could eventually affect the accuracy at which the collar moves...the location of the gear comment was explaining why it's only 6th that's having issues. I wouldn't dwell on the issue too much. just keep thrusting it into gear.

 

I've driven a few 6-spd's and going into 6th was as smooth as the other gears so I doubt it's the location itself.

 

 

^^ yeah thats just the thing.. before this week 6th was prob smoother than the rest..now u cant even feel it go into gear due to the resistance it kinda just forcefully goes.. o well.. i used to have the 3rd gear grind,, which went away completely and now i have the 6th gear concrete mixing.. meh o well

 

Gonna bring this one back up from the dead. Has anyone ever figured out what the fix was to this issue? Mine started doing it today. thx

 

I have nothing to add except this happened on my 02. It actually would become stuck in 6th after cruising awhile and I would be jerking it like a madman at the stoplight to get it into 1st before the light changed lol. It eventually started self correcting. The more I used 6th the looser it got. I did have a 3rd gear crunch. But the way 6th felt, I think it's a linkage/cable problem. B/c 1st gear in that car and now my 03 will occasionally become hard. There's was no rhyme or reason or consistency to the stiffness. It just was.

And to defy logic, when I'd drive hard and shift to 3rd, I'd just ram that ***** into gear. The more I forced that ***** the easier it got over time (crunch was basically gone). Who knew?

 

look who got his 15th post

 

Never did figure this out..sometimes it is really hard to get into and out of, sometimes it is just marginally more difficult to get into/out of. If I come out of 6th I have to go into 5th then to neutral otherwise I am basically locked out of everything until I am able to really jam it into another gear. I am sometimes getting the 3rd gear crunch, but if I am at WOT and shifting into third I have no issue ever..(knock on wood). I don't plan on doing anything about this, as long as it gets me through until winter when I can pick up a 335xi..

 

You will be banned!!!!!!!!!!!

 

So I removed the shifter cables from the trans linkage and tried to shift the trans into 6th with my hand by using just the linkage. Feels the same so the issue is not in the shifter assembly or cables. Seems like and internal issue. Gonna drive it for now and see what happens, when whatever it is breaks I'll be able to fix it and let you guys know.

 

I did forget to mention I changed the fluid..the original fluid had almost 98k on it, so I changed it and there was no difference.

 

It probably won't ever break (not anytime soon). That's the problem haha.