Picking up 4at tranny w/TC, can I haul in Maxima's trunk?
 

My GXE's 4at died. Got a quote for a rebuild that I'd love to do up, but I just can't... so I'm buying a junkyard unit that has a small warranty. Same year as target car (2000). $225 pulled, and my tranny shop wants $550 to install it.

Can I pick this up with my Maxima and haul it in the trunk? I'll bring tarps and junk blankets.

yes, well it should, mine fit in the back of my mom's lexus es300 with no problem

Make sure the tranny shop installs new front and rear seals.

You can fit it in your trunk, but it's rather heavy. I suggest if you don't want the floor to collapse to take the floor out and cut a sheet of pretty sturdy plywood to help support it. Also take the carpet out if you don't want it get get dirty with grease, road grime, and tranny fluid.

S

haha,cool, thanks for the replies and suggestions, I'll take all given info into account.

How much are the seals?

They are pretty cheap, probably around the neighborhood of $5-15 each from the dealer.

+ on the piece of wood and no carpet and seals. have them do the rear main seal as well if they are in there. no reason not to, it's cheap piece of mind if worth $10 bucks. Also, find a way to secure it to the board or drive like a granny on the way home, no reason to have it crashing about.

if you pay me $550 i'd install it for you. only takes like 6 hours at most. i'd ask in the local forums i bet someone will do it for you cheaper in their garage.

you should be doing a 6 spd swap fwiw. auto's are so :007:


edit: oh and keep your old tranny, buy the rebuild kit and do it, sell tranny, make back a good chunk of change that you just spent. just an idea.

Doing an RMS involves a lot more than just removing the flexplate and swapping out the seals. To do it correctly involves dropping the upper oil pan as well, and if you replace the RMS for no reason, you'll likely end up with a leak where there wasn't one before (due to most shops doing the RMS incorrectly).

It'll also cost him a lot more than $10...

it'll only cost him more because he's bringing it to a shop. parts wise a RMS is cheap. also can you explain why he needs to drop the pan to do it correctly? oh and dropping an oil pan is easy and fast...i don't see your point there...

i will give you that a shop might do it wrong. that's always a factor, but if they replace it and it starts to leak guess what shop is going right back in there to fix it? no shop is going to ignore him when they put in a new RMS and it starts leaking ANY time soon.

imo it's like the throw out bearing, you replace it because you're in there to start with.

at the end of the day it doesn't honestly matter a huge degree but i'd rather be safe then sorry. but then again i'd do it myself as i'v never been happy with the work shops do 90% of the time.

Have you ever dropped the upper pan on a VQ? There's a bit more involved than dropping the oil pan on a typical engine that only has one.

You need to remove the upper pan to ensure it seals correctly against the half moon seal in the upper pan, if you just work it in there it tends to leak (as well, VQ RMS' rarely leak, 90% of the time it's that half-moon seal). Have you ever replaced a RMS on a VQ?

nope, only on my turd gen. and i will agree with you they rarely leak. after 200k on my turd gen it was fine but i replaced it anyways. the fact a shop is doing it and they will not inspect it just bugs me i guess. again i turn all my own wrenches so i guess it's just me being paranoid and i wouldn't mind an extra hour or so of labor as i enjoy wrenchin on my rides...