Ok so I've searched and searched and have found that sometimes the slipping auto's have has to do with rev speed sensor going bad but other then that all I've found is tcm and soleniod problems and they don't seem to be the same prob as mine (or thats what it seems to me).

Here's my problem my trans shifts hard in all gears even if I accelerate slowly i feel it but its not as pronounced as when i accelerate quickly and now its starting to slip when it shifts from third to fourth. It slams into gear really hard if i accelerate fast and if i floor it, it slips then slams into gear hard you can feel it and hear it even if ur a passenger in the vehicle, its not throwing any codes.

I got the car back in november of 09 and i have no idea about past maintenance. The car has 155,000 miles.

What do you guys think is my problem? after searching and reading all different threads it seems that i need a new trans and its a mechanical problem not an electrical as i have read in the threads.

 

Check your motor/trans mounts. If you have a few that are shot, it would slam when shifting hard. It sounds like your tranny is on its way out, though.

 

First off with 155K all ur mounts would be shot (I had to replace all of them between 150-180K). Second do regular drain/fill with Castrol Import MV ATF a few times and report back.

 

ok so if tranny is going whats the best replacement? just another low mileage oem?

 

Well when i got the car i had the passenger and trans mount changed but not the front and rear and the shifts were better back then....but now the passenger mount seems to be bad again especially since where it bolts to the engine its cracked for some odd reason (****in pepboys and ****in mechanic one of them ****ed up)



its cracked where i drew a red line. Could this have also casued the trans mount to prematurely go bad causing this problem.

 

i agree with love 00 max try that

 

I keep searching for how to do a drain/fill on an auto but ill im getting is the dran/fill for a manual, is it the same way for an auto???

 

To be on the safer side... with your mileage, I would drop the pan and put in a new tranny pan gasket. When you do that, you will add about 6Q of new fluid.

Since you are putting in a lot of new fluid, I would suggest getting the nissan matic trans fluid from the dealer rather than castrol or anything from outside.

The sign of the broken passenger mount means your motor is def rocking a lot. It could well be the sign of a busted front or rear mount if those were not already replaced.

Look at my thread of replacing the auto mounts with eBay manual mounts... I have put on about 3K miles on them and they feel great.

do the fluid to start with. next just open your hood and have someone rev the motor if you see more than an inch of back and forth motion you def are looking at the front and rear mounts. You can also have someone simply shift from P->R->D and see how much the motor moves... again it should move under 2 inches... if more ... you need new mounts.

 

+1 on the mounts

Had same problem with mine. Replaced the mounts and it was gone.

 

thanks for the info kukx. yea i seen your thread on those mounts i was actually going to purchase those when i first got the car but wasnt sure about quality, i dont trust ebay parts especially when they are really cheap like that, and definitely my front mount is shot i know that for sure already checked it out before. do you think it actually is the mounts causing my problem? when i purchased the car from the auction it shifted hard once and the mechs there told me it wasnt the trans going out and it just needed the mounts replaced, they even said i had 30 days and if they were wrong i could get my money back but i bought the car soo cheap that i didnt mind swapping in a new trans anyway.

 

so im guessing mounts it is then. but can someone point me in the right direction for a diy on the auto trans drain/fill, all the ones i found were on manuals is it the same?

 

For the drain fill here is what you do:
1. Jack up the car in the front, put in jack stands under the front jacking points behind the front tires.
2. There is a hex bolt on the trans pan that will drain out the trans fluid. I don't remember the size but its not super large
3. You should be able to drain between 3 and 3.5 quarts.
4. Close the drain bolt and top off the fluid carefully making sure not to overfil. Use the "Cold" marking on the dip stick to check level.
5. Start car and move shifter from P all the way to 1 and back holding each gear for about 2-5 seconds.
6. Do a short drive of about 10-15 min in your n'hood. Re-check the level according to the "hot" marking on the dipstick. Top off if needed. If its in the range dont worry about it.

You can get the gallon trans fluid from advance auto pretty cheap.. i think its about $10.

I have a feeling the car did not get the routine fluid changes and you should feel a difference in your low speed shifts.

As for the higher speed shifts, the motor mounts will definately cause some of the hard shift symptoms.

Check your fluid again in a few days and if its already dark red, which i am thinking it will be, go ahead and do another drain fill.

Another suggestion would be to drop the trans pan and cleaning out the magnets too. With our higher mileage cars thats where you will find a lot of gunk. There are some threads on here with some scary magnet pictures. If you drop the pan, compared to a standard drain and fill you will easily put back about 6 quarts compared to 3. I have 192K on mine and already have new magnets and gasket ready to go for her 200K b'day However, I have never dropped my pan yet. For cheap insurance, every oil change I do a drain and fill to the trans fluid. Dex III is cheap.


If you want a way to do a full fluid exchange, look for the org member "lontar" or "lontar1" I hope i spelt that right. In his signature he has a link to his cardomain site for doing a full fluid flush using the trans cooler return line.

Good Luck man!

 

Side note:

My VSS Sensor is acting up now and then and feel I should get it over with while underneath. I am going to do the drop and fluid as described, but cannot find a place that actually has the sensor for sale besides Nissan.

Any advice on where to purchase one for under $150

 

Get the mounts all over from DaveB. Use manual mounts for the front and rear. Now coming to the tranny mount, one should be very careful. The torque specs are 55 ft pounds. If you torque more then the tranny get out of alignment motor and the drive is funny and keeps pulling in wierd ways, the transmission will heat up quickly and burn the fluid in no time (I know very weel since I went thro this when I changed my side mounts recently).

It is paramount to get the torque #s right on the tranny mount correct.

 

It's interesting you bring this up. When you mean torque numbers... are you talking about the mount to trans mount bolts? or the bolt that goes through the mount itself?

Also the mount is placed sideways so even if i were to over torque by a few ft-lbs it would really not cause any trans alignment issue... it would be within millimeters... I have installed my mounts about 3K miles ago and the trans fluid is still fine... car doesnt pull etc.... and i frankly just tightened the mounts as hard as I could!

 

The 4 bolts that hold the mount to the chassis. The thro bolt should be tightened to any specs, just don't break it.

Now if u tightened the 4 bolts more than 55 ft-lbs then u will have experienced the problem I expeienced right out of the bat. If you don't then u are fine.. I would just go ahead and retorque them anyway... loosen all the bolts and then retorque it correctly.

 

Kewl man... i can easily do that re-torque... I saw the motor mount specs in the fsm.. do u know where the trans mount specs are?

 

thanks kukx and yea i seen that by lontar1 thats already bookmarked