So after dropping so much money on parts for the front end (not installed yet), my tranny is not very happy. The other day I was reversing into my parking spot going up a hill using a decent amount of throttle. My front right tire hit a thick branch and lost traction momentarily while throwing the branch. I think my lsd kicked in as I heard a loud bang with a jerk as I believe it caught traction.

The first time I started the car up I could hear a loud knocking coming from the engine bay and a almost low grinding noise. I thought the engine had issues but quickly realized it was tranny issues once I pressed in the clutch. When I press in the clutch both noises are gone 100 percent. while accelerating lightly in first and second I can almost hear like a slight fast knock that is consistant with rpms. some times when I park and its running i only hear the slight grinding and other I hear both.

I have yet to check fluids but I dont think its low since I put all new fluid in when I changed the engine a few months ago alone with installing a fidanza flywheel with exedy stage one clutch and have not had any fluid leakage since then. My gut tells me input shaft bearing. I am mechanically inclined, I have had my engine down to the block but I am not looking forward to opening up the tranny. Anyone ever experience this or anyone have some words of advice? I am trying to minimize down time. If a new tranny is in order I will search for an 05 lsd but really dont wanna spend the money. Thanks in advance

 

Same thing happened to me about 7mos ago. 2nd gear,put it to the floor and a loud and hard bang like i hit something. Making noise ever since, hasn't got any worse though. Never looked any further into it. Waiting for it to get worse, and oh yea the money thing!

 

Thanks gator for your reply. Are you LSD as well?

I checked the fluid and its pretty dark compared what it should be for having fresh fluid for only 5000 miles since the fluid change. There is a little shavings in the oil. Not looking good.

Dunno if I should source a used 2005 max lsd for prob around 1000 or goto nissan for a brand new 2005 lsd for about 1800 or so.

 

I would replace the tranny fluid with synthetic if its looking dark
i believe its 75w-90 GL4 ..

 

Thank you... I did use 75w 90 gl4. Red line to be exact. filled to the fill hole when I replace the engine. 5k miles ago. No signs of tranny issues before that and my fluid was still full when I just checked.

 

Well that sucks. I hope one more fluid change improves the noise, and you get many more miles out of it.

It seems like that tranny is pretty hard to come by used. Is it really only 1800 for a new one? If you could find one with less than 50K miles $1000 might be worth it. Otherwise it would probably be best to go with a new one. gl

 

I have dealt with way too many shady junk yards not in the mood to get junk and my initial search proved all the ones listed as lsd were not lsd and asking 1000. So I pulled the trigger on a brand new (not remaned) oem 2005 6 speed with lsd. Better gear ratios here I come. Got it lowered to $1750 from $2155.

 

Good job on getting that discount. Keep us posted. Do you know what kind of gas mileage you've been getting recently (city/hwy)?

 

about 18 to 19 mixed driving. I do drive the car very hard pretty much all the time.
I got about 26 on a recent all highway trip. Before I rebuilt the engine and replaced all sensors I was seeing about 14 to 15 mixed with about 21 all highway.

I will deff update this thread. Will be installing the tranny along with all the other parts I have waiting to go in. Both sides wheel bearings and hubs, control arms with es bushings, axles, inner and outer tie rods, and sway bar end links.

 

^Nice!
I can't imagine how much better my car would handle after replacing all those suspension components. Its been through 129K mi and at least a half dozen autocross events. Its temporarily retired from autocross because of all the noises it makes during tight fast turns.

If I ever have to replace my engine, the plan would be to get a tranny just like that, and swap out the final drive. I already feel like my rpms are too high as it is, when I'm doing 80 on the freeway.

But if I were in your situation, I probably would not want to open up a brand new transmission just for that, either.

 

Thanks. Deff not gonna open her up. I wanna keep the final drive that way for better acell anyway

 

Bro that is absolutely awesome! if my tranny ever went i would more than likely just buy a new one. Used is hit and miss, very hard to find a manual transmission that wasnt beaten on lol. Since this is an 2005 tranny, do you have to use 2005 maxima axles or what?

 

Nice, you got yourself a pretty good deal on a new tranny. I would have done the same if I were you. Better safe then sorry. Make sure you take lots of pictures and good luck!

 

Nice pickup on the tranny! I just did mine last summer as well. My 6th gear syncho went bad, so the damn thing would refuse to stay in 6th unless I held it there. I ended up getting a scrapyard tranny with HSLD for $500 with 60k miles. I swapped all the seals, filled it with Synthetic, and it's been fine ever since (knock on wood). The HLSD is awesome, and I definitely do not miss the 3rd gear crunch that my old tranny suffered from.

 

Very afraid of a used one. And these junk yards give a 30 day warrenty but it is so hard to find an hlsd from a 2005 so if I had to return it I would be out of luck again.

From what I remember the axles will be fine. I know in general with other cars usually the axle is more specific to the car then the tranny. I will deff update this thread with my results on that.

 

I plan on it. I snapped a few pics of my pressing out and in of wheel bearings yesterday. I will be uploading to this thread shortly.

 

thats one hell of a good price and glad its working ourt for you. HLSD is awesome. I currently have it on my 2002 tranny but now with a 2005 tranny I will see the better gear ratios. Better depends who you ask since this tranny gets you better acceleration but the potential for less top speed and less gas millage. Did you install a 5.5 gen or a 6th gen?

 

 

Sweet deal on the new tranny, what dealer is that from? what are you doing with the bad one when you take it out? I'm looking to grab a cheap one to rebuild for mine.

 

Girard nissan in Groton CT.

I was most likely going to call local tranny shops to see how much they would give me for it. I am unsure of the damage and may know more when I get it out. Like anything I rather give preference to org members. It is a factory lsb 6 speed and it is still drivable just not to sure about how long, keep that in mind. But PM me if you want to talk about coming to a deal on this.

 

look what I picked up today.

 

That's exactly what my trans did when the input shaft bearing went bad

 

 

Did you repair it?

 

lmao. im pretty excite about it. Makes me want to clean up the bay after having something so pretty to put in there.

 

I went to start the work today and hit a coulple of snags with rusted bolts on the knuckle and control arms. The damn control arm bushing sleeve is not coming off the pivot arm. Ordered a new pivot arm. Didnt get very far today not feeling well and getting a late start.

Has anyone done a tranny removal / clutch install without removing the crossmember. It seems as I can get all the bolts off that attach the engine and tranny together. Id have to use wrenches for a few bottom bolts. But would the tranny clear the frame while pulling out? Id prefer to keep the cross member on but if it must come off it will. I just dont want to support the block and be under the car doing it solo. The only time I removed and reinstalled this tranny was with the engine and tranny out the car as a whole so it was a bit easier.

I searched on here but found nada on doing the work without removing the cross member. Thanks in advance.

 

I removed my crossmember when I dropped my tranny, and I was alone. If you can leave the crossmember in, it's going to be a ROYAL PITA to get the trans back up there when you're reinstalling. I would take the time to drop it. Passenger mount will help to hold it in place as well. Just make sure to put some redundancy for safety. Dropping it is the safer part. Putting it back up and stabbing it is very precarious. I had the whole car shaking. I used a couple jack stands and a length of pipe under the block to be the secondary if the jack failed. I had the foresight to get the car up pretty high initially. Keep that cell phone close.

 

Thanks bro. I just hope it doesnt rain today. I need to get this done. Off to the dealership in a bit to pick up the remainder of parts.

 

I had the crossmember still in but unbolted when I did my clutch, it made it easier to find a place for the jack to hold the engine up with, but like said already, made it a pita to put the tranny back in. I'll pm you about the old tranny.

 

I did this back in 06 or so and haven't looked back. Except to see all those other cars spinning one tire and standing still. My car didn't have the LSD originaly.

Actually, I've pulled it 5 or 6 times for other issues when I got some bad clutch parts. The tranny has been great for the last 60,000 miles or so.

I removed the crossmember. It seemed like it would be difficult working around it. I was doing it on the floor though. It might be different if you'er on a lift. You should also have a transmission jack. That thing is heavy and awkwad. It's also a tight fit going back in so any extra control helps.

One tip. Remove the shifter cable bracket before you try moving the tranny. It's kind of hard to reach (gear wrench really helps) but if you don't remove it it'll bind up against the firewall when you try pulling the tranny out. It becomes harder to reach at that point too.

Also, If the new one comes with a shifter bracket use it. They updated the design to be stronger but it fits the same.


You might also have to swap one of the shifter cable connections from your old tranny so it mates with your cable. It's super easy though and you'll see what I mean.

I sold my old tranny to a rebuild shop. I got around $250 for it but that was around 6 years ago.

 

I need to find me one of these rebuild shops, I've slapped like 3 tranny's into my Ford Explorer lol. Imagine the money I would rack up from that crap.

 

Definitely let me know, not that mine is going bad or anything and i hope it isnt anytime soon. but if it does i wanna be prepared. Those pics man look so sick! drop that bad boy in the car already!

 

I followed your advice on leaving the crossmember on and just unbolting it from the frame. I dont see why you would want to do it any other way. Doing it this way allows you to support it with a jack without the risk of damage.

One thing I would do diff is unbolt the downpipe from the car under the car. With my catmans on the engine was limited on how low it wanted to go. either way a jack and 4 of us was able to get it in at the worlds funkiest angle. I have no idea how anyone would do this alone without a hoist.

 

I was forced to use my old bracket since this brand new tranny didnt come with a bracket. I unbolted it with gear wrenches just like you suggested. impact and gear wrench saves lives.

 

Thanks bro. im excited as hell.

 

ok so tranny is in the car. I got the car almost done.

Keep in mind I had new control arms, wheel bearings and hubs, inner and outer tie rod, end links, and sway bar bushings going in at the same time.

All I have left on my plate today is the pass side axle, tranny fluid, both sway bar bushings and end links and im done. Cant wait.

i would have finished yesterday but I couldnt get the support bracket off the pass side axle to save my life and I had no energy left so I destined to finish it today. I woke up in the middle of the night excited as hell because I suddenly remembered that the engine I had bought about a year ago to throw in came to me with just the support bracket installed on it. No need to fiddle with the old one. So in a little I will head outside to finish the ho.

Pics coming in the following post.

 

 

 

I'll have to try it that way next time. Here in north Florida rust isn't an issue so everything comes right apart.

 

My 6 speed in my 6th gen is funky as well. Makes a whine noise in 3rd gear and above only if i keep the throttle constant. Engine braking or accelerating makes the noise go away. As i go up the gears, the noise gets higher pitched. Not loud or anything, but noticeable without the radio. Checked the fluid, eliminated other factors like bearings or the idle pulley.

Will drive on it until something happens, still ships smooth as ever.