I purchased an 03 Maxima about a month ago. It has 190K and was running and shifting great with no problems. So, today I was driving and it lost power and I could not get the RPM's above about 1500. There was not any sounds or anything...I just lost power. The motor was idling fine but would not accelerate...I guess it was in limp mode, but it would not move at all unless the ground was completely flat. I pulled over, turned it off and then restarted it. It seemed to be normal again so I pulled off. About a minute later it did the same thing. I tried to limp it home like this, but decided to call a wrecker. The SES light and ABS lights came on. My mechanic pulled two codes. P0732 and P0733. He reset the codes and drove the car, but could not get it to reproduce for him. I picked the car up and it lost power on my way home...ABS light came on, but regained power before I had to pull over. I stopped at a gas station briefly and then left again (ABS light went off) and I could not get it to reproduce again. I drove it like I normally would at first and then really got on it and it shifted fine with no problems....no lights, no issues. Has anyone else experienced this? Could it be trash in my transmission fluid? My mechanic said the fluid level was full and the fluid looked great.

 

From the service manual, page AT137:

P0732 - This malfunction is detected when the A/T does not shift into second gear position as instructed by the TCM. This is not caused by electrical malfunction (circuits open or shorted) but by mechanical malfunction such as control valve sticking, improper solenoid valve operation, etc.

From the service manual, page AT143:

P0735 - This malfunction is detected when the A/T does not shift into third gear position as instructed by the TCM. This is not caused by electrical malfunction (circuits open or shorted) but by mechanical malfunction such as control valve sticking, improper solenoid valve operation, malfunctioning servo piston or brake band, etc.

The transmission has a set of solenoids that can and do go bad. Maybe you mechanic can check those out.

Here is a link to the Nissan service manual. You might want to let your mechanic know that a service manual exists.

http://boredmder.com/FSMs/Nissan/Maxima/2003/

 

Thanks for the response...I was wondering why these codes would be thrown if I was cruising in OD at the time it happened?

 

Don't know. Maybe one of the solenoids dropped out and he TCM couldn't get it to re-engage.

 

what oil you runnin in it? If it dont say long life on the bottle it needs to be flushed out once a year or once every three years?
also Nissan issued a TSB thats a technical bulletin on the cooler lines that run the oil through the radiator to shed the heat from the oil. The lines get plugged up with **** that builds up in the trannie

 

UPDATE: I unplugged the battery for a few hours to try to reset anything electrical. I have driven the car over 200 miles with no codes or re-occurrence of the original problem. The only thing I notice is that it does not seem to be as responsive in lower RPM's. If I go hard on the gas it gets up and goes, but just cruising around town at lower RPM's it feels different...a little sluggish....maybe. All the shifts feel good still. Could a bad solenoid be causing it to feel sluggish? Someone suggested that it could be a partially clogged fuel filter...I was almost at empty when the original problem occurred (the gas light was on when I picked my car up from the mechanic) so it made we wonder if that was a possibility.

I am thinking since I just purchased the car that I should change the transmission fluid and possibly just change out the solenoid pack while I am in there.