Hi everyone. I am from the east cost in Canada and new to this forum. I am the owner of a Maxima 2004 SE 6 sp manuel transmission that I bought almost one year ago. Although I am generally happy with my car and thrilled with the awesome power of the engine, I am less satisfied with the manuel transmission. I have driven manuel trannies all my life, big trucks, small cars, even motorcycle. The problem I have is an anoying grinding when I get to 2nd and 3rd gear. Most of the time there is a short moment grinding that gets to my bones! After bringing it this to the attention of the dealer, they changed the tranny oil for synthetic. No difference. I have asked a new transmission, new car or my money back (only 12,000 km). The dealer had the area Fixed Operation mangers in to look and test the car. He did today and told me there is nothing wrong with it. It is a caracteristic of the car and that he will not authorized a new transmission. He said never had a complaint with the 6 sp in Canada.

Of course I disagred with him.

I want to take this further and would appreciate any suggestions, or even specific case of such a problem that Nissan agreed to change tranny.

Thanks.

Fireball (this isactually the name my wife gave to my car - radient amber)

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Wait, the Fixed Operations Manager told you that there is nothing wrong for a transmission to grind when shifting from 1st to 2nd. OR did he tell you that he couldn't replicate the problem and your car is fine.

I have the same problem as you do and I believe that the grind only happens when the car is cold or if it is below 60 degrees F. After driving 10 minutes or so, the tranny will not grind anymore.

I hope you get somewhere with this because I too would like this problem resolved.

 

I have the same problem from 1st to 2nd only when cold

 

Grinding going into 2nd is odd. Not even my transmission does that. The 2nd gear synchronizer is triple coned which shouldn't grind at all. However the 3rd gear grind is quite common and any dealer that says otherwise is just sheltered from the facts. The 3rd gear synchronizer is garbage and unless Nissan ever changes it's design it will always go bad at about the same mileage. I am currently looking to find a different 3rd gear baulk ring to replace mine and I will let everyone know if I am ever to make an improvment on this thing. This transmission is a PITA to dissasemble and I don't want to have to do it every 10k miles just to replace the #3 baulk ring.

 

Same thing happens with mine when it is cold. It usually corrects after a few shifts. It usually happens for me when shifting from 1st into 2nd.

 

Ive got the same thing happening on mine. i have an 04 SE 6spd and only have 3k miles on it. I am taking mine to the dealership next week and will let you know what I find out. I to noticed though that it does tend to subside mostly after it warms up. I say mostly because it still does happen from time to time even when warm. So i tried something that seemed to fix it. When shifting from 1st to 2nd gear instead of slamming it into gear quickly, I allowed a few seconds from when I pulled it from 1st gear before i put it into 2nd. That seems to elimante the problem. Another thing I noticed is when I get on the gas, and am shifting at a higher RPM, the car takes the shift much better. I think it must be some sort of a defect in the synchros or something. If I take it easy off the line and try shifting quickly, i get the grind. I dont know but I seem to have found a way around it. Good luck and I will let you all know what the dealer says.

 

I really wanted to get the manual tranny but the nyc traffic is getting so bad that i got the auto. I think though there is a bug in these manual trannies because I was also considering the Infiniti G35 coupe and i've looked at their forums and noticed some of them had problems with the 6sp manual but it seems Infinit was more willing to replace the trannies. I'll try and post the address of the G35 forum site. Rich.

 

I used to love driving a manual. But times change, and situations change.

When I lived in Bisbee AZ (and later in Tombstone), I would shift only a few times in the 35 miles between my residence and my work (in Sierra Vista).

But when I lived out in the burbs and worked in downtown Atlanta, things were considerably different. One day in 1979 I placed pad and pencil in the passenger seat (of my 5 speed manual 1978 Datsun 200SX) and kept track of the shifts between home and office. The shifts on that route are incessant.

That morning, the number of shifts was over 620. At that time, I decided extensive stop and go traffic for an hour and a half each way is not compatible with a manual tranny. Or a healthy left leg or right arm.

I replaced the 2nd gear synchronizer twice on that car. Grinding was the symptom both times.

Unless I move to a rural area, I will never again consider a manual.

 

The Fixed Operations Manager said that the characteristics of my manual transmission was no different than those of Maxima 2004, hence it is not defective and as such will not agree have my transmission replaced under warranty. If I wanted to pursue this further, should write a letter to Nissan and go into arbritation, etc... Not very useful!

If it were a $ 12,000 car, I would drop the matter. But for a CND $ 40,000 + car (including sales tax), I expect and demand better!

I would like to build my case. Can anyone confirmed that:

a) some of the manual transmission of the 2004 have been changed for this? Dealer contact info?

b) Nissan did make improvement in the tranny later in the year?

I have read in a few forums including this one about points a and b, but without enough specific to build my case.

Any help and thoughts would be grately appreciated.

Thanks.

 

Mine will do that too on occasion. Only in cold weather and usually just after starting the car.

Once it's warmed up it doesn't seem to be a problem. If anythign I'd say the noise is coming from below/around the shifter mechanism rather than the transmission.

CM.

 

hi, here's a link to what some G35 owners said about their manual trannies. http://www.6mt.net/forum/search.asp?mode=DoIt

 

http://www.6mt.net/forum/topic.asp?T...=trannie,grind

 

I would like to know how many of the SE 2004 6 speed manual transmission owner have an issue with the 2nd and or 3rd gear grinding. What does your dealer said or did about it?

Anyone had their transmission replaced?

 

I was wondering if you had visited with your dealer yet?

Is anyone aware of Nissan having replaced some of the 6 sp manual transmission?

 

I had my tranny replaced, but it was for more than just gear grinding, stick locked up, and couldn't be shifted at all. It only had 7000 miles on it. The dealership however, wouldn't give me a straight answer in terms of what actually went wrong with the tranny however, simply stating that they were sending it back to nissan to have the engineers look at it(yeah right).
Here are the symptoms I had before my tranny locked up and went out completely. Since I had received the car, 3rd gear seemed to grind a lot more than it should, I though that mabey it was just me, letting the clutch out before the gear was fully engaged etc, but I feel differently now after having received a new transmission. The day before it locked up completely, it was having trouble getting from 6th back into 5th, then when it actually locked up, I was shifting from first to second and it took all I had to get the stick into second, and about a quarter mile down the road, the gearbox locked up completely and I had to roll of onto ths side of the road and wait 2 hours for a tow truck. After receiving the new gear box, I will comment that this box seems to feel a lot better than the original ever did, but I feel my tranny was the one in a million defect that 6 sigma quality control affords. If you truly feel that your tranny is defective, demonstrate to the service manager exactly what it does, and if he says that it is normal, have him show you another maxima 6 speed that has the same characteristics. The dealership was shocked when I brought it in, and seemed at least truly suprised when the mechanic determined that this tranny was truly defective, which leads me to beleive that this is not a common problem at all, not to mention that this isn't the first year this tranny has been used.

 

Any more thoughts comment on this? I am considering going to the Nissan Arbritation Program to get my 6 sp tranny fixed, replaced or get my money back.

 

^ In my experiences, Nissan is the absolute WORST in terms of customer care.. god forbid you have a problem with your car, its like pulling teeth not only getting them to FIX shi* but even to just acknowledge problems! Take another 6-speed from the dealer for a spin, if that thing shifts normally I would biatch up & down because obviously this isn't a "normal characteristic" But whatever happens DO NOT settle for a car with problems/defects, especially a nice new expensive one like you have.. fight the fight if you have to thats what I say. I'm in the process of starting a legal battle with Nissan over my 3.5 Alty thats been having problems that they can't diagnose. . I refuse to pay & live with a ****ed up car, neither should you or any one of us bro. . good luck manG Peace

PS - Radiant Ember is my favorite on tha Max

 

Was wondering what wondering if you had brought you Max to the dealearship yet and what he said re the grinding tranny.