Well my 04 is at the shop today getting its 6spd transmission replaced, the car has been driving like such crap, i cant believe the trans went wit just 40k on the odometer. this car has been in the shop more the the other 3 cars i owned combined. anyone else have problems with their trans, my dealer told me its been happening a lot to the z and maxima. i think its time to trade this puppy in and get sumtin a lil more reliable.

 

thats a scary thought....sometimes i dont know if its my tranny or if i am just hitting the pedal to hard....because i get that kick sometimes...

 

I love my 6 speed. No problems so far after 31,000 miles

 

i had no signs of it going till about 38,000 miles and then soon after it just really went bad, before all this the shifts were as smooth as butter and i hope they r again when i pick it up after work today. but since the warranty is almost up i think its time to get in another car, but i have had my fun with this baby for the past 2 years

 

yea I had my trani go at 14,000 miles

 

You guys are filling me with fear! I have just 3,000 miles on mine and loving my car to death. They call me "Mr Trade-in" because I trade in my car every year for a new one for the past twenty years. I have never kept a car long enough to get a brake job or service other than the oil changes. If I get a sign mine is acting up it will be history for sure. I put too much money into mine so I hope that is not the case. I don't recall Nissan being known to have bad manual transmissions. Anyone else having issues with the 6th Gen Max?

 

I agree. And I have 36 K on mine.

I also use the manual trannie to obtain engine braking every time I leave home and go down hill (about 1,200 feet in elevation drop over about 2 miles) to get to town.

I put Redline fluid in at about 30 K and that improved the shifts. Hope this is not a general problem for all Max 6-speeds.

 

To those of you with bad transmissions, sorry. Can you please provide more detail? Haunt14 only wrote that the car drove like crap. TheBlueprint mentioned a kick. 2theMaX05 just told us that his tranny went. What actually broke? What were the symptoms? Tell us more....

 

Before I bought my car, I found record showing the transmission was replaced when it only had 1,400 KM on the car. The 5th and 6th gear bearing were shattered (or something close to it). According to the owner, the car simply won't go in gear.

It has had no problems so far, and I'm going to put AMSOIL into the tranny soon.

 

my car would lock me out of 3rd gear at about 4k rpm and above and then its started to grind when i down shifted into 3rd. after that started happening the transmission would buck pretty hard when u were on and off the gas. now that i got my cat back wit the new trans i remember how nice the 6spd used to be. its so smooth and responsive. there is now way u cant tell your trans is going bad so dont look hard. u will know.

 

My 04 has 70k on it. Since the car was new, I get grinding going into 2nd and 3rd when the fluid is cold (like after sitting overnight), but it improves after the fluid has warmed up -- but it never goes completely away. This car was out of warranty long before the dealers even acknowledged an issue here.

Fluid was replaced at 60k with synthetic -- no observable difference.

I'm curious -- those who have had their transmissions replaced -- what symptoms got the dealer to replace it?

 

The "grinding" is normal with all standard Maximas. It's simply a notchy transmission design, and is meant for you to find gears easier. I was very mad when I first bought my Maxima, but now after I've gotten used to it, it is actually quite nice.

Ming

 

It may be "normal" in that they all do it, but it certainly isn't normal. No transmission ever grinds by design. Have you ever driven a different make of car with a manual tranmission and tried to grind when shifting? Of course you haven't because it's not normal.

Grinding = wear and wear = premature failure, which is bad for you, the dealer and Nissan.

The 5 spd in my 96 with 146k and my 00 with 50k never had any grinding. Sorry, but grinding is evidence of something wrong and I wish my car didn't do it. That said, I've grown to accept it and will wait for a more catastrophic failure before I bother replacing the transmission.

That the shifter is notchy is a completely separate issue. The shifter in my C5 is notchy -- but it never grinds.

 

I agree with Redline. My 6-speed never grinds (unless I make a mistake with the clutch). Sorry some are having problems. Happy that my 6-speed works well.

 

No problem with my 6-Speed...9,000 miles so far.

 

had the trans replaced in mine at 11K........they said that it had to much end play had an absolutely horrible whine through all the gears. no real major issues with the trans since then.......except for the notchy feeling which was helped out substansially when nissan put in the amsoil lubricant..

 

What exactly was wrong with your transmission ? The reason I ask is because my last car was a 2003 altima 3.5 5sp and the clutch pedal kept dropping to the floor and Nissan could never figure out what the problem was. Each time it did it the car would still be in gear and the only way to stop the car was to either let it stall to a stop or force it out of gear. I traded that and now my 6sp tranny in this Altima is doing it occasionally ?

Have any of you guys ever had that problem with your Maxima's ?

 

Ok this is completely unrelated but how much does it cost to change my 5speed auto to a 6 sp manual? And are there any minuses from doing that. Will I lose hp or anything? sorry im newb.

 

I've had my tranny replaced about a year ago...it had about 27K miles or so on the original tranny. It used to grind and shift notchy since day one and the dealer always ignored it. Then one day last summer it dropped 5th gear and into the dealer it went. They said that it had something to do with my short shifter but, that's BS. All of the teeth from 5th gear was laying inside the tranny casing, eating up the rest of the gears.

Anyway, they replaced it under warranty. The new tranny is still notchy and I suspect that the same thing will happen again. I don't know if changing to redline oil will help but, I'm gonna give it a shot next time I'm at the dealer.

Sorry if this isn't what you guys wanted to hear but, I think it's something with either the fluid or the gears themselves are manufactured poorly. Either through bad design or material...either way I just hope that it holds up.

 

I have 26,000 and still running strong. You guys who had the tranny replaced, was it covered under warrantee?

 

Even with AMSOIL my 3rd gear is kind of grindy. I know some guys take this as a sign of the gear notches when in fact its a miscalibrated "synchro"

as the dealership quoted.

If my tranny fails within warranty, I will have the dealership replace it, if after warranty I will fix it and sell the car.

KAM