I have a 2004 6SP SE with about 60K miles. One morning last week, my stick shift didn't go into first gear anymore. It was also shifting roughly into the other gears.

I took it to the dealership and they replaced the tranny with a new one . Since they were already in there I let them also replace my clutch which was according to them pretty much worn.

It was ready for pickup last night. As I took it out of the dealership the first thing I noticed was the feather light clutch action. Didn't think much of it, not sure if it's good or bad, just different. However, I had real difficulties to make smooth shift transitions into all gears. The worst was in the downshift from 4 to 3 where I simply could not put it in 3 without bending the stick! Similar for downshifting from 5 to 4.

I took it back and now there is this debate going on between me and them as what constitutes a "smooth shift". They say it shifts according to all new manual Maximas. I bought this one new, and boy if it were to shift then like it does now I would not even have thought about buying it in the first place.

How does one typically quantify the quality of shifting? I feel I am driving a truck from the 40's (yeah, double clutching, grinding gears and all) yet the dealership tells me it is shifting smoothly when they drive it. Perhaps they are insinuating that my shifting technique is inadequate; I might not throw my shifts around like in "the fast and the furious', but I have been driving a stick since I learned to drive 20 years ago and the only times I have driven an automatic is when driving a rental whilst my Maxima has been in the shop, which has been way too many! They can insinuate all they want, but I have a car that shifts like a wreck and no longer has the (already diminished - shimmy is another issue but that is beside the point here) driving pleasure it use to have.

I am going back tonight and drive together with the service manager. In the mean time, does any one have any suggestions or advice?

thanks

G

 

dude i drive the same car. 04 6spd i have 55k on it. my cluch is kinda harder compare to cars like Passat or Altima. I know what your talking about, because your are used to your old cluch; it takes time for you to get use to the feeling of the new cluch. there is nothing wrong with your cluch, you just have to get used to it again and you will shift smooth again. But as far you replacing your tranny at 60k and having a worn cluch I think you dont shift right. no offence tho. but Manual trannys dont really go bad Unless if you drive that thing pretty bad. so far, knoc on the wood, I have not had any problem with my tranny and my cluch is just as good as the first day i bought the car.

Try getting used to it and give time.

 

ive got a 04 6spd also . .89,900 miles no probs with the tranny shifts or clutch . . only a little hard to put into 1st when first starting when its cold outside. I would ask why they put a light clutch in . . tat happened when i got my tranny replaced my 5spd. clutch was loght and sucked . . burned very easily when driving hard. but same here knock on wood havent had any tranny probs yet. but if your having to bend the stick to get it in gear take a test drive with the service mgr and show them what you mean.

 

go back to the dealer if u r worried...

 

My 04" 6M/T has 48.000 miles on the odometer. It shifts very roughly, especialy from 2nd to 3rd gear and also very often when i downshift from 4 to 3... There's a "grinding" noise similar to that one, when you're trying to shift with a half pressed clutch or so... So i have to shift very softly all the time. Also noticed, that when the car is warmed up, shifting gets little bit smoother...

I've seen few people on here having problem with loosing clutch pressure, because of bad master cylinder... Maybe that's our case

Please, let us know if you find a solution for the "roughly shifting"...
Good luck

 

04 with 106k miles on the stock trans/clutch, dosnt like going into 1st when its cold, redline mt-90 helped that alot. does not struggle to go into any gear except 6th when doing a top speed run, but how often are you doing that.

i tend to drive like speed racer to, lots of hard shifts to 2nd to roast the tires from a roll, plenty of burnouts/powershifting.


i thought it ate its self one night, i lost 1st, 3rd and 5th

got home popped the hood and my under hood fuse cover came loose and got stuck in the linkage.

 

I agree with the earlier posts. You appear to be going with the service manager. Make him downshift in your presence and say that the trannie is shifting properly.

I have 66 K on my 6-speed. I suspect I have some wear on the clutch because it now engages closer to the floor than when new. And when I have to park outside in cold weather, the shifting is much stiffer until the trannie warms up (even with synthetic).

I also recommend synthetic fluid. It makes the trannie work like it did when the car was new (it did this for me -- particularly when the fluid was new).

 

May be relivent or not but have you had any sterio work done. After my aftermarket deck install the installer left some little wire clippings that fell into the ball socket in the lower part of our shifter arm and it was jamming up inside there making it very hard to get into gears. I took off the shifter boot and cleaned everything out and it shifted great other than a little 3rd gear crunch every now and then. I have a 02 but I no it's basically the same setup in there. Just a thought

 

The 6mts also had the 'dead pedal' symptoms. I believe another member already posted about that on here. He referenced the master cylinder as the culprit.

Regarding your shimmy, take a look under the front of your car. See that black plastic cover from the bottom of the front bumper going towards the back? Remove it and take your car for a spin, then post the results here....

Swee

 

If the clutch pedal feels softer they probably installed a different clutch. You're feeling the difference in the stiffness of the clutch springs. I hope they didn't install a Key Value clutch, because that's a downgrade.

As for the rough shifting, the linkage is a big issue. I've torn down a couple of 6 speeds that dealers discarded and never found *anything* wrong with them.

Dave

 

About the stiffness, i was told by the dealer that's absolutely normal. Also said that 350Z's 6M/T are the same...

 

My 2 cents (I drive an 04 6sp too) is that it could be your clutch lines need to be bled. Soft pedal can be caused by air in them and the clutch may not fully disengage, making it pretty hard to shift. Again, my 2 cents.

 

A very much due reply (I was out and about for a while):

I took my Max back and they bled the lines, and then it shifted more or less like it used to. That was back in late November 2007.

Then I noticed my clutch started to become "sticky": especially after driving in heavy stop and go traffic. I would engage the clutch, and it would feel "resistance free" until I almost hit the clutch pedal to the wall and then it would just barely engage, causing very rough shifting. To me, this was especially unexpected since I just had the clutch replaced with the new transmission.

The "sticky clutch" symptom had happened before, in spring of 2007. On one of those occasions, I had been driving cross town in rush hour traffic for more than an hour - stop and go - something I usually never need to do. The clutch stuck so badly that I could not shift anymore. I had to pull off the road. After waiting for a while, I tried again, and the clutch appeared to operate normal again. This happened a lot, and when I took it to the dealer ship, they replaced some clutch component; I am not sure which, but it could have been the master cylinder.

Anyhow, back to the current issue, just before Xmas 2007 I returned my Max to the dealer with the complaint of a "sticky clutch" again (and to have it serviced also). They had to keep it for a while since I was going on travel, and they said they would have to open up to look inside and they would close down for Xmas and they would not get to it until the 28th of December. I got back from my trip and I got my Max back on Jan 8 2008.

Their solution: They replaced fluid with a synthetic blend.

When I drove it out of the dealership, it never shifted this smooth before. Actually, it shifted better then when it was new. It was like the way I was used to when I lived in Europe and was driving my Peugeots and Opels. I felt like I had to drive back to the dealership and hug the guy - a sentiment I had not felt for a dealership mechanic in more than years!

Unfortunately, the honeymoon didn't last very long; as of the last couple of days, the shifting has become rougher again. It also has become colder again here at the Mid Atlantic. Maybe there is a correlation. I noticed that when it is under 40F, there is nothing I can do to make it not crunch when shifting between my lower 3 gears.

This morning it was 28F when I pulled out of my driveway. It was painful shifting through the lower 3 gears whilst driving 5 blocks through town towards the interstate. Then I drove on the interstate for 30 miles where I usually shift within the range of the upper 3 gears. No problem there. Then when I got off the interstate, during the remaining few blocks to work I felt that I was still shifting roughly, albeit not as rough as this morning.

Anyhow, reading from all the other posts it seems that "rough" shifting isn't that uncommon.

 

Sounds to me like the problem is not with the clutch or transmission, but the master and/or slave cylinder.

Dave

 

Car mechanics isn't my major, but I guess you are talking about the hydrolics which engages/disengages the release fork of the clutch? How does that work? Is it similar to the workings of the brake system?

Now, this makes me wonder: my mechanic told me he changed "the fluids" to a synthetic blend; Now I am unclear if he meant the fluid for the clutch release fork hyldrolic system or if he meant he put synthetic lube in my transmission.

 

Yes, it works identically to your brakes. If one end starts leaking internally you can get temperature-sensitive problems just like you describe. When the hydraulics aren't sealing well you can't disengage the clutch fully, causing very hard shifting and irregular clutch pedal travel.

It's possible that the dealer changed the tranny gear lube to a synthetic. Brake fluids used in the clutch hydraulics can also come in synthetic variety, although going synth in brake fluid means very little. In either case, if you have bad clutch hydraulics, neither fluid change will solve it. They might be avoiding the hydraulics until you run out of warranty(?)

 

With "not sealing well enough", do you mean hydraulic fluid is leaking out? I guess I need to keep an eye on my clutch hydraulic resevoir level.

 

when you get your tranny replaced, the gear oil is also changed. From what I hear, even though Nissan specifies GL4 gear oil, they seldom use it themselves. I hear its a mix that they use. Try buying pure GL4 fluid and see if that works. Swapping out the fluids is much less time consuming than going back and forth to the dealer regarding rough shifting.

I honestly dont believe anything is wrong with your tranny but rather the fact that the clutch is brand new has something to do with the rough shifting. Nissan puts the same exact tranny in for replacement so I wouldnt worry too much about it. Give it some time

 

^^^I agree change your tranny fluid to something synthetic Redline MT90 or something of the equivilent. I had this with my old alitma when it was cold, I switched and even in -30degrees it was smooth as butter.

 

It may or may not leak out, depending on which seal is giving you problems.

The slave cylinder is at the clutch end and it can leak out. The master cylinder will not leak out when it has bad seals - it will actually give symptoms very much like you described. Watching the reservoir won't show anything since the leak is internal.

Are you still under warranty? I noticed you said "almost 60k" and this job could cost several hundred bucks. If 60k is a magic number, I'd make darn sure to not miss out on that.

Dave

 

Point taken.

I have 62K on it. I bought the extended warrenty which expires after 100K miles o /5 years.

 

I took it back this morning to the local dealership in Alexandria VA (which name I won't mention here ) because the shifting was similar to playing Russian roulette with 7 bullets: it shifted smoothly only about 1 out of 8 times.

Anyways, this afternoon the customer representative called me telling me all they had to do was to bleed the lines. So no big deal really, so I asked relieved "when do I get my car back?".

An ominous split second pause followed.

Then he went on explaining how a light fixture broke off almost killing the mechanic whilst my heroic Max took the blow - which really was meant for the mechanic, honestly my Max can’t heal by itself, argh ... and the mechanic probably had it commin' anyways.

The roof apparently got dented. I didn’t get to see it, as he went on explaining that they started immediately with the body shop repairs. "$800 worth of damage" he managed to throw in the conversation – some consolation that is.

This is not the first time a Nissan dealership damage my car while doing repairs; Scratches and dents from previous visits at one in Fairfax VA (not to mention any names again ). Once they had to replace my stereo, and they shipped the radio back with all my CDs in it. It took weeks before I got them back, and they were all scratched up.


I am not sure whether to be or to

 

+1

 

sell me your 6spd tranny ! = D

 

Almost one year later - still not shifting the way I would like, though a bit better than earlier this year (they did a couple of transmission flushes), but still not the way I had it before they replaced the manual transmission (see top of this thread).

Took it to the dealer again. This time I told the mechanic to keep the car for a few days and to drive it home and back. He comes back and tells me it shifts just fine

Maybe it's my shifting technique after all - it's possible I guess

Solution: Bought me a Volvo (automatic ofcourse).