beakersloco

Hello all

I have lurked here for over a year coming back every few months when I have a problem and not really posting anything. and by the way nice anti spam policy .. I had to make frivolous 12 posts just so I could start a thread. How about lowering it to 7 or 8 .

Anyway my car has had issues for the past year . Slipping transmission (auto)and upon startup if you try to really want to accelerate the car will hesitate if you dont adrive it easy for a few mins and allow it to to warm up. Plus no get up and go once it does warm up. Well earlier this week it shutoff on the wifey so we carry it to the Toyota dealership(long story go here if you want details of why I carry car to toyota dealership (http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....180808&page=3) but the owner of the toyota dealership owns a nissan dealership in the next town over) and since taxtime is not far off we decide to have them look at the slipping trans also. Well they come back and state that he MAF sensor and that the car needs sparkplugs and that a solenoid in the trans is bad. Luckily we have a warranty that we bought after the 36,000 mile warrenty expired. They are worried that it wont make it to the nissan dealership Kinston. Well the car was dropped of on monday evening they call at 3pm on Tuesday and they are sending the car on wednesday as its idleing better so they belive ti will make it to kinston (about a 30-35 mins drive).

Well today(Fri) at 5pm they call and state that the entire trans needs to be replaced. Now we have to wait untill monday for them to get the go ahead from the warrenty company . I asked the price out of curiosity Transmission $2135 Labor- $480 .

Now we wait .. but at least they did offer us a courtsey car a 2007 Corrolla. If we did not have that warrenty I do believe we would have been trading the car in on something else.

beakersloco

Well more drama.... dealership calls and now the warranty company wants more information . They want the dealership to disassemble the trans and they are going to send an adjustor to look it over to see why it needs a new trans vs rebuilding the current one.

What sucks about this is that if they deny it when we have to pay the labor charges which the dealership reports to be between $700 - $800 ..

Anyone care to give me any words of advice?

sascuderi

Are you 100% sure its the Tranny??

Reason I ask you this is that a bad/failing MAF will give you similar symptoms. A new MAF will cost only $100.00.

Have you ever replaced the MAF?

beakersloco

its a long story and at this point in time Im starting to think that is all the car needs.

I will tell you a story later on tonight and everyone can have a good laugh at how bad stealerships are.

4MySwee

iTrader: (2)

Regarding labor for the tranny evaluation:

That is between the dealership and the warranty company, IMO. If the dealership is the one saying your car needs the new tranny and then can't prove it after opening it, it's their claim to eat, NOT YOURS!!!!

I would also tell them that.

Let us know how it unfolds-Story that is, not the tranny.

Also, I can find 15 topics to give 2 cents in, I don't mind the anti-spam features.

beakersloco

Got the maf sensor replaced and sparkplugs and its like the car is brand new again ... took it on a back road and took off she accelerates with ease now ... even when the car has been sitting.

Full story .. car started out at toyota dealership(where we bought the car and the owner used to own a nissan dealership in the next town over). Car was dropped off on Monday Jan 29 right before they closed because it the car shutoff and runnning crappy on the wife on her way to school. Because of her relationship with the dealership (used to do bank loans for them at a local bank)they gave her a loaner car ( 2007 corrola). The next day the Toyota place tells us its the maf sensor and a solienod in the trans. They are worried the car wont make it to the nissan dealership but later on on Tuesday after noon they want to send it to the nissan dealership for them to look at the trans.

I ask them if they have performed the work yet ... I was told no so then I ask if the car is running crappy how are they gonna test the trans if they cant drive it. I was informed that they had cleaned the maf sensor and that the car was running fine now but is still needed to be changed. Not sure exactly when but car gets to a nissan dealership but its friday before the toyota dealership calls and we are told that its not the solenoid but that the car needs a new trans. My wife had called on thursday for an update and is told they have not looked at the car yet. We find that odd as in the past if the car had to be sent to kinston nissan it dont take long for them to look at the car , perform the work and get back(could tell by the miles on the car that it had left town). Well they take the warrenty info and its Tuesday before the warrenty company responds.

At this point the toy dealership calls us and is like we need your permission to have the nissan dealership teardown the trans for the warrenty company to send out someone to see whats wrong with the trans. We are informed that they are gonna want to charge us $800 in labor if the warrenty company does not approve it. At this point we find out that our car is not at Kinston Nissan its at Greenville Nissan ... and the wife is hot .. we find out that the owner of the Toyota dealership no longer owns the Kinston Nissan.

I assume that they figured to send the car to the local dealership get it fixed and we would never know it did not go to Kinston Nissan. I know she made sure to mention when she dropped the car off that it was expected to goto the kinston dealership if their was a problem they could not fix.

In the meantime wife calls warrenty company and eventually we are told that the car needs to go to Ammcco for them to diagnose it . So the car goes to the third shop ...car goes to ammcco right before they close on in the afternoon of Feb 8. Feb 9 wife tells me that they dont see a problem with the trans. I mention to drive the car when it was cold and also mention about the maf sensor and hes like that could be it or it could be something intermittant which is hard to track etc.

He will have his best man drive the car first thing the next day which is Sat Feb 10 and call us back on monday. At this point the Toyota dealership is like we gotta have out car back ... I guess at this point the wife must of had words with the service manager and he is like you can keep the car until Tues Feb 13.

I asked the Ammco guy whats this gonna cost .. he tells me since he doesnt see a problem and since he is giving a 2nd opinion he is not gonna charge us the diagnostic fee. On monday he says he still dont see an issue but he knows a guy with a shop that was nissan trained and would like for him to have a look at the car but this guy would charge a $50 dianostic fee. He explains that they guy is good etc ... so wife and I decide oky sent it

So on Feb12 the car goes to the 4th shop. Well wife calls down to the shop in feb 13 and the guy has not looked at the car and wife says he gave her attitude. So she was like bump this and went down to what she said looked like small junk lot and cars were everywhere. She walked in right before they closed and the guy did not even ask for ID before he handed over the keys.

Wife and I decide that the maf sensor and the plugs were gonna be done and we would drop the car back off to the toyota dealership on wed Feb 14. So on Wed morning l how about the manager from the toyota calls looking for his car. I politely tell him what time my car will be dropped off and that when they call me to pick up my car I would drop their car off. Car was dropped off at 11:00 and they called us saying it was ready at 4 pm.

Wife picks up car and then drops it off to me at my job and she shows me the work order stating that the transmission still needed to be fixed. Aint that a crock of bull. Makes me wonder exactly what they did to diagnose the trans problem other then when I told him I wasnt sure if it was a trans problem or an engine problem as the car hesitates when cold.


Car is awesome now took it out on a back road and she jumped up to 110 easily and quickly.

Should I pull the battery to clear the ecu to get the full effect of the new maf sensor or will the ecu adjust to it automatically since its been a week ?

4MySwee

iTrader: (2)

Wow, what drama.

Makes you wonder what anyone over there really knew.

I believe that the ECU will reset itself in a short time. Not a mechanic here...just throwing that out there.

Glad to hear it's fixed. Definately sickening to think it could have been some silly sensor making your car run like this.

Maybe it was time for a tune up?