OKay, well, I am going to go ahead and post this in the General Forum, in case anyone can assist.

Here's the scenario:
'98 Auto SE, 59,400 miles. B&M Tranny cooler, UR UDP are the internal mods. I JUST (Tuesday) changed the tranny fluid/filter, fuel filter. The tranny fluid was CLEAN, very clean!!! They may have actually changed it before that gave me the car at 51,800 miles.
Anyway, the problem occured BEFORE I CHANGED THE FLUID/FILTER. The problem is also intermittant...seems when the car is cold, the noise isn't there. DISCLAIMER: when I shift from reverse/drive, I always ALWAYS come to a complete stop, but who knows what was done for the 1st 50k on the car, right?
The problem: when I shift from drive to park/reverse/whatever when the car is warm, the tranny makes a pretty loud clunking noise that I am almost positive it never made before. However, my old car did that all the time, and it was fine.

Took it to the dealer; they report it is the brakes. I say I don't agree, but they can go ahead and change "brake hardware." I go to pick it up a few hours later, and they have me test it. Noise is still there. I say it's still there, they say the noise is "normal." THAT IS SUCH BS! I was not really smart, so I didn't have them get in another 4th gen on the lot and show them it's not normal.

TOmorrow I am going back with 95GreenGLE, who has more mods than I do, and we will show them that the noise is not normal. If it takes me every 4th gen on their lot, I am going to get them to fix my problem. ANyone know what it could be? My theory is that the tranny is whack from the previous owner, who may not have come to a complete stop from r -> d. But the tranny fluid is sooooo clean. I need help!

Happy thanksgiving, btw.

 

Oh yeah, and I don't feel any slipping in the gears that I can notice.

 

soory to hear that limey.... Well you know dealerships.

 

i say take it to another stealership and get a second opinion.. one that won't BS you... let me know if you have time to go to Bob SHarp... i will talk to them first hand so they don't give you any BS.. then you can take that advice and take it to original stealership

 

hmmmmmmm...I could go tomorrow I suppose...... I will try yelling at the original stealership first!!

 

I had another car that would clunk like that. It turned out one of the motor mounts was broken and the engine was rocking on the other mount way more than it should.

Don't you wonder sometimes how the people who service cars for a living can be so stupid in some cases. I think they teach them in some class somewhere to say "They all do that"

 

if they don't try and help you out, turn it into the VW dealership in georgia type of incident.

 

Nick, what's that all about? If they don't fix it I am going to call the national customer satisfaction place for nissan. Also, I am going to trade in the car I think.

 

haven't you read about that dealership suing a customer?

 

hah, no, but it's not like I am hurting them. They need to uphold the warrantee I am paying for.

 

If you're at 59.4k, aren't you still under the powertrain warranty? As long as it's documented that you discovered a problem, you should still be able to get it fixed after 60k, I think if you have a good relationship with the dealer. NOt really sure, because I had a 5-spd leak that I reported at 34k, they said it was ok, and when it wasn't at 39k, they told me it's covered since I reported it before.

I think that clunk is an indication of a problem (I haven't had an auto in 4 years though). I had that happen on my Volvo, and it resembled how you'd expect it to sound if the engine idle were high (like 2500 rpm), with a thud. Only it made that noise when the engine was idling normally. Needed a rebuild shortly thereafter, lucky I could get it done cheap.

Good luck.

 

she has extended powertrain warrantee also..

 

Even with Don's VB mod my auto doesn't do that. They should fix it.

 

Are you ssure it isn't something simple like a heat shield banging under the car , or a slighty loose motor mount?

 

I have had that on my 3rd gen, and yes, my tranny died within a month however there were other previous indicators like crazy hard shifts or no shifts at all... I do get this noise on my 98 GXE auto sometimes as well.... I have 61k miles now, tranny fluid hasn't been flushed YET. But my brakes do squeak when i brake but i don't see how they can in any way cause that noise when u are at a full stop.

See if temperature of the car affects the noise in anyway? I know when mine is cold it shifts like shiet and moving it from N-P-R into any of the Drive gears makes that noise occasionally, also it is kind of rough and the car shakes just slightly...


I am naturally very tranny paranoid because my 93 SE tranny died when I was a child Check your fluid level also.... good luck

 

well I thought the noise was gone. So I didn't go. But it's not gone, and the suspension problems still remain. So I have decided I am probably going to return the car to stock and try to trade it in for a 5 spd or something. (98/97 or anything with comparabe miles)

It's sad. I am so disappointed in this car. I am hoping it is a major lemon of a 4th gen.

 

I am really thinking I need to take them to court...anyone have any ideas about this? The car they gave me had problems from day 1. Now they have told me there is nothing wrong with the car, charged me to fix a problem that they did not fix...what do I do???

 

Erica, pretty much all of the problems that you have had with your car have been 'noise' related. Those are without a doubt the hardest to fix. Unless you can prove to someone that you had a clear cut mechanical problem, you just be SOL.

 

uhhhhh yeahhhhhh...well...since the noises are directly related to performance (as in the back end of the car is a dolphiny jackrabbit), and the transmission lags while it makes that noise, I think there are definite issues at hand. However, I am just going to get rid of it since it's "normal."

 

hmm, what exact other problems did you have with the car???

My 3rd gen had numerous suspension problems, tranny problems, fuel system problems, and power loss along with most common 3rd gen problems. All in all about 2,500$ on repairs. I tried my best to determine the causes and figured it is not worth completely fixing it. Your car is much newer, suspension problems, a lot of people have those.. Rear end breaking loose? heh, welcome to the world of rear beam suspension, I felt this from day one, going to this from the best handling year of maximas. Don't be so quick to judge it on noise, many dealer service reps are *******s, seeing your drive terrain warranty is almost up, they may want to stretch out the process another 1k miles until it is fully gone and you will have to pay.

All I am saying is, don't be so quick to jump to conclusions.. you are trading one car for the same thing, you will loose a good 3+ grand on the trade in, but you will get the same car in return, you might as well put 1-2 grand on fixing this one completely and keeping it. Your choice, think it out before you do it...just my advice

 

I thought you changed your shocks? I know your oem shocks died to, but that was because you lowered your car. So how can you blame Nissan for your rear supension issues? Good luck with your tranny and all.

 

I have the same problem too. Sometimes when I shift to reverse, I hear this clunking sound.... I"m used to it by now and dont know what to do so I just leave it alone.

oNe

 

I was thinnking about it, but I am not sure how to get the money for that. Driving the car scares me. However, the transmission is under warrantee. THEY MUST FIX IT. The shifts have been getting rougher, I've noticed, maybe, but I could be paranoid. I am hoping it is the transmission mount; they may have messed them up or damaged them when they replaced my REAR MAIN SEAL which was LEAKING OIL when I first got the car. The service department missed that and lied abou changing the brakes when I got the car.

The same problems occurred before I changed the suspension. the cars has the SAME EXACT PROBLEMS. The suspension problems consist of: groaning noise on turns (possibly warped rotor hub or wheel bearing?), thunking over bumps in rear. These problems existed before the suspension was changed; I thought I'd get rid of them by replacing old bushings and such, but apparently not. The groaning went away after I replaced my rear rotors (nissan oem parts), but it is back in scary more than full force.

 

oh yeah, the grinding/groaning may have started as early as 2 weeks after I got the car in April.

 

It could be a loose mount somewhere. MY car makes no sounds when I shift.

 

Okay well, at least I have more of an idea of what's up with my car. Rear-end noises seem to be mostly due to bad wheel bearings, which I made an appointment to get checked/changed for next week at a different dealership. They are going to check the tranny mounts for me as well. I wonder if they will fix them for me; I dunno yet. I would rather Executive stay far away from my car, so........yeah. I will talk to them.

 

*ahem* what dealership?

 

well because I have no other car and no one lives near me to take me to work, I have to go somewhere close where i can sit and wait. :-\ Middletown.

 

 

I'm sorry. I can't go a reallllly long way away at this point. It's not feasible with work and no one else to give me a ride.

 

Oh ok, I see.
The biggest problem here is that the tranny is not broken, the dealer doesn't feel like repairing something when it's just a speculation that is may be working bad. Ofcourse they probably know better if it is or it isn't, but they won't say it if they don't want to fix it, especially since you are about to get out of your 60k mile warranty (but you have an extended one right? ). They can just say it's supposed to work that way and it's nothing to worry about, the tranny is an expensive thing to repair, and all these places are usually busy so they won't want to use a few of their mechanics for a 4+ hours on taking out the transmission and putting a new one in. Good luck with it, hope your tranny dies completely before you can argue with them that something is wrong. I didn't take my 3rd gen to Nissan for the rebuilt because I was quoted close to 4 grand (i think). A local shop did it for 1,200$ with a 6 month warranty and what do you know, my transmission started acting up again within 4 months or so, I brought it back, they drove it around and said nothing is wrong. How can I prove it to them? there isn't really a way. When I had 20k miles on the rebuilt tranny it was acting the same way as it was just before it died. I didn't bother fixing it again, so I sold the car.

 

heh...wonderful. Well; I am going to try to get this other dealership to look at it. If not, I will go to a transmission shop and have them tell me what is wrong (tranny mount or whatever), bring it to the dealership, and tell them to fix it. It seems to act all right other than that.....