Well my experience with my first maxima is sadly so far a crappy one. 2 weeks after I bought it(and 2 weeks and a day after the tranny was rebuilt) the clutch dropped out all at once. Boom 500 buck right there. Then after I picked up my max from the shop tonight and drove the 2 hours home, it gets stuck in 2nd gear in the parking lot of my apartment. Great, is my tranny already messed? I hope the new clutch wont void the warranty on the 11 hundred dollar tranny rebuild since it was done by a different mechanic. Crap! Sorry it's late, my cars crapping out on me already and I need to vent! AHHH!

 

I gotta ask..... Somebody spent $1100 on rebuilding the transmission and didn't spend $150 on a clutch kit while the trannt was out?

A mechanic put a rebuilt tranny in the car and didn't get the owner to put in a new clutch at the same time?

I've GOT to be missing some key piece of info......

 

You got it. I test drove the car and could tell the bearing were going out of the tranny. So the good guy I bought it from said he didnt want to sell unless it was fixed. So he took it in and just had the tranny bearing replaced and whatever. The clutch wasnt slipping AT ALL so neither of us knew it was close to going out.

Also the place he took it too had to send the tranny out cause they said it was too odd of a tranny for them to work on. (Iowa has like 99% domestic crap for cars it seems) So the shop that actually rebuilt it just did what they were told and werent asked to give opinions I guess.

The good news is I think theres a good chance they are standing behind their work and will do it with no cost for me. HOPEFULLY!

Edit: It's just frustrating that I've owned the car for 4 weeks and It's been in the shop over half the time. AARRGGHH!

 

Where in Iowa do you live? I know how it is w/ the domestic POS's though. I live in Ames.

 

I'm right by campus at UNI in Cedar Falls. I swear, there are 8 cavaliers for every other car here.

 

Umm.... What do you mean boom? The clutch just hit the floor while you were driving?

I'm kinda worried about getting a stick now.

 

I have had two maximas, both 5-speeds and I have driven them TONS of miles without any major problems, except the slave cylinder on my first one. I also drive my cars pretty hard. My first Max had it's clutch dumped too many times to count (I'm sorry about the abuse old Max).

I think that VW had a little bad luck.

Plus, no decent shop would rebuild a tranny and not put in a brand new clutch, pressure plate and throw out bearing unless you told them you JUST REPLACED IT the day before. Even then, they would tell you it's just better to put a new one in "while they got it apart."

 

Well to clarify, the clutch just went out all at once. It made a small boom sound, not like an explosion though. I was coming up on a tight curve(well tight if you are goin 80) and I tried to drop it into 3rd from 5th. I couldn't get it to go so I let out on the clutch, then pushed it back in and threw it into 3rd. Right then the facing came off the clutch and I had to force it into 5th to make it the 3 miles back to town and into my mechanics place.

Yeah, I think I just hit a bad patch of bad luck. I have no doubts about maximas in general, its just that Im worried about mine right now since it was rebuilt less than 1000 miles ago.

I talked to the shop that rebuilt it today and they said that its a common problem in these particular trannys that after a rebuild they can get stuck in a gear if everything is not perfectly lined up when rebuilt. what a pain in the ****.

 

oh, when you said the clutch hit the floor and went boom.
I thought it literally went boom!!! And something was dragging on the floor.

 

haha, nope, that would have scared the **** out of me.

 

while you have the car back into the tranny shop. just throw down the extra cash and get a new clutch put in. you'll end up saving on the labor charges in the long run

 

Haha, well, the tranny went out about 4 hours after I drove off from the first mechanics place with a fresh clutch. Thats why Im so PO'd.