UPDATE: read the whole post. Cliff notes, I fell on my face on this one.

Sigh I hate to post this but since Jeff doesn't seem to be answering his phone any more... And I can't get into touch with matt from his shop that does the modification through email...

I purchased a 4th gen maxima valve body from a supercharged maxima that was modified to being between the street/strip and racing stage. I called maximum tuning at the time and asked to make sure it was the same transmission as the 1st gen nissan altima. They confirmed that it was so I went ahead and picked it up. Jeff also mentioned that they would support me through the install and any questions I had if I had them. This was consistient with some of the posts online regarding their valve bodies so I was assured that I wouldn't have a problem.

I had it installed a couple of days ago, and the shifts were quite a bit different. 1-2 was quite harsh, but I figured that was what I got.

I also noticed that there seemed to be a cold start issue. When the car was cold the transmission wouldn't shift until around 5000 rpm, and the first few times it would shift when it was cold the car would almost stall. I figured this was maybe because I didn't have enough fluid in the tranny, so I checked the fluid level and it was ok. I called maximum tuning at this point to describe some of the problems and we finished the conversation with me telling him I'd try to reproduce the problem and give him a call back then.

I thought maybe the fluid would just work it's way into the valve body and tranny over some time. Two days later I'm still dealing with the cold start issue. So I called up maximum tuning asking if they had any ideas yesterday during their business hours, and I got their machine. I figured maybe they had to step out so I just left a message and described the problem with my phone number.

Upon not recieving a call back from Jeff, I called Jeff back today, and Jeff basically told me that he would not support second hand sales of his product. Quite a change from what he originally told me. He also would not give me any information on how to contact his tech that did the modification.

Now remember I'm not asking him to repair or overhaul anything, I'm just asking him if he has any experience with what's happening. I suspect that it's the install, but since I don't have any experience with transmission I can't tell. This phone connection ended quite aburply, if it was my cell phone's company's fault I'm not sure. Subsequint calls to maximum tuning have either been picked up by an answering machine, or it just simply rings off the hook.

Now the main subject of this post is to try to figure out what's going with this valve body, again I suspect the valve body install, but the shop I'm working with doesn't think they did anything wrong. I'm mainly looking for anything I can point out to them so they can move in the right direction.

The secondary point of this post is to comment on Jeff's customer service, now I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, but I find myself concerned with this. When I first called and mentioned the fact that it was shifting quite hard and that it was nice when matched with the turbo getting on the highway he was open to praise. When I call back with a possible problem he doesn't even take the time to call me back, and now he doesn't even pick up the phone.

I originally posted this at altimas.net but I figured since you guys have more maximas here that have done this swap maybe you guys have some insight to what might be causing my problem. I did most of my research on maximum tuning here, and I would run a search to see if anyone has had similar problems like mine, but at the test site I'm not finding any relavent information. Any help would be appreciated.

UltimaSE

 

give him some time. most of the east doesn't have power.

 

I'll have to give Jeff the benefit of the doubt here, I got cut off from his this afternoon right about when the northeast got knocked out. We'll just have to see what comes up tomarrow. Going to also take the car to the shop tomarrow and have them redo the install again.

I don't think the conversation between Jeff and myself today was complete and I have to say I made this posting after I wasn't able to get any sort of reply from him after calling back. I do apoligize if the power outage is the reason, if it is I will have to "eat my words."

Has anyone experience something like this? Again I'm not suspecting the valve body at this point, I'm really suspecting the install job. But all I know that could be wrong so far is just the shift linkage pin, which would make the car never change gears, and the spring, I'm wondering if they put the spring in the wrong place. Any experiences or advice appreciated.

UltimaSE

 

let me be the first to say that i feel your pain, i got the vb and immediatly had problems with my car neutralizing when coming to a stop, i went to a tranny shop and they said i needed a rebuild, after that the car was still giving a slight jolt when going into first, i got a second vb and that fixed the prob.

as far as max tunning they ARE hard to get ahold of. when i could get ahold of them they were extremely helpful and did everything they could to trouble shoot with me and even sent me a second vb to put in my car, even thought i did my own install the first time. no one knows what caused my problem but the second vb seems to have fixed it, ive found that anything with our trannies(nissan) is something not to be screwed with.

on a side note it seems as though no one on the .org knows anything about trannies since all of my tranny questions have gone unanswered.

good luck

 

Bump a few mins before we pull it out again.

UltimaSE

 

hmm install was redone, when cold I'm still having the tranny rev all the way up to 4000 rpm before it shifts. The stalling problem seems to be gone. Once the car is warmed up everything seems fine.

Being that it's stage 2 and a half it does shift quite hard 1-2. Quite a jolt but I'm getting used to it. Getting on the freeway with this is an experience, boosting with rpm up to about 4-5000 rpm it shifts very quickly and almost immediately snaps into gear. All other gears are nice as well, very suttle, but definately a difference. Transitional response seems to be improved as well. And if I'm not mistaken the car does seems to pull a bit better on the freeway at partial throttle. I'm still getting used to the 1-2 shift around the town, if you don't get it right it does jolt the car quite a bit.

But, I'm still having this cold problem. I'm pondering if it's the redline fluid. Right now all the fluid inside the tranny is redline high temperature atf.

Is anyone else with a valve body mod having a similar problem like this? Or anyone else have any ideas what could be wrong? Or is this just what I should expect from a performance valve body?

Thanks,
UltimaSE

 

This post is in defense of Jeff, and being as I drove all the way down from Maine to NY to get his services I would like to go over what UltimaSE has said.

1. How can Jeff spend his days helping people who are not directly doing business with him? Doesnt the man have to eat? I am sure if he didnt have bills to pay that he would spend all day on the phone helping every Maxima owner on the planet.

2. Jeff's customer service is wonderful. Like I said, I drove down from Maine to his garage in NY. And was quite impressed. The only problem I had was some of the parts never got delivered and we had to run out and get them ourselves, which really isnt his fault at all. (I got a ride in his nice a** 6 speed supercharged max, so that was a plus)

3. I am mechanicly inclined, but never did a suspension before and he allowed me to watch and personally taught me how to remove / replace the valve body and install struts and springs.

Try to find a mechanic that will do that....

4. Jeff's prices are VERY competetive. I called Level 10 in NJ looking to get my valve body modded. They wanted $600 to do it... and since I would be driving the car down there another $300 to remove / install it. Jeff did my valve body and installed my struts, and sold/installed a set of Eibach springs (the springs where a favor being as he isnt a parts dealer), and installation on all of that for less than Level 10 wanted for just the valve body/install!

5. It is quite ignorant of the poster to make public his rants and raves about a man's work ethic when in fact the poster appears to not have any understanding of what goes in to running a business, paying bills, or customer service.

I am not posting to advertise for Jeff, but I refuse to let his professionalism be attacked when it is uncalled for.

-Michael

 

Understandable, I called before I even picked up the valve body to make sure I would still get support from Jeff. If he had not said yes to this I would have probably not even considered purchasing that valve body. In this area I seriously wanted support because I myself did not have any experience with this.

I followed up in this post by saying that I had to give Jeff the benefit of the doubt because of the black out. You have to understand that when I posted I had just gotten off the phone with Jeff, and the conversation wasn't in the most pleasant sense, and then we were cut off. At the time I couldn't be sure if Jeff simply hung up or if my cell phone's service cut out. But subsequint calls yielded nothing, not even an answering machine. I assumed, and yes I will readily admit I fell completely on my face here, that Jeff was screening my calls. I did not hear about the blackout until that evening when I got back from work.

I don't want to argue with you here but how can I possibly experience or comment on this?

Again, not to argue but why are you bringing this up? This is something I have no direct experience with Jeff. But to answer your question, yes I have several mechanics local to me that would allow me to help work on my car or learn to work on my car, or help me while *I* work on my car on their lift.

Absolutely no question here, I know of the value of Jeff's valve body, and from the postings of people who have gotten the valve body I had decided that I was going to be purchasing this valve body sometime in the near future. When I saw the deal on the valve body with upgraded solenoids I even called Jeff to make sure this was the correct valve body, and that he would provide support.

I have to admit something here, I was wrong to jump so quickly to conclusions about Jeff not answering the phone. Yes I made a complete fool of myself there. I will not take the easy way out here and delete the post, I want to keep it here so people can see there is a resolution in the process here. If I look like a fool because of it that's fine, I deserve that.

But about your personal attacks towards me, are almost completely empty. If I had not tried to contact Jeff multiple times or if I simply blew up at him and not suspected the install then maybe. But your attacks towards me are unfounded and basically downright as false as could possibly be.

Point taken, and honestly I have to say I made this original post on a leap, and I fell completely on face. I should have waited to obtain a little more information. If I had waited just a few hours I would have know about the situation out east and my questions would have been explained.

I managed to contact Jeff yesterday afternoon. He saw this posting, and he was not happy. And how can you blame him? He expressed his annoyance at my posting, and yet he did not simply hang up on me, he then actually spend some time on the phone with me trying to figure out what could be the problem. And then he went on to explain some of my options. This seriously takes a big man to do this. Jeff is a serious asset to the community. In the end Jeff mentioned something that seems to fit with what might be happening, I'm trying to follow up on that now.

I honestly was going to post something here to provide at least a step towards resolution yesterday afternoon as soon as I got off the phone, but a family emergency pulled me out until 2 am yesterday where I eventually fell asleep on my floor.

I do not want to get into an arguement here, make no mistake my tone in this post is not arguementative. Michael, your a good man I respect you for coming to the aid of a shop you're familiar with and many of the points you made are well taken. I however, feel I needed to refute some of the things you mentioned in your post.

UltimaSE