wierd problem:
when I come to a hard stop, sometimes the trans will disengage. meaning the engine will spin freely and the car will just sit and not move. then all of a sudden with a clunk it will engage and move (that's assumong I rev the engine up a bit). If I sit and wait it will eventually reengage on it's own. it has also done this to me on hard turns.
Has anyone else had this problem?
I know it isn't the bushing (tried to put it into 1st to make it go and it still sat)


the car is an AUTOMATIC

my best guess before I tear into the trans is that one of the planetarys are loose and slipping out of place, but i'd like to know if anyone else has had this problem.
it does shift fine the rest of the time so I'm pretty sure the clutches are OK and the trans fluid level is correct. I checked that already

Any ideas?
I'm all ears

 

had that same problem before my rebuild. planetary gears and sun gears were totally shot.

 

My '71 Dodge Dart does the same thing also. It has the 904 tranny. Fluid level is correct also. Havent figured out what the prob it yet.

Your max and my Mopar have something in common.

 

I am no tranny nanny, but troubleshooting, thats what I like:

- Its related to sudden g forces. Is it both on turns on Left&Right?
- Its also related to idling engine, =slow rev turbine - is it?

These rise some q's:
1. Is there anything else than oil that is g-related. If so, what could that be.
2. As engine revs in acceleration, oil is on the run (what all things actually do ? happen, please make a list). All excess oil is now 'packed' in the rear of the box, --->no problem. Why?
3. Is it possible, that as all oil is in front or side, for the system to suck air or foam in the turbine?
3b. What is the tranny/oil temp as this happens?
4. Where actually the oil is taken into the tranny system? rear?
5. I suppose your oil & filter is new. Are they std quality? and have you had oilchange after the probl occurrence? The same problem cont?

No answers, but hopefully I engaged the thinking process forward...

 

I was afraid of that.
time to start looking for a new car
well I may get a 90 max SE, it only needs ABS help

 

just a little update, on sunday I smacked my trans pan into a curb.
Well today I replaced said pan which gave me a chance to inspect the fluid, filter and magnets.
The fluid was absolutely perfect!
the screen was Perfectly clean! (replaced it anyways)
the magnets had no metal shavings on them, so I'm basically pitching the idea of it being a bad set of gears.
Now I'm really confused as to what is going on.
we'll see how the car does with the updated pan.
Yes, the new pan has 2 baffles near the drain plug that the original lacks.
updates when they become available
now I have to get it back to running on all 6 cylinders.

 

maybe a good idea to check on that VB

 

VB looked good, but then again I really have no clue what I'm looking at.
it's already all together.
we'll see if I can get it to "disengage" tomorrow at some point.
if not then I'm happy and confused.
if yes then we start checking the solenoid packs, good thing I can get those too.

 

it's worth doing a fluid pressure check just to make sure the pump and solenoid packs are moving correctly ya know.

 

I have the same exact problem.. Exact. I don't have a solution, but I have a reason. I had the transmission rebuilt 10,000 miles ago. Since then I did some seriose "spirited driving". When I say spirited driving, I mean I drove the car like if it were a high performance machine. But the car is stock. I guess the tranny just gets messed up when you drive the car fast. Im pretty sure thats the reason. The first time the transmission died was because I made use of every little weird auto tranny feature that the car has thinking it makes me go faster while racing. I went from thinking the "1" and "2" gears if shifted manually from a stand still will improve my acceleration. Boy was I wrong. Even though for some reason I still feel when Im doing around 50 mph and I downshift to "2", the car's gas peddle feels heavier and when I put the peddle to the carpet, the car gets propelled like a rocket. But anyway, I don't wanna mess around with all those gears to kill the tranny again. Then I also thought putting the car into "Power" mode makes it faster. Didn't see a difference. And finally the "overdrive off" button. All I can say is the car feels more alive when I use it. But anyway, using all these features ruins the tranny,(my opinion) and I smell burnt transmission fluid shortly after. Especially after engaging the power/comfort button.

True story: Believe it or not, the second time my tranny got rebuilt, I took the car to an abandoned airport the same week. I did 57 mph in reverse. Stopped. Put the car in drive.. And to my surprise with no choice, I had to drive home reving 6000 RPM doing 30 mph with one gear. Luckily I had the warrenty. I think its safest to keep the damn thing in "D" all the time

 

About solenoid packs: Is this ? in the tranny service pack from www.txchange.com

That internetautomators stunt has some extreme changes:
- pressure - from full pressed pump to idle
- simultaneus g-force reversals.
- system voltage drop from 14.2 to 13.5 or less (solenoid supply possibly from 12 to eight??...)
- engine/tranny assy tilt max reversal

Anyways, I think cars (not just maxima) have poor poor electronics design as default (used to be R&D ...) and they have inherited systems designed for climate controlled rooms within one small box. All longer distances in computing world use special drivers with CRC & other error correcting signal transmission methods, these are nowhere to be seen in cars: extra long cabling for DC supply plus the digital/analog signal to noise -ratio would be laughable if I could stop crying... Dunno understand why cars even work...

Typically you lose 'one volt per meter' on those lousy thin car wires, depending on load & wire thickness. Doubling or quadrupling wiring thickness is always beneficial.

The whole wiring issue is the byproduct of mass production requirement set: cost cutting a n d more cost cutting to fastly make a 'five year product'.

QQQ----> How the wires go physically to the tranny? Would it be plausible to rewire to boost the starving solenoids [thinking to work around and get that service pack..].

 

I will, if my tranny starts sh:t again, take it into my rebuilder and have him run a pressure test and any other diags he can think of before having any work done to it.
Maybe a blehmco ground kit is in the cars future.
Matt- does the ground kit matter whether it's a 5spd or A/T?
I'm trying to get 2 more VEs one 5 spd one A/T

 

5 speed swap time?

 

Vadim-93GXE, do you have some kind of allergy to money or something?

 

hell no!
I don't do sticks

 

Electric GND kit is important; but its only half story... and maybe even not that: ECU driven things get their ELECTRONIC-ground AND + supply via ECU thinny skinny wires. AND ECU & wires are isolated from Electrical chassis ground like tranny box.

Industrial applications typically speak/utilize PE and XPE = electical chassis gnd and electronics ground.

THEY'RE SEPARATE: PE shields from inductive pulses, but will not help current flow in a device circuitry. XPE is used for the electronics signal processing, and thinny wires for them is a black hole... Not to mention again those poor voltage (0-5V) levels used.

 

don't take this the wrong way..but is there ONE thing on the car that you're happy about? it seems like you complain about every damn electrical part on the nissan.
i pray you don't ever have to own a german car.

 

There is a 89 se auto for sale down here for $2600. The sign in the window says it has 152,000 on it. It looks very nice on the outside.Probably too far for you to drive though.....

 

A guy up here has a 90 SE Black Leather Loaded 109k asking $1300 needs ABS help though.
Talked him down to less than that though
But I'm waiting on 2 VEs that are supposed to go for cheap.
1 I'll probably sell (5 speed), 2 I'll probably use as a donor for mine

 

Well I could tell (should I?) about washing, waxing, tuning, driving experiences of my Maxima. But who would listen? I think the no.1. thing why people come ere is 'cause some thing is not functioning. Correct me if I am wrong. And Maxima is loaded with things...electronic.

MAXIMA is a HOT car! I love mine... I do complain of the real general problems which are for all things under the label: CAR...

Prayed too late, have had enough... I have currently one Adam Opel. Sittin under backyard snowheap just in case... 'cause its pure mechanics -85. Shall I make the complaint list of it? ...naa, this website would explode. But. Its mechanical, and so it has very few electronics problems. What aint there, cannot go broke. I happen to be born into electronics - sucks if its a job with windows.

Some new cars are going towards 48V systems. Well, thats the -ONLY- way to go!


BTW. I'm waiting answer for my earlier question. Please...

 

No.. What do you mean by that?

 

I didn't get to read the whole post, but I'd definitly check the resistance of all the solenoids. The solenoid pack is only around $100, and does not require tranny removal. The solenoid pack on the vg's tranny is supposed to be problematic. I'd bet that a lot of people getting reman'd trannies only required a new solenoid pack.

 

well i had that problem before and still have it after the rebuild. Now that school is finished maybe i'll have time to take it back to the shop lol

 

"The solenoid pack ... problematic."

How about wirings: if the power requirement surpasses the thinny skinny wire's capacity to deliver, be the solenoids whatever, they cannot do their work properly.

---> I'd bet that nobody has ever measured the voltage from the solenoid pack [or nearest possible point] of the tranny while driving.
--->I'd bet that Nissan even has ever given the voltage level specs [to the packs end].
--->I'd bet that somebody having problems will find out that problems vanished after adding 3x [diameter] parallel wiring to boost the voltage to the solenoid pack.

In intrnetautomator's problem description, there's definitely a system voltage drop ...multiplied to the solenoids!

I base my bet on experience, having seen many instances where system designers have not calculated peripheral current consumption and wirings capacity to fulfil those demands [and repaired myriad intermittent problems via rewire]... Rewiring could easily boost 30%-100% or more 'holding power' to a solenoid.

Anybody there, cheap test? add just some wires... I'll make that test anyway the day I'll add that service pack (soft long gearshange with my 80k VG30E)