Last night I drove from Orange County to Fresno. About 30miles from my destination, following the flow of sparse traffic, 5th gear pops out. I put it back in (while thinking of Sentras w/similar problem) and 5min later, it happened again. It would do this 2 more times till I got off the freeway.

When I stopped at the light, the transmission was making a grinding noise... metal in the bell? Or TO bearing? When clutch is held in, noise is gone. 1st thru 4th gears have grinding noise like something's floating in the tranny fluid and occassionally hitting something. 5th has no noise. Reverse has noise.

So here I am 250mi away from home, dunno any shops or anybody here in Fresno... SOL. Hope there's a closeby garage that's open today and Tues cuz I got work (back in Orange County) on Wed. =(

Jae

 

Unless it's something simple, they won't be able to do much except drain the oil and look for stuff broken loose inside.

Won't be able to fix anything without taking the tranny apart, I'm afraid.

Dave

 

Well.... I did a quick glance (can't do anything w/o tools)... no excessive oil leakin... visable bolts/nuts all there.

Rented a 14' uhaul w/ "auto transport" which's the trailer (4 wheels off ground), not just the dolly (front wheels up). At least I can bring it home and take the tranny out myself.... Was thinking, maybe I should think about a lower milaged tranny. I got 190,000miles on this car so far. Tranny was rebuilt 25k ago March 2006.

Jae

 

sorry to hear the tranny problems, especially at this time of the year.

If there is a junkyard around you where you could pick up a tranny tuesday, I'm sure you could have it in and ready for wednesday morning. But might be pricey versus looking around and finding a good deal.

you put on 25k since march of this year!!!

could always drive the uhual to work

 

I bought this car in Sept 2006 with 98k on it. I'm up to 190k now. I'm on track. My fam has a history of long running Maximas:
1993 SE 5sp: 286k
1997 5sp: 190k
2k 5sp: 190?

Maximas keep running and running with lil incidents like this; but this's much cheaper than monthly payments on a new car.

Oh yeah, I paid uHaul $200 for 2days, 273miles... I should be ok. I'll be home for xmas at least, with a hole in my wallet. And at least I got my shopping done.

Jae

 

What action did you ever end up taking to fix this?
...been looking for this scenario on here the last two hours, because this exact thing happened tonight....

 

This thread is from 06 and OP hasn't been online since march 2014, almost 2 years.

 

Maybe I'd get lucky?

 

Searching old posts is a good way to do research and learn. Sadly, many people do not report back regarding how things turned out.


If someone has a good outcome from an issue they are having, please post and let the forum know how you solved the problem. You can help someone else who might read your posts in 2019, or 2025.


The original post was from nine years ago. The situation, the way to cope with it, and the repair is just as valuable now as then.

 

Turns out, MY TRANSMISSION WAS EMPTY. I guess it was being sticky for lack of lubrication and not letting reverse (maybe) slide out of the way. It was wet inside, but just residually. With full fluid it drove great, problem solved, but it was leaking bad, I thought, from the input shaft seal AND the drivers side axle seal. its about to time to replace the clutch, so I pulled the trans, cracked it open and there was a good bit of brass and and metal, but it honestly wasn't as much as I expected, and seemed barely more than a good transmission with 269,000 miles should have anyways. My differential bearings were super beat up, but EVERYTHING else in there looked totally fine (except my 4th gear brass synchro ring (oops)). From what I've seen on other posts, bad diff bearings can cause failed axle seals. If I knew then what I know now, I would've just replaced the axle seal and if it failed again shortly after, THEN I would check bearings.