The only thing I can critiq about these 3rd gen Tranny's is that, its very weak for the type of performance the engine can do. Well particularly the 89~91, I've been told the 92~94 had corrected this issue "slightly" by making the tranny more tough.

Although the tranny will do what the great VG will command, after a while, I've learned (the hard way) is that most of the times these tranny's fail or start to lack in performance.
How, well for one, the gears in a 3rd gen max are generally a soft material, unlike the tranny's in a 240 or 300Z where the gears are made of more stronger material to withstand the performance measures.
Having said that, the cooling system for the 3rd gen max's arent as affective as it should be and therefore the heat becomes too hot.
The end result is that commonly, the gears cook, bearings are damaged and locking pins get screwed.

I went through 2 already, the first one cooked so badly that the gears popped, then found out the lines were bursted open (below) and all the black-reddish fluid drained out. So I Opened the panel the next day, and saw I had a cooked tranny dinner. LOL! Mind you I had replaced the fluid 1 month before this happend.

So I got the second one with low miles/kilo's on it and once again I was good to go. About 7 months later, gears started slipping again and I noticed a slight discolouration in the tranny fluid. So i had changed the tranny oil, and all I see is this film of dark grey stuff settling at the bottom of the drain pan (more then usual wear). The bleed screw had this dark grey film all around it too. Changed the fluid & I said alright, time for LUCAS OIL, LOL LOL! Straight up, the Lucas Oil worked really well. But eventually wasnt enough to stop the excessive heat, after another year, it cooked again. But not as bad as the first one. The gears and bearings were damaged from the high heat, but wasnt as fatal where the lines exploded LOL!

On to my third tranny and current tranny (longest and still performs great)
This time after seeing the COOK pattern, I bought a tranny cooler to help the heat issue & also replaced the OEM Radiator with a hi flow koyo radiator. Trust me, there's a hugh difference doing this. I also verified cooling sensors and thermostat as well. Had my tranny rebuilt @ Mr. Transmission and guess what, 2 years later, tranny works great, performs like a charm and doesnt wear out so badly as before.

So I'd recommend this move to anyone if they get this sort of issue. I dont know about you guys but 3rd gens are notoriously known for tranny issues.

Anyone else had tranny failures?

 

it's a known fact that adding a tranny cooler will extend the life of the tranny.

 

You should also stay far away from lucas products...

 

well the second one was like the tranny of trial LOL, wanted to see if things were gonna happen again. It gave me time to invest in the other components. But yeah, have any of you had issues with yours?

 

at around 128K my tranny died. i had a cooler and an external filter put in around 100K...but i don't think that really did much at 100K.

the shop said the planetary and sun gears were all over heated (the metal turned blue). the clutches were pretty much toast too.

if you're doing a rebuild i recommend getting the transgo kit to add to it. the improved seals does help the tranny a bit...along with the VB pieces.

 

My gxe so far had had no transmission issues,yet..

I did have to replace my 5 speed transmission on my SE last year,but that is a different animal of problems with the nissan manual trannys...

The sad facts are the vg auto transmissions are just not well built trannys,neither are nissan manual transmissions..

The 92-94 se maxima automatics are stronger and do not have the same reliability issues as the vg auto...In fact it is the same trans internally as the 4th gen automatic...

 

is it rather possible to use 92~94 tranny's in the older 3rd gens? or is it a totally different setup?

 

My 1990 SE Auto had 204000 miles before I traded it. Then the guy was moving from Washington to Texas and the tranny went out in Wyoming. So it worked well for me. Not for him which is probably his punishment for giving me a dog of a truck.

 

Interesting! Maybe I should look into getting an external filter myself, I didnt do that mod as yet.

LOL!

 

Was this before or after the performance upgrade??

 

So far after 130K my 94 GXE auto is holding up well, however I still have it flushed every 1.5 Years, just to be safe.....it seems to run more efficiently on the "power", mode so I just keep it there also!

 

No,it will not work on a vg engine,the VE30DE [dohc] and VG30E [sohc] have different flywheel/starter setups,thus making the swap nearly impossible...

 

I had my tranny rebuilt about 2 months ago. The guy told me the clutches, gears, bellhousing was gone. Basically everything besides the transmission housing is brand new. He replaced everything supposedly with much heavier duty stuff, replaced/upgraded the VB. It shifts very hard now, and he told me that it shouldn't give any problems what so ever. I have to take it in every year so he can check it out, replace the fluid/filter. So hopefully this transmission won't die on me. Otherwise, 5spd swap.

 

I got a rebuilt tranny in my car replaced at 165k 2 months ago (I now have 168)...I know my original tranny would've gone more if that damn axle seal wouldn't have leaked out causing me to pour new fluid in....causing the tranny to fall apart as it was "holding together' with the old fluid in there.

Ah what the hell, 165k is still pretty good for an original transmission isnt it?

 

I have 180K miles on my car with original tranny. It still shifts like it did 10 years ago.

I have flushed the transmission every 20-25K miles, which I found to be the best preventative maintenance.

Otherwise, the only other thing I do is that I don't use reverse very much. I garage my car every night. When I leave in the morning, I shift into neutral and let the car roll back out of the garage and driveway on its own.

In the last 10 years, I drove this car to work almost every day of the week. I figure it's about 240 days a year plus or minus 10 days In 10 years, that's 2400 shifts into reverse I didn't have to do at high idle when the engine was cold every morning.

 

I believe this may come down to personal driving style.

My GXE has 246k on the Auto-Trans. I only known flush of the tranny occur this last year at dealers, long with all fluids.

The SE has ~170k on the Trans. I also flushed it this last year. This was to help a minor shifting problem. Though in reading this post maybe prior own driving style.

 

I have a 92 SE Auto with approx. 296,500 miles on the original tranny/motor all with no problems and running stong.

 

I've got a 89 SE and it has 230,000 miles on it and the engine feels like it could chew the trans up and spit it out still. But the 17 year old teenager in me makes me get on the gas alittle every so often and the trans still obeys the VG's call and she will still scream for a car of her age. (Beats the crap out of all the hondas around hear)

The trans has not been flushed on a good rutine throughout its life but I have had nissan flush and fill it this past year along with the T-belt and the Waterpump replacement.

A Question to those smart trans people out there:

Would I prolong the life of my trans if I installed a trans cooler at this point in its life ?

And if I did, Would the cooler make it difficult for the trans to reach operating temp and then make the overdrivelock up not occur in a timely manner?

Thanks Sorry for all the Q's

 

Hey wasnt sure if you read the first post of what happend with me, but yeah a tranny cooler is the best bet for early 3rd gen's like mine. These tranny's happen to heat up very fast and commonly you are easy to get BBQ gears and bearings if you dont have it cooled properly. The cooling system for these tranny's are very poor. So when theres more heat activity in the tranny, the gears are most likely to soften more and wear faster or worse, break in two or something. Check the first post I did, since i installed proper cooling mods, my tranny works great and performs amazing.

 

Heat is the Ememy of any Auto-Trans....you might want to use Mobil 1 synthetic trans fluid the next time you flush, it can hold up much better than conventional auto-trans fluid...

 

My 92 auto is over 262k and it has never been rebuilt. Sometimes is a little slow in changing gears but other than that its ok.

 

change the fluid then.
it helped VE1

 

yeah I did when I changed my axle, the shifting is nothing much, its more in going from reverse to drive or vice versa.

 

the filter and cooler was put in a little before the rebuild. then after the rebuild i redid the cooler/filter system to include a t-stat in the tranny line.

 

for some strange reason the mobil1 ATF didn't work too well for me. the tranny shifted a little harsh with the mobil1. I used Redline ATF and Redline High temp atf...but now moved to Amsoil ATF since it's slightly cheaper.

 

mount maybe?

 

is it possible that the dignostic procedure (see below) for the AT on a 91 SOHC could be wrong? Mine is giving me an all clear code but I know it's not all ok.
Here's my story:
2 weeks ago checked the trans fluid and it looked and smelled good. Yesterday I tried to back up and suddenly Reverse, and the low gears do NOTHING! checked the fluid and it's all brown and crappy looking. Changed the fluid and still no reverse.

Ran the diagnostic test and it gives me one long (reference signal?) and then 10 shorts ("goodness"?) Anyone else have false readings from this test or should I look at something else first before I go to a tranny shop?

here is the procedure from google forums:
I have the sequence from the '92 Service Manual for the RE4F02A
transmission - VG30 engine.
I think this is the same as '91. The '92 SE added VE30 engine with new
transmission.

1. Start Engine and warm to normal operating temperature.
2. Turn off engine
3. Set A/T mode switch to AUTO (not POWER or COMFORT)
4 Set overdrive switch ON
5. Move selector to P
6. Turn key ON (but don't start)
7. Does POWER light come on for 2 seconds? NO go to Diag 1- Check Control
Unit power source.
8. Turn key OFF
9. Move selector to D (use shift lock release)
10. Set overdrive OFF
11. Turn key ON (but don't start)
12. Move selector to 2
13. Set overdrive ON
14. Move selector to 1
15. Set overdrive OFF
16. Depress accelerator fully and release
17. Check POWER lamp. There will be reference signal followed by 10 flashes

All short - goodness
#1 long - revolution sensor
#2 - speed sensor
#3 - throttle sensor
#4 - shift solenoid A
#5 - shift solenoid B
#6 - timing solenoid
#7 - lock-up solenoid
#8 - fluid temperature sensor
#9 - engine rev signal circuit
#10 - line pressure solenoid
All long - battery

 

why stay away from lucas products? i thought synthetic oil is great for the engine.

 

http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/images/lucas/lucas.htm

 

shiz...stupid lucas! thanks for that link Wayne, incredibly helpful as always

 

[QUOTE=laggytoad]is it possible that the dignostic procedure for the AT on a 91 SOHC could be wrong? Mine is giving me an all clear code but I know it's not all ok...no reverse and low..qoute]

you know it only can detect electrical failures ,
i ve heard the term low and reverse clutch or band ??which can wear out

 

you guys think a trans cooler could screw up the line pressures?

 

At one time I had three VE automatics. I didn't really have transmission issues with any of them except a small delay going into first gear on one of the 92's. They all pulled and shifted fine.

 

Bottom line is you need to regularly have your tranny serviced & do not beat on it & it should give you a long service life.....

 

Nope,most cars have them on from the factory,several people on here have installed them on their maximas.

Won't hurt nothing..

 

Im pretty sure that the stuff can be swaped.. you just would need to use all VE transmission, axles, mounts?, Starter. The belhousing bolt pattern is the same, so as long as the VE torqe converter would bolt up to the VG flexplate/flywheel. you would be fine. Ive done many VG 5spd - VE 5spd swaps ..never any autos tho. basically it would defiatly work as long as the flex plate and Ring gears are the same (besides the 6bolt-8bolt).. wich im pretty sure they are.. it would work fine.

 

See,that is the problem,the VE auto starter is a COMPLETELY different design from the vg/ve auto/manual starter,the vg/ve flexplates are also a completly different design,both in how far they stick out from the engine<---[this is the biggest obstacle,the starter will not line up to the vg flexplate],and the 6 bolt vg crank/vs the 8 bolt ve crank...

I,m not saying its completely impossible to do the swap,but IMO all the redesigning/fabrication of the flexplate is just not worth it,not to mention dangerous..

 

gotcha.. that was the only thing i wasnt sure on... hmm.. that sucks

 

When I had my GXE's auto rebuilt, I noticed it shifted very hard also, especially going from 1st to 2nd. I wasn't worried so much about the tranny as I was about the axle giving out. Anyways, it was fine for a year and a half, until I sold it, and the present owner hasn't had any problems with it either (yet).

 

both my 3rd and 4th gen manual trans, only lasted about 100K