So three days ago I take an in-law to work. No problems.. It was icy out and I hit a piece of dry road when the tires where spinning @ apx 10 MPH more than the car was going..had trac kicking in, so I may have had the throttle down a little further than I should have.. Anyway's the next morning I went to go to work and no reverse.. I do a little bit of messing around and figure out I have no reverse and no low 1.. In Drive I shift @ around 20 MPH and never get a down shift back into first. I figured I broke a sun gear or burned a clutch or something. I call around on trans rebuilds and used transmissions... All of a sudden 3 days later I have reverse and low 1 again.. Should I hurry and trade the car in or what?

 

no lights? when was the last time you had the ATF flushed?

 

no lights. Scanned, no codes found but I can't pull nissan codes only generic codes.. I'm a tech at a Saturn Dealer. I'll have the Nissan guy scan for nissan specific codes tomorrow.. ATF fluid has about 15000 miles on it.
I had a trans put in with an 18 month warranty 20 months ago and have put 15,000 on it since. (I ride a motorcycle 75% of the time in the summer.)
Fluid is where it should be...Also I put Nissan fluid in it.
I don't really think it's a sticking valve. If I had to guess maybe a solenoid or wire from the TCM.....

Originally I thought maybe I broke a gear in the planetary gear set, but with it suddenly working I don't really know..Burnt clutch is out of the question since it happened suddenly. No smell of burnt clutch, no shudder leading to problem, etc.

I checked alldata and can't find any chart showing which solenoid is activated in which gear... Anyone have a FSM with this info? It's not on alldata.

I should add when in neutral it would make a high pitch whine while I had no reverse. It was faint, but if you listened you could hear it..The noise is gone now that reverse works.

 

this weird, maybe moisture got into the sensors and the TCM, then it dried out so everything went fine.

 

HMM, I'll get codes scanned tomorrow and if I don't find a bad harness, any obvious codes, or a bad wire I think I'll pond the car off ASAP.. I park in a dealer everyday, so selling it at PPV shouldn't be to troublesome..
Maybe with the current red tag sale I might trade it in..

I've NEVER had a car payment before and said I would NEVER buy a new car due to being a terrible investment, but with the current deals on most new cars I almost can't resist....I mean a Corolla or Aura for $15000-$17000.. I just need to swallow the fact that I'll lose $5000-$10,000 in value in 3-5 years.

 

sounds like a loose connection, does ATF smell burned? Is it still the nice red/pink color?

BTW, beeing a tech and all you should know better then to let the wheels spin on ice especially in an auto (and one that was recently rebuilt) for that matter.

I don't know how anybody could compare a max to a corolla

That car is a POS. Especially after a few years, you fill 'er up with groceries and some friends and that thing doesn't want to move faster than at a snails pace.

Lets not get started on the aura

 

LOL, yea you're right about being stupid on ice. I f'ed up...
As far as comparing a max to a corolla/Aura...I don't give a F..Personally, the XR delivers more power and has just as good handling as my now 9 year old max and would only cost $10,000 after trade with basically no miles..
I'm going to see what I can get for trade tomorrow..My dealer has a "one price" philosophy so what they give for trade is also what they give for cash..They don't "fudge" trade in values to appear better/worse depending on what you buy.... The lot cars sell for the price on the sticker, no negotiation...period....(unless you get employee price)
A four door car to me is just a four door car..As far as I'm concerned If I could find a 2000 S-series that needed rebuilding for $100 I'd just do that...I sent 5 to the junk yard last year, this year no one is getting ride of them due to the economy..Wish I hand't sold the last one I rebuilt now.
I have an 89 Mustang with a supercharged 351W pushing 500+ HP to the wheels and an 05 CBR, so the sedan is just a family/Winter car to me...Guess I'm just getting old thinking of driving around a corolla..Imagine pulling up on christmas or at work in a corolla...I'd really love a crew cab pick-up but don't see a point in throwing good money away on fuel..I had a 99 Denali that I parted with for that very same reason...
Chit man, I don't know what I'm going to do. I do know if I don't find any electrical problems I'm not going to hang onto this car and wait for it to happen again to see if it's a solenoid, stuck valve, etc..
I've got an in-law who lives with me. I just put a a headgasket on his 96 Corsica, and it's just sitting there until he pays me the $160 in parts and for some money I loaned him, so I'll just drive that until he pays me the $600 he owes me..
We'll see what I come up with when I pull codes with the consult II tomorrow.

EDIT: As far as the other cars go, their car pictures here...http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2195944

 

problems like these are exactly why i don't like automatic transmissions.

 

Oh the humanity!!! Sorry, I know people do F***ed up stuff like selling problem cars before they die on them under the guise of sticking it to the dealership.

But what if the car was sold to someone who couldn't afford to spend a few thousand to fix a tranny? You know its going to be sold as is. I'd feel bad doing that, esp now the way people are having so many money issues.

 

FWIW, AT-126:


And of course:

 

Thanks for the photos pmohr. I just pulled up alldata again to check power flow to the gears since the only thing related to the two problems is the low reverse and brake. I happened to find the chart you gave me, after searching around in the description and operation abit..
I also noticed when it was acting up during acceleration that it wouldn't downshift into first like it was suppossed too.. I had the codes scanned with the consult II and no codes current or in history. I can't beleive it didn't have any incorrect gear codes or anything...Maybe nissan clears non-emission codes out of history after 5-6 warm-up cycles on 2000 models. I checked all weather packing on the wires and made sure no wires where chaffed or pinched. I didn't actually remove the connectors and check terminal tension, but everything looks good on the electrical side..
After looking at the flow chart and thinking about this for a while I still can't decide what the problem might be.

1.)It can't be the low/reverse clutch. When clutches burn they don't usually stop working immediately. (you get a shudder while their on their way out). Plus clutches don't magically start working again.
2.)I think it's mechanical more than electrical just for the simple fact that I had a high pitch whirling noise in neutral.. It wasn't loud but something was spinning when it wasn't suppossed to be..Locked up torque converter into a free spinning transmission or a moving planetary gear set I don't know but you could hear it faintly..
3.) I don't THINK it could be a broken part anywhere..

The only thing I can come up with is either A.) a sticking valve or clogged accumulator or B. a shift valve redirecting the flow back to the pressure regulator valve...
What I don't get is why A.)there are no codes and B.) More importantly what was causing that noise I heard when it was acting up? Something was engaged while in neutral that wasn't suppossed to be..This should be a tell-tell sign of what was wrong.




Low and Reverse

Fluid Flow

 

i'm pretty sure the tranny went into safe mode. it takes more than a simple wheel spin for this to happen. this happened to me when i did a huge burnout one time. it also happened when i got stuck in my driveway in the ice and was trying to get out for several minutes.
the symptoms i had were:
-reverse doesn't work, when i would give it gas, it wouldn't go past 2000 rpm and it would sound like the motor was struggling
-neutral would be like drive
-1 would feel like park

when you turn off the car and start again, the O/D off light would start blinking. that means an error code is stored by the tranny. that resets the safe mode and you should be good after that. if not, rev the engine in park to almost 5k RPM. if you feel a 'bump' around 3-5k RPM, the safe mode goes away.

 

so true!!

 

I believe it was in fact the tranny going into safe mode. I had to get my car up my hill of a driveway when it was icy and the same thing happened. I did a google and found that I should turn the car off and rev it to about 5k when I turn it back on. it gave a slight buck after I did this, I threw it into R and I haven't had a problem since.

 

I had no O/D light blinking and the fail safe didn't go away after restarting....I did try to go WOT a few times incase something was jammed, but never let the rpms go past 5000 since I didn't want to cause further damage....Even so fail safe is the most logical explanation. Did you have a whirl noise while in neutral when in fail safe mode and you can still push the car in neutral?
That's an intresting feature Nissan has...Fail safe disables reverse.

 

I had no O/D light blink either. yes i had more of a high pitch whining noise if the car was in R it would whine and be basically in neutral. Neutral make the car move forward like it was in D. Drive made the car act normal but I dont think it was giving me 1st gear(felt like it was starting at second) I never experimented further. I did a google search followed the steps and my tranny has been fine ever since.

 

Wow. Almost the exact same probs on my '00 GXE. The local tranny shop did a diagnostic (or said they did) and couldn't figure the problem out so they recommended a rebuild. ... wouldn't you think they'd know what to do with this (what sounds like a ) comon problem with '00 4AT's?

I hadn't yet done the 5k rev, I only got the clinking OD light once...

I did drive to Massachusetts to buy a newer 4AT off nsnrider though (thatnks man!).

So I'll probably rebuild my old one myself... and sure will let everyone know what I find.

 

After your google search, what steps did you follow? My car is doing the same thing...whirring noise in N and won't move in R...and no 1st gear. Thanks

 

Having the same issue with my sons 2000 SE. 223k miles. 2nd owner since 150k with all previous maintenance records. Big 3 upgrade, CAI, gutted cats with non-foulers. No previous issues.

Car encountered a very large puddle @217k. Due to CAI with no bypass, water had to be evacuated from cylinders.

Car received new spark plugs and oil, ran perfect for another 3k miles until the rod made a window in the block. Motor replaced at 220k

During the engine swap (@220k miles) I had the axles and motor mounts replaced(non electronic).

Just wanted to give some history info on the car.

Concerning transmission-

No initial codes or flashing OD light.

Good maintenance history clean fluid regularly changed, proper level, shifted perfectly up until this. Still drives fine in 2nd and Drive just doesn't down shift to accelerate.

He said he noticed an odd shift, pulled up to a friends house and couldn't reverse. Now no 1st or reverse.

Does make a whirling noise in neutral and park. If you try to roll in back in neutral and put it in reverse its stops like it's in park. Rolling forward then putting it in 1st feels like brakes are applied and comes to an abrupt stop.

I drove it to my friends shop via the highway 75 mph just fine. Did pop a code on the way over....

P0731 1st gear ratio malfunction.

Just trying to see if it can be saved or if I'm gonna replace or rebuild.

Also in general what is the average rebuild cost for these transmissions?

Thanks in advance for any info

 

Update:

After reading multiple threads with this issue I tried as many others did and put it in neutral, revd it up at put it in reverse. It popped into gear and now works perfectly shifting through all gears.

Going to do a filter change and flush and add a Magnefine filter and hope I can get some more life out of this trans while I search for a backup or rebuildable core