My little sister has been driving this car. We replaced the 1995 with a 1998 motor. Everything has been great for probably 3 years. Side note, I've probably spent 8 hours surfing these forums.

A few weeks ago my sister said she had trouble starting the car (nothing was happening). She said she also had idle problems in Drive and Reverse which was getting progressively worse. She also mentioned rarely that the car won't shift out of first gear. I replaced the starter which fixed the starting problem.

I then instructed her to bring the car to me so I can mess around with it. I pulled the codes and got a knock sensor code (replaced), 2 o2 sensor codes (replaced), improper shifting to 2nd gear (auto tranny), and some TPS sensor code I can't remember(replaced).

So I fixed all of those things and replaced ghe coil packs. We now have a excellent running car. The last issue is the shifting. Thanks to DBear, I replaced the tranny solenoids. The next day I drove the car out town to do some errands. She was purring like a kitten and shifting like butter, no problems.

My sister comes to pick up the car (temp has dropped at this point - a little chilly) and she starts it, then puts it in reverse and the car stops (along with my heart). I check the tranny fluid and notice it had bubbles. I drained some oil and the bubbles were gone, and now left with this issue.

I have spent probably 20+ hours fixing this car and $1k in parts. We just can't afford to get her a new car right now. So I'm reaching out to my maxima folks before I put it on craigslist or take it to the crusher. I'm so exhausted with this car. I also replaced the MAF and cleaned the IACV.

To summarize:
The car starts up just fine and idles fine, but if I put it in drive or reverse, it is like it's choking then dies quickly. Right after replacing the tranny solenoids, I forgot to plug the MAF back up and started it and it was doing the same thing that it is doing now (had a heart attack) then saw it was unplugged and plugged it back in. It then ran as I stated earlier just fine but today it's dying in reverse and drive (in gear basically). Would a misplacement (if that's possible) of the big spring in the valve assembly cause this? Do I need to drop it again and make sure all of the springs are in place?

Thank you guys for reading this.

 

I would say its something with those tranny solenoids not having a good connection and also check those big springs in the valve assembly. I'm sure its that. Don't give up, It may be a challenge but I believe if you fix this, you will have this car for a while. Considering how many new parts u put in. Doesn't make sense to get rid of it when you have many parts in it and are just getting angry at one problem. Stick to it and it will get better. if you were to get another one, your going to deal with someone else's problem and spend more fixing their problem. Stick to yours and it'll be cheaper in the long run.

Sometimes life just crashes on you and it may seem like it never will stop, but if you stick to it, it will stop eventually. When there is a problem, there is always a solution. It doesn't mean to just give up and quit. Thats how winning is done. Again the fact the problem happened after you were messing around with the tranny solenoids/ MAF, im likely positive that it just became loose after 2 days. Make sure they are tight and look around the area and make sure everything is connected and tight. Especially when you do a job tranny related, there is something we can always forget to make sure is tight/connected. It happens, and the problem will come up. But it doesn't mean to get rid of it.. just go back and fix your mistake. No-one is perfect.

 

Also you didn't mention what brand your MAF u replaced, these cars are sensitive to aftermarket MAF. Hope you used an OEM MAF. That can also cause stalling, as if you think about it.. Improper working MAF= no air flow = car is put into gear ready to drive = Car stalls out to prevent damage to the engine.

Your ignition coils too, I had a problem like that when it was having idle issues, it would stall out in drive or reverse sometimes.. but it seems you fixed that problem, hope you used either HITACHI COILS or OEM coils that are working. I replaced mine with HITACHI and no-more stalling problems after months of installation. This can be another issue of stalling.

 

you mentioned that the temperature has dropped.

Does the car start normally, or is it more difficult than usual.

assuming that it will start, please let it run a few minutes, then put the car in forward, rather than reverse. report back.

this resembles engine temperature control sensor issues.

you might also look into possible engine vacuum leaks.

 

here is another test.

what is the rpm when you start the car?

what happens if you press on the gas abit, say to 700 rpm, then shift into drive and reverse.

I'm thinking that your engine speed is too low.

I have had this issue before on various cars.

this is probably NOT related to the transmission work.

Please do not make bad and expensive decisions based on your current emotions and recent bad experiences.

 

Well I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but the issue was adjusting the idle (I think). I was getting ready to get under the car to take the assembly back out but started thinking how similar the car was acting when I forgot to plug the MAF back up. I would rev the motor and could hear the IACV clicking kind of loud and when revving high I noticed the car was making a noise like it didn't have enough air.

I turned the engine off, unplugged the TPS, adjusted the idle to roughly 750rpm, turn the car off, plugged the TPS back up, fired the car back up and walah. She is back to purring again.

I started thinking back that the issue could've been me messing with the IACV idle while the car was on. I noticed sometimes when I would stop after the car was warm the idle would jump to like 1500 rpm but I ignored it. My theory is that the car worked fine because the ECU hadn't adjusted correctly to the IACV adjustment (just a guess I have no idea).


So for now the car is running and I can't even express the relief I am experiencing. Thanks for the uplifting words. So for now, the car is running fine. I am going to drive it this week instead of my truck before I give it back to my sister to make sure everything is fine. I will report back in a few days.