If you have experience with or knowledge of when transmission bearings should go out on a 96 SE w/ manual transmission, please read on.

I have a 96 SE with 95,000 miles on it. Just 2 or 3 months ago, I replaced the clutch for friggin' $700. Now I'm getting a rolling clicking noise out of the tranny bearings. I took it to the dealer service guy I usually go to and he claimed that it was my transmission bearings and that they usually go out around 100,000 miles.

In my experience, that's bull****. Even older trannies lasted longer than that, ESPECIALLY if you had/have a manual transmission. The only thing that should go out is the clutch. I think they either: 1. Adjusted the clutch to tight causing the bearings to wear out prematurely; or 2. Forgot to replace the transmission oil or simply did not add enough when they did the clutch.

Please let me know your thoughts on or experience with this. I can't afford to spend over $1300 replacing this effer. Thanks in advance. I look forward to your responses.

Spaz96

(NOTE: I have been researching old posts. Not very encouraging but at least I know they would be charging me way too much)

 

ah ha! yet another manny tranny bearings bites the dust. Whats the count up to now? I'm the KING of the busted 5 speed transmissions and I've had every problem you can think of, from the bearings going, to blowing 2nd gear, to being stuck in reverse.

Anyway, I doubt they did anything to screw up your transmission. If anything, it was manufacturered at the factory wrong. You're lucky you got 100K out of it, most of ours went out at 60K. $1300 is about the price you're gonna pay, cause its alot of labor.

Read my post in the FAQ up above, as well as these threads:
http://forums.maxima.org/search.php?...der=descending

Feel free to ask me anything else you want to know about this tranny.

 

hey eric, i'm gonna be gettin a 5-speed 96' Maxima SE in about 2 weeks. It's got about 131k miles on it... if it was a factory mistake, would the problem be noticeable by now?? i mean like, you said it went out at around 60k miles... would i be safe from that?? The next time i talk to the current owner, i'll ask him if he had that prob.

 

Aaaaw, daaaayuuuum. That's not the answer I wanted. Crap! Given your experience, if I hear a low mild whirring from seemingly the front left and a rolling click from the front right (cv boot is fully intact) which bearings do you believe are the root of the problem?

 

Just a suggestion, maybe check your front wheel bearings first. I had a noise comming from the front left side also and thought it was the tranny at first although uncommon for a automatic I think?? But after further investigation found out it was the front wheel bearing. I was not too happy about the bearing being bad but, it's much better than a tranny bearing.

 

Clicking is a bad CV joint, not tranny bearings.


Dave

 

That is the tranny bearings. I was having the same prob on my 96 se. I checked the wheel bearings tore apart the cv joints and everything else that I could thind of. Mine happened about 70,000 and was just 432 miles under the extended warranty when I took it in. man am I glad it would of cost me a little over 2200, (lots of internals needed to be replaced). Sorry to hear about another one biting the dust. Good luck man.

 

A rolling clicking noise does not sound like the tranny. My tranny got the bearing noise at 125,000 miles. It's a gear whine that is directly associated with your gears and rpm, it rises as you accelerate, and then changes and rises again when you change gear.

When the bearings do go bad, it's not like you're dead in the water. The car is still completely drivable, just very noisy. You and everyone else outside hears your gears, and they even hear you changing gears!

I finally got fed up with it and replaced my tranny with a used 99 with 50K miles. Got a new ACT clutch put in too, even though my original still had life, but who knew how long.

This is the 1 glaring weakness of the 4th gen Maxima, the 5 speed tranny bearings.


DW