engine/transmission 'whining'.. parked. put in R & car barely move

[ESFITNESS]

was pulling into the parking lot and noticed my car was sounding like it had a Supercharger on it... I parked, left it running, then got back in and put in Reverse and the car would barely move.. .like a slipping clutch or something (it's an auto, of course)..

then I put it in drive and it'd barely move, with the same whining sound..

and I think I could smell a "hot" smell.. didn't notice any smoke.

I turned off the engine.. restarted and it moved.. but could feel it 'slipping' a little, but I did make it to work about 100yards away.


what am I looking at? transmission? torque converter? axel???

it's a 99 Q45T with 110k.. I bought it about a month ago.

[ESFITNESS]

oh... and a couple times lately when on the freeway running up to 65/70 the transmission would be slow to upshift... and revs would hang around 3k rpm until I feathered the throttle a little..

usually after 5mins of the car starting and me leaving work and getting on the freeway.

[BCC93QT]

Check the fluid. See if its at proper color. Maybe drain a little and test to see what is in it.

[ESFITNESS]

I checked the fluid.. it seemed to be just up around where it says "COLD"... but it didn't seem red at all... seemed pretty brown and also seemed very gritty.

I can't seem to find the location of where to add transmission fluid.. was gonna stop by walmart tonight on my way home and put in some Lucas Oil transmission additive... if I can make it to walmart, that is..... hopefull that'll last me a couple days till I have time to get to a transmission shop, since I work 12-14hr days and work till midnight most nights.

[BCC93QT]

Right down the dipstick resivoir. I would change out the fluid and hope for the best

[ESFITNESS]

Right down the dipstick resivoir. I would change out the fluid and hope for the best

that's what I was gonna do.

I just had the car in the shop to replace my HID bulbs yesterday and they had to disconnect the battery.. prior to that I had a CEL on (for the 2nd time).. first time guy said it was the gas cap, but i'm pretty sure I saw codes for knock sensor, and what could've been turbine-something or crank position sensor, can't be sure though , since I didn't get a good look at the codes before he deleted them..

could them disconnecting the battery have affected a solenoid? or something with line pressure?

the car moved fine yesterday, last night, and this morning.... up until I got to work when I noticed the whining noise. (like a supercharger).

any estimates on the labor to replace the transmission?

how many hours? I see used trannys for anywhere from 300-700.

[BCC93QT]

So many variables. No I dont think the unplugging of the battery would cause that. A USED transmission that you don't know the history of is a tough bet. Labor on the transmission.... 3k for any certified mechanic. I wouldn't and don't trust anyone to do any work on my cars besides myself. Only time someone else has touched my Q within the past 250k miles is for tires and an alignment

[ESFITNESS]

holy crap $3k for labor?

I bought the car about a month ago from a used car dealer (in CA).

do I have any recourse? Lemmon Laws? ect that you know of?

[ESFITNESS]

well, I went out and started it and got the grinding noise I sometimes get... sounds like the teeth on the starter aren't lining up with the flywheel or something.. so after 3 trys, it started..

I put it in reverse and felt it clunk into gear like normal.. hit the gas and it backed up.

put it in drive and it went forward...

but it doesn't seem 100%.. but then I looked down at my RPM's, and i'm just crusing in the parking lot and the rpms aren't going much over 1k.. maybe 1500... if it was slipping, i'd expect them to jump a little, but it's not really jumping.. just 'sluggish'.... like normal, I guess.

we'll see how the Lucas oil stuff helps.

oh... and I found online the labor estimate was 6.4hours.

[BCC93QT]

CA is very close if not identical to MA in lemon law. You have 30 days from sale date. If anything significant fails the seller has to fix it or purchase the vehicle back for the original amount. Depends on original contract of course
http://oag.ca.gov/consumers/general/lemon

[Skibane]

Transmission fluid should NEVER feel gritty.

The brown color is also bad news.

Suggestion: Pull the transmission plan to replace the filter and ATF, and inspect what's sitting in the bottom of the pan. You need to change that fluid RIGHT F*CKIN' NOW anyway, so this gives you a perfect opportunity to see if there are any chunks of metal or clutch material in there.

Try to use an original Nissan replacement transmission filter, if possible. Some folks have reported problems with the aftermarket filters.

[ESFITNESS]

from what I've been reading I've found 2 things..

the gritty stuff is usually coming from the neck of the dipstick... and there was a lot of gritty stuff towards the top of the dipstick, not really much on the end/tip (there was some though... and it was brown)


and

if the transmission fluid is gritty and the transmission is slipping a little, flushing/changing the fluid is gonna make it slip even worse.

I think i'm gonna head down to the place I bought it from tomorrow and put the screws to him.... i'm in Palm Desert/Palm Springs, and there's not a lot of ppl here and bad reviews on Yelp go a LONG way, plus i'm a personal trainer and I see and talk to 30 clients a week and i'll bad-mouth the guys business every chance I get.

if i'm lucky i'll only be out $500 for the fix... i'd like to keep the car, rather than turning it back in for cash back or a different car.

[ESFITNESS]

ughh....

well, I started the car to go home tonight, and put it in Reverse and felt it engage, then drove across the street to Walmart to buy a thing of Lucas transmission Fix.

the car didn't seem to have "power" when I stepped on the gas, but at least the revs weren't jumping.

made it to walmart, got the stuff. started to put it in the transmission fluid filler but it was dark and I didn't have a funnel or a knife to cut the tip of the Lucas stuff, so I only got a lil bit in.

then got on the freeway, it seemed fine, although a lil slow.. smooth shifts, got up to 70 and the car was 'normal'.. then after about 5mins on the freeway, I felt a 'clunk' and saw it had downshifted or shifted out of Overdrive and my revs were holding steady at 3200 at about 65/70 (with cruise control on). I turned cruise control off and tried clicking the Overdrive On/Off button but nothing happened.

got to my exit and stopped at the light. light went green and I hit the gas and the car just revved and barely moved.. I made the turn and got about 15ft and pulled over and hit the Hazard Flashers. put it in park but didn't feel the transmission engage or disengage. no neutral, 1st, 2nd, drive, R... didn't feel anything engage.

i put it in park, turned off the engine for about 5 seconds, turned it back on, put it in Drive again and felt it engage and hit the gas... it moved, but barely... got to the next light (downhill helped) and stopped again. again, hit the gas and didnt' move.. engine reved, but no movement. so i turned it off and on again and finally it engaged Drive and i limped home... not without having to turn it off and on two more times to get the transmission to engage.

this sucks. my only other car is a 99 mustang with a bad water pump that will nearly overheat after about 15mins of driving (which is why i bought the 99 Q45t). and i gotta work tomorrow at 1pm until midnight.. so getting a ride home is gonna be a problem.. and walking 8 miles home is gonna suck (15min/mile walking is 2hours.. i'll get home at 2am.. and it's cold in the desert at night. lol)

could it be a transmission pump problem? a filter problem?

the car moved "ok" when it's just started, but after it warms up it slips and disengaged like crazy.

when i got my headlights changed Tuesday i sat out by where the guys were working on the car and saw they had 3 guys standing over it looking puzzled, and i heard the shop manager say "well, we'll just cross our fingers... " before shutting the hood. i thought what the heck is he talking about? how hard is it to change out a HID bulb? why are you gonna cross your fingers? then when i got home i noticed a couple dents on my hood, one right above the drivers headlight... so i figured THAT must've been what they were talking about.. crossing their fingers that i wouldn't notice....... but could they have done something that would affect the transmission? anything? short out a solenoid when disconnecting the battery? (it also required removing the airbox/intake.. I haven't thought to check the sensor on my airbox yet.. just to be sure it's connected) my CEL hasn't come back on.

i'm stressing out over this.. being a grown man borrowing more money from my dad is NOT what i'm looking forward to.

[ESFITNESS]

I also found this answer on google...

a guy with a car that the transmission would slip when the car was warmed up/transmission fluid warmed up...

"Hello,
From what you have described it sounds like the transmission control solenoid pack is hanging up and needs to be replaced.

When you shut the car off it resets the position of the soleniod allowing it to work for a while before it gets hung up again.

Overtime turning it off and back on again won't anymore"

[ESFITNESS]

well, I didn't make it to the shop.. got stuck in an intersection, then go stuck on the side of the road and had AAA tow me to the shop.

the shop says I need a new or rebuilt transmission PLUS a new radiator... says the radiator was bad and got water in the transmission and that's what caused the transmission failure.

I never saw any leaks and my coolant was always tip-top. :/

the rebuild est was 2100 plus the radiator...

talked to the used car dealership I bought it from 1000miles ago and they're gonna somehow do a deal with the guy and estimated $800 for a used transmission with a 1yr warranty, and est $500 labor, 135 for the radiator.. dunno labor on that yet..

he was trying to give me some BS and attitude about "well, you buy a used car, you're taking a risk.. you didn't buy the warranty" ect... I told him that's not a good biz moto for a used car biz-man to have if word of that got out.. .he said he has a good reputation, and I immediately said "that's good, and i'd like to KEEP it that way.. understand why I'm angry.. you don't expect a car bought from a dealer to have a catastrophic failure within a month of purchase" ect...

so, i'm looking at about 1500, and should be done by Tuesday... not at all happy about it.

[Q451990]

It sounds like they're at least trying to work with you on it. I hope the used transmission works for a while... Kind of hard to expect much from a 14 year old car, even with that mileage. If the fluid was brown, it sounds like it had little to no maintenance.

All of this is a good reason to get an independent inspection from a certified tech. that deals with that model of car regularly on any used car that you're considering...

Heath

[ESFITNESS]

well, got the car back today.

1358$ for used transmission with 1yr warranty on parts and labor & radiator and labor and stuff.