Just bought a 92 Q45a...Have some concerns

[tonyp71]

Here are my 3 concerns....

I just bought a 1992 Q45a with 125K miles. It was a donated car and I don't know the history. It has the typical bad transmission...It doesn't engage solidly when the gear selector is moved and when you rev the engine, it shudders/creeps forward slowly...and forward only...with no apparent neutral or reverse. It also appears to be dumping transmission fluid from somewhere and fluid is seen smoking. I have not yet inspected the underside. Could it be just the torque converter? I 've located a good used transmission w/116K miles with a one year warrantly--provided that I install an external oil cooler and an inline filter(???) What causes these trannies to go bad so often? Infiniti said metal shavings from a poor design with the 1-2 shift mechanism causes the internal cooler to clog and overheat. Is that accurate? I plan to flush out the new "used transmission" install a new filter kit and Mobil1 synthetic ATF and/or Lucas(?) install some type of low restriction inline filter and all should hopefully be well..Any comments or suggestions? Is there any universal alternative inline filter I could use instead of the $250 Infiniti dealer part???

The car has active suspension. I noticed when I revved up the car, it seemed to drop as if it was on hydraulics! Is that normal? Maybe it had something to do with the transmission being burnt up confusing the computer controls? I noticed that the car was low on fluid....maybe leaking somewhere and so I filled it. Where are the common leak points? I tried to bounce each corner of the car and it seemed very stiff.

I have done my research on NICO and now I am concerned about the chain guides. The motor sounds healthy enough, but seems to be hard to rev up freely with the transmission locked up as it seems to be. Also, when I attempt to rev the engine, I hear an odd buzzing/vibrating sound from underneath and it doesn't want to rev out. Probably binding/grinding transmission parts!!?? I suppose I will have the guides checked and call Infiniti with my VIN for a history check.

Could you please comment back on these issues? I'd greatly appreciate it!

Thanks :-)

[Q451990]

Transmission certainly sounds like toast! I'd think any inline transmission filter should work, but I'm not sure that it's necessary if the lines are flushed and you bypass the OEM cooler with an auxilary one.

The active suspension is probably shot and needs to be recharged. Run a search for anything written by "texasoil" or think in terms of converting it to a standard setup.

If the RTV (liquid gasket) on the front cover looks like it's from the factory, usually a light blue color - then your guides are probably original.

Good luck!

Heath