JX 35 Judder, options?

[autoperdu]

Hello, I live in Lafayette Louisiana, recently I have paid off our infiniti jx35. Unfortunately we have had increased instances of the dreaded judder, brought it into an independant shop and they said that the only option was a new transmission at 7000, the transmission had been replaced about 4 years ago by the local Infiniti dealership (at greater cost). The question I have is whether there are any other options to deal with this, should I bring it to the infiniti dealership or the nissan dealership? Are there any independant shops in the area that could give me other options other than transmission replacement.

I appreciate any advice given from more experienced users, many thanks in advance,


Sincerely, Autoperdu

[VStar650CL]

Remans for that trans are about $3500 online and it's a 14~15 hour job, so I don't think you'll find any cheap outs even if you go with a used one. That's a possibility, since the same transaxle fits '14 QX60's and '13~15 Nissan Pathfinders. They shouldn't be impossible to find in a junkyard. However, with a 13 year old ride, you need to be reeeeeally careful about not getting a pig in a poke. The only way to do that is to get the TCM along with the transmission. That way you can hook the TCM to your car before installing anything and see if the donor trans had problems. The thing is, even then you're still into the same 14~15 labor hours plus $1000 or so for the used unit. Whether that's worthwhile on a ride that old is strictly a matter of how much you love it.

[autoperdu]

VStar650cl, thank you for your advice, I guess at this point is there something I can do to prolong the usage of this car, I have read that the standard dealership actions are to manually inspect, replace valve body and refill transmission before saying trans is toast. Also should i try transmission shop before dealership. If the transmission is toast either way would replacing the trans fluid give me a little more life or should i just sell car as is for parts, if so what are my best options there?

Thanks for the comments,
Sincerelyj Autoperdu

[VStar650CL]

No reputable dealership is just going to replace a $1K Valve Body without evaluating the codes and inspecting the belt. However, the latter requires dropping the Valve Body, so they won't do it for nothing. There's a specific bulletin about how-to and what-to inspect, so it is possible to DIY it, or you can provide the info to a non-dealer shop if you have one you can trust. If the belt is trashed then the transmission is trashed, a VB won't help. If the belt is intact then it's probable a new VB and fresh fluid will straighten it out.
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2019/ ... 2-0001.pdf