Hey guys! I have a 2001 altima automatic that recently stopped going into any gear besides reverse and 1st. Last year it had trouble shifting into drive and i would need to wait about 5 seconds and then it would go into gear. I changed the fluid and filter and it started going into drive from park smooth and fast.

I live in Florida so the cold season is very short but around late November when it was getting pretty cold on some days it had trouble going into gear again. I did some research and came to the conclusion that it was something called "morning sickness" related to how cold it gets and the seals contracting not creating the right pressure to allow it to go into gear, but 2 days ago it wouldn't go into gear at all, just reverse, neutral,and 1st.

I'm assuming it is now in limp mode for some reason but i'm not sure why. I connected a code scanner to it and got no codes. The check engine light wasn't on but i figured id give it a try. Iv done a lot of research but nothing matches my symptoms very well. i'm reading it can be anything from a revolution sensor, or a shift solenoid, or a messed up torque converter. I'm stumped here, this forum usually leads me in the right direction with my 240 so figured it be just as good for the altima.

Any help or ideas of things to check would be much appreciated, thanks

From past experience on automatics your tranny is going bad and i dont think tearing it open and replacing and broken gears or anything would be worth the $ and time since its almost every gear and the enhine light wont come on for the tranny atleast my car didnt. But since your car is a little newer it could be as small as a shifter sensor going bad. But my past experience it wasnt an nissan it was a mitsubishi galant i lost 2nd gear and 3rd would bang really bad and i also lost reverse. But it was my first car and most people dog the first one.

Thanks for the reply,

I don't have problems with any specific gear banging or grinding, the car doesn't seem to be able to go into drive, yet it can do reverse, park, neutral and 1st fine but drive and 2nd are nothing like its in neutral.

Hey sorry been really busy with my vehicle from what your reply its probably just sensor solenoid or just bad gears... If you have worked on a tranny before or are comfortable doing it yourself you can check it yourself to save money instead of taking it to a shop. You wont pay for parts or nothing just labor im in virginia and labor usually runs about $90-$115 an hour so roughly a shop would charge around $300-$400 to just take it apart and check it may take about 3 hours or so but your in florida so it may be more or less. But if it is something small like sensor or solenoid it will save you alot of money if you do it yourselfon just labor alone... Im not saying do it yourself but only if you are comfortable or have worked on them before. if you just decide to replace the whole tranny check local scrap yards for one. Not the best option but from my own past experience and scrap yards i go to they usually have parts that are decent and in pretty good shape and can save you a few hundered or even a thousand dollars on a new one but the decision is yours hope i helped out.

Forgot to mention if you go to a scrap yard for one make sure the give you the mileage on the tranny before you buy it if its not already wrote on it.

dont kno if the op is still around but, can one pull transmission codes from the ecu ? i thought transmission codes on altimas came from the tcu , not the ecu, and flashes codes / warns u of problems via the " od " light, not the check engine lite. i have only owned manual trans so idk.