Transmission's Dying!!!

[NewfoundlandDude]

I was out for a drive tonight, and the 01 Max was running great. I got up to about 130 on the highway, and the car felt like it was in between shifting up & down a gear but didn't know what to do (Auto Trans.).

It was running fine in 3rd & 4th gear (4 Gear AT), but didn't want to shift to 1st. I pulled over, and tried to accelerate again, but it felt like the car wanted to start off in 2nd gear. I tried to shift it into 1st manually, and it didn't want to move anywhere. Then I tried reverse, which also didn't work.

So I didn't have 1st or Reverse, but had 2nd-4th gear. On the way home, the car would start off in 2nd gear, and when I would accelerate to 2500 rpm, it would shift into 3rd (Or so it felt). So if I were driving at about 60 km and tried to accelerate, the car would just rev to 2500, accelerate a little getting there, then drop a gear.

I got home in the driveway and shifted it manually into 1st again. It never went anywhere until it rev'd up to about 3500 rpm, then it slowly began to move a little as if there was a brake on or something. The car would just rev up, but it was like the clutch wasn't engaging the gear. Reverse wouldn't work at all, although there was kind of a hydraulic-like sound when I shifted into and out of reverse.

This was similar to a problem that I had with cold starts when the weather was a little colder and in the mornings the car seemed as though it didn't want to start in 1st for about 1km, and then there would be a hard shift and it would work fine for the rest of the day. I never lost reverse before though. I got my transmission fluid changed about 3 weeks ago, and lucky me, it was the same time that the weather warmed up, so I thought I was out of the woods with the cold starting problem. It seems that maybe the fluid change had nothing to do with the problem correcting itself, maybe it was the weather warming up and disguising some problem that wanted to rear its ugly head tonight.

So now the Max is sitting in the driveway, and I guess that i'm going to have to push it out to get to a transmission shop somewhere since I don't have reverse. I would like to get an idea of what the problem is before-hand though so that I don't run into a huge bill, as I live in Newfoundland, and there are really no performance shops or anything like that here, just mechanics that want your money.

Just a note, I put an SRI on this week and it really seemed to give the Max much smoother shifts and a smoother power band, rather than punching the transmission everytime that it changed gears. I thought that this was a god-send, but I guess that the transmission wasn't doing as good as I had thought....

ANY HELP would be greatly appreciated here. I only bought the car about a month and a half ago, so I don't know know what it had been through before. Although it wasn't driven much by the previous owner, as there was only 87K Km's on it or about 55K Miles - being 7 years old.

This is killing me.....
Modified by NewfoundlandDude at 10:44 PM 6/10/2007

[Beancooker]

First question is were you watching your RPM's? When my car hits about 105-110, in overdrive, the tach is getting up there in RPM's. At 130, I think I would be really close to redline.

Have you checked the fluid?

Did it make any odd or funny noises when you were hammering on it?

If it's not the fluid, I am thinking torque converter, or one of the valve assemblys. There was a TSB on our trannys for the valve assembly, but being at work, I don't have the link to it.

The SRI shouldn't have had any bearing on this happening.

[NewfoundlandDude]

First question is were you watching your RPM's? When my car hits about 105-110, in overdrive, the tach is getting up there in RPM's. At 130, I think I would be really close to redline.

Have you checked the fluid?

Did it make any odd or funny noises when you were hammering on it?

If it's not the fluid, I am thinking torque converter, or one of the valve assemblys. There was a TSB on our trannys for the valve assembly, but being at work, I don't have the link to it.

The SRI shouldn't have had any bearing on this happening.

Sorry I didn't note that it was 130 km/h, which is what, about 80 mph maybe. Didn't make any weird noises at all.....I just pressed the O/D button in 3rd gear to place it IN OD.

I checked the fluid the day before and it was actually a little above full (From when I replaced it about 2 weeks ago). I don't know if the over-full fluid would have caused a problem?

I spoke with the dealer today who said to check the pan for filings which would mean a re-build. They had never heard of 1st & reverse going before though. They mentioned the clutch pack maybe, or a valve body flush.

At this point if I have to get a valve body flush, would it be worth it to go with a VB Mod. If so, where can I get some more info on this?

Would it even be worth it to go for a 5 speed standard swap? What would I need? Probly transmission, clutch pedal, transmission module, shifter, flywheel, bearing for the crank shaft, anythign else???

Well I guess that first it would be good to diagnose this.....

[A.Tech]

Amsterdam huh? yah... I was gonna say... I thought they used KM...

[brianw]

If you just swapped the fluid, did you swap in the correct fluid?

It sounds like you may have a competent mechanic looking at it already, so my advice would be to see what their diagnosis is.

Auto-to-5-speed swaps are pretty well documented, there's a lot of noise but there are some comprehensive writeups. It's not hard, just a bit involved, and you're correct, you'll need all the bits from the manual transmission-- transmission, clutch, flywheel, clutch pedal assembly, master and slave cylinders, I think the driver's side axle, and a few other small things.

[NewfoundlandDude]

If you just swapped the fluid, did you swap in the correct fluid?

It sounds like you may have a competent mechanic looking at it already, so my advice would be to see what their diagnosis is.

Auto-to-5-speed swaps are pretty well documented, there's a lot of noise but there are some comprehensive writeups. It's not hard, just a bit involved, and you're correct, you'll need all the bits from the manual transmission-- transmission, clutch, flywheel, clutch pedal assembly, master and slave cylinders, I think the driver's side axle, and a few other small things.

Yeah I swapped it with a Dextron III ATF. I've spoken to 3 mechanics over the phone and they are all leaning toward complete re-build which is going to run me about $1500-$2500 depending on the problems they run into I guess.

They also all shy'd away from a 5 speed swap and said "Now you're looking at some big bucks". I guess that it gets pretty expensive. Does anyone have any information on the Valve Body Mod???

[brianw]

It's a simple re-shimming and swapping of a few springs in the valvebody. IIRC to get this done as a preassembled part is about $400, or at least it was way back when. Definitely helps, though-- an automatic won't properly hold to redline without it.

5-speed swap will certainly be less than $2500, the mechanics you're looking at probably don't want to do the labor and take the responsibility for it.

[NewfoundlandDude]

It's a simple re-shimming and swapping of a few springs in the valvebody. IIRC to get this done as a preassembled part is about $400, or at least it was way back when. Definitely helps, though-- an automatic won't properly hold to redline without it.

5-speed swap will certainly be less than $2500, the mechanics you're looking at probably don't want to do the labor and take the responsibility for it.

Thanks for the help, Do you know where I can find the parts and detailed instructions for the VB Mod? I don't think that many people here in St. John's, Newfoundland would be very familiar with this.

Sorry about all the questions, but I'm not very familiar with any transmission work, and it seems that there aren't many people near me who are either.....

[brianw]

No idea, actually-- I've always bought 'em predone. Unfortunately the last time I bought one was waaaaaaaaaaay back when in the original ghetto days of the Maxima, and none of those guys are still doing this mod.

http://www.dynomagic.com/5spd_conversion.htm

[Beancooker]

VB Mod... http://www.maximumtuning.net /

[NewfoundlandDude]

Thanks again guys.

My account doesn't allow me to search THE COMPETITION becuse i'm pretty new I guess (About 1 month). Has anyone looked into a transmission swap or done it themselves? If so, a link would be immaculate, as i'm now google-ing THE COMPETITION.....

[brianw]

Uh, I posted a link above to the 5-speed swap...

[NewfoundlandDude]

Strange that someone in the online mechanic forum posted the .org name fine, and mine comes up as THE COMPETITION.......Guess I'll try not to mention them again, lol. I thought both were affiliated? Guess not.

Yeah I posted the last question because the link that you posted states that it is for a 95 AT Maxima with a 96 MT. Didn't mean to ignore the link there, it looks like it is pretty detailed and well done, but I didn't know if it would be compatible with a 5th Generation Max? I guess that there would be a lot of similarities if nothing else?

[brianw]

It's almost identical.