Bobo

I have a 95SE - 5-speed Canadian model (LSD). The vehicle is just coming up to 127,000 mostly highway kilometres (79,000 miles). I have had a leak for about 3 years and am finally going to deal with it by having the small and large differential bearings replaced as well as other tranmission bearings, seals and gaskets. The car shifts smoothly and there is no discernible noise when driving. The leak has gotten considerably worse in the last 10,000 miles.

I am getting the work done at a transmission shop and have brought the motorvate.ca write-up in to them and emphasized the importance of shimming the bearings to the specs stated. The owner is scratching his head over this and said he doesn't have shims and wonders where they come from. I told him to check it out with his parts supplier and if I can't get the job shimmed properly then I shouldn't proceed as I don't want the leak to come back in 40,000 miles.

Has anyone had this job done? Where did you get the shims from?

I imagine no one has had this work done very recently.

I am wondering if perhaps the bearings are a different size now and don't need to be shimmed according to the motorvate.ca specs.

Nissan dealerships are ignorant about the differential bearing problem for the most part.

pmohr

iTrader: (26)

You get the shims from the dealer. If you look in the FSM, all of the available shims are clearly labeled with size and part number, as well as how to determine which you need.

Or you could have him hack some together, or find some of the appropriate size/thickness.

Regardless of bearing size, you still need to properly shim everything. There will be no magical bearing that properly preloads every different individual trans.

I'd suggest you go around and price the job out at different shops, this one doesn't seem to be the most favorable.

Also, have you looked through the writeup for this? http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...te-up-pix.html

Bobo

Thanks. I will follow up.

JtzMax

iTrader: (5)

Thanks Paul, was gonna point him toward that as well.

I'd go with a mechanic who understands things for starter. If you're so inclined, you could DIY, it's not that bad a job really.

Bobo

I went back to the shop and spoke to the owner and have a good comfort level that they can do the job properly. They have thousands of shims on site and will machine what I require. I also checked with another transmission shop and got the same story. Neither were inclined to go to Nissan and get the parts. I live in Vancouver and Nissan told me the parts would have to come from Toronto or Montreal, 3000 miles away. In the meantime the car would be on the hoist. I am getting a fair price.

The shop has been in business for over 30 years and I was told they would stand behind the repair and give me a 5-year, 100,000 kilometre warranty.

I am as **** as they come and made it clear that I wanted the job done properly and no leaks a few years down the road.

JtzMax

iTrader: (5)

Sounds like it should work out just fine then. Only reason we say 'Nissan' is cause they already have the shims (diff sizes) made and it's just a drop in part at that point. If the shop is going to 'make' you the shims, I guess that would work too. More work by far, but hey ... I'm not doing it.

Key here is that you don't want the axles to have slop and play back and forth. When it is all done, besides not leaking, you should be able to notice a difference in the feel as well. Hard to explain. If you take a hold of your axle shaft now (drivers side - pass side is mounted) and slide it in and out, you'll feel the play I speak of. When the new bearings and shims are in, you shouldn't notice any play.

Bobo

And it all comes down to the correct shim thickness. Nissan informs me there are 10 different thicknesses of shims for my LSD transaxle's differential bearings.

I may replace the clutch components and CV boots while I am at it.

JtzMax

iTrader: (5)

Don't just do the boots on the CV shafts ... do the whole shaft (Raxles FTW btw!!!!!) Also, keep in mind that a VLSD trans will need a different bearing set that a non VLSD. On the ds of the diff, the bearing (and axle) are different. When I ordered my shims the first time, I ordered for a VLSD, I don't have one lol So, I learned my lesson, verify the part # .... always! lol

Bobo

I am waiting to hear about the condition of the CV joints. I have 127,000 mostly highway kilometres on the car and believe the CV joints and axles are fine. The guy on motorvate.ca replaced his CV boots at 240,000 kms. I don't believe he had replaced the CV joints or drive axle prior to that and certainly didn't then.

I am not into racing so am not going with an Act clutch or Exedy.

A LuK clutch kit was recommended to me. Does anyone know anything about them?

pmohr

iTrader: (26)

No need to replace the boots if they're fine. If the boots are ripped then replace the axle, not the boots.

Luk is alright, apparently they actually manufacture the Centerforce brand clutches. Personally I'd go with an OEM 5th gen clutch.

Bobo

Well the work is done and I have the car back. It seems to run just like it did before. The differential bearings were in bad shape and they were amazed the transmission wasn't making noise. I bit the bullet and got the work done after the CV boot problem surfaced.

I replaced both CV boots but not the CV joints or drive axles. I will worry about that down the road. I believe I caught the leaking CV boot shortly after it occurred. There is no noise issue re: the CV joint.

JtzMax

iTrader: (5)

but the diff was leaking, right? where the axles go in?

Bobo

The drive axles or transmission seal were not the problem. The problem was the spalled differential bearings causing movement in the differential carrier.

dgeesaman

iTrader: (10)

The only reasonable source for shims is Nissan.

What you could have done is in advance buy a thick size shim from Nissan and then when the transmission is apart they can blanchard grind it down to a final size.

I personally rebuild a lot of these and I have a CD wallet filled with all different sizes of Nissan shims. Very easy that way.

JtzMax

iTrader: (5)

Great idea Dave .... never a bad idea to have extra parts on hand!

Only reason I ask Bobo is ... usually the axle seals will go to leaking (in conjunction with the 'grinding' noise) and that's how most people know (or at least 'understand') that they need a rebuild. Seems it's either the IPS bearings or Diff bearings with these 5spds.

Bobo

There was no discernible noise coming from the transmission whatsoever, which surprised the shop given the condition of the large and small differential bearings.

They had thousands of shims at the shop and they machined what I needed to size. At this point I can only cross my fingers.

The shop has been in business for over 30 years. The bench man who worked on the transmission has been working with transmissions since 1963 and was pushing 70. They are a high volume shop that I was referred to.

JAMAICANLOVRBOY

iTrader: (3)

didnt know canadian A32 maximas had LSD, thought that was only an infiniti thing until 01. but this seem like a pretty big job

JtzMax

iTrader: (5)

Nice ... glad you got someone with experience at least!

IIRC, all Can and Euro (also Aust / NZ) are VLSD .... rare to find it in an American A32 (unless someone put it in ... hahahahha) Not even sure if Infin has a VLSD, but I'm guessing they do.

On another note Jamcian ..... did you ask Pmohr's permission to post his site in your sig ??? Just wondering ...

pmohr

iTrader: (26)

There's a bunch of people doing that, I don't really care. The more it spreads, the better for the 'community'.

Indeed, the USDM cars got the short end of the stick, I do believe everywhere else got VLSD standard. The USDM i30t had standard VLSD (on both 4AT/5MT), regular USDM i30 got it with the 'Traction Enhancement' package. And of course the '01 AE.

Will92

Hi all:

Bobo alerted me about this potential problem in the Fluids board. I am the orignal owner of a 95SE 5 spd MT with about 65 miles. Has anyone else experienced this failure of the bearings? I have had no transmission fluid leaks (other than the common failure of the position sensor switch) but wanted to know if this is something I will experience down the road.

Thanks

Nealoc187

iTrader: (23)

thousands of people have had this failure. it's probably the #1 or #2 failure mode on these cars, input shaft bearing failure being the other. that's why there are hundreds of threads about it on this forum.

Will92

Thanks Neal0c187

I had no idea about this problem as my car has really been problem free and I only occasionally visit this site. I did a search on "differential bearing" and only turned up a relevant hit on Bobo's original thread. Is there another search term I should use? I also tried to look at an article Bobo referenced on motorvate.ca but the site was not found. I would like to learn more about this and how potentially serious it is. Hopefully my trusted Nissan mechanic could handle the repair as I would dread having to shop around at transmission shops here locally.

Thanks again.

Nealoc187

iTrader: (23)

people might be typing it as "diff bearing" more often than "differential bearing". also lots of threads about it start out as transmission leak threads or axle seal leak threads because that's the symptom most people see and post about before they know the cause.