gruesome

Howdy, a friend of a friend is selling a 96 maxima with 120,000 miles for $300. I was surprised to hear the auto transmission is shot with that low mileage. That is why I asked the subject question. would a transmission swap be around the same cost or is it easier than an engine swap? The body sounds better than mine so I wondered. Thank you much!

98maxaholic

Any auto will crap out if not maintained or beaten to death....ive had a few friends with 4th gens who got over 200k miles on the trannys and still goin...but they dont beat on them and maintain them good! hows the rest of the maxima your friend is selling? sounds llike it may be a good deal depending on the rest of the car....ive done 2 tranny swaps and they are easier in IMO than a motor swap by far...u can find trannys with 100k in jy for like 300 bux...even less sometimes.(try craigs)..and some back yard mechs will throw a tranny in for a cpl hundred bucks... these trannys are better than say a dodge/chrysler auto in that they seem to die at 100k maintained great and driven like grandma!!ive read some posts by .org members who have 200k miles on autos and they say they dont think the fluid have ever been changed....

FallenOne

iTrader: (17)

it took 500K miles of hard driving to murder mine. Lost 3rd and 4th. Solenoid codes. Swap a known working tranny in it and you got a winter beater for roughly 1K

98maxaholic

agreed.....especially if the rest of the car is decent....it may be better than just a winter beater!

asand1

iTrader: (1)

Tranny swap is easier than engine by far. 4th gen auto trannys are regarded as more reliable/stronger than 5mt, but are depenant on regular maintenance. I prefer 5mt just because the driver input and feedback. If i were inlucky enough do live in tje city I would have automatic.

chrome91

iTrader: (1)

auto trans should be able to last well to 500,000km. 90% of auto transmission failures are from people not fully stopping going from R to D and D to R, that kills the trans

i had the crappy RF auto trans in my 3rd gen, aka the one known to blowup between 150,000km-200,000km because of how weak they were. every owner including me cared for it, and the trans went to 430,000km before 1st gear started slipping. that was probably because i accidentally ran it low on fluid beforehand

get a low K trans from a junker car and swap it in, good to go

gruesome

The one in mY current car is good, although I have a faulty third gear ratio cel. Not sure what that means because there are no driving issues with it. Got quoted $180 for the swap.

chrome91

iTrader: (1)

$180 for a trans swap? that sounds way too cheap, backyard mechanic would probably charge $500-$1000 for a swap and a garage maybe $700-$1200.

ive done many trans swaps at work, i dont think any had a bill of under 4 digits

gruesome

That is what I was quoted. The bad one will probably go in the back seat of the car with the bad head gasket.

jfactor

Wow! Mine has 227k+ and still strong even with my driving.

dwapenyi

iTrader: (3)

Maybe the tranny isn't bad. I would change the fluid and see how it works afterwards before considering replacing. Automatic trannies are very very dependent on the condition of the fluid.

DO NOT FLUSH old automatic transmissions.

Just drop the old fluid and replace with the same amount of Dexron III or Nissan D-matic. Do this several times may bring the tranny back to life.

gruesome

i managed to scrape the transmission pan when the brakes locked and jumped a curb. I put in new fluid when I changed the pan. The person who had the max with a bad transmission sold it for scrap the night before I got paid. Getting a little tired I of dumping cash into my car so I will probably scrap it and start over. Afraid that upon taking the head off to do the gasket, I'll find that I need'm more work that I can't afford. Dropped $200 at the vets office on Sunday for what the vet knew was a terminal cat and still had the nerve to charge $31 for a one year rabies shot which is a ludicrous price since the one day clinics charge $10 for the same shot.