jetfixr

I have a 2002 Maxima with an auto trans that has about a 165K miles on it. In about the past 20K miles it has developed a hard shifting problem between 1st and 2nd. It does not happen under hard accelleration, and it does not happen under light acccelleration, only what I would call mild accelleration. And then it doesn't happen all the time, only about every 6th or 7th time leaving a stop sign. Enough to irritate you. I have talked to a transmission shop and they said I needed a new transmission. They sell and rebuild transmissions for a living, so I question their motives. The fact that I can't reliably duplicate the problem even makes me more suspicious. If I had a bad transmission, I would think the problem would be more constant. I changed the trans fluid and filter without any change. I pulled the codes and the car came up clean. Anyone ever experience anything like this?

tseng1023

iTrader: (9)

My **** is rough going into 2nd too. I think its from shifting throughout the gears at wot which beat the **** out of this ****ty *** tranny.

i THINK i've heard that buying a low mileage used tranny would be the better choice since rebuilding would already cost a good fraction of the car

chrome91

iTrader: (1)

its hard to say but your tranny could even last years like that, my auto tranny did funky stuff and lasted a long while after

personally i would drive that tranny til it goes and just swap in a low mileage tranny.

Chris Gregg

iTrader: (59)

Sir, your issue is one or more of your mounts. Inspect the mounts. I'm betting at minimal it is your front
Electronic mount.

Get a Wrayth engine torque mount from knight for the passenger side.....that will help get the power to the wheels.

I am speaking from experience on this. Was having shift issues and even some slipping. But, after installing an HD2 shift kit, the slip vanished but my 1-2 shift was unbearable to the point I was going to just replace my valve body to remove the kit and put the tranny back stock. The whole car would jerk and thrust into second. I later found my front electronic engine mount was leaking, obviously busted. I replaced for like $20-30 off eBay for a manual mount in order to save money and firm things up.
Now, I could not be happier with my shift kit.

Sounds odd that extra movement with the engine would equal harsher shifts, but it did.

streetzlegend

iTrader: (8)

Make sure your TPS is within spec, the TCM (tranny computer) looks at the TPS in order to determine the fluid pressure in the transmission, if the TPS is putting out a voltage thats higher than spec or too high the TCM will think you are in higher rpms or under higher engine load and shift with more fluid pressure.
For example, in park if my tps is reading .47v and i shift into drive, it does it smoothly, now if i set the voltage to .60v and put it in drive, it will bang into drive, this is because its using more fluid pressure.

Chris Gregg

iTrader: (59)

^^^^--- Also something appropriate to look at. Good suggestion.
IMO, rule out the mounts first since that's easiest.

streetzlegend

iTrader: (8)

Agreed, like previously suggested, a toque link will also work great in keeping the whole thing (engine/tranny) from moving during shifts, I have Aaron's torque link (NWP) and works awesome.

user name001

good point! thats funny that you say this, i suffered from 2-3 shift flare when cold plus my shifting in general just felt sloppy, my TPS was set to .48 at idle, i bumped it up to .70 and it if not completley, the almost completley got rid of my slip, my shifts just overall feel alot crisper too! i guess this TPS adjustment can work both ways.

nibs

After you fix your TPS you should try using a high quality synthetic transmission fluid. A good synthetic fluid will help with low temperature performance. Make sure to replace all of the old fluid, not just the 50% or so that comes out when you take the drain plug out of the pan. You should be able to find instructions on the org. If you do not want to do this yourself, a transmission shop should be happy to help you. DO NOT let them use a "cleaning machine." I hear that the Amsoil ATF works well, but I'm sure other org members prefer other ATFs. I currently have the Amsoil ATF as my PS fluid and it is doing a fine job.