BzJeep

After contacting my local news station following a failed attempt from Nissan Corporate to cover the cost of replacing my transmission which was 1,500 miles out of warranty, I was instructed that my best bet would be to file a complaint with the NHTSA. This would be the most valid place for Nissan to check and consider issuing a recall for these vehicles. The 2004 model year alone already has nearly 400 complaints but less than 100 for both 2005 and 2006 (my guess for the low numbers is the fact that most vehicles have not yet reached the typical failure point of around 50-90k miles) I'm not sure how many complaints need to be filed for Nissan to notice and do something about this but at least if everyone on this board as well as anybody you come in contact with who suffers from these issues filed a complaint, there could be a chance in the future...

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/

NiZMo1o1

iTrader: (45)

good luck !

My-Body-Is-Ready

iTrader: (4)

id fill that out but built motor,many mods, and nitrous would take a dump on an auto tranny anyway!

STARR

iTrader: (1)

Good Luck, my 06 is in the hands of someone else

JD05

I know this sucks and it will probably take someone to get killed before something is done like whats happening to Toyota right now just keep on thier backs and maybe you'll get lucky. They replaced my tranny and the same thing will probaly happen down the road because i think they didnt really fix the problem internally they just put in the same tranny rebuilt.

BzJeep

The Nissan dealer as well as my local tranny shop said that many of the internals of these transmissions have since been "updated" so perhaps some weak points have been strengthened... who knows.

JD05

Time will only tell ill keep you posted however there has been people here that have gone through 2 to 3 trannys. Maybe they are rough on there cars who knows.

STARR

iTrader: (1)

Nothing happened to Toyota, stupid people who do not know how to shift into neutral, turn the car off and stand on the brake is what happened, don't be uniformed and think luck is gonna save you, your driving a vehicle, that can kill and do more damage then a handgun and you can walk away cause it was an accident, many people are oblivious to that fact, and it's sad it has become this way cause the insurance companies know that and take advantage of it.

Any company as large as Toyota is gonna have a huge target on their back, everyone does not even look at the numbers that before the recall, 80 or so unintended acceleration claims where submitted, after the official recall the numbers doubled and tripled, most of these people are trying to take advantage of the system, why because they dug themselves in to deep.

It's karma, you can't fool it and from time to time it will throw a wrench in your face

JD05

I don't disagree that these people should know to shift to neutral or shut the car off however when something happens at the spur of the moment some people don't know how to react and with the new push button keys in the new cars from what I have read that some of the cars didn't not shut down and some people panic and lose there sense of ration.
On shifting the car into neutral I agree I rather blow up my engine than get hurt. You or me would shift the car into neutral some people can't think in panic mode!! As for Toyota well we will see if they tried to cover something up with whats happening supposedly they knew according to the the people that worked for them that there was a defect. Now for the trannys in the Maxima's it seems that the people who are having the issues with them are having the same problems jerking between 2nd and 3rd and rough up and down shifts. Yes percentage wise its on lower side of transmission failures but it is happening more and more as these cars add mileage and around the same mileage between 55000 and 90000 miles.....Sorry transmissions should last a lot longer than that there is diffidently a defect with these transmissions especially when everyone who has a failure has the same symptoms.Nissan needs to man up and fix them properly after all a $34000 car, this should not be happening and its funny that when the majority of the transmission failures happen after the warranty is out and then the consumer has to cough up $3500 to 4500 dollars to replace this it's just not right I got lucky this happened to me before my 60000 mile mark and I have an extended warranty but I wont feel very comfortable after it runs out at 75000 miles I will most likely get rid of the car. My 99 was built much better than this car. The sad part is that I really like this car it drives great and it's very smooth on the road .

04vqmaxsl

Yeah, I don't think any weak points have been strengthened. The original trans in my 04SL went bad at 71,000 miles and the replacement went bad at 80,200. First replacement was done in February 2009 and the second was done in February 2010.

po8pimp

filed a complaint like 4 years ago and see where we are at. the percentage is too high for them to even look at it. You have to look at sales verse percent of complaints. If they catagorize the 2004 with 2005 and 6, then they are mistaken. Nissan has 3 different types of 5 speeds released within those years. Most failures are on the first gen 5 speed re5f22a's. Since then, they have made a cooler change and then went to CVT. You need to get a shift kit and wait in line. keep your receipts and maybe someday you will get a payback on what you have spent.

BzJeep

Shucks, I was unaware that they had changed them that much from 04 to 06... doesn't help that they all have the same issues though it seems like.

I'm having a shop throw in the reman. from Nissan for $3050 out the door. I had them order a TCM just in case it needs that as well.

po8pimp

Might want to think about getting a shift kit installed as well

ZoomZoomZoom

Don't be too quick to judge those folks in the runaway Toyotas. Just like your Maxima 6gen, the Toyota tranny is fully electronic. "Shifting" is just a suggestion. If you don't "shift" in time, your 6gen will do it for you. And if it "decides" to not go into neutral, you are screwed. My 20 year Toyota (automatic) has a stick shifter that actually drops directly into the tranny. Its truly a mechanical device that gives the driver full control. And who thought a keyless ignition was a good idea? What do you do if the ignition decides to "ignore" your request? I'm very happy my 06 doesn't have this. BTW, the late model Toyotas require a foot on the brake to shift into neutral. I tested my 06 and I did not have to put my foot on the brake to shift to neutral while driving.

Back on topic, I too thought the 06 was the start of a major tranny change. Regardless, I did a tranny service on my car when it was at 30k as recommended by my tranny shop versus the manual's recommendation (60k).

Smart tranny's are nice, they save gas, but IMHO, its not worth the control we have to give up and the higher maintenance. Better yet, dump that electronic gas pedal. The cable design still works great after 20 years in my old Toyota. What will come of the electronics in our Maximas after 20 years??

BzJeep

What does this shift kit do... and where can I get it?

po8pimp

fixes the shifting problems for the 5 speed auto. Here read this.... http://forums.maxima.org/6th-generat...ssion-fix.html

BzJeep

Got my Max back from the shop today. He wants to see it back in two weeks before our road trip to test and make sure things are okay but it felt smooth today. I'm scared to romp on it at all ... don't want something to snap in there, haha. Luckily my TCM wasn't bad but he said there's still a chance it could be going so to watch out for anything abnormal. I had the work done at Action Transmission ... $3050 cash was the out-the-door with Nissans 12mo/12k mile warranty. They received the tranny this morning when they opened around 8AM, removed the old one and installed the new one by 2PM so I am a happy camper - thought I'd have to wait another weekend for the car!