sciff5

iTrader: (1)

Hey guys I have just clicked off 95k miles on my I35 and I also just moved back to New England from Miami. Down in Miami the car has been great. It has survived a couple track days in nearly 100 degree heat with no complaints. It even made it across the country a few times without even a hiccup, again dealing with nearly 100 degree temps with continuous driving for hours on end. Now that I've gotten back to the artic tundra up here the car has been having consistent transmission issues, which I thought were due to the age/mileage of the vehicle. I checked the tranny fluid and it looks fresh, and I talked to some of the techs at my dealership and they said I most likely need a new tranny just based off what I told them.

Anyway the issue I am having is that every time its cold outside the transmission will slip BADLY and then catch suddenly even when I'm at less than half throttle, and it does this CONSTANTLY. I thought I was doomed to have to replace/rebuild the tranny and was even about to set up an appointment to bring the car into the service bay, but yesterday we had a warm front move through where temps got back into the 50s for the day and as if by magic my transmission went back to normal. I was even able to get on it full bore from a stop light.. and go through the first 2 gears with zero hint of the tranny slipping.

The wierd thing in all this is that my girlfriend has a 2000 max GLE with about 90k on the clock and every day my tranmission slips.. hers slips in the exact same way and yesterday during the warm front, she had no issues with her transmission either.


Any Idea guys on what this could be...to me its very clearly linked with cold weather but I am baffled

-Josh

Lontar1

iTrader: (5)

TCM or selenoids... my car does the same thing and it is the TCM...prepare to shed out $400+ on it... call DaveB or PM him.. that the price he gave me... so I'm driving in a normal way until I can get the $$$ to replace the TCM

n3985

iTrader: (36)

Maybe TCM went bad? Common issue, also check the tranny ground wire inside the tranny. There is a TSB around for that issue.

MyownNismo

iTrader: (13)

Are you letting the car warm up. I have a brand new rebuilt tranny and if I don't let warm up it will slip.

n3985

iTrader: (36)

It needs another rebuild then, trannies are not suppose to slip regardless of temperature.

Torgus

iTrader: (10)

tranny is fubared.

MyownNismo

iTrader: (13)

My car sits in a garage at home at work it's outside. It's around 7 degrees here. I have no problems leaving in the morning. when I leave from work if I don't let it warm up it will slip. After it has warmed up I have no problems. Let the car warm up then go and see if that made a difference if not then go for service.

01ToTheMax

Is the tranny fluid up to the full mark at idle? My last automatic car (a lumina) would act similar at times where it would slip bad and then hit hard, sometimes chirping the tires. The fluid looked fine but the problem was slowly getting worse. Tranny shop suggested I try adding some more fluid before looking at a tranny rebuild. I added only 1/2 pint of fluid and it resolved the problem.

Scottwax

iTrader: (8)

Mine doesn't slip when cold but the 2-3 and 3-4 shifts are softer than when the engine/transmission is fully warmed up. I've done two drain and fills (the ATF was dirty but smelled normal when I bough the car) and the level is correct. If the temperatures are above 45 or so, there doesn't seem to be a difference between cold and warm shifts. Once it gets colder, until the transmission is fully warmed up, it shifts pretty soft, but so far, no rpm overrun during shifts.

It definitely appears to be a cold weather issue, someone mentioned it in the ATF fluid change thread in the Fluids forum:

http://forums.maxima.org/showpost.ph...7&postcount=18

I did a flush /fill to Amsoil ATF about a month ago. Immediately noticed smoother shifts. I have about 15K on my 2K2.
I also put in a tranny cooler (B&M supercooler). I don't have specific before / after temps but with the frigid temps we've had this past month, a drawback is is takes a GOOD 20 mins fort the fluid to heat up and shift quickly. You have to take it easy or it sounds like "your clutch is slipping".

This thread is from 2003 and about a 2k2 Maxima, so one would reasonably expect with only 15,000 miles on it, the transmission would not be ready for a rebuild.

I used to have a Mazda 626 V6 and when that engine/tranmission was cold, it would shift with higher line pressure. Maybe that was a way to combat soft shift/slipping when the engine was cold. Half the time, it would chirp the tires on the 1-2 shift if I was halfway into it when cold but once it warmed up, the shifts were fast but not firm like when cold.

Usually, when a transmission is going out, it shifts worse when it warms up. Usually.

sciff5

iTrader: (1)

The tranny slipping used to go away when the car warmed up or at least it would be decreased greatly... but recently when the weather is in the teens or lower it doesnt go away even when the car is warmed up. Today though it was about 35 degrees and although it slipped slightly when I first started it up once it warmed up it was good to go. It seems like once it gets stupid cold around here nothing seems to stop the tranny from slipping. Its not to the point where it would catch and chirp the tires or even really catch that hard or anything like that but it deff slips and then catches

MyownNismo

iTrader: (13)

Then it could be the bands are going out.

03blackSE

I live in Canada, where the temperature has been around -10 to 0 celsius (14 - 0 F) for the last couple days, and my tranny shifts fine weather it's cold or not.

I leave the Max parked outside all night too.

sascuderi

Another thing to consider, especially for the 2000 Max/I30, is that a bad MAF will give what looks like tranny problems.

My brother had this and was told the tranny was bad. He changed the MAF and all is well now! (For the 2000 the MAF is ~$100.00 and easy to change)

sciff5

iTrader: (1)

I just had the maf replaced less than a month ago. The last one was completly fubar to the point where the car wouldent even shift or rev over 2500rpm