Is the gearbox damaged?

[Garlic]

Hello everyone,

 

The gearbox on my dad's 230JM suddenly started acting wierdly this evening.

 

The car is 3+ yrs old and has clocked 55+K km so far, servicing was done at TCM during the first three years and than subsequently at Autosaver.

 

The car was driving properly until we stopped at a traffic light, gear change suddenly became very jerky when moving off. The jerk is especially bad when up shifting from gear 1 to 2, there is a very strong jerk coupled with a loud "GROONK" sound before 2nd gear is engaged, changes for higher gears are also not as smooth as before.

 

The jerk happens during up shifting, down shifting is fine though.

 

Checked ATF level and its normal, fluid is still pinkish.

 

What could be the problem and will we be expecting a hefty repair bill?

 

Will be sending the car to TCM tomorrow, dang ....

 

 

Thanks.

Edited October 17, 2007 by Garlic

[macrosszero]

Try draining the ATF and refilling with factory spec ATF. Maybe the workshop used the wrong type.

 

Has the tranny been abused? 55k sounds like really soon for an automatic transmission to destroy itself, even if it has been neglected. If its been serviced by Tan Chong all this while, that should not be the case - they must have followed all recommended servicing intervals.

[Garlic]

The ATF changes were all done by TCM, only did general servicing at Autosaver.

 

My dad is an uncle driver who keeps to the speed limit and seldom hit 3K rpm.

 

The car has seen mostly city driving conditions though.

Edited October 17, 2007 by Garlic

[Circuit]

fuel pump might be the case.

 

i ganna once ,.... try full tank. if not so jialet..... v likey

 

cos less than half tank v jumpy

[Jiayong]

Common problem among alot of nissan autos.

 

My gfs dad spent countless of trips down to TCM to get it rectified.

 

Took him 10 million years. luckily he is a retiree....got time to spare to go down lim kopi with them.

[Hilander4650]

3 years plus never rev past 3k rpm could be due to fuel injector chok..once in a while have to high rev the engine..

[Yeobh]

Check battery, without the right voltage, the transmission solenoids will not be able to lock the wet clutch plates propely resulting in slip and poor power transmission. Also check transmission ground cable for proper connection. If all are in order than the other possiblity is present of foreign matters or water on the wet clutch sufaces - all these cause poor peformance.

Resetting the transmission electronic module back to default may help if the battery has been disconnected.

Edited October 18, 2007 by Yeobh

[Ahdi]

it could be the sensor of the car that is giving it problem. drive it back to autosaver ot TCM to let them check.

 

i haf the same problem with my sunny, reaching 4 yrs, mileage 130k. sensor failed.

[Garlic]

Hello everyone,

 

Thanks for the inputs.

 

The battery is coming two years old and the alternator was recently replaced FOC during a recall.

 

Called my dad this morning and the jerks were gone, he drove to work without any jerking, have told him to monitor the situation.

 

Strange ....

[Route88]

Maybe eratic ECU...let TC manage the ECU error.

Sometimes dirty throttle body also cause jerk

[Shiraz]

Recently my family car started to show these same symptoms as well. It's a 2004 Nissan Sunny 1.6 Auto. About 100k KM on the clock. There would be a strong jerk accompanied by a 'thud' that can be felt on the floorboards as well.

 

Before this, I could feel the gear changes deteriorating in smoothness then all of a sudden one morning it became like this. The tranny oil is about 20k KM old and it's 'fully synthetic' according to the mechanic. I changed the fluids when I started noticing that the gear changes were becoming rougher but it didn't help.

 

I don't suspect it's the gearbox as it's an auto and gearboxes on all new vehicles should be virtually indestructible.

 

I tried with a full tank and the jerk is still there.

 

It might be the module or sensors as some have suggested. Or throttle body. Battery is about a year old.

 

Has anyone rectified this problem? According to 'garlic' the jerk went away as quickly as it arrived? Seems weird but how about now? Did you have to changed anything till now.

 

Thanks.

[Garlic]

This was posted by my son almost 2 years ago, car has since been scrapped.

 

To answer your question, the jerk "sorted" it self out but I did a ATF change thereafter just to err on the side of caution.

 

 

 

 

[Shiraz]

I see. Maybe I'll just wait and see what happens. Thanks.

[SaNibOy]

Me also same shoes with bro Shiraz. Changed the gear sensors and speed sensors. Even changed ATF. Stil the same. Now to the extend of overhauling the gearbox. But need to check when full tank 1st....

[Freifeit]

Draining and refilling of ATF is insufficient..

 

A better way is to go is proper ATF flushing by a reputable workshop.

 

In the past I did normal drainin & refilling and later gear shifting was not smooth. Problem solved immediately after 1st flushing. Now I do ATF flushing every 20k km.

 

Good luck!

 

 

[Newcar]

Draining and refilling of ATF is insufficient..

 

A better way is to go is proper ATF flushing by a reputable workshop.

 

In the past I did normal drainin & refilling and later gear shifting was not smooth. Problem solved immediately after 1st flushing. Now I do ATF flushing every 20k km.

 

Good luck!

 

Isn't there a ATF filter inside the auto tran...?

Was above filter being replaced?

 

[Shiraz]

I went to the Agent and got them to diagnose the prob. They said it is a "Line Pressure S/V" failure after hooking it up to a computer. Parts alone would cost more than $700.

 

This thing is supposed to be a round plate above the gearbox... don't really know what it does though they mentioned 'fuel' and 'pressure'.

 

I called contacts that 'Garlic' gave me (thanks Garlic!) and they charged about $400 to $500 if the fault really lies with the thing Agent diagnosed.

 

Well, might just try the ATF flush and see how it goes from there.

[Trex101]

I don't suspect it's the gearbox as it's an auto and gearboxes on all new vehicles should be virtually indestructible.

 

Auto-transmission has always been the weakest link in current modern car, you will never hear of engine failure but transmission failure is quite common. There's not really much preventive maintenance you can do except frequent ATF change(keep it clean and varnish free), even with that you can't guarantee the electronic inside the transmission might not fail.