Ok, well my 03 350Z auto is going later this afternoon to Nissan for a NEW trany(been on order for a bit). After about 70k of beatin on it. Its slipping(betwen 2nd-3rd) and not shiftin in the tip mode when you want to....So I have the 100k coverage its gettin done for FREE....Just wantin you guys' take on this???.....And my intent is to go F/I TN kit with VB upgrade...But I'm a little worried about havin to go through this **** again and or sooner when its F/I'd????????...Luv my car but thinkin about tradin it for a 6spd....Comments????

Thanks,
Kevin

 

If its no big deal for you to trade the car off for a 6MT...DO IT ! If your going FI....do it for sure ! The 5AT cant handle the extra power for long with out building the tranny up . A VB and trq. converter , with a tranny cooler . Will only delay the time it takes to wear out the tranny with a high HP car .
IMPO that is .

 

Thanks for the info...Its @ Nissan right now and won't get it back until monday...Well I'm going to get on the hunt I guess....

 

wow, this is the first post I've read about a broken AT tranny. AT tranny for da z is a tank. unlike the 6mt heap.

 

+1 ^^^^ My thoughts exactly.

 

Are you serious or sarcastic?

 

I like drivin the **** out my car...And the reason I started seeing the issues was at a Dyno day(Performance Fac.) and the #'s were not consistant, along with the shifting, not doing the shift part when you want...But here lately the slipping is happening...Bad part is that I took it about 8k ago to have my trany fluid changed and they had left it about 2 quarts low. I don't know if that had something to do with it but non the less they told me about 2-3 weeks ago that it was low(and they filled it and same crap)...Sooo I'm going up there today to look at it(brand new trany from Nissan)....We'll see I guess if the cars not right or still sh1ty acting its going bye-bye... ..They got an 03-05 black 350 6spd's sittin on the lot(possable tradein in)..

 

The 5AT is a strong tranny - keeping it cool and using the right amount of the right fluid [matic-J only] is key though. It has had far less "issues" than the 6MT, which has been revised, now what 9 times? I think Nissan has finally got something working pretty well now for the MT folks.

That said, the build ups for the 5AT (clutch packs, bands, etc in addition to valve body) have only recently become available and very few tranny builders are familiar with our tranny (to modify for high hp). It IS happening now though. There are a few shops that have prototypes in testing as we speak. I would expect multiple reports on the forums with these new developments by mid to late summer. (I'll be one of 'em with hopefully 500 to the wheels in a 5AT)

 

Went yesterday to the dealer and they dropped my trany. It took about an hour and they didn't need to drop the whole motor to get it out. The techy guy told me that these trany's are the same as the Pathfinder/Frontier and also the TITAN trucks also... ...Yeah my thoughts too TITAN??? He said yes same housing but dif insides..Hummmm, I wounder if thats how ppl are doing the high hp trany builds useing the titan insides for these(well not everything)...Tought I would share the info with you guys not sure if everyone else knew that too...

 

With the right cooler and a VB most owners should be fine.

 

how much whp can the stock auto trans handle before you really have to start majorly upgrading it i plan on adding a trans cooler to mine with my engine build. I should be good for at least 400whp yes?

 

Thanks, Matt......Should be back to me soon them we'll hook up for da parts......


Scythenc, 400hp??? I would say that Matt and Ron (RONCFP think thats spelled right) would be the ones to ask they both run high HP Z's with auto trany....

 

The lower you can keep the fluid the longer your clutchpacks will last. Ron just put a cooler in with a elec. fan on it. That's the way to go

 

From what I know of Ron's setup, he didn't have space in front of the radiator for the tranny cooler. So that's why he needed the fan on it.

You should be good to 400 whp with tranny cooler and valve body. That seems to be the consensus anyway. After that you're pushing it though SGP claims their valve body is good into the 500 whp range. A few people over 400 with just valve bodies have had "issues" so that's why I am a bit skeptical about how long the tranny will last without internal upgrades.

My recommendation would be to at least put a filter on in addition to the tranny cooler so that the friction materials that start to break down get filtered out instead of messing up the trans components.

 

dead serious. my manual went out after 25k miles. stock clutch feels crappy, too.. I have jwt and feels smoother.

 

Thanks for the input guys......Just got my car back today and it seems to be back to its peepy self...instant throttle response like before...I'm going to drive the **** out this motha this week and see how it reacts...I already smell the fluid burn off a little....I'll give it this week to see what or how its doin then go from there...

 

The Auto Tranny is a beast. From the couple of shops I've talked to the tranny should be good for FI up to about 400 HP with only a Valve Body Upgrade.

For the amount you'll lose on the trade in for a MT you can get the valve Body and Torque Converter pulled and upgraded to handle 450 HP.