Royjr

Since the cold weather, I have been experiencing a problem with my auto transmission. When I go to pull out of my driveway in the morning, sometimes the car will just rev up and not go forward (yes, the car is in gear, no the traction control light is not flashing). I have to completely let off the gas, and it will take off the senond push. The same thing will happen at the 1st stop sign, and sometimes at the second (all while still in town). However, sometimes I will actually feel the transmission slipping during these starts and stops. These are just normal take offs, and this problem only occurs when the car is cold, and goes away after it is warmed up. I have a 03 with 54K miles, light bolt on mods. Transmission fluid was just replaced 2K miles ago by Nissan, while the car was in for warranty work. Any one have any similar experience/problem? Possible it is as simple as a bad sensor, or a sign my transmission is going bad? Thanks.

My only concern with taking it to the dealer is it will be hard to reproduce the problem, as it only happens when the car is cold.

Ztalker

just drop the car off overnight and have a nissan tech drive it first thing in the morning. Warranty should take care of it.

Ilov350ZEE

iTrader: (11)

wheres the tranny sensor located?

Sean

too little fluid when they serviced it?

thermal expansion makes it perform better, hence the "warm up" making it better

DanielW

iTrader: (27)

03 should be way out of warranty

jgregory124

iTrader: (13)

+1 to thermal expansion

dave3529

nissan might have put the wrong fluild in and it destoryed the clutch bands, two different nissan dealers both almost put the nissan d matic fluild in my car, one dealer (napoli nissan) aruged with me about it so i told them to forget it, the other (george hart nissan) just said oh yeah ur right opps... our cars take nissan j matic, and nissan d matic fluild will destroy the transmisson, it says so in the service manual. check your reciept and see what fluilds on there. if not good luck though, keep us informed.

- bigc -

iTrader: (18)

bump - i experienced the same problem as the OP tonight and it freaked me out

i've been driving in grandma mode the past few weeks while waiting to get a checkup from my tuner (thought my reflash tune was off after a battery disconnect). everything checked out fine so i took the car out tonight to get on it.

the car pulled great in all situations except for when flooring it from a dead stop. on two occasion, i floored it, heard the engine revup, but the car didn't move. it took off fine immediately afterward when i gave it slightly less throttle. this has NEVER happened before. as was the case with the OP, it was cold tonight and my AT fluid was around 150F per my gauge.

the first thing that popped in my head was maybe this was a dormant issue waiting to pop up after i recently went into safe mode due to elevated temps in a traffic jam (first time this ever happened). strangely, though, the car was shut down almost immediately, the AT fluid was changed by Infiniti the next day (fluid currently has about 1k on it), and the car has shifted great since then. also, i floored the car from a dead stop several times earlier in the day while data logging with my tuner and no problems came up (ambient and AT fluid temps were warmer then).

I'm going to check my ATF level in the morning - who knows, perhaps the Infiniti tech didn't refill it with enough. Do you guys have any other ideas? Worn clutch packs? Bad torque converter? Admittedly, I don't know enough about transmissions so all i can do is guess

Thanks for your help!

relevant info
car: 5AT 2005 g35
mods: vortech supercharger with transgo shift kit
power: 375whp now, but was +400 for about 5 months (switched pulleys)
usage: daily driven with about two dozen 1/4 mile passes
fluid: oem nissan fluid drained & refilled a month ago

- bigc -

iTrader: (18)

i checked the fluid level this morning and it was a little below the COLD range when warmed up per the FSM (86F-122F). i poured in some more AT fluid and drove the car to warm it up so I could check the level in the HOT range (149F). i couldn't get an accurate reading when hot since the fluid i had just poured down the charge tube kept smearing on the dipstick. i'll check COLD and HOT levels again later tonight.

fwiw, when i checked the fluid on the dipstick, it was the same color and smelled the same as new fluid. ugh!

rcdash

iTrader: (18)

It sounds like it wasn't in first gear. I know sometimes rolling to a stop, the auto downshift to 1st will just start and take a second to complete just as I'm pushing on the gas through a brief rolling stop. If the car is in the middle of that downshift when you push the gas, the engine will free rev. The car should complete the shift and clunk into 1st though at that point.

- bigc -

iTrader: (18)

hmm, i will keep an eye out for that shift. admittedly, both times i tried it were after abbreviated stops.

dirtbikr

You must have a transgo too... I never experienced this before I did the VB upgrade, but it does exactly the same thing you described. Come to a stop but don't wait there, give it some gas, revs go up, then the tranny drops into first and is back in second in no time. Pretty violent sometimes too lol.

11DJ11

I'm having issues with my 350z..Automatic Transmission. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. Seems like it's slipping. I put it on drive and step on the pedal it only goes like 2 mph.. I switch it to reverse and I could feel the gears changing but it wouldn't move much.. Pls help