LiquidZee

yea, those 5th Gear 6000rpm dumps are soo fun. Its not ye fault. I'm on my tranny. Apparently the old 300z's had similar syncro problems.


hahah
Shift_GRRIND...haha I like that.

I am on my 3rd tranny and its showing the same problem in 5th gear. I have to match it to prevent the grinding.

tacomaboy

I am so unhappy with this whole thing...

I went to test drive an S2000 but when I rolled up in my loaner Kia, they wouldnt let me test drive.

I did test drive a WRX, and it was ok, but not nearly as fast.... maybe an STI

BriGuyMax

iTrader: (4)

Just to warn you...WRX's have a slew of trans problems too. They don't just grind...they BREAK.

tacomaboy

I have heard that, thanks for the warning...

Pit Bull

Checkout a used NSX

tacomaboy

hehe I actually looked, briefly, it would have to be way used... that would be a fun fun car thouh

Pit Bull

I've hardly ever used 6th gear in 16K miles. I've use it when I was on a long trip on the freeway where you would be cruising for hours. Do you normally shift into 6 th gear?

tacomaboy

Yes, at 60mph+ when I am cruising.

I have a 26 mile commute on a highway so I use it a lot.

pulpz2

NSX had tire feathering problems.

pulpz2

I've noticed this also ( I think we may have made this point a few hundred pages back, lol). What could possibly cause multiple transmission falures in the same car in only a few thousand miles (asside form the driver - which is not likely the problem)?

pulpz2

I'd hit a different dealer. If you are serious about a purchase, they should let you drive it even if you ride the bus.

Oh, and my budy has a 2001 S2000. Honda issued a clutch recall just this last summer.

tacomaboy

My opinion is its a design flaw, and they keep replacing them with the same transmission.

I have a really strong feeling most, if not all Zs suffer from this transmission problem, at least to an insignificant extent.

In other words, you might have the 5th to 6th grind, but its so slight at this point, and you do it so rarely, you dont notice it.

Go shift hard from 5th to 6th stereo down, and see if its smooth or if it makes any noise at all.

I really have noticed by reading lots of these threads as well, that people quite often misshift 2nd or 3rd in this car. And every time they cant explain why, and they say how they have driven a standard for so many years... I think its the tranny design.

Maybe it does this for a reason, maybe its to keep the tranny from exploding, i dont know...

But I can guarantee you its not driver error.

tacomaboy

http://www.recall-warnings.com/auto-...2000.2000.html

Not sure about that one.

BriGuyMax

iTrader: (4)

I used to date a girl who's father was a engineer for Alison transmission. I had my first trans grind while I was dating her and asked him about it. He drove the car and said that it was definitely cheap snychros that are failing prematurely. He said nissan could probably spend a few bucks more per car on better synchros, but they don't because their calculated failure rate per 1000 cars is cheaper to FIX then to just put better synchros in. That's why they are so willing to replace the transmissions when you need one. The trans's are cheap as dirt to them, but the cost of adding better synchros to every trans was more.

I, along with many others have had my most recent trans work perfectly for about 25K miles now. I think what we're seeing is poor quality control by the company that makes the synchros so some of them work great..and some don't. But it's cheaper for nissan, and they are after all in this business to make $$.

I drive my car on the track regularly and drive very agressively on a regular basis on the street. I noticed my first trans start to grind going into third gear during normal driving when I was initiating the shift between 2K and 3K rpms...NOT REDLINE. Redline shifts were still perfect for a good long time.

Snychronizers are the only real wear item inside a manual transmission, obviously some are wearing prematurely, and the smoother the trans shifts...the more it wears the synchros each shift. So that notchiness that you feel isn't necessarily your synchros going bad.

BTW - it's not tranny DESIGN that is the problem. Pretty much all RWD 6-speed transaxles have the same basic design...it's the materials they used.

What I don't understand is why nissan snychro'd reverse in the Z...they could have easily put better synchros on the other gears and eliminated the cost of the better synchros by taking the synchro off reverse.

tacomaboy

I can believe that, but wasnt it Nissans DESIGN to use cheap synchros? And if they continue to do so, which they apparantly are, wont they lose money when people like me refuse to buy another Nissan or Inifniti?

I bought to 30k dollar vehicles from them and I feel incredibly slighted to know that they are doing something like this. My next vehicle could have been a roadster, and I was talking a while ago about getting my wife the upscale Murano after I got my Master's next year.

Of course now, there is no way I will do that. And havent they learned from GM and Ford that putting in cheap parts to save a few bucks on the bottom line is not worth it?

tacomaboy

Also... what happens if the synchros continue to wear? Eventually ALL gears will grind? Will the tranny finally break? I do know that my grind progressivly got worse in both cases.

BriGuyMax

iTrader: (4)

They didn't design the transmission, they just use it..and decide what quality of snychros to use. ALL car companies cut corners To the extent that they do this is their decision. Nissan already got your money and they don't rely on your or I to maintain their business. They sell plenty of the rest of their product to keep people coming back, and appeal well to new customers to replace you. Besides...I am on my third trans..and they got it right this time. It hasn't cost me any $$ so I would definitely buy another nissan. Now my 98 Grand Prix GTP cost me LOTS of $$ OUT of warranty and I will never buy another pontiac. 6 transmissions in 60K miles, 3 alternators, cooling system problems from day one, and numerous sensor and switch failures.

As for the synchros read my other post again, I didn't say that ALL the synchros in every trans were bad. Just some of them. If they haven't worn out prematurely after 20 or 30K miles...then you should be fine. The defective synchros in these transmissions show simptoms VERY quickly (usually under 10K miles). I don't think I've heard of ANYONE who has put over 30K miles on one of these transmissions and just started having problems out of the blue.

My point is...eventually (usually second or third replacement) you'll get a good trans that will last a long time. Sometimes it may take more replacements..who knows.

tacomaboy

I see your point, though I disagree.

Well, I agree that Nissan has already taken my money, and for me to undo that I would have to sue them, and I would rather not, even though if it happens again, I would have pretty good legal standing.

But as far as the transmission goes, its like playing Russian Roulette, you can either risk it, or not. But seeing as in my case the gun has already gone off twice, I dont intend on playing any more. This time it wasnt aimed at my head, but when my warranty is up...

Not to mention, what about when I sell the car, and I am going to now, how should I explain the third transmission? Should I just print up your explanation above, tell them no worries, and still demand full value?

Don't you think Nissan has hurt the resale value of mine and all of the cars on that list? What do you think pops up on carfax?

This is my biggest concern, and why I dont wait until 55k to start selling. That, and I cannot STAND to have a Kia Sedona rental car for a week. Last time it was a Chevy 1500 4 door extended bed. Good grief.

We all are entitled to our opinions, and you clearly are a more patient man than I am, because I would not have made it to 6 transmissions before shooting somone or driving that piece of crap right through my dealerships front window.

At this point, I have zero reason to trust ANY manual 350Z transimssion, except your word, and what good is that to me?

So.. thats where I am coming from. I know why you defend the Z, and I know why you were reluctant to consider selling it after all your problems... but we clearly dont think alike, and I dont have the time or patience to F around getting my tranny replaced over and over and hoping that MAYBE this time it JUST MIGHT work. Ya know?

BriGuyMax

iTrader: (4)

I know what you're saying. I wouldn't worry about selling the car though. I carfax'd my car for fun a couple months ago and NONE of my transmission replacements are listed. In fact the only thing that was listed was the first FREE oil change I got from my nissan dealer 1000 miles after I bought the car.

ssk0771

iTrader: (5)

Went to Performance Nissan today so they can check out my tranny and clutch loosing pressure in the morning.

Jeff was great. He greeted me and Javier got me to an advisor. They are going to check out my tranny for grind and loud rattle after driving.


We'll see what happens.