89 Maxima auto transmission just slipped into neutral while driving (park works), but no Drive or Reverse?

Question

My friend was driving home yesterday and her transmission just went from first into neutral while accelerating from a light a block or so away from her house. She can put it into park and it is in park, but all of the rest is just a neutral gear. It's a 1989 Nissan Maxima with about 120K miles (it ran extremely well up until this point) with an automatic transmission.

Any ideas before we tow it off to the repair shop?

She just wants to make sure that the shop is being honest with her.

Answer 1

Check transmission dipstick for color of fluid. Original factory-fill fluid is dyed red. Unless the fluid has been changed, the color should assist in pinpointing the leak. Leakage due to road draft should be eliminated before checking the transmission for fluid leaks.

These are your main issues with no forward in drive and no reverse:

1. Improper fluid level.
2. Improper band/clutch application pressure.
3. Filter damaged or plugged.
4. Main control assembly gaskets damaged or bolt out of torque.
5. Main control separator plate damaged.
6. Main control solenoid stuck or damaged.
7. Pump assembly bolts out of specification.
8. Pump gears damaged or cracked.
9. Overdrive one-way clutch damaged.

So about all you can do is to check the fluids and maybe replace the transmission filter and fluid. Anything more and you'll probably end up doing more harm then good.

Also, for a good repair shop in your area check out Car Talk's website to find a mechanic in your area that you can trust:

http://www.cartalk.com/content/mechx/find.html

Answer 2

If it is the original transmission it's 17 years old and it's probably let go in a fairly major way, to be honest.

Park is normally a mechanical lockout feature that doesn't rely on the trans hydraulics (so that it works even with the engine off, you see).

There is also a slim chance that it was a differential failure, which is another thing that can make a car suddenly lose drive to the wheels. In that case you'll normally hear at least a sudden and rather loud 'clunk' anyway. If your friend heard such a 'clunk' I'd suspect the diff.

But from what you say it's most likely the transmission is shot. With one that age it may be cheaper to get a change-over that's all reconditioned and fully covered by warranty, rather than have mechanics in a workshop spend all that labor time rebuilding the one from her car. It also means that you can use a good, local garage with mechanics who don't have to be all-out transmision experts but are still very good at general servicing and replacing them. They can have the new trans brought in from an auto trans specialist. Saves a lot of time and money that way.

There is a slim chance that it's a hydraulics or converter problem only, which could be cheaper to fix, but sadly she'll have to prepare herself for the worst. And check around with a few places for the cost of doing an R&R (remove and refit) of the transmission, because there's quite a bit of labor time involved.

If the trans needs replacing, it would be worth getting the cv joints done at the same time if they're also original or maybe several years old. It'll save her another load of labor costs in the not-too-distant future. You know the story: You bring one major part back to original spec, and others down the line whch are a bit tired and worn can't handle the better power and give up the ghost...

"New wine in old bottles", if you know the parable...

Worth thinking about...

Answer 3

I have a 1992 Honda Accord that would stop running after driving it a mile or 2. I pulled down the bottom of the transmission, cleaned the dirt that build up on the bottom and put new transmission fluid. This seemed to fix my problem so far.

Answer 4

i own a repair shop and it sounds like the transmission gave out on it,this is what they do when they go out usually, id see what the repair shop,says about it,but id say there going to have to rebuild it ,and that's going to be pretty expensive to do,id wait till they got done checking it out before i made any decisions on it,it may a minor problem,but it usually isn't on the Nissan's good luck i hope this help,s.

Answer 5

That happen to me and I had to push my car across the red light and I am a woman. I had an oldsmobile cutlass supreme and I had to replace the transmission.