# 06 SE-R Transmission Slipping / Failure.



## revel68 (Jun 7, 2014)

I had been taking care of the car and getting it regularly serviced. Around 100k miles the transmission started to slip and slam and I have to drive it carefully to keep the RPMS from kicking in when it shifts. It is also now shifting hard when slowing down.

I took it to the Nissan dealership out here and they said the car needs a new transmission, which is really rough, at only 100k miles!

My question is. The car has about 104k miles on it now. How long until this thing fails on me? How long can I drive this car until I have to get a new one. The car has cost me money and regardless of professional hand-wash and wax treatment I gave it in the 5 years I had it and on and off garage storage the paint job still failed terribly (it is black) so I just can't see puting more money into the car.

Apparently this ~04-06 Nissan Automatic Transmission failure is quite common so i'm wondering if somebody might know how long it usually takes before things get really bad.

Thanks


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## smj999smj (Jan 1, 2006)

It's really an impossible question to answer. It could go 5 years or 5 minutes. It's just like an engine having a bearing knock... When it "goes," it "goes!" And often they "go" at the worse possible time, unfortunately...


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## revel68 (Jun 7, 2014)

Thought I would come back here for an update.

The final killer would be the government. I am having trouble passing inspection to register the damn car. The engine light is on and they want to flush the transmission (120 bucks may be?). Not worth it, the car is toast. And they can't tell me what comes down the line after that code is gone. It could be more stuff and I still couldn't register. Honestly don't want to get into the finer details of registration. Those that know know. you have to drive x miles blah blah blah and then the light might come back on. I didn't want to take the chance of getting 500 bucks in and may be they tell me I need to replace the transmission. This I already know.

So. No registration. Plus I probably would only have the car for 1-4 more months (depending). Also the last few times I drove it it was really bad and even went into Limp Mode! Snow was coming as well. So I think it was time to get a new vehicle and I did. Not a Nissan this time. I got burned on this SE-R. Clear Coat failure and Trans failure with cracked windshield and dead A/C (plus a few other things) its not worth it. I own a Toyota now.

The Transmission started to have issues may be late summer of 2014. Slight stuff. I even took it on a road trip in October 2014. It was good for it but the slip/slam would happen now and then. 
By early 2015 it was far worse but drivable. The car slowly and steadily got worse (and boy did it get worse) and I just drove accordingly. I had no problem but then again only I drive the thing. Also I never took it on a long trip. It seemed to be better for the first 10-20 minutes of a drive. After 20-15 minutes it seems to get worse and annoying. 

Final Mileage : ~114k miles. As you can read above it had 104 when I posted which is may be 6 months after the first signs? Not sure really. Basically 14k miles on the car from beginning to end, I would say. During this time I didn't put money into the car and just drove the thing. Engine is strong. Interior is still quite nice. Paint job is horrible despite professional wash and wax and some garaging while having it. 

Not sure what to do with the car. Salvage yard I suppose. Donate to a cause may be.


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## quadraria10 (Jul 6, 2010)

Did you ever change the transmission fluid? Sounds like it was neglected and you just let it get worse. Did you ever bother getting an opinion from an independent transmission shop or mechanic? If you neglect a Honda or a Toyota the same way they too will have issues at 9 years of age. With any brand, lots of car washes can be rough on the paint and clearcoat, and the climate where you live has something to do with it. Any windshield can crack following a stone chip. Having it repaired immediately, you can usually avoid replacing the steeper cost of replacing the windshield. If the engine, the interior and most of the accessories are good, sell it cheap to someone who will give it some love and fix it. 
Anyway I have been in your shoes and killed a Honda CRV way before its time should have been up. Problem wasn't Honda, it was me who didn't believe in maintenance at the time, and who believed that willfully ignoring problems was the way to go. An expensive lesson learned...


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## revel68 (Jun 7, 2014)

Ofcourse I did. Read the very first line of the first post! I took care of the car really well with proper servicing. It was the Nissan Dealership that broke me the bad news. There was a group of them. The lady is really nice and agreed it probably wasn't worth fixing with the bad paintjob and all. 

If you read what I was saying you'll realize things are in chronological order.

- I took care of the car fully up until the point the transmission got bad. 
- I stopped putting money (i.e. the windshield) into the car after the transmission was toast. This is a while after my original post even.
- I STILL did the normal service (engine / trans) along the way even after it was toast. This would be Engine/Trans. I probably should have mentioned this in my previous post. The transmission did not get better with servicing. So these were just oil jobs. But it doesn't matter. The transmission was obviously bad by this point. But just letting you know even then I did the basic servicing. Other people would have gotten rid of the car well before this! The only reason I could do what I did is because only I drive the car and I just drove to and from work mostly and by myself. 

Also I'm 36. I have owned other vehicles and they have lasted me much longer. 8-9 years on a 1994 Isuzu Rodeo I got rid of in 2010. I do agree though and I am not the best driver by far but neglect is a nasty word. Like 180k miles on a 1989 Ford Escort. That car hardly gave me issues. Just the clutch.


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## quadraria10 (Jul 6, 2010)

Sorry Bud, no insult intended. I really only read your previous post in the thread. Was not aware that that particular sports car version of the Altima had transmission problems, but given the power being put down and the size of the wheels I guess its not that surprising. Still its not the cvt, and I would have thought the transmission could have been fixed.
My take on the dealer is that they want to charge you as much as possible for the car and for servicing it, and then want to give you the least for it as a trade in.
And often, stuff like transmission fluid changes are optional and never actually performed. What is Eng/ trans normal service? Oil changes? What was done on the transmission? Hopefully it wasn't power flushed. 
That version Altima was a fairly expensive car, and probably worth something north of 6K today. I would have thought you could get the transmission fixed for under 2k, a windshield for about 250 + whatever else mechanical that needs fixing, but who knows unless you were to take it to an independent shop that can actually repair something rather having to replace it. 
Not sure why but black always seems to be a problematic paint colour. Guess it absorbs more heat than it reflects. 
Anyway sorry for your loss. Hopefully the Toyota will be less troublesome.


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