# transmission jerks in summer



## Electric Geek (Jun 23, 2004)

hey everybody,

i got my transmission fluid flushed by AAMCO in october about 9000 miles ago. 

the car is at 129k mark. and transmission has started jerking again.. and its even worse than ever now that the weather is hot.. it was pretty good during the winter time but now it jerks from idle- 1-2 gears. 

even rarely do i feel the gears grind. 

the oil smells of burned and it is not red.

is it time for another flush or should i do this myself. i do my own oil changes so i think i can handle this too. anyone got pictures/diagrams on how to change your own tranny fluid on 98 sentra.

thank you


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## Petrovich (May 13, 2005)

Manual or A/T?...


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## Electric Geek (Jun 23, 2004)

*AT*

A/T thank you much


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## tg900 (Jun 29, 2005)

I did this once with my brother, on both my parents' cars. (99 and 96 :loser: ) On a 98, there should be a plug around the transmission pan, which is on the drivers side of the car. On some older models, there isnt a plug, so you would have to take off the whole pan. Have you changed or had your transmission filter changed? Also, make sure you have the right amount of fluid in the tranny, take a look at the dipstick and see what level its at. Just dont overfill it, if you overfill it, you can have a risk of breaking some seals and having some plates and whatnot slipping too much internally. Also, make sure you are using the right kind of fluid, it should say all the types and capacities in your owners manual. Try to check how much came out of there initially, so you have some sort of idea of how much to put back in. To fill it up, you have to have a funnel fit in the area the transmission dipstick usually goes in.


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## Bror Jace (Apr 26, 2003)

Yes, in addition to the right level, other obe-size-fits-all or "universal" AT fluids can cause some trannies (especially imports) to misbehave.

I'd check the level and assuming it's fine, I'd drain as much of the current fluid out and replace it with something your tranny calls for (check the manual).


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## B14_Stealth (Aug 14, 2003)

ive had a similar problems with my tranny. It started happening about 3 years ago (the jerking), unfortunetly the tranny died on me about 2 weeks ago. It had about 210,000.  Now with a new (used) tranny witha bout 50k ..i dont feel that jerking anymore


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## Electric Geek (Jun 23, 2004)

*hey*

so what steps did u take to take care of the jerking


also my question was more in line with.. i just got the oil flushed 9000 miles ago.. is this normal to have it bad so soon.

should i get it flushed again or repaired from a tranny expert

again it jerks all gears upto 40mph
idle to 1 to 2 to 3 when in traffic.. or crawling in traffic.. normal accel seems fine


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## B14_Stealth (Aug 14, 2003)

Electric Geek said:


> so what steps did u take to take care of the jerking
> 
> 
> also my question was more in line with.. i just got the oil flushed 9000 miles ago.. is this normal to have it bad so soon.
> ...


when i started experiencing these problems i had the fluid flushed and next time i did it ....it was bad. From what somebody on this forum told me is that ..the older the tranny (more mileage) then there is wear and tare which causes some metal scrapings to be floating around in the fluid. SUpposidly that actually helps, and the kid told me that it is better not to flush the fluid if your tranny has high mileage. When i took my car to the mechanic to get the tranny checked he said there was a lot of metal shavings on the bottom of the pan so i guess he was right


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## togenji (Oct 10, 2002)

Does a manual transmission need to be flushed? I always see and hear about automatics and transmission flushes but what about stick shift?


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## surferboi_hco (Oct 29, 2005)

Manual Transmission cars have a closed circut transmission fluid system in general speaking it basically cannot be checked/ changed unless you drop the whole transmission from the car, flush it, and put new fluid into it but i dont know how to do it ive just heard how you would go about doing it but basically manual trannys have no dipstick b/c its a closed circut system, 

i just had my tranny fluid replaced last time my car was at the shop because they had to drop the tranny orignally for a blown clutch but im not to sure if there is a tranny drain plug or a tranny pan on the bottom but your welcome to find out :fluffy: :thumbup: :fluffy:


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## Char (Jun 16, 2005)

surferboi_hco said:


> Manual Transmission cars have a closed circut transmission fluid system in general speaking it basically cannot be checked/ changed unless you drop the whole transmission from the car, flush it, and put new fluid into it but i dont know how to do it ive just heard how you would go about doing it but basically manual trannys have no dipstick b/c its a closed circut system,
> 
> i just had my tranny fluid replaced last time my car was at the shop because they had to drop the tranny orignally for a blown clutch but im not to sure if there is a tranny drain plug or a tranny pan on the bottom but your welcome to find out :fluffy: :thumbup: :fluffy:


 I own the SR20 tranny, it has a drain plug, know exactly where it is because I changed the fluids when I got the car. Im not 100% positive about the GA16 tranny but its most likely the same, you shouldnt have to do anything but unscrew the plug and let it drain.


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## GA16DE200sx (Sep 7, 2005)

If the oil is burnt and the fluid is not red then its too late to fix it. Something is slipping and more than likely burnt a drum or some clutches. It needs to be rebuilt or replaced.


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## landlord (Jun 11, 2002)

you do not have to drop a m/t to change the fluid. there is a drain plug that you put a socket wrench (1/2 inch i think) into to take it out. also you check the manual transmission fluid (or gear oil as i like to call it) by removing the speedometer pinon gear and measuring the depth of the fluid. refill the grear oil to the specified depth and your good to go. inho manual transmission fluid should be changed about every 60,000 miles. nissan says that it should be checked about every 12,000 miles and may never need replaced.

edit btw almost all manual transmissions work this way. my old subaru had two plugs to remove, on to drain and one to fill. when fluid started gushing out of the fill hole you where good to go.


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## surferboi_hco (Oct 29, 2005)

landlord said:


> you do not have to drop a m/t to change the fluid. there is a drain plug that you put a socket wrench (1/2 inch i think) into to take it out. also you check the manual transmission fluid (or gear oil as i like to call it) by removing the speedometer pinon gear and measuring the depth of the fluid. refill the grear oil to the specified depth and your good to go. inho manual transmission fluid should be changed about every 60,000 miles. nissan says that it should be checked about every 12,000 miles and may never need replaced.
> 
> edit btw almost all manual transmissions work this way. my old subaru had two plugs to remove, on to drain and one to fill. when fluid started gushing out of the fill hole you where good to go.


i didnt say that u had to drop the whole trans to get the tranny fluid out i just pointed out that i was replacing a blown clutch and filled it when i did that


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## landlord (Jun 11, 2002)

surferboi_hco said:


> Manual Transmission cars have a closed circut transmission fluid system in general speaking it basically cannot be checked/ changed unless you drop the whole transmission


i must have read wrong / misunderstood. oh the joys of communicacting over the internet using text.

anyway i just thought since we where on the subject i'd share the proper way to change / check gearoil.


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## surferboi_hco (Oct 29, 2005)

landlord said:


> i must have read wrong / misunderstood. oh the joys of communicacting over the internet using text.
> 
> anyway i just thought since we where on the subject i'd share the proper way to change / check gearoil.



cool its ok its hard to understand when ur reading fast


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## nova73guy (Mar 30, 2004)

GA16DE200sx said:


> If the oil is burnt and the fluid is not red then its too late to fix it. Something is slipping and more than likely burnt a drum or some clutches. It needs to be rebuilt or replaced.


I partially disagree with that. Although something may be slipping, new tranny fluid will have a burnt smell to it because of all the additives they use. Dexron is the worst about smelling burnt, and it's barely red if at all. I imagine that's what they pumped into your car. You may wanna check and make sure whatever they put in was compatible with Nissans. Oh, and just a side note:

*NEVER* go to AAMCO. They absolutely suck! It may be a national chain, but it doesn't take much to work there. (And they screwed me on a tranny rebuild, so it's personal.) And they don't like to stand behind their own warranties. I just try to warn everyone off of them.


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## surferboi_hco (Oct 29, 2005)

nova73guy said:


> I partially disagree with that. Although something may be slipping, new tranny fluid will have a burnt smell to it because of all the additives they use. Dexron is the worst about smelling burnt, and it's barely red if at all. I imagine that's what they pumped into your car. You may wanna check and make sure whatever they put in was compatible with Nissans. Oh, and just a side note:
> 
> *NEVER* go to AAMCO. They absolutely suck! It may be a national chain, but it doesn't take much to work there. (And they screwed me on a tranny rebuild, so it's personal.) And they don't like to stand behind their own warranties. I just try to warn everyone off of them.


thats y i work at jiffylube and get every service free est. $300-500


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## GA16DE200sx (Sep 7, 2005)

> Dexron is the worst about smelling burnt, and it's barely red if at all.


Well, lets clarify some things. What color is the fluid? Is it black? And I have to disagree about the color of Dexron III/ Mercon fluid. It is definitley red. Also if you aren't talking about DexronIII/Mercon or DexronV/Mercon fluid then anything else but that has no reason to be in a modern automatic transmission.


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