# Car Jerking from P to D



## LONDONDERRY (May 19, 2004)

2003 Nissan Altima, 4 cyl. auto tran, 160,000 miles

Recently, esp. during cold weather and the car has been sitting for more than 1 hour the car will jerk occasionally, when its shifted from P to D or R. In addition I noticed that with highway drive 60 mph, if I let off the gas and it coasts and then accelerate the car will jerk slightly, not sure if this is normal or not. However the jerking from P to D sometimes is so noticeable it broke the weld seam on the exhaust manifold that was replaced in October of 2013, but not sure if that is the root cause. So my questions are does this sound like a CV joint issue or a Transmission issue?
I'm guessing the CV joint, I replaced the passenger's side 2 years ago but the driver's is original. What are the expert's thoughts on this?

I brought the car into a Nissan dealer and then don't see any tranny issues.

Regards
Frank


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## cj1 (Oct 21, 2014)

My first thought is transmission/engine mounts.


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## LONDONDERRY (May 19, 2004)

Me too, but they check out ok. Maybe the VSS is going bad?


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## cj1 (Oct 21, 2014)

Don't know if VSS would cause the problem. My guess is it may be normal wear for year/mileage of your Altima and thus no issue found by Nissan dealer. 

If your doing the maintenance/repair yourself you could do some things but if relying on the dealer i would keep driving the vehicle until they can pinpoint the problem.


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## Shut-Trip (Oct 18, 2012)

Dont exclude the possiblity of the transm's seals being cold, and not working properly. 

You stated that the issue occured : " cold weather and the car has been sitting for more than 1 hour the car will jerk occasionally,"

you may want to check similar post andsee if this theory matches what your car is doing.


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## rich_benson (Apr 6, 2015)

*Tranny?*

After the car has been driving 15 minutes, and you check the CVT fluid, is it level?

Sounds like possibly you are low on fluid.


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## rich_benson (Apr 6, 2015)

*Motor mounts*

Check the motor mount bushing (under the hood), and the one that connects to the transmission (underneath the car), as this can certainly cause strange shaking, and an easy fix to replace.


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