# 2001 Altima GXE Stalls in Gear Occasionally



## dwkirch (Mar 23, 2016)

Hello all,

I have an issue I cannot find a good answer on anywhere. Here is the deal:

I have a 2001 GXE Altima with about 125,000 miles. It was well taken care of and I bought it from my Dad who was a mechanic. There were two codes when I got it (P1441 and P0325). I replaced the knock sensor and harness and that code has gone away but I will still get the P1441 (vacuum cut bypass valve) after a while. 

I have an issue with the car stalling when put into gear (reverse or drive). It gets really rough for a few seconds, sometimes it will stay running but very rough, but if i give it gas and let off it dies. The problem seems to occur after I drive a long distance (1.5+ hours of highway driving) and then let the car sit and cool off. It has only happened a handful of times in the past few months and it seems to get into gear fine after it warms up for about 5min or so. I noticed the other day I didn't let it warm up for very long after it sat after a 3 hour drive and it seemed like it was stuck in lock up in 3rd or 4th gear. I pushed the pedal to the floor and it was accelerating at a snails pace (took about 10 seconds to get up to 20mph) but once i got going about 25-30 it seemed to unlock and start shifting fine again. I'm not sure if this is transmission related or if it has something to do with the coolant temperature, MAF, IACV, TPS, or vacuum leak. Didn't know if anyone had any ideas. It always idles perfectly when not in gear, and this only happens after it has cooled off (coolant temp gauge is back to blue).

I appreciate any help!

Thanks.


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## dwkirch (Mar 23, 2016)

Just an update. Haven't had an issue since the last trip I have taken (put about 1,000 miles of daily driving to work on it since). I found a video of a guy with a ford truck that seemed to have a similar issue, he replaced the lockup control solenoid and "said" it fixed the problem. When shift into reverse after it is cold from a long drive it will die pretty quickly (not instantly like electrical issue), but if i shift into "D" it will surge for a few seconds (i didn't check to see how long it would surge just in case it was going to cause damage). But If i would give it a bit of gas and let off it would die just like in reverse. Hoping this is an easy fix since it seems to go away once the car is warmed up it is fine. My parents said it would surge a lot (especially at stops) and act like it was going to die on cold mornings until it warmed up, but i don't recall them ever saying it would actually die.

I took a look at the transmission fluid color (looks tannish? not dark brown like its burnt though), looks like it wouldn't hurt draining and filling the pan and replacing the filter?


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## RestoRider/AltimaGXE (Apr 14, 2017)

Transmission fluid should be somewhat pinkish. Sounds like you need to have the transmission serviced.
Could be too late even though it's still running it's possible the problem stems from lack of maint. 

Most Automatic's require service somewhere around 30K mileage intervals. Even if just straining the fluid, not a full fluid change
can help. But Tannish colored fluid sounds to me like some over heating of the transmission has maybe happened in the past. 

This can also be related to the cooling system parts in the car and or the radiator. (which cools the transmission fluid.)

I know this post is old but I thought I would respond for those who may have similar issues.


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