My auto has started to act up over the last few weeks, not engaging overdrive until about 20 mins into a journey and sometimes it would pop back out when cruising, slow gear changes and so increased fuel consumption. Oh dear I thought - time to get the wallet out......
So I thought I'd do a little bit of maintenance on it first, so I drained out all the old fluid using a hand pump from Demon Tweeks - that got the pan dry as a bone so when i dropped the pan I didnt get covered in oil. I cleaned out some residue from the bottom of the pan and left it to dry, then I got out the strainer expecting to see if blocked up, but lo and behold, the last set of cowboys to touch the transmission (6 years ago) had just hack sawed and ripped the gauze out of the strainer......yeah, great isnt it, I'd name names but I cant remember who it was......
Anyway, got a new strainer from Nissan £35 so not bad really. Fitted everything back up and filled back with fluid. Then remembered I wanted to adjust the throttle cable, so out come the spanners and a few minutes later the slack is gone.
Drove the car to work today and its as good as new - so far!
The moral? If I'd taken it to a specialist they would have charged me an arm and a leg for what cost me £45 with the extra fluid I needed.....And they would have said the transmission was worn out and I'd have been none the wiser. So before condemning the transmission just a few simple checks may at least mean you've done as much as you can before you take it somewhere.
Adjusting the cable write up is on TT.net and the auto oil change is on Zhome.com
I was amazed at the difference of the shifting and I'd lay 80% of that at the door of the cable slack.
OK - lets begin.
My auto has started to act up over the last few weeks, not engaging overdrive until about 20 mins into a journey and sometimes it would pop back out when cruising, slow gear changes and so increased fuel consumption. Oh dear I thought - time to get the wallet out......
So I thought I'd do a little bit of maintenance on it first, so I drained out all the old fluid using a hand pump from Demon Tweeks - that got the pan dry as a bone so when i dropped the pan I didnt get covered in oil. I cleaned out some residue from the bottom of the pan and left it to dry, then I got out the strainer expecting to see if blocked up, but lo and behold, the last set of cowboys to touch the transmission (6 years ago) had just hack sawed and ripped the gauze out of the strainer......yeah, great isnt it, I'd name names but I cant remember who it was......
Anyway, got a new strainer from Nissan £35 so not bad really. Fitted everything back up and filled back with fluid. Then remembered I wanted to adjust the throttle cable, so out come the spanners and a few minutes later the slack is gone.
Drove the car to work today and its as good as new - so far!
The moral? If I'd taken it to a specialist they would have charged me an arm and a leg for what cost me £45 with the extra fluid I needed.....And they would have said the transmission was worn out and I'd have been none the wiser. So before condemning the transmission just a few simple checks may at least mean you've done as much as you can before you take it somewhere.
Adjusting the cable write up is on TT.net and the auto oil change is on Zhome.com
I was amazed at the difference of the shifting and I'd lay 80% of that at the door of the cable slack.