My replaced transmission is grinding in 6th gear again. What should I do? Get another transmission? Try to get them to go the Lemon warranty? Or what? Thanks for the advice in advance.

 

How many miles on this car now? How many miles when you replaced the first tranny? What were the symptoms? (start happening slightly, then got worse & worse, or all at once, or??). Did you drive it hard (powershifting, speedshifting, drop the clutch in a cloud of smoke launches, etc.).

I've got 3,500 miles on my 6MT - no problems yet, but scary to think the "gremlins" are our there. Keep us posted, please.

Sport Sedan Fan
2004 6MT Sedan/Sport/Navigation/Premium/Aero

 

I've had my 6MT tranny replaced twice now. First it was 5th and then 1st and 2nd. The first time it was at around 10K miles. The second time happened the day I picked it up at the dealer after the replacemnet. Now It is tough to get into 5th. Like the slots aren't lined up for the sift gate. I have spoken to the dealer and they are aware of the problem. If I don't push the tranny into 5th gear it is fine. But if I'm in a hurry to shift that's when it misses. I just push it a little to far to the right. I'm in the right area it is just like there is notch and something isn't lined up. Every time there is a problem the same tech works on my car. I think he is missing something. The tranny works fine it just needs to be adjusted. He told me that they see this alot and they tell everyone "that's just the way the 6MT is on the G35", what a bunch of BS. When the car was new it was just fine. I have looked into the Lemon Law. Make sure you also call Infiniti Consumer affairs. The phone number is in the owners manual packet in the Lemon Law pamphlet. We'll see where this takes us. They want to try and re-work the Tranny one more time. I'm OK with that. The dealer has been pretty good through this whole thing. It has never taken more than 1 day (early in the AM to the PM) to get the tranny changed. So I've never been without my car for more than 1 day. Which is a good thing because all the loaners are Auto G35's. No offense I just prefer the 6MT. I guess I'm paying for that now.

Base 6MT Silver sedan
Stillen Exhaust
Stillen CAI
Eibach Pro Kit
Eibach Sway Bars
Kaaz LSD

 

That's not entirely true.. some of the loaners are Auto I35's, and there's even a couple of Auto FX35's. [img]/w3timages/icons/smile.gif[/img]

It's just nice to be given a decent car to run around in for the day instead of having to be shuttled to work and find a friend to take you back to the dealership. I imagine you'll never find a loaner with a manual tranny.. too many of their customers wouldn't know how not to damage the thing.

 

The first time my transmission was replaced was around 15000 miles, I now have 22000 on it. When my second tranny was put in, I also had problems with 5th gear not wanting to go into place. I took it back and they adjust the plate underneath the shift boot. That fixed that problem, so that is probably all that you need to do. The next problem that I noticed with the second tranny was the second gear from a hard pull in 1st gear to a slam into second the tranny would grind. I figured that I was probably shifting faster than I was able to put the clutch all the way in. No biggie. Then a couple of weeks ago I came to a four way stop and could not get the car into first. I must have pushed in the clutch about 3 times and then I forced the gear into place. This morning all of a sudden I get grinding in my 6th gear. I kinda like to get up to speed with my first few gears and then shift into 6th, sometimes avoiding 4th and 5th gear all together. So when I did that this morning and it happened, I decided to start my testing on how the 6th gear grinds. Rolling at about 50 mph in four gear I push in the clutch and slowly move it over to 6th gear. Guess what? Grinding! Yey! I immediately push the clutch back in (and I leave the clutch pushed in for the following test) and pull it out of 6th gear and put it into 4th (clutch still pushed in). I immediately take it out of 4th and replace it back into 6th gear and I get the grinding sound. I repeat the steps for 5th to 6th gear and the same things happen. I am fed up! If the lemon law does hold up, what do they do? buy the car back? or give me a new one? or what?

Thanks in advance.

 

Re: 6speedG35sedan

You've got a lot of (nice!) mods on your car - is it an '03 or an '04 ? Also, do you drive it hard on the street, on the track (1/4 mile/autocross/road course), etc??

I just turned 3,500 miles and haven't really run mine too hard yet. I've probably run it up through 1st - 4th/5th at redline shifts (actually, 500 R's below redline) maybe 10 times now, and except for my own stupidity in missing 3rd gear twice, I've noticed nothing from the transmission, yet. I also skip gears a lot, 'cuz the VQ is a torque monster and in traffic there's no need for the power, etc. - I often start in 2nd, then go 4th to 6th when cruising suburban streets.

My tranny feels pretty tight still, and the linkage is still kind of "notchy", but no problems and I love it so far. What should I be watching and listening for, especially as I plan to begin some mods soon? Thanks.....

Sport Sedan Fan
2004 6MT Sedan/Sport/Navigation/Premium/Aero

 

Damn. I'm glad I've got AUTO. I manually shifting plus its SOLID.



2004 G35s 5AT
DYNO: 209.2whp@209.4wtq (bone stock)

 

My dealership said that they might not replace my tranny again, just for the simple fact that it could be my driving style. Does starting off in 1st then 2nd then 3rd then 4th then 6th sound unreasonable? Maybe somebody could have that INFINITITECH on this board look at this message and give me some ideas. Thanks.

 

just for the simple fact that it could be my driving style.

jrlesher,

That's is the same storythey tried to give to me when my firdt tranny started grinding in 5th. As a matter of fact the original service receipt said tranny changed as a "Good will jester". I made them take that off my record. They said that I was shifiting from 2nd to 5th and that is what caused the tranny to grind. I said that may have happened like 6 times when I first got the car, but that ws it. I told them that downshifiting from 5th to 3rd or 2nd would do the same thing. Any ways they took the statement off my record. How could a tranny that handles 260HP not be able to handle a shift from 2nd to 5th. None of my other cars (Honda, Acura, Mazda) have ever had this problem. Don't let them not replace the tranny. Call Infinit customer service.Most of the techs and service writers at your local dealer don't have a clue. Good luck!

Base 6MT Silver sedan
Stillen Exhaust
Stillen CAI
Eibach Pro Kit
Eibach Sway Bars
Kaaz LSD

 

You've got a lot of (nice!) mods on your car - is it an '03 or an '04 ? Also, do you drive it hard on the street, on the track (1/4 mile/autocross/road course), etc??

dbarnes,

regarding your comment above. I do AutoX. Just started again this last year. The mods that I have done are all for AutoX.. I truly feel that power is not what the G35 lacks. The G35 just needs to be better connected to the road.

Of all the mods I have now I would say that the Kaaz LSD is by far the best investment. It is a little noisy, but man is the car ever hooked up. I tried a little drifting the other day. Man is it fun. I have the Kaaz unit set at 60%. 100% and I would be a dead man. Very strong. Oh yeah do you ever use your VDC? I have never used it. I always turn it off first thing in the car. With the Kaaz you have to turn it off. So if you use the VDC start to turn it off and get use to the car, that way when you do the LSD change it won't be such a shock.

My sedan is a 2003.5. I would say my driving style is somewhat hard on the street. I don't street race. Only on the track. Well OK ever once in a while, if I have to teach some one a lesson, I may go for about 200 feet or so, just so they know that the sedan can dance with the best of them.

Base 6MT Silver sedan
Stillen Exhaust
Stillen CAI
Eibach Pro Kit
Eibach Sway Bars
Kaaz LSD

 

6speedG35sedan:

Thanks for all the info, and for your original post. I'm just surprised that this tranny seems to have problems, because it was my understanding that this tranny can handle GOBS of power in a modded "Z", but after reading other posts, it seems this transmission has problems. The "Z" Driver website does say that the problem with "slow" (grinding) synchros can be alleviated by using Redline synthetic oil in our trannies, with some having it down to a "science" mixing 2 different grades for maximum effect. I had a problem with a Mazda RX7 once, and Redline MT fluid definitely cleared up my slow synchro problem on that one.

Makes me miss my (Muncie) M-22 "rockcrusher" from my younger Chevrolet SS days though - clutch, no clutch, it didn't matter - just shift and go! 600 horsepower? 800 horsepower? What have you? - No problem!

As far as skipping gears causing a problem - thats just outright bullshit (as I'm sure you know). Thanks again for the info.

Sport Sedan Fan - 2004 6MT Sedan
Sport/Navigation/Premium/Aero
Obsidian Black/Graphite & "Titanium"
SHE'S SILVER & BLACK - GO RAIDERS!

 

They called me today and said that their best tech was on it and it appears that there is an issue. So... they might replace it after all. Not sure. I do have their car though. heheh.