You guys are the best and I know someone will be familiar with this
My (new) 05 G sedan has an odd shift feel when car is cold. When first driving it cold like early morning I feel a little kick or maybe even a misshift (not sure) ibetween 2nd and 3rd gear. After like 2 minutes of driving it's gone. It seems like once the car warms up the shifting smoothes out and it cycles through the gears fine. I haven't tried warming the car up for a few minutes first in the AM but I kinda think it shouldn't need to? It has 70K miles. This is my 3rd 05-06 G. Never felt it in any previous cars.
Any ideas?
Thanx
Mary

 

A firm 2-3 shift is quite common on the g35, especially when using the manumatic mode.

However, it's tough to determine if that's what you are feeling without being in the car and experiencing it yourself.

Is that what it feels like? When it's about to shift from 2nd to 3rd gear it feels like a firm, quick shift than jerks the car a bit?

 

^ WHS.


There was a known issue and resulting TSB for jerky shifting in first gen sedans. Forgot what it was specifically; if I run into it I'll update this post.



Found it -





^ Not saying that this is what's wrong with your sedan specifically, but it could be. My sedan was always doing this and it drove me nuts; luckily I had a few months left of warranty and my local Infiniti dealer fixed this under the referenced TSB. I attached the TSB just in case you want to print out and show your mechanic.


Your third 05/06 sedan huh? That's pretty admirable. I still love mine to pieces.

 

It feels like it slams into gear a bit. You feel a rough shift instead of smooth. Once the car is warmed up which takes about three minutes, the issue smooths itself out. I called Infiniti Norwood (MA) and the service manager recommended flushing the transmission because he said the fact that it smooths out after a few minutes when the car is warmed up sounds like dirty transmission fluid. He also said that the new transmission fluid has to be Infiniti transmission fluid. I don't know if there is a difference between standard quality transmission fluid and "Infiniti" tranny fluid but the Chevy dealer who I bought the car from is going to pick the car up and do the transmission flush themselves. They don't want Infiniti doing it for $250. Keep in mind I have only owned this car since last Wednesday. It was an "as is" sale so I am nervous. I have owned 3 first-generation G35X's now and have never felt this kind of "slam" shifting before. I think it also does it shifting 1st to 2nd. It varies but is always in those lower gears only, not once it is up to 55 mph. Worried.

 

S - Mine is a 2005 and it does not shudder at all it just has a hard shift between two and three and sometimes between one and two.

 

* Ah, well shuddering/rough shifting/what have you is just semantics to me. My sedan was doing what you described as happening to your 05. I'm guessing that the TSB says 06/07 Infinitis because of the 06/07 coupes; IIRC 05/06 sedans are virtually identical and share issues.


It's just an idea; your issue could just well be what your mechanic has diagnosed already. But if the problem still persists, I think it'd be worth it to check out if the original transmission valve body needs replacement. Let us know what happens.

 

Thx. Is the valve body an expensive job? At this juncture if the transmission fluid change does not solve this I am ready to tell the dealer to take the car back because I am not about to start having all of these expensive repairs out of the gate. I love these cars but I do not want to start dealing with big transmission costs.

 

^ Ah, I didn't read the bolded the first time around. What I was describing happened in low speeds anywhere and especially when going up a hill while going through the gears. And it didn't smooth itself out after being warmed up.




I looked up the prices and the valve body is pretty pricey (~$1380ish with core change though just for the part) so I'm hoping for you it could be just the transmission fluid needing a flush. If your Chevy dealer is doing the flush & not an Infiniti/Nissan dealership, I'd insist on (and probably try to force) the Chevy guys using the Infiniti tranny fluid.




2005 G35 Sedan AWD ATM 31705AC81B VALVE ASSY - CONTROL

 

Yes. I have asked them to use ainfiniti Nissan fluid. I put a reminder on the note to the Chevy service tech

 

Definitely use the Nissan Matic-S fluid. A nissan dealer can do this service for you as well if that's an option. You can alsl buy the fluid from nissan, but I use a lot of infiniti parts wholesalers on Ebay whos prices plus shipping are usually cheaper than dealewr prices.

A drain/fill takes 4-5 qts. No idea how much a full flush uses.

Like i said before, a firm 2-3 shift is pretty common. The issue is even more pronouced when using manual mode. If you put it in manumatic and accelerate to, say, 60MPH shifting from 1-3, you might find when you do the 2-3 shift under acceleration, that the shift is firm, or even harsh. This is pretty common.

My car has done this since new. I have 153K miles on it now. Never got worse really and i've done 5-6 drain/fills on the trans without any change in how it shifted.

What infiniti dealer are you using? Boston or Middleton?

 

Thanks Mustang. Does your hard shift feel almost like a misshift and does it smooth out once car is warmed up? Trying to see if we are talking about the same symptoms.

 

Well not sure what you mean by "misshift". Usually misshift is a term used on manual transmissions when you miss a gear during fast shifting.

Mine shifts from 2 to 3 fine, it just does it firm. I do not notice is in Drive, only when using the manual mode. ANd it does it hot and cold.

 

It happens on cold morning only or all the time?
On cold morning my car will do it until it warms up. It's doing it because the high rpm Infiniti using until the car gets to certain temperature.

 

On cold mornings, then fine when car warms up. Not a mis-shift. Like a clunk. It's an automatic, not a manual and I don't use anything but the regular "drive" mode. I don't use the optional manushift mode or whatever you call it. I have never felt this in the 2 other first generation G's before.

 

Than mine does not do what you describe. in Normal Drive, my shifts are smooth.

I'd definitely start with a transmission fluid service. You can pull the dipstick and check the fluid to see if the level is correct, or if it's dark or smells burnt