So just recently started getting this problem. when the transmission and engine are both cold and i shift into reverse (about 30 seconds after startup) its a very rough transition from park to reverse, and its almost jerks the car backwards. when i do this when the car is warmed up however its fine. any ideas what it could be? 07 with 70k on the clock. last drain and fill was at 45k, so im not due for another 5k or so.

 

I have the same exactly year and mileage and have the same thing happen except when I put it in drive... I personally from the beginning complained about the transmission to infiniti a few times. The cold start will always do that so everyday two minutes before I step out of the house I leave the car on to warm up so I don't notice that issue again lol.... The other problem that I had was when shifting in manual mode from 2nd to 3rd the car just bumps really hard obviously when driving aggressively. They claim its normal but when I drove a g37 loaner there were no signs of the shifting problem. I personally think that infiniti was aware of this and due to hearing about these reasons they went ahead and updated the g37 pretty significantly.
Other then that the car shifts very smoothly.

 

I hav the same issues and only have about 34k on the clock. I was actually going to create this post today lol.

 

I dont have a 5AT, however I've had these sorts of rough gear changes with every automatic i have owned in the past, especially in colder temps. I never felt like it was something wrong, just the way it is.

When parking, try applying the parking brake before you let go of the regular brakes so the car is resting on the parking brake instead of the transmission. Then in the morning release the parking brake after applying the foot brake, then when you shift it shouldnt have that internal tension on the transmission.

 

For those who are experiencing a jolt when cold and shifting out of park, is your motor still idling high during its warmup? G's normally rev fairly high for a while until settling down to normal. Perhaps some of you are just shifting into gear with the engine revved up.

 

A cold motor revs up to about 2k rpms at the initial start up and hovers around 1500. When you put it into reverse, it's like dropping a clutch in a manual with the rpms revved up. Take that into consideration.

Another thing that may cause a very rough shift is that if you happen to be parked on an incline, going into reverse can be unpleasant.

Personally I don't shift out of park until I'm at least under 1200 rpms (last tick above 1k). That, for me, is easy on the engine and transmission and a good amount of "warming up" for the engine.

 

i would believe the high rpm as a cause if it did it going into drive, but it doesnt. I also have the hard shift from 2 to 3 under heavy accel in manual mode. almost like a thud. seems like im not alone though. it might be the dropping temps for the winter that are attributing to it as well.

 

Also, in this situation, when you start the engine and it is still high revving, if you sloooowly release/pull the gear shift (but do not put it in gear) you will notice the revs will drop immediately if you give it a second.

 

BINGO!!! Trans is fine let it just warm up for a couple minutes and your good

 

Coming from a 2005 Altima SE-R, I have found this to help with my 2008 G35.

 

30 sec? You should warm up the car for a while two min to 5 so it will properly warms up. I have tested it out on my first gen before i had hard shifts i only did that once and never did it again. I fully warm it up and i have no problems at all and my friend with a second gen does the same 3 to 4 min warm up.

 

I also have the jerky shifting issue with my 08 5AT when reversing. Warming it up will alleviate the jerking pretty much but not always. I've had the issue for so long that it really just doesn't bother me much. These are some of the things that I dislike about the "raw" attributes of owning a G. From my personal experience, other manufacturers of luxury sports like Lexus' or BMW's do not have these issues.

Life goes on as long as the car is running.

 

im in texas so im talking about 50 degrees here, its not freezing. when its super cold like that i do let it warm up for a while. i normally just give it enough time to boot up all the systems on the car like bluetooth and the hard drive, wait a bit longer then go. that gives the lubrication systems plenty of time to circulate fresh fluid around.

 

Dan you guys complain about everything. Don't you know how an engine works. Its not rocket science. It's normal. Jeeze

 

I have the exact same issue (08xS with 73K)

I noticed it this morning, as this is the first "cold" day I've taken the car to work (I purchased in in May).

It doesn't feel any different than other cars I have owned though. They've all done basically the same thing.

I just always make sure I push in the E-brake before I put it in park. I park on an area that is basically perfectly level. I could see how a hill could intensify this. I also agree with the folks that have mentioned the high rev while warming up and throwing it in reverse or D.

At least it's not a Chevy Cobalt :-)