Stutter between 2nd and 3rd Gear
 

Hey guys,

I had my transmission rebuilt back in mid November. Ever since I got it back, I felt a stutter between 2nd and 3rd gear. This stutter will occur when the tranny is shifting to 3rd gear around 2500 RPM. Every other gear shifts perfectly fine. I did not feel this stutter before the transmission was rebuilt and it his annoying the hell out of me. I brought it back like 3 times to the shop that rebuilt it, and they say that the transmission is learning and Nissans are notorious for taking a long time to learn, and it is normal. I have my doubts about that. Everything was swapped out for new except the valve body, as they said it looked fine and I did not need a new one. I am at a lost as every time I bring it back, they say it's normal.

I did some searching and see that some people talked about a TCM reflash? Will something like that fix my issue? I am reluctant to bring it to the dealership as I will be charged $112 just for a diagnose, but will do if this sounds like something that can fix this. I have done a ECU reset many times and that did not fix my issue.

Do they say how long to drive it for?

They're full of crap, the transmission doesn't need to learn to operate properly on this vehicle. Sounds like they have a component malfunctioning in the valve body and are waiting for your parts warranty to wear out.

Ask for an itemized invoice and see if they even replaced the valve body, also find out EXACTLY what fluid they used and if it wasn't Matic-J or Matic-S then they need to drain the ENTIRE transmission (yes that means removing it to drain the torque converter) and fill it with the correct fluid because it might also be a friction issue with the clutches.

Oops just re-read that they kept the existing valve body. That's probably your issue.

My 2 cents, abuse it and see what happens! Stick it in manual mode and do a bunch of WOT 2-3 shifts, upshifting, downshifting, at a bunch of different RPMs. Basically try and aggravate the issue.

If it gets worse take it to the shop and demand they fix the problem.

If it doesn't, at least you know the tranny isn't going to give up on you, and you can drive it for awhile to see if the the ECU will in fact eventually learn.

EDIT: If you end up making them put in a new valve body, a transgo shift kit is a really good upgrade for the auto that really wakes it up.

Hey guys, they agreed to lift it up and take a look at the valve body. I will update with what happens.

UPDATE:

Finally got the car looked at and taken care of. I was suppose to bring it to the shop twice since last month, but every time a major snow storm came in. The guy called me up and said after doing some research he is sure it is the transmission case, I was skeptical but what do I know. Anyways I brought it in and when I was there he showed me another car's transmission case and said there's this circular lobe thing moving and loose inside mines, but its not suppose to. I got it back yesterday, and the issue is fixed. What a relief, the car is actually fun to drive again.

Thanks for the update. So, I'm guessing, but it sounds like you're saying there was a loose locating dowel. Was he pointing to a spot where two surfaces meet? Like between the bellhousing and engine?

Loose locating dowel??? There's no way the car would run if the transmission wasn't properly lined up with the engine and was able to move around.... lol

Sure it could. You still have all the nuts and bolts holding it together...hopefully. It would still be lined up enough. Locating pin/dowels align things to very small tolerances. A small amount of out of tolerance will still do the things

I googled it and yeah I believe that is what he was pointing to. I originally brought it in because my car wouldn't go into reverse anymore, and on the day I brought it in the car was losing power to go forward but the forward worked after I kept trying. He showed me my reverse gear and it was all bent up. Before I brought it in I also did 3 tranny fluid changes and the fluid was burnt every time I changed it again. He said the tranny was causing so much friction and heat every time I did a fluid change it just burnt it up real quick. I am just glad this headache is over lol