cold transmission?

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NVSteve
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cold transmission?

Postby NVSteve » Tue Oct 14, 2008 8:23 am

This will be my third winter with the PF. The first winter was fine, but last winter I kept experiencing the same thing over and over: when driving off to work with everything cold, the transmission would make a lurch from 2nd to 3rd. Kind of like someone was towing you around with a rope, then yanked on it hard & fast. It only happens between those 2 gears, and only when temps are 40F & below. I've noticed it a lot the last 3 weeks or so, and even brought it up 2 weeks ago at my last dealer servicing. They said to let it warm up, to which I replied "kiss my a$$," although not out loud.

I only shift from 2nd to 3rd twice on the way to my office, and by the time I'm just a couple miles from home, everything is nice and warm-no more shifting problems. If I completely granny it when doing the shift, it won't lurch, but then I'm also slowing down anyone who happens to be behind me.

Has anyone else experienced this? My fluid levels are fine, but I'm thinking I will ask the dealer if there are any other choices for transmission fluids.


Gray
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Re: cold transmission?

Postby Gray » Tue Oct 14, 2008 2:41 pm

NVSteve wrote:This will be my third winter with the PF. The first winter was fine, but last winter I kept experiencing the same thing over and over: when driving off to work with everything cold, the transmission would make a lurch from 2nd to 3rd. Kind of like someone was towing you around with a rope, then yanked on it hard & fast. It only happens between those 2 gears, and only when temps are 40F & below. I've noticed it a lot the last 3 weeks or so, and even brought it up 2 weeks ago at my last dealer servicing. They said to let it warm up, to which I replied "kiss my a$$," although not out loud.

I only shift from 2nd to 3rd twice on the way to my office, and by the time I'm just a couple miles from home, everything is nice and warm-no more shifting problems. If I completely granny it when doing the shift, it won't lurch, but then I'm also slowing down anyone who happens to be behind me.

Has anyone else experienced this? My fluid levels are fine, but I'm thinking I will ask the dealer if there are any other choices for transmission fluids.
No problems with this transmission so far but it does shift harder when temperatures are below freezing. At 21,000 miles I had oil analysis done on both new and the PF factory fill Matic-J and found that the high temp 100 C viscosity had sheared from 7.3 to 6.5 cSt's or about 11%. When I talked with the local service manager about it he requested from Nissan the maximum allowable ATF shear percentage but got no information from them on that.

From other reading ATF shouldn't be allowed to shear more than about 15% or it is considered to be out of spec and should be changed. 11% shear after relatively few miles and light driving with no towing is excessive imo and shows that these transmissions are hard on the oil. Maybe that is why Nissan came out with the new 2009 Matic-S ATF requirement for our transmissions.

It would be interesting to know if changing the ATF from Matic-J to Matic-S fixes your problem.

Another solution which I may put on the transmission and transfer case this year is an oil sump heating element as is used on aircraft, vehicles and equipment in the far north ;

http://www.reiffpreheat.com/product.htm ... %20Summary

.

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NVSteve
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Re: cold transmission?

Postby NVSteve » Tue Oct 14, 2008 3:34 pm

Greybrick wrote: It would be interesting to know if changing the ATF from Matic-J to Matic-S fixes your problem.
Thanks, GB. I'll have to remember that next time I'm in for maintenance.

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markspath
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Postby markspath » Tue Oct 14, 2008 11:47 pm

I've had no issues so far. 29K miles, 6K towing a 5,000# trailer. It's been down at 40 a few days this year and still no issues. But I'll definitely ask about the Matic-S when I go in for my this month.

me&pathy
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Postby me&pathy » Wed Oct 15, 2008 3:17 pm

i have a little problem getting it out of park on a cold day usually between (40-20) but that's about it, sometimes it will thunk into 2nd but it clear's up after driving a while, or planting the throttle :D i wouldn't worry though.


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