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2nd Gen No Reverse, What To Check

15K views 8 replies 3 participants last post by  barmato 
#1 ·
I've noticed over the past few months that it takes a little longer than usual to engage reverse, about 4-5 seconds maybe. Well today I got stuck in the snow and the only way out was to back up. It took a few times pulling forward and backing up until the wheels would spin, pulling forward and repeat. Nothing crazy, not gunning it with the wheels spinning. About 15 minutes later I needed to back up and I had no reverse and it's still not working.

Are there any know issues that would cause this or simple things to check before I take it somewhere? The truck only has 76k on it. It's only had one transmission service which was a drain and fill so I'm a little overdue on that I know.

Thanks,
Ben
 
#4 ·
on 76k with one drain and fill shouldnt be doing that. level would be my go to but if you said it was fine then theres that. you said its taking longer to engage. to that could be tq converter or valve body. if you have forward gears i would guess valve body.

and thinking on what could have caused the passage ways to open up so much its not getting pressure. now thats something else as well. it could be the valve body that gave way but something else all together that caused it.


valve bodies are almost as expensive as an entire transmission.
 
#5 ·
Oh well. I was hoping someone was going to say "of yeah there's a sensor on the transmission that's known to fail and easy to replace". Wishful thinking. I guess it's off to the transmission shop.
 
#6 ·
Ok new symptom, reverse works when its cold but stops working after about 5 minutes of driving.

I also just realized that its been a little "clunky" between off/on throttle around 40-45mph which I guess could also be related.
 
#8 ·
Well I took it to a shop and they said I need a new transmission or a rebuild. They didn't say exactly what the issue was but did say it was internal to the transmission. They did a boil test on the fluid as well and said that was fine.

I noticed that it going into reverse when cold has nothing to do with the cold, it's due to the raised idle of the cold engine. I goes into reverse when warm if I bring the rpms up to about 1200 before shifting into reverse. I guess from the increased fluid pressure.

Anyway I'm going to look into selling the truck as is or replacing the transmission myself and then selling it. It's a really clean truck other than this one issue but I have 4 vehicles and I just don't really need a truck anymore.
 
#9 ·
Just to see this through, the truck is fixed and I picked it up a few days ago. There were several problems. In addition to not having reverse they said it was skipping 3rd too, going right from 2nd to 4th. I didn't notice but now that I have it back and using all gears it does feel like it has more pep. Before sometimes it didn't want to down shift to accelerate but it felt like it should have but I didn't think anything of it at the time. They also said the torque converter wasn't locking up. They replaced all the soft parts, the torque converter, valve body, clutch drum, and fresh genuine Nissan fluid. The truck feels GREAT but maybe its my wallet telling me it better feel that way. I'm still not sure what caused the transmission to go out with only 77k on the clock.

I have a few projects around the house and then I think I'm going to sell it and get something that fits the family a little better. I mean this works but car seats take up so much room :(. Anyway, glad to have it back.
 
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