1st gear kept popping out while driving around this morning, so I kept it nice and easy on the gas pedal. Next thing you know it popped out for good, now it just spins without putting any power out.

Why wasn't I smart enough to trade it in for a 2005 before this?

Time for a new clutch?

All the other gears are fine, so it's not the clutch. Just 1st.

Syncros?

All the other gears are catching and there is no slippage? It's the diffilculty getting it into first and popping out of first right? Once you're rolling it's not a problem to shift into gears 2-5 with no slipping?

I'm still guessing clutch/broken clutchplate

How many miles?

Around 75,000 Miles.

The rest of the gears are fine, so far. It goes into 1st, but grinds something awful when I ease up on the clutch.

The only warning on this was before anything bad happened the shifter would wobble a lot in 1st, and it popped out a couple of times. Between getting the warnings and it dying completely was maybe 5 easy gentle miles of driving.

I'm so fucked, I'm self employed and haven't gotten over the hump of making money yet.

That sucks - you're the second one this week to lose first gear at about the same mileage. I hope this isn't a trend or something.

Damn...between you Jens and Xterragrl losing 1st, I think I should get my transmission looked at. I get some shenanigans shifting from 1st to 2nd and back to 1st...strange. Sorry to hear it.

Sorry man, I was looking at your web page and read about it. You should start charging more for your stickers.

Ditto...

Thanks, hopefully I get some good news tomorrow when my dealer has a look at it. I just talked to my big-rig-mechanic buddy on the other side of the country (came in 2nd place in a North America wide big-rig mechanic competition, the guy knows his stuff!) and he said it was nuts that a transmission would die with this little mileage.

BUT, he's also very hopeful that it's just 1st gear that's fucked and thinks the whole job should be doable for less than a grand. Nonetheless, he's not a Nissan mechanic, and isn't a transmission specialist, so who knows.

By the way, I know the stickers I sell aren't expensive, I did that on purpose. I didn't set out to make a profit, I just wanted to share them and recoup my costs. I wish I could sell them for more and make big big bucks ... this transmission job is basically sucking up the last of my reserves and I'll have to sell the truck now. I'm self employed and still in the struggling stage -- this takes me over the top and it's pretty depressing.

1st gear, stripped (not the gear itself, but the gears that get the gear into gear, eh?):



Next we have ....

3rd gear, oh what's this? Lovely bearings. Apparently they're not supposed to flop around like that, who knew? The same teeth that are fucked on 1st are also wearing out on 3rd, so those will get replaced.



Thankfully the clutch is still 50% good. Hell, considering I've smoked the clutch a few times when figuring out that rock crawling thing, I'm surprised it's still good enough to go.



Some more:

http://www.superjens.com/4x4/truck/mods/gears/1st-b.jpg
http://www.superjens.com/4x4/truck/mods/gears/3rd.jpg
http://www.superjens.com/4x4/truck/mods/gears/empty.jpg
http://www.superjens.com/4x4/truck/mods/gears/gears.jpg

Still don't know what the final bill will be, the shop is calling around for parts tomorrow.

What the hell does Nissan make these things out of anyways, aluminum?

Ouch, that last pic is scary. It reminds me of when they had to disassemble my new 2005 dash to get to a connector that some jackass forgot to connect on the assembly line. I went back there to look at it and it freaked me out to see my new toy all over the place. Like some of the others said, best not to look at it in that state sometimes, but you never learn anything that way either. Well, sorry, but thanks for educating us at your expense. Hopefully the shop is a good one.

I don't know if this will make any sense or not, but here it goes anyway. All the vehicles I've owned with manual transmissions as well as others that I have driven. It is nearly impossible (I say nearly because it is possible with a little bit of convincing) to put in in 1st gear while moving forward. Is it possible that drivers that try to force it in first gear before being stopped have more wear on their first gear than others?

Does this make any sense?

That last pic reminds me of the play set I got for the girls. Hours of fun with gears!



I hope it doesn't hammer you too hard wtih the $$.

Don't forget the

Makes sense to me. From now on I'll either double-clutch / rev-match before dropping into 1st while moving, or just keep going in 2nd.

That sucks Jens.

There was some guy on here once that was trying to get a Recall done on the Tranny as he had the same problem. Can't find the posts in the history tho. Certainly not unheard of with Xterra & Frontier transmissions it seems

The guy in question believed there was some kind of Conspiracy by Nissan as they changed the part number or somethin since the original tranny was made.

Yeah, and of course the dealer I talked to said they've never heard of any Nissan manual tranny dying, ever. LOL, ever? OMG :rolleyes:

Hi, new forum member here. Any price info on the first gear problem? I just got my truck back from the dealer on friday (bearing pack and brakes) and noticed that first gear shifter was shaking with acceleration. Shakes so bad that it will occasionally pop out of gear. I will have to bring it back to them tomorrow. Like others, all other gears are fine. Could the dealer have caused this. I was hoping it was just a shifter linkage thing. I have 90,000 on my truck.

Detra, sounds exactly like what happened to me.

The final estimate came in after they tabulated all the parts: $2300 CDN. That's $1000 cheaper than the Nissan dealer wanted to drop in a rebuilt one. Those buffoons wanted NINE hours to take out the old and put in the new. 9? I know they get these numbers from some magical book, but come on, you're telling me a garage with professional Nissan mechanics with all the tools working on a Nissan truck need 9 hours to pull out a tranny and slap another one in?

I remember that thread. Don't remember who posted it, but I remember the part numbers changing.

Screw that, I'm only shifting into 1st when it's parked from now on

I never had a problem with my 240sx - had 120K miles on it and I speed shifted and down shifted that thing constantly with no prolbmes - so not all Nissan manual tranny's are bad - but there does seem to be a running theme with 1st gen X's and Frontiers

Thanks for the update. I bringing mine down to the dealership today and am preparing for the worst. Worst case scenario, I will buy a used tyranny and spend the weekend putting it in myself. What kills me is that I've babied this truck since I got it. Does anyone know if they changed the transmission model after 2000 or 2001. I'd hate to have the same thing happen with a new one. I was planning on keeping this vehicle for another 5 years!

Just to add: I got an email from a former AZXC member who had just traded hers in for a Tahoe because she lost first gear a couple of weeks ago and was tired of the run-a-round to try to get the dealer to fix it under warranty. They told her this very unheard of, then I told her about this thread and how it has become a problem for some.

I added my .02 to the other thread about the first gear loss, but I figured I'd say it here too, in case somebody is keeping score...

My '00 Frontier CC 4x4 started with the "popping out of first gear" thing last week. I've got about 92k on the truck. I haven't gone to the dealership, but I guess I'm gonna have to soon. Man, I don't need this expense!

-gary

Here are a couple of question for the people with '00 tranny problems (I'm gonna cross post this to the two XOC threads I've found on the subject):

How diligent were you about changing your tranny fluid? Did you change it at the recommended 30k and 60k? I know I changed mine at about 35k, but haven't gotten around to the 60k change (and I'm at 92k now). Did I (we) do this to ourselves?

Also, how many of you regularly downshifted into first gear while your truck was still moving? I did that infrequently the first year or two that I owned the truck, but then I was told it was a bad idea, so I have all but stopped doing it. Was the damage to the tranny done early on by this?

Thoughts?

-gary