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Nissan Pathfinder 2001 R50 gear issue


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This started about 3 months back, but the recent experience is what has got me thinking I need the experts advise.

My Nissan pathfinder 2001 R50 automatic when started in the morning would give a delay of 3 - 4 seconds after putting it in D to engage into gear. It seemed a bit strange but when I showed to a garage they told me to drive it on and when the gear is completely gone they would replace it with one from the scrap. But when i started it up this Friday morning for our off-road drive and put it to D the gear just would not bite, when put into reverse it was fine, so I tried the 1st gear and it engaged instantly, slowly I shifted to 2nd gear and only on the highway i put it to D. The drive was smooth as if nothing was wrong. This has been happening since and I have to start from the 1st, than 2nd and lastly D and it drives smooth. Upon showing to one of the garage they have told me the rubbers and seals inside the gearbox are gone and so the oil is not holding the pressure. Although the garage knew of people driving with similar issue for about 3 years before changing the gearbox, the person was driving on-road and never tok his car off-road.

I am a bit worried as with the season at hand I would not like to loose my car on one of the long drives. Besides I have seen and incident with a bad gearbox that I would not like to repeat again. There are only 2 solutions to this problem as per the garage. The first solution is to buy from scrap which is going to cost about AED 2000/- for the gear and another AED 500/- for their labour, oil, etc. This comes with a 5 day guaranty. The other solution is to rebuild the gear box, which means the gear needs to be opened and all seals and worn out parts replaced, the complete cost of this with labour is coming to AED 1500/- with a claim that the garage does only automatic gearbox and are really good at it, in addition to their claim they are going to give me a warranty of 1 month. I am tempted to rebuild the gear, what do you guys do if you are in my place?

Thanking you in advance for all your advise and any alternate solutions.

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I rebuilt mine. It is not perfect. I can say %90 is done. Only problem it want me to rev up to 2700dd to shift between 2-3 but other than that it is smooth. I would go with the rebuild because in the used one also maybe seals are almost gone. 

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When have you changed the gear oil and gear oil filter? As much as it sound so obvious, but small mistake in spec or fake filter from road side shop can cause lot of trouble.

If you are 1% unsure, then as a first rule, buy original gear oil and gear oil filter from Nissan, not BM road shops (even) to rule out 100% oil and filter issue.

If still issue persists, I highly recommend first researching on this tell-tale sign on pathy forums or groups to have a collective idea of why its happening. Second, show it to few "GEAR SPECIALIST" (not mech) and get their feedback.

Just like you don't want to swap engine because of lazy mechanic can't open the broken plug, hope you rem that.

@sertac have you rebuild the gear with all OEM parts or aftermarket parts? As gear builder always give you two options of OEM and first quality aftermarket parts.

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Let's root for each other & watch each other grow.

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1 hour ago, Rahimdad said:

This started about 3 months back, but the recent experience is what has got me thinking I need the experts advise.

My Nissan pathfinder 2001 R50 automatic when started in the morning would give a delay of 3 - 4 seconds after putting it in D to engage into gear. It seemed a bit strange but when I showed to a garage they told me to drive it on and when the gear is completely gone they would replace it with one from the scrap. But when i started it up this Friday morning for our off-road drive and put it to D the gear just would not bite, when put into reverse it was fine, so I tried the 1st gear and it engaged instantly, slowly I shifted to 2nd gear and only on the highway i put it to D. The drive was smooth as if nothing was wrong. This has been happening since and I have to start from the 1st, than 2nd and lastly D and it drives smooth. Upon showing to one of the garage they have told me the rubbers and seals inside the gearbox are gone and so the oil is not holding the pressure. Although the garage knew of people driving with similar issue for about 3 years before changing the gearbox, the person was driving on-road and never tok his car off-road.

I am a bit worried as with the season at hand I would not like to loose my car on one of the long drives. Besides I have seen and incident with a bad gearbox that I would not like to repeat again. There are only 2 solutions to this problem as per the garage. The first solution is to buy from scrap which is going to cost about AED 2000/- for the gear and another AED 500/- for their labour, oil, etc. This comes with a 5 day guaranty. The other solution is to rebuild the gear box, which means the gear needs to be opened and all seals and worn out parts replaced, the complete cost of this with labour is coming to AED 1500/- with a claim that the garage does only automatic gearbox and are really good at it, in addition to their claim they are going to give me a warranty of 1 month. I am tempted to rebuild the gear, what do you guys do if you are in my place?

Thanking you in advance for all your advise and any alternate solutions.

First of all go to your mechanic the one about rubber seals and shoot him. 

What you described is typical symptoms of a failing and then failed sprag clutch ( no I'm not making it up, it's a real thing you can look it up )

You can drive it by starting in D1 Everytime you come to stop without any issues.

Now don't take this for gospel as I am not familiar with the Pathfinder transmission. 

Could also be one of the clutch pack or band has let go but I doubt it.

In all cases it's better to get it rebuild at a auto trans specialist like hoorani or dexol rather than to put in a used one

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Although this is not for your particular transmission but I found this on a British transmission Specialist website. Thought it might help to make the issue clearer

when I select "D" the vehicle won't move, when I select "1" the vehicle moves off. I can then select "D" and continue to drive normally. If I stop I have to start in first again. Why?

 A sprag clutch has "inverted" and will need replacing. No further damage will occur if you continue to drive but you will need to select "1" every time to start moving. A rebuild is required to correct this

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1 hour ago, Rahimdad said:

This started about 3 months back, but the recent experience is what has got me thinking I need the experts advise.

My Nissan pathfinder 2001 R50 automatic when started in the morning would give a delay of 3 - 4 seconds after putting it in D to engage into gear. It seemed a bit strange but when I showed to a garage they told me to drive it on and when the gear is completely gone they would replace it with one from the scrap. But when i started it up this Friday morning for our off-road drive and put it to D the gear just would not bite, when put into reverse it was fine, so I tried the 1st gear and it engaged instantly, slowly I shifted to 2nd gear and only on the highway i put it to D. The drive was smooth as if nothing was wrong. This has been happening since and I have to start from the 1st, than 2nd and lastly D and it drives smooth. Upon showing to one of the garage they have told me the rubbers and seals inside the gearbox are gone and so the oil is not holding the pressure. Although the garage knew of people driving with similar issue for about 3 years before changing the gearbox, the person was driving on-road and never tok his car off-road.

I am a bit worried as with the season at hand I would not like to loose my car on one of the long drives. Besides I have seen and incident with a bad gearbox that I would not like to repeat again. There are only 2 solutions to this problem as per the garage. The first solution is to buy from scrap which is going to cost about AED 2000/- for the gear and another AED 500/- for their labour, oil, etc. This comes with a 5 day guaranty. The other solution is to rebuild the gear box, which means the gear needs to be opened and all seals and worn out parts replaced, the complete cost of this with labour is coming to AED 1500/- with a claim that the garage does only automatic gearbox and are really good at it, in addition to their claim they are going to give me a warranty of 1 month. I am tempted to rebuild the gear, what do you guys do if you are in my place?

Thanking you in advance for all your advise and any alternate solutions.

Rebuilding the Transmission rather than using a second hand as you never know how reliable it is and about condition. Once you rebuild you are 100% sure about the condition. 
jz my 2 cents. 

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1 hour ago, Gaurav said:

When have you changed the gear oil and gear oil filter? As much as it sound so obvious, but small mistake in spec or fake filter from road side shop can cause lot of trouble.

If you are 1% unsure, then as a first rule, buy original gear oil and gear oil filter from Nissan, not BM road shops (even) to rule out 100% oil and filter issue.

If still issue persists, I highly recommend first researching on this tell-tale sign on pathy forums or groups to have a collective idea of why its happening. Second, show it to few "GEAR SPECIALIST" (not mech) and get their feedback.

Just like you don't want to swap engine because of lazy mechanic can't open the broken plug, hope you rem that.

@sertac have you rebuild the gear with all OEM parts or aftermarket parts? As gear builder always give you two options of OEM and first quality aftermarket parts.

Gaurav they didint give me option like that. I dont know what they used. 

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@Gaurav bhai, i replaced the gear oil and filter original about a month back.

@Fuad thank you for your feedback.

@desertdude thank you for the information. I will go to a gear specialist this Saturday and get it evaluated. Any idea if in the rebuild only sprag clutch will be replaced or it will be a complete rebuild. Sorry for being so naive.

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1 minute ago, Rahimdad said:

@Gaurav bhai, i replaced the gear oil and filter original about a month back.

@Fuad thank you for your feedback.

@desertdude thank you for the information. I will go to a gear specialist this Saturday and get it evaluated. Any idea if in the rebuild only sprag clutch will be replaced or it will be a complete rebuild. Sorry for being so naive.

I was forced to replace the complete unit as my quote for rebuild was way to higher than a scrap one. It started with me the same . Gear doesn't engage to D and neglected it and was lost in desert. Jz take care of it before offroading further.

all it was about Pajero. 

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5 minutes ago, Rahimdad said:

@Gaurav bhai, i replaced the gear oil and filter original about a month back.

@Fuad thank you for your feedback.

@desertdude thank you for the information. I will go to a gear specialist this Saturday and get it evaluated. Any idea if in the rebuild only sprag clutch will be replaced or it will be a complete rebuild. Sorry for being so naive.

Well that can only be said once it's opened up. There might be some bits that are still working but nearing the end of life so it makes sense to replace them since you are in there already. 

Also depending on what you want to do, you can ask then to do a full rebuild as in replace everything that can be replaced but that would mean more $$$$ or ask them to replace the broken bits and the ones that look they are at the end of their line or you can say just do enough work so it drives again.

I think in your case seeing the age of car and costs involved I would say go for the middle option 

Also many many gear specialists already have a stock of boxes ready to go for example you came in and replaced your transmission. What they then do is repair your old transmission and stock it, so the next time another Pathfinder comes they just replace it with the one they have in stock, send hin on his way and then repair that one and stock it for the next one, so on and so forth. So you might actually end up with someone else's old repaired box.

 

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