CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2004-2006 Nissan Maxima has widespread transmission problems. It starts with the vehicle jerking when shifting, & progresses to full-blown transmission failure.
Maxima owners report spending $3,000 to replace the transmission, typically around when the odometer hits 100,000 miles.
There's a class action lawsuit filed in late 2011, & it is still in the "discovery" stage. Apparently, these things take time ... far too much time.
8.4
pretty bad
Typical Repair Cost:
$3,100
Average Mileage:
105,450 miles
Total Complaints:
59 complaints
Most Common Solutions:
not sure (26 reports)
new transmission (23 reports)
no . nissan doesnt want to fix this on warranty (4 reports)
Didn't realize this many people experienced the same issue, thought I was just unlucky. There's an auto shop in NY that has developed a sort of patch for the Nissan transmission issue, apparently you can send them a portion of the transmission to have it fixed at a significantly cheaper cost than that to replace the entire thing. Shame that Nissan won't stand by one of their best cars and remedy this issue.
Only,124,000 miles and the transmission is shot,I took it to 3 transmission service centers,the last one told me that Nissan made those transmissions cheap,says he's been making a killing repairing them by overhaul or his preference to replace because they are so crappy to overhaul.
The transmissions started to jerk wile shifting gears. now its stays in 5th gear all the time, when it started to jerk it felt as if the whole transmissions was going to come out! I'm sure I have broken some of the motor mounts.
- Kelly S.,
Lexington, KY, US
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Constant jerking when changing gears, felt like I was getting rear ended. Had to rebuild transmission at 120k at the cost to me of almost $4000, extended warranty covered a small portion of that.
The transmission slips between 2nd and 3rd gear. The engine races to 5,000-6,000 rpms, and then violently slips into gear. Some days I just want to redline the car and make the engine explode!!!!!!! When the car is hot, when put into reverse, there is a hesitation and then the transmission goes ka-chunk!!!! Engine runs great, transmission SUCKS!!!! Last Nissan I will ever own.
Transmission is so bad it gets stuck in 5th gear as a safety feature. Leaving a red light in 5th gear sucks and it's worse when you are trying to go across traffic in 5th gear, not safe at all. Of course when it's not in 5th gear it shifts horribly. Jumps, give it gas and it just revs up. This is just another example of the 05 Maxima transmission issues. I hope Nissan does something about this.
I just bought the car in June 2015 and the problem started about 6 months later; it has happened multiple times. My understanding is this is a common problem with this make and model and Nissan refuses to acknowledge it or do anything about it. I love the car and don't want to give it up, but this problem is really scary and makes me nervous to drive. When it starts to happen and I am in traffic I am afraid the car will hit another car due to jumping or that another car will hit me because the car doesn't move when it is supposed to. Plus I had to get a loan to buy the car and I don't want to have to pay the loan off when I no longer have the car.
I was complaining of the car jumping when changing gears, mechanic found that the motor mount was cracked. Replaced it, some improvement for short period but now car is jumping, hesitation between gears, rough shifting, and diminished acceleration. I did not go to the dealer as my warranty is expired. This is my first Maxima and I will never purchase another. Now told that I'll need a new transmission. Not happy.
Tranny hesitates when shifting from rev to drive. Then when driving it the engine revs up between shifts, then slams into gear causing a violent lunge forward.
After reading on carcomplaints.com I see a LOT of people are having the same issue as me. It's a crying shame that Nissan won't step up and do the right thing. My transmission shifts horribly, it feels like someone hit my car from the rear. My check engine light is now on due to this issue. The cheapest quote I got is $2,700 to fix. I just paid the darn car off 3 months ago. This is my 3rd Nissan and I swear I will never own another Nissan again!
Last year in October 2014, I started to experience transmission issues. The car would slip in between shifting gears. The car would rev and the rpm would red line before jerking really hard into a different gear. I would be embarrass driving along the side of other cars when my engine would start revving! They probably thought I was trying to race them when I really wasn't! My car was having stupid transmission issues! Anyways I took it back to where I originally got the car (Carmax). They had my car for a week and told me they would fix it. The problem was fixed temporarily. Having the same issue again (months later).
I first noticed a bump in the transmission about 2 years ago, when I changed from reverse back to drive. It only happened once and I assumed it was a fluke. One year ago it started happening almost every time I changed from reverse back to drive. The bump was a hard bump...like a lurch...and made a loud clunk. I had a mechanic look at it, and they said it was a broken motor mount. He gave me a new motor mount but the hard bump continued to happen. Took to another mechanic who said it was definitely the transmission going out, but he suggested to continue driving till it just quit. I took to an official transmission shop, and I paid over $4000 to get a new transmission put in. Immediately, within a month, the cam sensor went bad and put my transmission into "limp mode". New sensor....$425. I am beyond mad to see that this model car has a basic defect with transmissions that Nissan knew about but did not send out a recall. I have never owned a car that had to have a new transmission at 150k miles. Shame on Nissan.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
It's annoying and in my opinion dangerous due to the jerking of the whole car.
- Elisabet R., Clearwater, US