I am a newbie but I have been reading the forums for a bit and have searched this topic. I have a 93 sentra auto. When I accelerate very slowly my tranny has a tendency to "jerk" or "buck" when going from 1 to 2 almost as if it is hunting for a gear. I only notice this when going slowly in a parking lot or in heavy stop and go traffic. Under normal accleration it shifts smoothly and at full throttle it barks the tires (is that good or bad?) The slower I go the higher the chance of jerking during 1-2 shifts. Any ideas? thanks, any answers appreciated. p.s. I change fluid regularly.
you might need new motor/tranny mounts. have a trusting friend sit in the driver seat w/ the car running. have him hold the brake pedal down (ebrake too, just to be safe) put it in drive and lightly rev the engine. just enough so that you should see the engine "torque" or move back and forth. if it seems like its a lot of movement, or its jerking around way too much, thats most likely it. do it in reverse too
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'95 200sx SE = konig divas on 185/60R-14 Kumho 716s, open-airbox, k&n filtercharger, 1.3 bar radiator cap, all red taillights, removed black doorframe vinyl, mesh grill, remote start alarm, no-chrome window frame, sylvania silverstars, optima red top, w/ 4AWG ground, full kenwood sound system. my car!
Mine has done that from day one, if I understand what you're saying (maybe not). If I crawl (no gas pedal action) and it shifts into 2nd it sort of jolts into gear. The 1-2 shift isn't sliky smooth as it is even under normal accel.
i noticed the same action, during a certain speed and rate of acceleration, it doesn't shift smoothly. other then that certain combination it shifts fine. and i would be so lucky to be able to spin my tires period! the only way i can do that is to power brake it. or take off in sand. and its not like i'm running stickies for tires either. just cheap all seasons.
I also experience the jerkyness when shifting and no throttle applied. I thought it was because I need to change my Tranny fluid. I getting it flushed on friday so I'll tell you if it makes a difference or not. As for spinning tires, when I have it setup for street use I keep my front tire psi. at like 38, sometimes they spin, and others not. I think they spin when you hit the gas real fast after letting of the brake, and also goin uphill. When I dragrace and have front psi at 23, and rear at 40, with rearseats out, I really can't spin at all with e-brake on and tourqe braking. It all depends on situation, considering we don't have 300hp to light up the tires=~(
Thanks Vivid, I will have to give that a try. I have revved it my self several times while under the hood just by tugging the throttle cable, and have not noticed any unordinary movement of the engine. It was in park those times, so I will have to try it with a friend in drive, as you suggested.
It does seem like this problem of mine is not all too uncommon from what you guys are saying. Thank goodness I may not need a new tranny. I just hate having to sit in crawling traffic and have my car jerking between shifts like I have a manual transmission and don't know how to drive it. Most times I just throw it in 1 to prevent it from shifting.
I can't really totally light em up comin off the line either. As you know our sentras are no torque monsters. I was just sayin that under hard accel I hear a little "bark" I guess the tires loose traction for like a second in between 1-2 shifts. Maybe I will be able to lay those 20 ft. patches when I throw in the DET. j/k
Tranny fluid, I think this needs to be replace every 30k miles. Mine jerked as well and slow shifts like a delay. It went away with new fluid and filter.
bvpsentra93- I just hate having to sit in crawling traffic and have my car jerking between shifts like I have a manual transmission and don't know how to drive it
sounds like its more severe then what i feel. i forgot to add that after i replaced both my axels due to broken cv boots i was unaware of (yea, one right after the other) the car does shift better. maybe lower the audio and listen to you car on sharp turns. if you can hear the clickin/grinding that points to you axels being bad. might be related, after all there are gears in there.
i never knew tranies had filters. i'll have to look into that, but i think that my fluid should be new considering about 2 years ago i had a bad leak that somehow fixed itself. Took it to the garage who quoted a repair for more then half of what the car is worth, then about a week later it stopped leaking. go figure.
Yeah, you have to drain the tranny oil first and then take off the tranny pan (where the drain plug is). And the filter is right there in the middle with a bunch of bolts attached to it as well.
Some mechanics claim you never have to replace this. So if you are weak hearted, don't bother. Also do not pay $80 for a tranny flush, as they just suck out the fluid with a hose. The most simple is to drain the fluid from the bottom bolt and add fluid from the top with the smallest cone you can find. I made mine out of paper . Easier than an engine oil change.
Scarcrow I can hear a grinding like groan from up front when I make a sharp turn. I hear it especially when I go on a sharp on-ramp and have to accelerate and turn at the same time. Thats too bad about your axles, I hope that is not my car's fate. I do not know exactly where the cv boots are. I know they are down near the wheel and axle somewhere. Can you tell me exactly where they are and how I can tell if they are bad?
Just look under the car at the axle near the wheels. There should be some black rubber boot and you should be able to tell if its broken or cracked. That's the outer boot, and the inner boot is more towards the tranny.
cv boots is nothing. ist just a protective cover, to keep dirt away from the cv joints, which is the drive axel... this is the expensive part to replace
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'95 200sx SE = konig divas on 185/60R-14 Kumho 716s, open-airbox, k&n filtercharger, 1.3 bar radiator cap, all red taillights, removed black doorframe vinyl, mesh grill, remote start alarm, no-chrome window frame, sylvania silverstars, optima red top, w/ 4AWG ground, full kenwood sound system. my car!
It's good to know some ppl change their transaxel/transmission fluid on a regular basis or at least they know they should. After 7 years and 116,xxx miles (196xxx Km's here in Canada) I took it upon myself to change the fluid for the first time...that's right...the 1st/First time since we bought the cars new as I'm sure it wasn't done at the dealer before. Like Sherb said, it's easier than an oil change to a point. Drive around for 10 miles or more before hand, put the car up on jackstands or ramps, remove the transaxel plug, let it drain for 30 minutes or so, clean the plug off well and reinsert. The stuff that came out was dark brown (sign of a burned tranny) and had some traces of metal shavings. A Haynes repair guide will help with the spacifics.
I didn't measure out how much drained out so it was guess work of how much to put back in. For those of you that don't know, you have to refill it through the transaxel tube (the lower right red knob dip stick). I added 4L of transaxel/transmission fluid (Wal-Mart brand) a little at a time and my level while HOT was perfect.
There is two ways to check tranny fluid levels...when cold or hot. I was really confused on this until I actually did it myself and it suddenly made sense.
Cold: run the engine after refill for a minute or so and check the level on the stick. It should be between the cold marks. The reason why I would get confused is because I was never getting the propper readings (usually too high a level while at HOT it was perfect...anyway, this time it was right on)
Hot: After 10 miles or at idle until engine is warm and check level. I found driving and checking the level from gas sation to gas station worked the best.
...the point to all of this was that I thought the transmission in my mom's car was on it's way out as well, from the jerking when shifting from 1-2nd. Now that I see many of you experience the same thing I guess I don't need to worry so much. I do know the transmission is not top notch as it does have a noticable jerk from Drive to Neutral or Neutral to Reverse when it should be smooth. So, to any of you out there that have neglected to change your transaxel fluid, now is as good a chance as anyway.
Good luck...and wear protective glasses and rubber gloves to keep from getting burned.
I am a newbie but I have been reading the forums for a bit and have searched this topic. I have a 93 sentra auto. When I accelerate very slowly my tranny has a tendency to "jerk" or "buck" when going from 1 to 2 almost as if it is hunting for a gear. I only notice this when going slowly in a parking lot or in heavy stop and go traffic. Under normal accleration it shifts smoothly and at full throttle it barks the tires (is that good or bad?) The slower I go the higher the chance of jerking during 1-2 shifts. Any ideas? thanks, any answers appreciated. p.s. I change fluid regularly.
Hmmm, this sounds exactly word for word like my problem, i have 92,000 miles on my 94 sentra/auto, never changed the fluid.
Is the transmission slowly destroying itself when it jerks or is it perfectly fine, that is my concern.
(is that good or bad?) The slower I go the higher the chance of jerking during 1-2 shifts. Any ideas? thanks, any answers appreciated. p.s. I change fluid regularly.
I was just sayin that under hard accel I hear a little "bark" I guess the tires loose traction for like a second in between 1-2 shifts. Maybe I will be able to lay those 20 ft. patches when I throw in the DET. 
. Easier than an engine oil change.
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