[dorkpunch]

Hello all,

I have a 2015 Armada that acts funny after its warmed up. Runs fine, starts well, plenty of power. After about 10-15 minutes of driving, it has a pretty healthy clunk when downshifting anywhere between 30-60 mph. For example, if I'm going 50 and need to speed up, step on the gas, transmission downshifts hard. Clunk. If I'm slowing down from 60 and just take my foot off the gas, as I coast down to about 35, transmission downshifts hard. Clunk.

Took it to a local shop, they claim its a shift actuator and want to just replace the entire transmission. Uh... no.

Took it to a transmission shop, claim its something in the valve body. Want to replace valve body only. Only marginally cheaper than a new transmission. No.

Any ideas before I take it to a Nissan dealer to diagnose? Oddly enough the Stealership seems to be the cheapest option for a valve body replacement if that is indeed what it is, but they won't warranty anything because the rest of the trans has "HIGH MILES".... at 117,000.

Thanks!

 

[marctronixx]

shift actuator, throttle body, improper tyranny fluid, tranny issues... all of those are good ideas.

id spend the 100 dollar diag fee and see what nissan say, then decide on the next steps.

 

[Steeljg8]

I had this happened and it wasn't cheap to replace the Tranny. They first replaced the gears on the rebuild and it didn't fix the problem. Took it back and they replaced the computer inside the tranny. works fine now $3000 later.

 

[Calvin97]

I'd recommend you go get a transmission flush. Probably about $300-$400 at an independent shop. Sign all their waivers of doing the work without the promise of a fix. Try to talk them into using Nissan fluid. They may have better fluid, but it seems this transmission prefers its own. If not, plan on one or more flushes in the future. Then, put some miles on it and see if it works better. If not, you should follow their advice. But, if this does work, start putting money away for the inevitable transmission replacement that will come some day, hopefully around 200,000 mi. or more.

 

[dorkpunch]

I'd recommend you go get a transmission flush. Probably about $300-$400 at an independent shop. Sign all their waivers of doing the work without the promise of a fix. Try to talk them into using Nissan fluid. They may have better fluid, but it seems this transmission prefers its own. If not, plan on one or more flushes in the future. Then, put some miles on it and see if it works better. If not, you should follow their advice. But, if this does work, start putting money away for the inevitable transmission replacement that will come some day, hopefully around 200,000 mi. or more.

I had the fluid flushed when it started doing this. No change. That was the shop that just wanted to replace the transmission from the get go. I really don't think one bad shift solenoid would require replacing the entire transmission or even the valve body.

Apparently no one will touch replacing a single shift solenoid though. They all want the easy money from big parts and minimal labor.

 

[Calvin97]

I had the fluid flushed when it started doing this. No change. That was the shop that just wanted to replace the transmission from the get go. I really don't think one bad shift solenoid would require replacing the entire transmission or even the valve body.

Apparently no one will touch replacing a single shift solenoid though. They all want the easy money from big parts and minimal labor.

That's new info? Wrong fluid then, maybe, at that local shop. Would you mind looking on your receipt for what fluid was put in and typing it in here so we can all avoid that one? You need the Nissan Matic S ATF, 11.25 quarts of it. Or, Matic J. If not either of those, you will most likely notice differences.

 

[Tanks]

This would drive me nuts. OEM transmission fluid all the way for me. No exceptions.

 

[Steeljg8]

Hello all,

I have a 2015 Armada that acts funny after its warmed up. Runs fine, starts well, plenty of power. After about 10-15 minutes of driving, it has a pretty healthy clunk when downshifting anywhere between 30-60 mph. For example, if I'm going 50 and need to speed up, step on the gas, transmission downshifts hard. Clunk. If I'm slowing down from 60 and just take my foot off the gas, as I coast down to about 35, transmission downshifts hard. Clunk.

Took it to a local shop, they claim its a shift actuator and want to just replace the entire transmission. Uh... no.

Took it to a transmission shop, claim its something in the valve body. Want to replace valve body only. Only marginally cheaper than a new transmission. No.

Any ideas before I take it to a Nissan dealer to diagnose? Oddly enough the Stealership seems to be the cheapest option for a valve body replacement if that is indeed what it is, but they won't warranty anything because the rest of the trans has "HIGH MILES".... at 117,000.

Thanks!

I had this happened and it wasn't cheap to replace the Tranny. They first replaced the gears on the rebuild and it didn't fix the problem. Took it back and they replaced the computer inside the tranny. works fine now $3000 later.

I wanted to add that my transmission went out at 130,000 and went into a limp mode. I did go a couple years of mild driving until I replaced it. By then the gears were shot. The valve body did the trick in my case. Like I mentioned before, Gears were replaced and the valve body remained. after experiencing problems after the new gears they went in and replaced the valve body.

 

[Bdub]

I had that clunk, and it ended up being the front u-joint on the rear shaft. I just indexed it, removed it and took it to my mechanic with my new spicer u-joints and viola, no more clunk! I will add that the previous Florida owner towed a good size towable rv for a few years, so I’m pretty fortunate it wasn’t the transmission.