Catastrophic Transmission Failure In A 2900km Stock Gt-r

[Kujotk]

I love this whole engine and gearbox being life long mating partners thing, do you think they put them all out in a paddock and just wait to see which gearbox shoves it's shaft in the back of which motor??? Serioulsy they all have the same ratios etc, and if there is that much variation in the build process that they need to to be mated up there is a problem...

I was thinking exactly the same as you when i started reading this thread, but i wasn't sure on exactly what nissan does to each gear box and engine to match it up perfectly???? And if they do seem to match them perfect, they seem to be doing a pretty crappy job at it

[Skybox]

don't think the price of the car really has much, if any connection, with it's reliability... hello ferrari reputation?

case in point, currrent gen M5... guarantee you has had MANY more gearbox failures over the same period as the GTR (ie, first 2-3 years of product life) and this car is what... $180-200K? notorious for gearbox problems... not to mention the $1k sparkplugs

Not to mention the mercedes range of SL's or anything made by maserati. My dad has a maserati grandsport. 25,000km- Traction control, engine cooling fans, electric windows, transmission all rubbish. Even the Italian leather interior is looking tired with door seals falling off etc etc.

GTR has a never before seen level of sofistication (aka, complexity) of its drive train transmission unit in a car that costs half as much as these italian supercars. Difference is the italians will never fix it and nissan will try to work out the bugs for the next generation.

I also don't think the built quality (seats doorseals etc) Would be of a poor quality like the ones ive experienced in the maserati given my r33 still doesn't have any such issues.

R35 definately much better value than any italian or european competition imo and if nissan can keep making cars like the GTR it will only be a matter of time before their held in the same regard as a brand.

[gp900]

Shit you think with all the R & D that supposedly went into this car, that this would have been picked up at some point during the development phase or in testing!

If I'm not mistaken, the GT-R's gearbox was designed mostly in Australia, by a small Sydney based design house that is a subsidiary of Borg Warner. They were the ones who designed and patented the Dualtronic technology that BW now owns. They were also responsible for programming the Veyron's gearbox for Ricardo.

The GR6 is built in Japan by a subsidiary of Nissan and apparently there was some degree of co-operation during the design. The 'new' Nissan corporation has adopted this distributed engineering model for most of it's new cars. It's purely a cost based decision. Manufacturers have had to change the way they do everything to survive in this market.

[Kujotk]

If I'm not mistaken, the GT-R's gearbox was designed mostly in Australia, by a small Sydney based design house that is a subsidiary of Borg Warner. They were the ones who designed and patented the Dualtronic technology that BW now owns. They were also responsible for programming the Veyron's gearbox for Ricardo.

The GR6 is built in Japan by a subsidiary of Nissan and apparently there was some degree of co-operation during the design. The 'new' Nissan corporation has adopted this distributed engineering model for most of it's new cars. It's purely a cost based decision. Manufacturers have had to change the way they do everything to survive in this market.

and what does this have to do with the quote you replied to???? That a Sydney company is to blame for the GTR's ever increasing gremlins in its transmission....?

[Kujotk]

Not to mention the mercedes range of SL's or anything made by maserati. My dad has a maserati grandsport. 25,000km- Traction control, engine cooling fans, electric windows, transmission all rubbish. Even the Italian leather interior is looking tired with door seals falling off etc etc.

GTR has a never before seen level of sofistication (aka, complexity) of its drive train transmission unit in a car that costs half as much as these italian supercars. Difference is the italians will never fix it and nissan will try to work out the bugs for the next generation.

I also don't think the built quality (seats doorseals etc) Would be of a poor quality like the ones ive experienced in the maserati given my r33 still doesn't have any such issues.

R35 definately much better value than any italian or european competition imo and if nissan can keep making cars like the GTR it will only be a matter of time before their held in the same regard as a brand.

The only shit mercs are the A, B and C class mercs, although they are making them better now, never had any probs with the Real mercs, saloons and sports ones, but their was a dodgey batch of engine cooling fans making their way through european cars about 5 years ago which effected everything from merc/bmw/audi/maserati/alfa ect...

The massa traction controll would have been fixed by resetting the ECU, transmissions arn't the best but they dont tend to break, they are just annoying and stiff and would benefit from being ratio'd for takeoff instead of topspeed which they are set up for....if you have the flappy paddles how good did you expect it to be, it was one of the first flappy paddles that ferrari ever brought out into its road cars...

hadn't had any faults with mine wich is the model before your dads (basically same car) and ive had no probs thus far (touch wood) and the things been thrashed since i got it. lol electric windows, they are the first thing to break in any car, my door seals are still as new, my leather seats were looking worn aswell but your surposed to condition them according to how often and where it is kept in storage, usually every 3 months because leather is dead skin, once it dries it cannot heal itself.

Tell your dad to go here www.maseratiforum.co.uk it'll save him from being ripped off by the maserati service centre talking crap and inventing problems with the car.

Seriously though its made by ferrari, how good did you expect the workmanship to be? I'm not expecting miracles from mine but thus far ive had no probs... *touch wood*

[gp900]

and what does this have to do with the quote you replied to???? That a Sydney company is to blame for the GTR's ever increasing gremlins in its transmission....?

It's called providing context.

Yes, it may be the case that that company is responsible. The majority of the GT-R's transmission woes stem from under-engineering not poor build quality. Ask the gents over at Willall about their experiences with the unit.

That doesn't mean that the company doesn't know what it's doing. It's entirely plausible that they were working under a tight budget or time frame (which is likely given the price target for the GT-R) or that they had communication issues with Aichi.

Remember these are the same folks that designed the MDCT unit for BMW and programmed the Veyrons gearbox. Both are projects which have turned out quite well.

[Max_ST-R]

In relation to Mercs, on another motoring blog someone mentioned to me from personal experience that the lifters for the SL roofs are a problem. From what I was told apparently a common fragile point over time and replacement cost in the region of $10-12K with very limited availibility of the part, could be wrong, but that's what I was told. I have heard of various problems on E and S Class as well. A KEYLESS go problem on an E-Class (a friend of my dad) was an $8,000 fix. The days of yore are long gone when Mercs were indestructable, but from all accounts they are addressing quality woes seen over the last 10 years.

New S and CL Class look and feel just outstanding if their quality/reliability is a match for their presentation then that would be something. Myself personally I'm keen on a Lexus LS or GS. Not saying any car is perfect, but for the average wage earner wanting prestige motoring a much safer bet than an older BM or Merc. I love the BM's and Mercs, don't get me wrong but I reckon they'd be big money pits associated with many sleepless nights...

[Specul8or]

this has gone from R35 pure sports to Merc cruisers?

[GT-Ricer]

I am happy to announce that after 4 weeks, my friend's car is back on the road with a brand spanking new transmission succesfully installed! Well done Nissan!

We both went for a nice Australia Day drive on the Old Pacific Hwy from Berowra to Somersby and back.

His GT-R needs to be run in again but it had no trouble keeping up with me in the 60km zone... It is probably one of the best twisty roads in Sydney and we both stuck to the posted speed limits at all times!

[LSX-438]

that's good news. 4 weeks is pretty good! a lot better than i anticipated.

[Iron-Bound]

dont the gt-r's have hand built engine's also odd that a little clip jams the transmission.