R35 Gearbox Issues

[DAN-ZE]

Hi there

I am Daniel from Sunny Coast -new to this forum, so forgive me if I missed this subject was on the forum previously.

I am happy owner of 2009 R35 purchased at Southport. almost 3 years ago. Its my daily driver so I managed to clock 94000km on it- possible one of the most driven AUD R35 -they say at Nissan service. During the time I have done some basic mods like Willall Ti Exhaust, Cobb Intake, and Access Port with Custom Tune - thanks to Mercury Motorsport which I though it should not harm the car + willall racing transmission oil.

Anyway about the year ago I had first problem with the tranny. Car went to limp mode with 1,3,5 gear available. Went to the service -at 70km/hour speed. I've done some research on the net using error codes from AP which indicated faulty pressure sensor on clutch B.

According to US forums it is a common defect due to the poor design of those sensors (there are 3 of them in the gearbox), and Nissan does replacing faulty gearboxes even if there are (similar to my) modifications on the car. Did anyone in Australia had this problems with AU delivered model?

Well Apparently in Australia it is not a common issue at all and Nissan will not give a damn if you use Willall transmission oil or have a cobb AP installed.

They didnt even offer any option - jus left me with 2 year old $168k broken car on the street -after charging me $900 diagnostic fees to tell me what I already knew and told them in the first place.

I quickly discovered that Willall racing is making aftermarket sensors and already sold few hundreds of them across the word and even recommended the installed -Gavin Wood Autotech at GoldCoast. I went back to Nissan and askd Qualified GTR Tech if they can feet the sensor if I will deliver one- but they didn't have any idea where the sensors are -no comments, but they sure knew to charge me $900 diagnostic fee for it.

I had no option to go third party and Gavin fixed my car in no time, replacing all remaining sensors just in case and applying more upgrades to gearbox -recommended by Martin from Willall to make it stronger. By the way Gavin had already fixed quite a few R35s with similar problems and confirmed that it is poor design and common issue -which Nissan Australia cant yet see, and doesnt matter if you race or not -it can happen to anyone. Time heals all wounds but you do have it on the back of your had that it could happen again.

And it did - last week - and few weeks before my Nissan warranty ends. Was happy driving and stopped for a piss. Got back to the car and........Gearbox malfunction -visit the dealer - this time it was different -I had no reverse, 2,4 and sometime 6 gear available to come home with maximum speed of 67km/h on the highway -very good advertisement for Nissan's pride I assume+ had to be pushed out from the carpark at the front of the restaurant.

This time AP showed different error -P2714

Got it towed to Southport Nissan again and this time they told me straight away - Sorry we cant help you - you had willall oil, Cobb tune, and third party working on it.

so back to Gavin and currently waiting for the news

Did anyone faced similar problems? Is there anyone in Nissan who would care about Lemon like this- I could talk to? (I had also other issues which took long months to resolve under warranty) Im sure this is not good for their image -it is not to many of those cars and people talk about them with everyone they know.

Daniel

[Duncan]

That's pretty much the same warranty experience I had from the tiida and dualis car company with my old 350z. Nissan Australia don't know how to treat valuable customers.

Just stick with the aftermarket, you will get much better quality mechanics who actually know what they are doing.

[SebastionGTR]

That's pretty much the same warranty experience I had from the tiida and dualis car company with my old 350z. Nissan Australia don't know how to treat valuable customers.

Just stick with the aftermarket, you will get much better quality mechanics who actually know what they are doing.

I agree but did he not already do this? (He got a third party involved who apparently 'strengthened' the tranny only for it to go limp again.

'I had no option to go third party and Gavin fixed my car in no time, replacing all remaining sensors just in case and applying more upgrades to gearbox -recommended by Martin from Willall to make it stronger.'

I also am looking to safeguard against a future tranny ailment (I have a 2011).

ps thats a hefty diagnostic fee for a tech who couldn't locate the sensors.

[Wardski]

I also am looking to safeguard against a future tranny ailment (I have a 2011).

ps thats a hefty diagnostic fee for a tech who couldn't locate the sensors.

Hefty fee indeed.. In the US, Nissan don't touch the trannies if they are warranty covered. They just replace them. Same goes for here from what I know. I'm also not surprised the Nissan techs had no idea where the sensors are, you're probably one of the first to actually have a failure in Aus. The sensors are also inside the tranny, so it would be a strip down and rebuild..

FYI, chances are if the sensors are gone the solenoids are probably on the way out too. If I were you, I'd be throwing it on a truck to SA, and get Willall to rebuild your tranny with Dodson parts and be done with it. With the mods you've listed, you're probably in that range where you need strengthening. Have a look at www.nagtroc.com to see what they're doing and the failures after power mods/tunes.

I think this thread alone is the definitive reason for me not modding my GT-R. If anything fails on my stockie within the 3 years wty and Nissan refuse to cover, then I'll be taking them to court.

Edited March 27, 2012 by Wardski

[domino_z]

no issues so far with my power levels - though i do accept there is an element of risk when modifying anything from factory spec

i cant argue with the dealers response mate, and neither should anyone here.

the car is modified beyond factory specification. The warranty makes this very clear, and if you dont acknowledge the fine print, your own sense of business understanding should make you realise that they have no legal right to honour anything that has been changed without their consent or approval. And surely you dont expect them to touch the gearbox after a third party has worked on it - can you imagine what risk this would expose the dealer or nissan aus too if something were to go wrong again?

i do think the $900 fee was excessive though, and ill bet that's a dealer specific issue rather than us all jumping on nissan aus's back

[Drift Motorsport]

Reading that post made my brain hurt.

[Hadouken]

They just don't make them like they used to. Haha, sorry couldn't resist.

Bad luck man.

[SebastionGTR]

Is that Hermione? That is disturbing...but err...I don't dislike.

[Martin Donnon]

I followed this up today with the workshop Gavin Wood.

Apparently the car was picked up from the dealer and driven to the said workshop with all gears 1-6 selecting perfectly and no transmission errors. Strange one indeed!, however electricaly glitches can and well happen to any TCM based transmission and GTR is no exception to this. A reset every now and then along with a Gear Learn isnt a bad thing. There may however be more to this, Gavin will work that out

Its very easy to tip > $20K into strengthening a GTR transmission. Its cheaper, and every bit as good to do some very basic upgrades and replace anything else that breaks (which is unlikely) along the way. Look at what the top/winning Tarmac Rally GTRs do to their transmissions to get an idea (ie. not a great deal - the basics)

[OzStriker]

Domino is spot on here...If you want the luxury(?) of taking your broken car, under warranty, to your local Nissan dealership then you must leave it stock.

If you want the benefits of modification you must realise that you can no longer have the above luxury.

All I have done to my car so far is a Willall midpipe and braided brake lines, my dealer "pre-approved" these modifications and fitted them (at greater cost than it would have been to do so myself or in the aftermarket world) ensuring my remaining two years of warranty are still valid.

Edited March 27, 2012 by OzStriker

[Wardski]

Its very easy to tip > $20K into strengthening a GTR transmission.

Wowzers.. A new transmission is in the vicinity of $16k

[Martin Donnon]

Wowzers.. A new transmission is in the vicinity of $16k

While that is true there are plenty of folks out there in GTR land that have lashed out over $50K on transmission 'upgrades'

Search around in the USA, it seems to be a fairly common practice

[GT-R OZ]

It does seem ridiculous, having just spent $100k + on a late model 2nd hand super car having only to take it to an after market repair shop to have modifications done on the car's gearbox to ensure peace of mind. Yes, the GT-R is an awesome car but this is surely unacceptable??

[Sumo BNR32]

Hi there

I am Daniel from Sunny Coast -new to this forum, so forgive me if I missed this subject was on the forum previously.

I am happy owner of 2009 R35 purchased at Southport. almost 3 years ago. Its my daily driver so I managed to clock 94000km on it- possible one of the most driven AUD R35 -they say at Nissan service. During the time I have done some basic mods like Willall Ti Exhaust, Cobb Intake, and Access Port with Custom Tune - thanks to Mercury Motorsport which I though it should not harm the car + willall racing transmission oil.

Anyway about the year ago I had first problem with the tranny. Car went to limp mode with 1,3,5 gear available. Went to the service -at 70km/hour speed. I've done some research on the net using error codes from AP which indicated faulty pressure sensor on clutch B.

According to US forums it is a common defect due to the poor design of those sensors (there are 3 of them in the gearbox), and Nissan does replacing faulty gearboxes even if there are (similar to my) modifications on the car. Did anyone in Australia had this problems with AU delivered model?

Well Apparently in Australia it is not a common issue at all and Nissan will not give a damn if you use Willall transmission oil or have a cobb AP installed.

They didnt even offer any option - jus left me with 2 year old $168k broken car on the street -after charging me $900 diagnostic fees to tell me what I already knew and told them in the first place.

I quickly discovered that Willall racing is making aftermarket sensors and already sold few hundreds of them across the word and even recommended the installed -Gavin Wood Autotech at GoldCoast. I went back to Nissan and askd Qualified GTR Tech if they can feet the sensor if I will deliver one- but they didn't have any idea where the sensors are -no comments, but they sure knew to charge me $900 diagnostic fee for it.

I had no option to go third party and Gavin fixed my car in no time, replacing all remaining sensors just in case and applying more upgrades to gearbox -recommended by Martin from Willall to make it stronger. By the way Gavin had already fixed quite a few R35s with similar problems and confirmed that it is poor design and common issue -which Nissan Australia cant yet see, and doesnt matter if you race or not -it can happen to anyone. Time heals all wounds but you do have it on the back of your had that it could happen again.

And it did - last week - and few weeks before my Nissan warranty ends. Was happy driving and stopped for a piss. Got back to the car and........Gearbox malfunction -visit the dealer - this time it was different -I had no reverse, 2,4 and sometime 6 gear available to come home with maximum speed of 67km/h on the highway -very good advertisement for Nissan's pride I assume+ had to be pushed out from the carpark at the front of the restaurant.

This time AP showed different error -P2714

Got it towed to Southport Nissan again and this time they told me straight away - Sorry we cant help you - you had willall oil, Cobb tune, and third party working on it.

so back to Gavin and currently waiting for the news

Did anyone faced similar problems? Is there anyone in Nissan who would care about Lemon like this- I could talk to? (I had also other issues which took long months to resolve under warranty) Im sure this is not good for their image -it is not to many of those cars and people talk about them with everyone they know.

Daniel

I too had a similar issue, however my experience was quite the opposite. It was taken care of thoroughly and rapidly by the dealership and Nissan Australia. They both exceeded my expectations. So well in fact I can barely remember it. I wasn't running a cobb or any miracle oil, and after reading of your experience don't think I ever will. Were you running the cobb with the TCU option as well as the ECU?

If the tcu was not configured to suit your tune & mods it will lunch the cog swapper and, I am sorry to say Nissan Aust. would be right to politely knock back the claim. Upon further investigation of the vocal cases in the US it seems that the majority of the cars were also once running tunes, often ECU only. (you may need to use goggle cache to find them as they seem to be otherwise deleted from forums & blogs) An early sign of this could be a "not so snappy" change into even gears. The TCU controls the ECU to turn the power almost off during the shiftand only turns it back on after the clutch is bound again. If the power comes back on too soon or didn't turn down low enough it WILL physically destroy boxes.

Keep an eye out for the lame shift!

Really we cant expect any manufacturer to back a third parties dodgy firmware / software. Out of curiosity, what warrantee does Cobb or others offer on the performance of their product? Choose the performance products that offer the backing! If their warrantee is short or limited, we should ask why? We want confidence and if the manufacturer of performance stuff has no confidence in their products I sure won't have confidence.

Enjoy your car, they are awesome.

Edited March 27, 2012 by Sumo BNR32

[domino_z]

cobb will only warranty a defective unit, not any damage it can cause

mod at your own risk

/thread

[Wardski]

cobb will only warranty a defective unit, not any damage it can cause

mod at your own risk

/thread

Bang on domino_z

I have to admit, after many years in the game, I'm thoroughly done with power modding cars. At the end of the day it ends in large bottomless holes in pockets and loads of heart aches.

.. And why power mod a GT-R? It will smash pretty much 99% of everything on the road in stock form (and if you're not, you're doing it wrong!). Sure it could use a little more noise (a midpipe fixes that pretty quick), and maybe a touch more low and some CF bits from RSW for the interior (if you have a 2009-2010 model)

Edited March 28, 2012 by Wardski

[DAN-ZE]

Hi guys

Thank you for all the response.

3 weeks later and the car is still at Gavin's Garage.

Gavin could not find the issue in the first few days so I picked it up .....and on my way back from Gold Coast to Brisbane - it happend again.

It looks like it is only happens after doing 70-80km so driving for an hour or more. Then when you stop and start the car again immiedietly it starts with an error P2714 and limp mode. Few hours later when it cools down -it comes good again.

It happend to me 3 times in 2 days, so I got it back to Gavin's Auto tech.

I had a bit of spelling mismatch in my original post.

"I had no option to go third party and Gavin fixed my car in no time, replacing all remaining sensors just in case and applying more upgrades to gearbox -recommended by Martin from Willall to make it stronger''

I actually ment that I had no other option but go to third party as Nissan didnt give me any, just left me with the diagnostics bill.

Anyway doesnt change a thing on the end of the day.

My Cobb Access Port doesnt mod the tranny -one of the first models.

Edited April 11, 2012 by DAN-ZE

[Wardski]

Dang..........

[dodgy]

Hi all , same transmission problem with my 2011 GTR , used willall oil and Nissan is denying warranty .

same problem no 2nd 4th or 6th gear went in limp mode .

Nissan does not say that the oil does not meet specs , or has damadged the gearbox , they simply void warranty

due to other oil was used .

Nissan refused to provide anything in writing , its " company policy not to privide anyhing in writing "

Nissan does not even know what is wrong with the transmission as they can not open them or repair them ,

but quck to deny a warranty calim due to oil . Cost of new transmission 45k according the Nissan .

So they can make the car just can not fix it .

lol

[ecl]

Very discouraging to hear that.

Have you gotten any quotes from independent workshops to fix the issue?