Posted: Jun 05 2008 at 7:06pm | IP Logged

I bought a used 2003 Frontier last year with 85K miles on it. It’s a V6, 5 speed manual transmission. It had no receiver on it so I assumed no one towed with it.

It now has 105K miles on it and its getting increasingly hard to shift. It’s not consistent though, so I can't tell if I just need a clutch, to rebuild the tranny, or what. I get mixed advice from different people so I wanted to get your input.

Most of the time it’s difficult to get into first gear. I have to really work it in there if I want to get it in. A lot of times I'll just take off in 2nd to avoid it. Sometimes though it will go in super smooth like a normal truck. Once I start going up the gears it shifts okay. Sometimes I'll be shifting, and I don't know if I let the clutch out too soon, but occasionally it will kick back out of gear. Also, sometimes when I'm coming to a stop and I have the clutch in and I've put the gear shifter back into first it will start to grind as I slow down, even with the clutch all the way in. I've also notice that sometimes when I take off its almost like I let the clutch out to fast and I lurch a little bit, but it feels like I'm letting it out like I always do.

I've changed the clutch fluid and I had the tranny oil changed a couple months ago.

105K miles seems low to have to replace the clutch or a tranny. I had a Chevy s-10 before this and the tranny went out before the clutch did at 190K miles (I towed more then I should have with it tho). I haven't towed anything with my Nissan yet.

Thanks

Posted: Jun 05 2008 at 9:03pm | IP Logged

well one thing ive noticed on nissan transmissions is that you almost have to be at a dead stop to get it back into first. If your going fast enough to make it grind you should probably throw it into 2nd. Nissan put low enough gears in most of the frontiers to allow them to be put in second at low speeds and even from a dead stop sometimes.

Did you flush out the tranny and put new transmission fluid in it when you bought it? Thats always a good thing to do when you buy a new vehicle. And also it might not have the right fluid in it. Im not sure on the v6 manual trannys but on the 4 banger ones you have to use a GL-4 fluid not the typical GL-5 that most auto parts stores carry. I know if you are running  GL-5 in a nissan 4 banger MT it will wear out the synchros in your tranny pretty quick causing you not to be able to shift worth a crap.

As far as life of a clutch(especialy when you buy a used vehicle), im sure you already know it depends alot on how the person before you drove it. I had to replace mine at about 150k and i ran 32" TSLs, 30"T birds, and some  31"Mud Tracs on mine and i dawged mine in the mud all the time. A friend of mine bought a 97 HB with 87k on it and he had to replace the clutch and tranny @ 95k.

and if its popping out of gear more times than not its a clutch problem, and from what you are describing about it it seems like its starting to go bad. Mine would grind about twice a day when it started to go bad, then some times not go into gear as good at a dead stop. Its just one of those things you need to keep an eye on.   Hope i could help you out some, and hope all goes well fixing your problem.

Posted: Jun 06 2008 at 5:42pm | IP Logged

I couldnt find any GL-4 fluid at any of my local auto parts stores, one of them said that they didnt carry it bc of little demand for it, and some just simple had no clue what i was talking about. I bought mine from RedlineSynthetic.com(think thats right). Meybe you can find some near by you so you dont have to order it. Napa could very well carry it alot of gues on another nissan board buy alot of thier stuff there, but we dont have a Napa where i live so im not to sure.

My friend with the 97HB had his tranny rebuilt and a new clutch put in and it was around $1500. You might could find it cheaper, the main theig that racks the price up is having to remove alot of stuff to get to the clutch. I think the book calls fror 8-10hours of labor, so reguardless of time spent thier gonna charge you that. When i had my clutch done i took it to a friend of mines exaust shop/repair shop and he allowed me to help him so i didnt have to pay hardly anything. I got real lucky.