QuestionQUESTION: Hello,
I have 98 Nissan Altima automatic. My car was fine in the morning, but when I drove in the evening today, I encountered a problem, My gears won't shift. I can only go 20mph but not more than that. If I give more gas than my rpm goes high may be 4000rpm. I had never been in this situation before. Please let me know the cheap way to fix it.
I washed my car in the morning, may be there is water in the engine, should I wait until water dries out.
Please let me know the solution as soon as possible.
Thank You.
ANSWER: Swapnil,
If it is a manual transmission the clutch needs to be replaced and if it is an automatic then you need to go to a shop to get it diagnosed as it sounds like it is hanging in first gear and the governor is stuck or the transmission shift computer is not working properly. Transmission shops have a computer to check the system and this one is different from the one that is used for checking smog codes.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Thank You for your quick response.
It sounds very expensive, Is there anyway I can do it for cheap. My car has automatic transmission, can I try it by myself or I have to go to transmission shop.
ANSWER: Swapnil,
First, get the codes read at a transmission shop. This will let you know what needs to be done since the computer codes should show the exact problem. To rebuild your transmission you are looking at over $1000 bucks or more. Another option, depending on what you find with the codes, is to replace your transmission with a used one.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: I went to transmission shop. They diagnosed my car and found many problems other than transmission. My Throttle positioning sensor (TPS) was not working and several more but he didn't tell me. He said TPS might solve the problem and if not than you have to spend more money on rest of the problems, right now he is charging me $350 with labor charges. He was not sure weather this is the main problem or not but we had an conversation that we have to start from somewhere. So, this would be the starting point and things doesn't get better than we have to work more.
I am thinking, if things won't work as expected than should I try to find what are the remaining problems and ask you to how to fix it and try to understand some from Google search too and fix it by myself. Because right now I am broke. I can't afford 1000-1500 bucks on old car with more than 200,000 miles on it. Is this a good idea?
Please let me know.
Thank You.
AnswerSwapnil,
It is true that the computer gets information from engine sensors and uses that to adjust the transmission. Now, I would think a throttle position switch could cause some of the problems you described with the information that it was a code that set on the computer. Now, if the $350 gets you running I would do it and go from there. If it comes down to a transmission down the road I would get one from a wrecking yard to save since you should be able to pick one up for under $250.
