550 7 speed Gearboxes

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Donald Barton

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Hi you guys,
Have 2012 550 with 16000 km on the clock and have problem with slow change down to 4th even going across to S mode changes to late and goes to 3rd instead screaming its head off, this is while towing 1600kg caravan. Nissan dealership have reprogrammed my 550 early 2014 but still the same.
Complained to Nissan New Zealand and its me and not the 550 and said they have no issue with 550 gearboxes. Have there been any updates on the gearbox reprogramming.
I understand technical side N Z is now hook to Nissan Australia. Fighting a losing battle here.
Donald.
 
Welcome to the forum.

Had quite a few complaints about the 550 box - but all of them relate to how it still changes up from 1st to 2nd in manual mode once you're in 4LO, making steep off-road descents dangerous. I don't recall having heard of a slow downshift and if memory serves the 550 we took to the 2011 Muster was very spritely in its changes (as you should expect from a gearbox that comes out of a sports car).

I wonder if there's something wrong with the box? I mean something wrong with the valving, or something impeding the oil flow? Hard to know without disassembling the thing. Let's see what a few 550 owners have to say about it.
 
We find mashing the accelerator to the floor triggers the kickdown downshift.
But yeah, there are times when we have to manually push the shifter across into sports mode and drop the gear down.
We get this same issue with our pathfinder (same as d40) when going up steep hills.
 
There is a slight delay in mine some times, but it's not the gearbox, it's the turbo lag. Particularly on around abouts. You try to apply a bit of power and it does nothing, so you'll push the throttle down a little more - next thing it'll down shift and be revving it's head of for no reason. I think if you reduce the turbo lag it would definitely help.
It's a bit rediculous that we can figure out what wrong with a vehicle but Nissan's engineer can't fix this during development.
 
Turbo lag definitely accounts for some of the slowness in response even in mine, I've noticed mine will stay in higher gear unless I increase the throttle a bit more. I rarely use full throttle, though, so I don't get mad downshifts with high RPM.

Turbo lag is a result of several things. A TMIC will remove a lot of that because you can use hard pipes, but the intercooler itself introduces some lag, as does the time it takes to get the turbocharger up to speed. The larger the slower ... and it's going to be bigger than the YD25's turbo, so it'll be a little slower to respond.

It can't be TOO bad. Renault use the V9X in the Laguna (it went there before it went in the Navara) and it's used in some of the Infiniti range too. I wonder what gearboxes they're using ...
 
Yeah I'm sure it was the 350Z, but I wonder if that same box is in the Renault along with the engine? Maybe they used that drivetrain in the Infiniti models as well?
 
Donald

Hi Tony,
have looked at Tony 777 letter way back and seems there have been a few problems not only just in 1st and 2nd with it changing up but has a few other issues way back.
Thanks Donald.
 
And in low gears 1st 2nd and 3rd not much difference in the higher gears
 
I took mine to nissan just a couple of weeks ago to have them take a look at mine, its a sept 12 build with 36 thou on the clock now.

As the weather gets colder my gearbox becomes slower until it gets to temperature i.e it will hold gears for a lot longer before changing up, also when i put it in D in the garage it just sits there for what seems like ages and you can rev it just like its sat in neutral till it decides to set off nearly snapping your neck off!

Was told at nissan after some young scrote arseholed it round the block that there was nothing wrong with it and anything up to 5 seconds was in tolerance with nissans guidelines, so if I'm ever sat at traffic lights now and drop it out of D i have to do a NASA style countdown from 5 down to blast off!

I thought the gearbox was out of a 370Z? either way its irrelevant cos its absolute junk.
 
Hey, mines the same in the morning only sometimes.. Have a gearbox place across the road from work. Might slip over and have a chat.. In my 80 series, the synchro would start to get clunky, changing the oil to a different grade fixed it.. Maybe this could do the trick here.. Will let everyone know. Cheers..
 
Donald

Hi Adam,
re the 550 sitting in the garage after putting in R mine was the same but not as bad after Nissan reprograming things back early 2014. Would not go into 7th pulling caravan on the flat either in manual S or auto even doing 120km hour, would only go in sometimes has a mine of its own, that's now ok after 2014.
Have read your letter dated 26-1-2014 in forum and looks like nothing has changed for you. Hoping it had by now and that Nissan Australia had done a reprogram of gearbox. Nissan N Z the same here wont believe anything that's said. I don't hold a lot of hope with the discontinuation of the V6 diesel.
All V6 diesels now sold here in run out mode. New Navara due in June will give it a miss. I have spent over $200.000.00 with our dealer.
Let us know if you get any more info. All the best Donald.
 
Hello donald, it's the first time since the first 'free service' it's been back there as i can't deal with them they were getting seriously bad for my health! read back at some of my previous posts for some of the issues i have had with them.

I think i need to go back and insist on the upgrade for the gearbox. I may try my luck for the sat nag upgrading free too for all the hassle they have caused me!
 
I thought the gearbox was out of a 370Z? either way its irrelevant cos its absolute junk.

It's not irrelevant cause if it if the same gearbox out of either the 350z or 370z, pretty much means it's a programming problem and both those cars have been highly modded over the years so I'm sure there would be some after market company that would be able to remap the ecm to fix the shift issue and possibly reprogram the upchange while in 4low. we just need to try and find one.
 

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