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What does your AT feel like?


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Hi,

 

I just bought a 93 Loyale wagon - as some of you know and have helped me out(thank you!) - but the automatic transmission worries me a bit. I just took it in to get serviced, it has 85,000 miles on it and the dealer just said that it shifted "normal for it's age" Hmmm...

 

What mine does is surge, or jump into second - often times hard, like you're driving over a little bump in the road. It will do less going into third, but still some. Seems like it's more around town and less when accelerating fully through - like on an onramp or something.

 

Anyway, I'm just curious to know, from all those who have a similar vintage/tranny, what your shifting feels like? And hopefully it will give me some insight into whether I need some serious work on it or not.

 

Many thanks in advance!

Kevin

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Hi,

 

I just bought a 93 Loyale wagon - as some of you know and have helped me out(thank you!) - but the automatic transmission worries me a bit. I just took it in to get serviced, it has 85,000 miles on it and the dealer just said that it shifted "normal for it's age" Hmmm...

 

What mine does is surge, or jump into second - often times hard, like you're driving over a little bump in the road. It will do less going into third, but still some. Seems like it's more around town and less when accelerating fully through - like on an onramp or something.

 

Anyway, I'm just curious to know, from all those who have a similar vintage/tranny, what your shifting feels like? And hopefully it will give me some insight into whether I need some serious work on it or not.

 

Many thanks in advance!

Kevin

 

Thats a fairly accurate description of how the FWD 3AT shifted in my 88 Twagon.. It never got any worse, but it never got any better either:-p

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Mine act like fairly typical small-car ATs. One was pretty much DOA when I bought the car, barely limped it home; changed horribly burnt (and low) fluid, cleaned up the governor valve, replaced vacuum-modulator, and it runs like a champ. Another had 6 forward gears; changed rank-smelling fluid, vacuum modulator, cleaned valve body, and worked the jammed part (band, I think) loose. Also works fine.

 

There is no filter on these trannies, so clean fluid is real important. Lots of problems seem to be caused by dirty fluid. Remember that just draining the fluid pan only removes about half of the fluid.

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My understanding is that, at least for the USA market, the Loyale (L-series) only got the 4EAT in turbo models. (I don't think that we got any turbo Loyales in 93.)

 

Yes, I think that is right. From what I understand on here (and in the car) it only has 3 speeds. Although there is a passing gear of some sort - will rev up to 5-6000rpm if need be, then back down afterward. I actually didn't find this out passing anyone exactly, just on steep mountain passes when I needed to keep minimum speed up! :rolleyes:

 

These responses help me - thanks. The fluid did get changed, but I don't think the mechanic did anything else with the filter, governor, etc. So I will look into the rest - something I can do? Also, is this a tranny that is really prone to failure at some point as Turbone suggested?

 

Thanks again!

Kevin

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Although there is a passing gear of some sort - will rev up to 5-6000rpm if need be, then back down afterward. I actually didn't find this out passing anyone exactly, just on steep mountain passes when I needed to keep minimum speed up! :rolleyes:

 

sounds to me like it's just downshifting to 2nd...

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I've had two 3ATs--one in an '83 wagon and the one I have now, they both shifted the same, at too low a speed and hard, like dumping the clutch on a manual. The '93 with 20 more hp is tolerable, but I'm spoiled from the '86 Toyota truck I had, the shift points were much better and everything was smoother (too bad the engine went kaflooey). If it's shifting with no other hangups, it's probably OK, just not optimum.

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... but I'm spoiled from the '86 Toyota truck I had, the shift points were much better and everything was smoother...

BTW, the tranny "core" was probably the same as the 3AT. JATCO makes pretty much all of them, and I think both Nissan and Toyota used the same core as Subaru.

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My 3at from my 83 wagon also shifted very hard, but it was severely un-loved, and it often wouldn't shift into 3rd at all. I'd say a good clean may have fixed it, but I changed it to a manual anyway.

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