26th Oct 2011, 21:00
I have the same problem right now with my 2004 Nissan Maxima. My mechanic said it was a cam timing solenoid problem that was causing it to seem to slip out of gear for a few seconds while accelerating, and then slam into gear. He said it was caused by the cam timing gear having sludge in it, and not being able to advance and retard properly. I replaced a couple of sensors, and it worked for a while, and then it got much worse. It would jerk through two gear shifts while accelerating, and jerk really hard during hard braking while downshifting.
Finally during city driving with all this going on, if it made to 5th gear, it would get stuck there at a stop and would not go into 1st (even when I switched to auto stick). So I would have to put it in park and shut it off (at a stop light) and turn it back on to get back in first.
Today it finally wouldn't go any where, forward or reverse. Even in neutral it's stuck (unless the engine is off, then it will roll). I called my mechanic today and he said it sounds 2 gears are engaged at the same time and it will most likely need a rebuild. What really sucks is it only has 97,234 miles on it, and when I bought new in 04, they claimed it wouldn't need any major servicing for 100,000 miles. I figured I would get at least 200,000 miles out of it before I needed to make major repairs, yet here I am.
A funny side note is I have company vehicle that I drive every day. It's a 2004 Ford Taurus SEL V6 (pulls really hard too, comparable to my Maxima but still not faster) and has 189,529 miles on it, and it runs like brand new. All I have ever had to do to it is change the oil (correction, my employer takes care of that).
28th Sep 2011, 22:38
I have the exact same problem with my 2001 Maxima.
You might want to take it to Auto Zone or anywhere with an in-depth OBD scanner, and have it checked for current and/or pending codes such as a P0720, which is a speed sensor. It may be malfunctioning, and in need or replacement. That was the case in my car, and may be the same in yours.
I have an 04 and 01 Maxima, 95 Altima and a 1999 Infiniti Q45, and of all these Nissan products, that was the only problem I encountered in the past 3-4 years.
Hope that helped, good luck.