O/D Overdrive light flashes on and off 16 times

[thoboyz]

Hey everyone. Here's the story... I just got my transmission replaced about a year ago, and my insurance paid for it. It was a used transmission, so the insurance company gave me a warrenty with it. The reason it was replaced, was because I only had a 1st gear and sometimes second (it is an automatic)

I've been riding around for about a year now, but about a month ago, when it started getting cold, I noticed that it was stall after starting the car in the morning and putting it into gear. It really suprised me, because I've NEVER had the car stall on me... Even on days that it wasnt cold, I'd have to push my left foot on the brake and give it a little bit of gas, then put it in gear, and slowly let off the brake while keeping my foot on the gas. Then, for about 3 minutes, everytime I'd come to a stop sign, the car would shudder like crazy and sometimes stall out. During this period, I also noticed the tranmission would really slip when changing from 2nd to 3rd gear... It was like right when the gear was about to change, the RPM would go up higher than normal, and then it would change gears... I think this is what slipping is...

Anyways, about 2 weeks later, I came to a stop sign, but when I started accelerating, I saw I had no power. I could tell the car was not in 1st gear, but it should be, because I was just sitting at the stop sign, completely stopped. I slowed down and manually put it in 1st using the shifter, and tried to accelerate, but the car just barely rolled forward with the RPMs at like 4000. I tried everything... Put it in park, neutral, turned off the car, reverse didnt work. I finally resorted to putting it in neutral and reving up too about 3000 RPMs and popping it into drive... that seemed to work and I was able to get home.

I went on with my week and was planning on calling the shop to see what was up, but then one day, after starting from a stop light, the car just quite shifting... It went to first, and then second, but nothing else after that... THIS WAS THE SAME PROBLEM that I had a year ago when I got my tranny fixed replaced the first time. So I took it back into the shop and I got a call later saying my torque convertor was bad and was going to be replaced. That's about all of what I was told, but I'm sure I can call and ask them what else they did to it this time. I actually noticed tonight that there was this new little shinny minature radiator in front on my regular radiator... I'm guessing they added this for me to cool the transmission fluid...

Anyways, they gave my me car back 2 weeks ago, but right as I was driving out of the lot I already noticed some things. The first I noticed was the brakes... They were REALLY touchy... Dont know what this has to do with anything, but I did noticed that (they are back to normal now). The second thing I noticed was at 45MPH (ok...actually about 55MPH) my RPMs seemed higher than normal... So I turned off and on the Overdrive switch but nothing happened. no change in RPM level or did I feel any shifting or whatever the overdrive does. I also noticed is that even if I put it in manual 1st or manual 2nd, the transmission just went ahead and shifted normally. The last thing I noticed was that EVERYTIME I got back in my car and started it up, the overdrive light on the dash would flash on and off 16 times.

So I took it back and said my guess was that something was not hooked up correctly... I also mentioned the O/D light flashing, and the tranmission guy TOLD ME that it was some type of warning code... I also seemed to see a LITTLE bit of slipping, but it wasnt much at all... it was nothing comparred to the slipping I had in the first place...

I got a call at the end of last week saying it was ready to pickup. The said the O/D button was fixed and the shifter was fixed. When I asked about the flashing overdrive light, the guy at the repair shop got really defensive and started saying, "Look! I've had 6 guys take this thing out on the interstate and test it, and they all said it was fine!!!.......etc etc etc." ---So I told him, "OK, you're the professional... I trust you, because you know way more about cars than I do, so I trust you when you say that the O/D light that flashes 16 times everytime I put my car in choke means nothing and that I dont have to worry about it."

So I got my car back, and sure enough, the manual 1st and 2nd was hooked up, and so was the O/D switch, BUT (correct me if I'm wrong) --I was pretty sure that when I use to turn that O/D switch on, the RPMs would go lower twice... To me it looked like it was upshifting twice to a higher gear... And the over drive light still flashed 16 times everytime the car is put in choke...

I was thinking about taking to the Nissan dealership and asking them what they thought, but the thing is... if the tranmission goes out again in the next 3 years, I get ANOTHER ONE under warrenty...



SO, just wanted to know your thoughts on that... My major concern is that flashing O/D light.... how could that NOT be important??? and sorry for being so long...


Thanks,
Andrew

[Nahkapohjola]

Originally Posted by thoboyz

...
SO, just wanted to know your thoughts on that... My major concern is that flashing O/D light.... how could that NOT be important??? and sorry for being so long...
Thanks,
Andrew

Warning lights are installed to warn from smtg, do not believe if mechs cannot find the trouble.

You do not tell the make/model/miles on u car...

The tranny is computer controlled, TCU. It controls solenoids which are responsible of possible slip etcetc.

see what might be behind, even in new cars:
http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/748507/14
http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/748507/15


...but do no expect the macho service guys to do anything on that.

.

[thoboyz]

Originally Posted by Nahkapohjola

Warning lights are installed to warn from smtg,

What is smtg?

You do not tell the make/model/miles on u car...

It's a 1996 Nissan Maxima GLE with 120,000 miles.

[THT]

http://forums.maxima.org/showpost.ph...3&postcount=30

~THT

[thoboyz]

Wow... Thanks a bunch, THT... That's exactly what I needed... So I followed that prodecure, hoping I was doing everything right, and sure enought I got one long flash and then got the other 10 flashes...

It turns out that the 2nd flash was longer than any of the others, which means
"Speed sensor circuit is shorted or disconnected."

So is this speed sensor hooked up to the transmission? That would be my guess....

BUT, this also goes along pretty well with the error codes from my check engine light that Advance Auto Parts gave me today. The first time, I had 4 trouble codes:

1) P0500
Veh Speed Sensor A
Malfunction

2) Knock Sensor 1
Circuit Malfunction
Bank 1 or Sensor 1

3) IAT Sensor (Intake Air Temp.)
Circuit Malfunction

4) Trans Range Sensor
Circuit Malfunction
(PRNDL Input)


The auto guy then went out and deleted all the codes, started up the car, then waited fo rthe check engine light to come back on, and the read the codes again. This second time the only error was the IAT Sensor---which is my fault because I havent figured out a good way to mount the stock temp. sensor unit in my new cold-air intake I got off eBay.

So anyways, I think I'll take the car back to Advance Auto Parts on Wed and get my check engine read again, to see if all the other codes returned after driving it for a while...

If so, I'm going to the insurance company with all this stuff I've learned and telling them that I want to take my car to a different place to get it fixed this time... especailly since the last guy told me this "flashing overdrive light is not a big deal" and that I should not worry about it... I'm not a real mechanic, but it sounds like to me, a "Speed sensor circuit" in kinda important...


Any insight you guys have would be appreciated...
Thanks again,
Andrew

[THT]

Speed sensor is important because our auto trannies are speed-dependent in terms of when to shift. As for the IAT, plug it in and leave tape it to the intake. That's what I've seen and read people do with the Injen. Also, the knock sensor code may come back but will not cause the CEL to come on. The only way to find out if it's there is to manually check.

~THT

[street_racer_00]

*plugs ears* LALALALALA not listening to people who have problems with the auto trannys in their maximas LALALALALALA...everytime I hear a problem like this, I get more and more worried about my own transmission, ugh.

[thoboyz]

Lmao!!!

[THT]

Problem with the auto tranny is the perfect excuse to convert. I'm hoping mine will fall out lol

~THT

[street_racer_00]

lol, if my auto tranny takes a dump, how expensive would it be to put like a 5.5 gen 6-speed in there?

[street_racer_00]

Oh yeah, one more thing...I've only driven a stick like..twice...in my life *ducks rotten tomatos being thrown*

[THT]

If you can find a donor car and do the swap yourself, about $1K. The manuals are so much faster than autos.

~THT

[street_racer_00]

When you say do-it-yourself...meaning without assistance of a licensed mechanic? Yeesh...and when you say "donor car"...you mean a wrecked one, correct?

[THT]

Right, you get your hands dirty and do the work. And by donor car, it'd probably be a wrecked one. Just ask them to pull all transmission related parts as you need to do an auto to manual swap. They'll know what to do.

~THT

[i3o2Matt]

u kno wats funny? I fixed a problem somewhat like this where I used to work...we did a frame swap on a '00 Lincoln (I did most of it), then the car started shifting hard into second even at low speeds. two mechanics in our shop drove the car n couldn't figure it out. I drove it and noticed that I was supposedly stopped (digital dash-0 mph), but I was actually doing approx. 45 mph. I got back, told them, they plugged in the speed sensor...and the car worked perfectly.

As for your car...it does sound like the torque convertor (at least where the car wants to stall when putting it in gear) since i've driven a car with a shot torque convertor...I had to do the same thing (hold the brake hard and give it a bit of gas and put it into D) to get it moving without stalling...I looked like an ass...lol but anyway...does your car's speedometer work?