Wrecked my 96 Maxima last night--what did I break and how to fix it?

[thoboyz]

Well, as come of you may know, I've had some transmission problems that my insurance was supposed to fix. They gave me the car back with the O/D light flashing and stuff but said not to worry about it and that it was "nothing"--I didnt believe them, so I was planning on calling the adjuster to see if I could take it to the Nissan dealer instead...

WELL, last night my transmission started acting up again and the automatic would not shift down to first. Even starting off from a stop light, the transmission would start in second gear no matter what I did... I had the gas floored for 20 seconds just to get me up to speed, and I even tried downshifting to "L" or "1" to try to get it in first, but it still didn't work...

So I was on the way home, I had to do a u-turn... As I was doing the u-turn, I had the gas pressed in more than normal, because it was in second gear and I didnt want the on-coming traffic to hit me or anything... WELL, right as I was almost finished with the u-turn, something popped and the gear downshifted to 1st... Now you can image what happened... With all that gas applied and it suddenly being in first, the tires slipped and caused my car to slide. It didnt help that it was raining and the roads were already wet... Car slid a little bit to the right and the front right tire hit the curb... The tire was ripped open so I pulled right over. As I went to put the spare on, I noticed that there was a BIG gap in the front of the wheel well and barely any space behind the wheel in the wheel well-- I actually had to turn the steering to the left to get the bad tire off!

Then I saw what happend... Something got bent in there. I wish I knew the name of what it was so I could do a search for a new part or how to fix it. Had a buddy there with me and he said it was the "A-Frame". Anyways, I'll post some pics of it tonight and hopefully you guys can see what I'm talking about and maybe know what that part is called...

Had to have the car towed, so I decided to have it towed to my house, hoping that me and my friend can fix it... He seemed convinced that we could because he just had his A-Frame replaced with the hlep of his Dad, and his Dad said that he'd help us out a little bit too...


Thanks everyone,
-Andrew
-Bummed out Maxima Driver


P.S. Since the insurance company gave me a warrenty of 3 years on that transmission, and they were supposed to fix the transmission last week, and obviously they didnt, do you think I should call them and try to get them to take care of this... Because it really is kinda their fault... If the car shop would have fixed the transmission in the first place, none of this would have happened... PLUS, this car shop works real closely with the insurance company... The insurance company actually suggested that I take it there in the first place...

[Nahkapohjola]

Not too bad if A is the only thing. But u need some reeal tools... and band-aid for fingers.

As u describe, the fault seems to be the tranny/tranny shop/insurer. But I doubt they will not listen. Still try to get the towing/parts at least...

[street_racer_00]

you probably bent up the tie rod as well

[thoboyz]

OK, here are the pics... As you can see in picture 7 through 13-- This is the main "thing" that I found bent... Not sure of the name... Buddy of mine said it was an "A-Frame" but I searched all over the net for a replacement, and couldnt find anything... I couldnt even find a picture of one to make sure that the part pictured below was really an "A-Frame" --My buddy also suggested that we might beable to bend it back in place...

In picture 14, there is some rod with a boot on each end... This looks bent, as you can see from the boot, but is it broken, or does it just move around like that, and if the other peice above gets fixed, it will just move back into place..

Finally, the last picture is one more pic of that darn frame or whatever...

PLEASE HELP!!!

[i3o2Matt]

wow...no that is not the A-frame...whatever he was talkin about...unless he was talkin about the little frame that is directly under the engine...

but anyway...from what i see just glancing at the pix...u bent ur tie rod (that rod with the boots on the ends), sway bar and the rod connected to it, ur lower control arm, might need a new strut and bend the part its bolted to back in place (not positive tho)...and it looks like you might want to replace ur CV boot...

[Gateway]

definitely bitch to the transmission shop, if the tranny was acting up like that, they should fix it.

[street_racer_00]

Originally Posted by i3o2Matt

but anyway...from what i see just glancing at the pix...u bent ur tie rod (that rod with the boots on the ends)

You mean I was right!?!?!? I guess there's a first time for everything.

[thoboyz]

Well, I went to the auto shop, which the insurance refered me to in the fisrt place and told him what happened... The manager came out too to hear the story... He said they'd have to look at it b4 he could say anything, and asked if I could bring it down... So I told him that I had to get it towed home! After asking where my car was, he asked for the key and called the tow truck to go get it... My house called me later at work and told me they picked up the car.. (Tow truck bent my nice metal mud flaps I added too :-( But that's the least of my worries...)

Should be getting a call back from the auto shop tommorow... The thing is though, this shop didnt even work on the tranny---they just kept shipping it off down the street to a transmission shop, but they were the middle man of everything...

So we'll see what happens and pray for the best... Cause I really dont have the extra $$$ to dish out and it sucks not havin a ride!!


Thanks everyone! :-)

[i3o2Matt]

dude...i just realized that u hit hard enough to knock the sway bar out of its socket and u popped the sidewall of the tire...but lookin at it again...the tie rod doesn't APPEAR to be bent...but it could be anyway...i would deff. fight with the trans shop to pay for the damages...since it IS their fault. if ur car wasn't stuck in second...you wouldn't have done it how u did.

and a lot of small mechanic shops ship the tranny jobs to a third party...

i go to school for auto mechanics and i worked in a small shop...so i kno how it is...

[thoboyz]

Well, still no word from Coxton's (the car shop...aka the middle man in this whole thing...) -They said they'd call me on Tuesday, but didnt... And I still havent heard from them today... hopefully they call tommorow... :-\

[thoboyz]

Pissed of Maxima Driver says:

Well, I called Coxton's... The middle man in this whole thing... The guy there told me that they sent it back down to the transmission shop who put the car up in the air and said they could shift through all the gears just fine. He also told me that they wrote up an estimate for the damages which came to $4000. The finally told me that they talked to the insurance guy who said that this could not be fixed on the current claim and that it would have to be reported as a new claim. --Problem is, I'm still on the parents insurance (in college) and my Dad said that NOTHING is getting reported to insurance, because this would cause his rates to raise... not just mine...

The thing that bothers me though, it that it's NOT the insurance's problem... The insurance company shouldn’t really have to pay for all of this... I mean, if I was just having this work done myself and this happened, I'd be going after the transmission shop... So that's what I was wondering...
Do you think I should call a lawyer and see about taking this to small claims court if I don't get a resolution?
If so, who would I go after?
Tranny shop?
Coxton's (the middle man, recomended to me by insurance)?
Insurance Company?

I just typed up a 2 page report and talked about EVERYTHING that has happened since a year ago when the transmission was originally replaced. I am going to call the insurance company next week and schedule a meeting with somebody so we can sit down and try to work this out... If that doesn’t work, WHAT AM I EVER TO DO??? I just don't have $4000 to dish out!! And I need my car for work and school!


Thanks everyone,
Andrew

[infinman]

You stated that your trans would start in 2nd gear only.With the o/d light flashing.Your transmission shifting is controlled by a control unit{computer}When the control unit sees something it doesn't like{fault}it goes to a limp-in mode{failsafe} for safety reasons.You should never have got your vehicle back in this state.A flashing 0/d light means a malfunction with transmission control.