R35 Gearbox Issues

[GT-R OZ]

It seems that if you have a problem with your transmission and it's covered by warranty they're just going to replace it. The techs here obviously haven't been trained to repair these transmissions or Nissan Japan wants them back to find out where they're failing, I believe it's the same in the States as well. Would be interested in other people's thoughts on this.

[Wardski]

.........In the US, Nissan don't touch the trannies if they are warranty covered. They just replace them. Same goes for here from what I know. .

I just quoted myself lol

Edited April 16, 2012 by Wardski

[domino_z]

It seems that if you have a problem with your transmission and it's covered by warranty they're just going to replace it. The techs here obviously haven't been trained to repair these transmissions or Nissan Japan wants them back to find out where they're failing, I believe it's the same in the States as well. Would be interested in other people's thoughts on this.

the problem initially when the car was first released was Borg Warner not releasing replacement parts, this limited what could be done in the aftermarket, so the blown box stories were scaring everybody. Now we even have aftermarket companies manufacturing stronger internal parts

the decision to replace the whole box rather than open it up is borne from a letigation stand point. As i commented before in this thread, having a third party work on someone else's part is just asking for trouble, and it's no different at the dealer level - Nissan Aus is the third party in this case, and they will charge the work back to Nissan Japan who will charge the work back to Borg Warner.

this dealer theory in replacing items rather than repairing is common place these days regardless of warranty work or not - if you want to have a go at repairing anything these days you need to go aftermarket

Edited April 16, 2012 by domino_z

[Wardski]

^ this + others in the US have mentioned that Nissan take every bad transmission and study the reason behind the failure based on the vehicle information provided (eg, stock or upgraded, where, how, and what was the driver doing when it failed, black box readings, car service history, etc). This information is apparently then used to assist in future model equipment updates..

Whether this is true or not remains to be seen. Aftermarket guys in the US who have disected various models transmissions have noted that there have been no major changes since the 2008 release. Instead, what has changed is the LC transmission software.

Edited April 16, 2012 by Wardski

[domino_z]

The latest car has a stronger shift fork according to marketing speel

[Wardski]

The latest car has a stronger shift fork according to marketing speel

Indeed.... Would also be nice if they fixed all the sensor and solenoid issues too. AFAIK these are the most frequent failure modes in "non-brutalised" stock cars, which unfortunately makes me a little concerned once the 3 years warranty on mine expires...

[GT-R OZ]

So basically what Nissan are saying is, after your 3 year warranty is over, 'piss off'! We're not going to offer you the option of purchasing additional manufacturers warranty, if you have any problems with your transmission we will charge you $20k++ to replace it. We will also charge ridiculously over inflated prices for any other parts and services you're going to need. Surely if you want continue to get a return on your investment (ie: the cost of setting up these dedicated service centres) you would offer the option of purchasing more warranty so people keep bringing the car back to you for servicing? Extended warranty is available in other countries where the R35 is sold, why not here in Australia?

[Wardski]

So basically what Nissan are saying is, after your 3 year warranty is over, 'piss off'! We're not going to offer you the option of purchasing additional manufacturers warranty, if you have any problems with your transmission we will charge you $20k++ to replace it. We will also charge ridiculously over inflated prices for any other parts and services you're going to need. Surely if you want continue to get a return on your investment (ie: the cost of setting up these dedicated service centres) you would offer the option of purchasing more warranty so people keep bringing the car back to you for servicing? Extended warranty is available in other countries where the R35 is sold, why not here in Australia?

Nissan offer a luxurious 5 year, 60,000mile drive train warranty in the US, but we only get a 3 year, 100,000kms kms one. Nissan have also issued an additional warranty free of charge for the in dash speedo/revs/fuel gauge back lit system as the fuel light has been known to fail.

So, we are kinda in the dark with all the known issues affecting stock cars (ie, who knows when they will happen), and currently the GT-R is the only vehicle in Nissan Australia's range where there is no extended warranty offered. As far as why it's not offered, I'll be asking this question at my next service...

http://www.nissan.com.au/webpages/owning/Service_Nissan-Genuine-Extended-Warranty.html

Based on the way I baby all my cars, I think if an additional 2 years was offered (at a reasonable price based on condition at the 3 year mark) then I would probably take it - just for the piece of mind.

Edited April 18, 2012 by Wardski

[Silvia_s15]

I too had a similar issue, however my experience was quite the opposite. It was taken care of thoroughly and rapidly by the dealership and Nissan Australia. They both exceeded my expectations. So well in fact I can barely remember it. I wasn't running a cobb or any miracle oil, and after reading of your experience don't think I ever will. Were you running the cobb with the TCU option as well as the ECU?

If the tcu was not configured to suit your tune & mods it will lunch the cog swapper and, I am sorry to say Nissan Aust. would be right to politely knock back the claim. Upon further investigation of the vocal cases in the US it seems that the majority of the cars were also once running tunes, often ECU only. (you may need to use goggle cache to find them as they seem to be otherwise deleted from forums & blogs) An early sign of this could be a "not so snappy" change into even gears. The TCU controls the ECU to turn the power almost off during the shiftand only turns it back on after the clutch is bound again. If the power comes back on too soon or didn't turn down low enough it WILL physically destroy boxes.

Keep an eye out for the lame shift!

Really we cant expect any manufacturer to back a third parties dodgy firmware / software. Out of curiosity, what warrantee does Cobb or others offer on the performance of their product? Choose the performance products that offer the backing! If their warrantee is short or limited, we should ask why? We want confidence and if the manufacturer of performance stuff has no confidence in their products I sure won't have confidence.

Enjoy your car, they are awesome.

[Silvia_s15]

Hi sumo, you said lame shift, my Gtr sometimes if you change gears from 1st to 2nd it will like go into neutral but there is no throttle response and no drive. Is that what you mean? Mine also does what another guy said where depening on how much throttle you have down eg. If you have 75% down and you change early say about 3000rpm it won't change up and the gear selector no flashers. It's almost like the car is saying " you have a lot of throttle down why do you want to change so early" so it doesn't change up.

I too had a similar issue, however my experience was quite the opposite. It was taken care of thoroughly and rapidly by the dealership and Nissan Australia. They both exceeded my expectations. So well in fact I can barely remember it. I wasn't running a cobb or any miracle oil, and after reading of your experience don't think I ever will. Were you running the cobb with the TCU option as well as the ECU?

If the tcu was not configured to suit your tune & mods it will lunch the cog swapper and, I am sorry to say Nissan Aust. would be right to politely knock back the claim. Upon further investigation of the vocal cases in the US it seems that the majority of the cars were also once running tunes, often ECU only. (you may need to use goggle cache to find them as they seem to be otherwise deleted from forums & blogs) An early sign of this could be a "not so snappy" change into even gears. The TCU controls the ECU to turn the power almost off during the shiftand only turns it back on after the clutch is bound again. If the power comes back on too soon or didn't turn down low enough it WILL physically destroy boxes.

Keep an eye out for the lame shift!

Really we cant expect any manufacturer to back a third parties dodgy firmware / software. Out of curiosity, what warrantee does Cobb or others offer on the performance of their product? Choose the performance products that offer the backing! If their warrantee is short or limited, we should ask why? We want confidence and if the manufacturer of performance stuff has no confidence in their products I sure won't have confidence.

Enjoy your car, they are awesome.

[GT-R OZ]

It will be interesting to see what happens to the value of the ADM cars after they are 3 years old with no on going support from Nissan Aust. (no extended warranty available) and why would you go to them anyway when they just replace and not repair (ie: 20k+ for a tranny) Obviously there are specialists around that can work on the R35 but they're not available everywhere. Anybody know anyone who specialises in R35 repairs in Canberra?

[Wardski]

It will be interesting to see what happens to the value of the ADM cars after they are 3 years old with no on going support from Nissan Aust. (no extended warranty available) and why would you go to them anyway when they just replace and not repair (ie: 20k+ for a tranny) Obviously there are specialists around that can work on the R35 but they're not available everywhere. Anybody know anyone who specialises in R35 repairs in Canberra?

I know for sure I won't be keeping mine after the wty is gone, unless Nissan can convince me to. The interesting thing is that you'll find 2nd hand Dealer certified 2009 and 2010 GT-R's with 2-3 years additional warranty... So does that mean I need to sell mine to Nissan, then buy it back to get dealer certified lol?

It's not the only "super car" out there with the "no extended warranty" issue. Audi R8's, Porsche 911 GT2's and 3's are in the same boat.

But for sure the real issue here is why no "consistency" country to country with the Warranty?? Nissan needs to explain themselves.

Edited April 22, 2012 by Wardski

[GT-R OZ]

Didn't know dealers were selling 2nd hand one's with 2 to 3 years extra warranty. Do you know if this is a full manufacturers warranty covering everything and can be serviced at any GT-R dealer? or is it a dealer specific warranty where the car must be serviced by them with $ limits and/or exclusions?

[Wardski]

Didn't know dealers were selling 2nd hand one's with 2 to 3 years extra warranty. Do you know if this is a full manufacturers warranty covering everything and can be serviced at any GT-R dealer? or is it a dealer specific warranty where the car must be serviced by them with $ limits and/or exclusions?

When I was in the hunt for a late build 2010 or 2011 in Nov last year, I contacted a few dealers in WA and NSW who had low kms 2009's. They offered them as recertified Nissan GTR's and a few of the dealers offered an extended warranty on top of the balance after I told them I was not interested unless I had at least 3 years to cover the unknowns. So, some Nissan dealers do offer extended warranties on 2nds - it's hit n miss - but it's certainly not uncommon in the industry.

I ended up buying new, so I will never know what the extended warranties covered though - no doubt there was a catch....

Edited April 22, 2012 by Wardski

[GT-R OZ]

No worries thanks for that. I'll make some enquires. I'm in Canberra. Obviously no use buying a 2nd GT-R from a dealer in WA with extended warranty if it has to be serviced by them to maintain it!

[Wardski]

No worries thanks for that. I'll make some enquires. I'm in Canberra. Obviously no use buying a 2nd GT-R from a dealer in WA with extended warranty if it has to be serviced by them to maintain it!

Indeed! Another reason I went new.

Mind you, you could wait another few months and watch the price of new 2011's bottom out. I managed to pick up a new Oct 2010 build GT-R in SS for $38k off RRP because a dealership in WA (Magic Nissan) had to clear floor stock - and that price included delivery to me in QLD. They still have a 2011 in blue, which started out at $193k, now down to $177k drive away. I expect this to hit mid/high $160k's when the 2012 models start appearing in dealerships, so that could be a damn good deal.

It seems the GT-R market has bottomed out, especially the 2nd hand market, so there will be deals-a-plenty leading up to EOFY sales.