'01 maxima 5-speed leaking trans oil

Bad differential bearings most likely. A common problem on 5spd Max's.

50K is a little early, but not uncommon. Hope it's under warranty.

-jim

It happens on the 95-99 5-speed Maximas, not the 2000 and 2001s. Also, when the bearings go bad, your tranny gets noisy, you can hear the gears whining. Oil leaks are something else.

CD

The 5th gen still can have bearing problems, although it's much less common I agree. If they have changed the seal twice, either they messed-up the new seal (twice), the diff bearing is loose, or there is a groove worn in the axle which would be tough to do in 50K.

-jim

The dealer is going to try to replace the axel bearing with the seal. Luckily it is covered under the drivetrain warranty.

Thanks for the advice I'll let you know...meanwhile I am still driving a rental GMC Canyon pickup. Great for hauling things...but it is not my maxima

2000-2001 trannies are almost identical to 1995-1999. In fact, you can easily put one into the other. If Nissan didn't fix the problem (there is no tsb or anything), I think it may well be just a matter of time before we start to see 2000/2001 trannies showing up with the same problems as they age. 1995-1999 saw them go anywhere from 30-100k miles. Some had noise, others didn't. What is definitive is axle free play on the differential carrier bearing causing the oil leak past an otherwise competant seal. From what I have seen and personally experienced, it only affects the driver side. The leak will start out as a sweat covering the tranny case and then manifest itself as significant leakage causing ground puddles.

Anyways, glad to hear you are covered under warranty. Let us know exactly what they fixed. Hopefully it is something definitive.

CW

The problem is with the 97-98 manual transmissions. It is the result of excessive preload on the differential bearings caused by using the incorrect thickness of shims during transmission assembly. Nissan is aware of the problem and corrected it by 1999. It still may be an occasional problem, of course.

Where do you get that only 97-98 are affected. Maxima.org is full of reports from 1995-1999. I do not think the factory shimmed properly for preload at all. They probably used one size shim and felt that to handle the majority of cases. THere is no TSB or any other indication that Nissan was aware of the problem.

That said, when the bearings went on my 1995 maxima, I went with a

2001 with the *hope* that maybe nissan corrected the issue. In any case, if my last transmission is any indication (bearings started to go at 80k miles or so), this 2001 tranny should last me the life of the car.

CW

ive have the same problem now the only thing that i did to slow down the leak was to use 2 seals instead of one. the dealer tried to fix and wanted to charge me arn and a leg to fix so i did the work myself and used 2 seals and have been riding for six months now and all i get is a drip or two nothing like i had before. i hope that helps you

I thought was the whole 95-99, too. Anyway, my 98 was part of those statistics. at 125K, the bearings in my 5-speed got noisy as hell. It took about 10K miles for the noise to get louder and louder. I decided to wait until I needed a new clutch and do everything then.

When bearings go bad, the car is still completely drivable, as has been my experience, but the gears whine alot and general gear noises increase, that's all.

CD

Just curious, what was the cost to fix the bearings and do the clutch?

I opted to just get a 2001 transmission to swap into my 1995 so that I could do all the labor. I have heard stories about tranny shops not doing a good job with the bearings (ie. putting proper shims for measured preload) and having the new bearings go rather quickly.

CW

From maxima.org. Almost nobody having a 95-96 manual tranny has had differential bearing problems, it's the 97-98s. Several people with 95-96s have had transmission problems, but that has been mostly after going to aftermarket clutches that allow more abuse to the transmission. There's no TSB, but they are definitely aware, because the shim thicknesses changed after 1998.

I have followed just about every tranny problem post on the 4th gen forum for the last two years. There are many folks with 1995-1996 manual trannies with failing bearings, myself included. I am not talking gear problems but the differential carrier bearings failing.

Preload is supposed to be measured and then shimmed accordingly. There should NOT be one shim fits all practice.

CW