sciamop
08-31-2004, 05:12 PM
Cliff notes at the end! About 8 months ago, I decided I wanted to jump on the 240sx bandwagon, so I bought a 90 coupe for $500. I was hoping to do the SR20 swap to it; however a fairly clean 93 coupe w/ a blown engine popped up for a GREAT price.
Fast forward to yesterday.
I've been using the 90 as my daily driver for the last 6 months. It's a bit of a piece of shit: It's rusty, dented and has a host of little mechanical problems... About a week ago, I noticed the transmission was slipping a little bit. "Oh well, I'm almost done with the SR20 swap in the other car. This car will be alright...", I thought.
Wrong.
I took a 300 mile round trip this weekend and the transmission only acted up once in first/second gear. I ran out with it the next day and it was shot. It would drive for .25 mile then start slipping. Once this happened, I'd have to turn the car off for .5 minute and drive another 1/4 mile. After 10 miles of this it finally died (after I added some Lucas to it, too).
I got a tow home and I dropped the pan. Lots of metal and other debris. Luckily the auto trans from the 93 appears to be recently rebuilt (fancy sticker on torque converter and the date '8/25/03' written on the bellhousing). I never saw this car move since I bought it with the blown engine...
After a 10 hour ordeal (I worked outside, through a 4-hour long torrential downpour, since the garage is filled with SR crap), the transmission was in!
Here's where it gets interesting.
I drove the car around all day today and it didn't do the annoying starter click thing once! It used to do this every time I tried to start it -- it would take at least 8 to 10 tries to get it to engage.
Conclusion: Something in the old transmission was slightly fubar. Possibly the neutral start switch sensor? Other observation: I've seen 3 auto S13s with bad transmissions at ~140K miles... Coincidence or poor design?
Todd
Cliff notes:
-- I have 2 S13 coupes. A 90 and a 93.
-- The 90 is my daily driver and it is a piece of shit. The auto transmission blew yesterday.
-- I replaced with a (possibly) rebuilt unit from the 93 parts/donor car.
-- The 90 no longer does the annoying click, click, click, click, click, click, ruhruhruhruhruh-vroom thing.
-- Auto transmissions suck.
Fast forward to yesterday.
I've been using the 90 as my daily driver for the last 6 months. It's a bit of a piece of shit: It's rusty, dented and has a host of little mechanical problems... About a week ago, I noticed the transmission was slipping a little bit. "Oh well, I'm almost done with the SR20 swap in the other car. This car will be alright...", I thought.
Wrong.
I took a 300 mile round trip this weekend and the transmission only acted up once in first/second gear. I ran out with it the next day and it was shot. It would drive for .25 mile then start slipping. Once this happened, I'd have to turn the car off for .5 minute and drive another 1/4 mile. After 10 miles of this it finally died (after I added some Lucas to it, too).
I got a tow home and I dropped the pan. Lots of metal and other debris. Luckily the auto trans from the 93 appears to be recently rebuilt (fancy sticker on torque converter and the date '8/25/03' written on the bellhousing). I never saw this car move since I bought it with the blown engine...
After a 10 hour ordeal (I worked outside, through a 4-hour long torrential downpour, since the garage is filled with SR crap), the transmission was in!
Here's where it gets interesting.
I drove the car around all day today and it didn't do the annoying starter click thing once! It used to do this every time I tried to start it -- it would take at least 8 to 10 tries to get it to engage.
Conclusion: Something in the old transmission was slightly fubar. Possibly the neutral start switch sensor? Other observation: I've seen 3 auto S13s with bad transmissions at ~140K miles... Coincidence or poor design?
Todd
Cliff notes:
-- I have 2 S13 coupes. A 90 and a 93.
-- The 90 is my daily driver and it is a piece of shit. The auto transmission blew yesterday.
-- I replaced with a (possibly) rebuilt unit from the 93 parts/donor car.
-- The 90 no longer does the annoying click, click, click, click, click, click, ruhruhruhruhruh-vroom thing.
-- Auto transmissions suck.