Questions and Answers

Nissan Laurel Starts In Second Gear Q. Mr. Ciulla, I am in need of some real help. I am overseas in Okinawa Japan and I am driving the following vehicle: 1990 Nissan Laurel (Medalist) 6 cylinder OHC Automatic Transmission 82,000 miles Fuel Injection ABS brakes P/S, P/B, A/C Rack & Pinion

My trouble is a transmission one: it is very hard speaking with the local mechanic to explain my problem, here it is: The first start in the morning, and I allow the car to warm up (10 min), the transmission works normally. As soon as I park and turn my car off, and than restart to drive off, the transmission will not operate normally. The transmission feels like it is in 2nd, even if I have the shift lever in "D".

While driving I can move the shifter from "D" down to 2nd and there will be no down shift at all, but moving from "D" to 1st you will feel the downshift. There has been sometimes while driving you will feel the transmission shift into "D" and it will operate normally, but when I shut it off, and start again, the transmission will not operate normally again. I have changed the transmission fluid and screen filter. They do not sell the transmission fluid made for the Nissan transmission.

There is a button on my console that has three positions, Hold, Auto and Power and it is tagged "E-AT". I have an operator’s manual, but it is written all in Japanese, so it does me no good. I hope you can help me, so that I can get my car repaired.

Thank You,
Rocky

A. Your transmission sounds like it is in "Fail Safe" mode.

Quite often you will find late model vehicles with computer shifted transmissions coming in that start off in "D" in the wrong gear. Instead of 1st, they take off in 2nd, 3rd or 4th gear.

This can happen for several different reasons, caused by either internal transmission problems, or external control system problems. Internal transmission causes of this problem can be faulty solenoids or stuck valves. External control systems can also cause wrong gear starts. Two common external causes are:

• A complete loss of power or ground to the control system.
• A fail safe protection strategy initiated by the computer to protect itself or the transmission from an observed problem.

Both the "No Power" problem and the "Fail Safe Strategy" problem result in the same wrong gear start condition. The gears that you get in each shifter position are the same.

The best thing to do is take it to a Nissan Dealer and have them run a diagnostic on the Transmission Control System to see, exactly, what the problem is.