Hey Scotty, I know how well most Aisin transmissions are made but I've heard some people having problems with the Aisin AF33 5 speed auto- matic transmission that have some type of case wear around where the output gear assembly mount. I don't know much about deep details about any trans- missions right now so hopefully some of y'all will know what I'm talking about.
The Aisin AF33 Transmission were used in vehicles like 2004-06 Nissan Maxima, Altima, and Quest. Volvo used them in their vehicles, some older GM products, and the 2007-08 Suzuki XL7 (basically a bigger Chevy Equinox) as well.
I'm wondering how long those transmissions can last without any trouble and the amount of proper maintenance it needs. Is it possible that these transmissions can last up to 300k miles if it's babied and not used liberally?
They shift into neutral when you're not pressing on the gas pedal - and that has caused a lot of issues.
Although in later years, they are not too bad.
It has even got a wikipedia page that reads "Some AF33 transmissions – specifically the variants used in Volvo vehicles – were very unreliable, with failures occurring within 80,000 km (50,000 mi) on some vehicles"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aisin_AF33_transmission
If you want a look inside and a very detailed explanation about all of the faults in it, turn on captions (English, NOT auto translated) and see this vid:
What you see here is a gearbox that's dead although the internals are in almost perfect conditions - the TCC just fell apart and clogged the entire oil system (I bet the valve body is also damaged from that). Very common on these.
Thanks for the info! I did learn as much as I could about this and yeah, I can see if anyone has a vehicle like that, they probably need enough dough to get new parts for it if they wanna rebuild it or whatever😆
The reason I was curious is because as I'm still looking for a car to get, I found a 2005 Maxima with 120k miles on it that has this tranny so with a good amount of research, I know when I should be cautious on what I'm getting and/or looking at and definitely having a mechanic check it out first before having the decision to buy it or not. But in your opinion, do you think it'll be a good idea to get the Maxima I'm currently looking at if it had been taken care of properly? Again I'm just being more cautious than I was when I first saw it so that's what I wanna know from your thoughts.
I would be mainly concerned about the fact you're looking at a pretty big V6 that's way more likely to wear out the transmission internals than most engines these were paired with.
As far as the tranny, If the fluid looks good (although some of these don't have a dipstick), if it shifts well both cold, and hot after 30-45 minutes of use, on small and big throttle openings, and has any service history on it - it may be quite decent.
Just remember to replace the ATF frequently cause that TC is most likely creating lots of wear products.
It's a gamble, it may end up falling apart, it may not - who knows it's an 18 year old Nissan...
Okay. I'll make sure to do that if I do get it. I highly appreciate it.👍