CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2004-2006 Nissan Maxima has widespread transmission problems. It starts with the vehicle jerking when shifting, & progresses to full-blown transmission failure.
Maxima owners report spending $3,000 to replace the transmission, typically around when the odometer hits 100,000 miles.
There's a class action lawsuit filed in late 2011, & it is still in the "discovery" stage. Apparently, these things take time ... far too much time.
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
2 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
75,651 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
The contact owns a 2006 Nissan Maxima. The contact was driving approximately 65 mph when the vehicle jerked forward abnormally. The contact stated there was a popping sound coming from the transmission. The contact stated the failure was constant at various speeds. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where the mechanic advised that the transmission needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was not contacted and the vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 92,000. The VIN was not available.
I was proceeding in my car on a major street always traveled by eighteen wheeler trucks when my transmission failed in my car. 2006 Nissan Maxima. The eighteen wheeler driver slammed on the brakes missing me my inches seeing I never touched my brakes, hence no brake lights.. actually I was revving the engine praying the gears would catch to possibly get me out of this situation. I could have died!!!! I was praying the whole time and I will continue to sent it to the shop to get repaired. Someone will die with this type of problem. I came very close today. If someone has to die for Nissan to admit this is a serious problem I hope the families get properly compensated cause I am letting the world know about this problem. I took the drivers information and another witness and had the car towed one block from the incident.
The contact owns a 2006 Nissan Maxima. The contact stated that while driving 20 mph and above, the vehicle would jerk very violently when going from second to first gears. The dealer advised that the transmission would need to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 89,079. The VIN was unavailable.
2006 Nissan Maxima 3.5sl slams into gear it is loud and scary and is the car jerking occurs when driving forward on a straight away and when you put it drive or reverse. Had to have motor mounts put on car because of the hard slamming, dealer change transmission fluid still know change, I thought it was the transmission never showed up on the diagnostic check did keep the parts when motor mounts were changed out, but I think they are broken again because the engine shifts.
Transmission. I just purchased a 2006 Maxima. It will shift very hard from first to second. It is jerking, thrusting forward and there is a major delay when you switch from drive to reverse. It is knocking when shifting from park to drive. It does this when the transmission warms up a bit. When downshifting to 2-1, it smacked real hard at a light. I was in the car with my family. This is not good. It would appear that Nissan tried to develop a tranmission that could think for you. It is currently back at the dealership awaiting testing. Please recall those transmissions now before these units get too old.
- Az, AZ, USA
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The contact owns a 2006 Nissan Maxima. The contact stated while driving approximately 35 mph and attempting to decelerate, the transmission exhibited a hard downshift. The vehicle was taken to a local transmission repair shop where a diagnosis was performed but no failure codes were produced. The vehicle was then taken to a local mechanic who replaced the transmission fluid, which did not correct the failure. The failure persisted and the vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 96,000 and the current mileage was 110,000. Updated 06/16/11 updated 06/27/11
2006 Nissan Maxima with 90K miles. Transmission slipping when going from neutral to drive, when slowing down and subsequently accelerating and occasionally without any rationale- simply pauses, then jerks into gear- often when in an intersection. It typically it happens when the engine is warmer than not. A transmission service and flush has been done by dealer- and they 'said' they could find nothing wrong. However, it continues.
The contact owns 2006 Nissan Maxima. The contact stated the transmission began slipping and randomly shifting gears. In addition, when decelerating the transmission would cause the vehicle to jerk and shift extremely hard. The contact took the vehicle to the dealer and was told that the transmission would need to be replaced. The failure mileage was 98,000 and the current mileage was 99,067.
2006 Nissan Maxima transmission slips from drive to reverse and also in the lower gears like 1st to 2nd and from 2nd to 3rd and also when downshifting to the lower gears it does the same thing.
TL- the contact owns a 2006 Nissan Maxima. While driving approximately 10 mph, attempting to make a left hand turn he noticed that the check engine warning light illuminated and then the vehicle started to violently jerk. He was then unable to shift the vehicle into any other gear besides fourth. The dealer nor manufacturer had not been notified. The vehicle was taken to a private mechanic where they performed a diagnostic test which concluded that the valve body was not functioning properly and advised the contact to take the vehicle to a transmission shop. The vehicle had not been repaired. The current mileages were 32,000 and the failure mileages were 31,000.
I purchased a 2006 Nissan Maxima in November 2005 brand new from the dealer w/ 3 year warranty / 5 year powertrain. I've done all services, maintenance, etc. My powertrain warranty (engine/trans) just expired 2 months ago. My car is doing 54,508 miles. Once it hit the 54,500 mark the transmission started to fail. It would jerk extremely bad w/ a 5 second delay from N - D, N - R, R - D, & D - R (all of those combinations). While driving it downshifts hard in slows the car (could be fatal). It's very difficult to control the car w/ this transmission issue. I'm checked with the dealer and they are absolutely reluctant to fix the issue since I'm out of warranty. I checked online to see if there are any recalls / similar issues. I've seen countless of people state the same issue when approaching 60K on the car. Nissan needs to see this is a huge safety hazard. I almost had the transmission jam/stick while at an intersection. I could of seriously been injured while making a left turn on a green light w/ oncoming traffic, having my faulty transmission wait a 5 seconds and jolt like a car just hit me. I'm not sure who can help but this needs to be addressed and I feel this is solely their responsibility.
The transmission slips and bangs into gear just like is common with lots of other owners and it conveniently happens right after your warranty runs out!
2006 Nissan Maxima started jerking and slipping while driving. It occurs quite often daily but then some days not at all. I called the dealership and was told that it is out of warranty. It started around 80,000 miles. I was also told that changing the fluid would just damage it worse I just need to replace the transmission.
Purchased a 06 Maxima in Aug 2009, in October of 2010 the car started jerking when driving it. At first it would have happen every now and then and then it would jerk and mist every other day. Check engine light came on and the car was taken to a Nissan dealer and was told the catalytic converter was bad and that it was still under warranty, had car fixed and after driving the car for 3 days it started jerking, the Nissan service dept was contacted and stated that none of the sensors displayed a problem and advised me to change the grade of gas from premium to mid-grade. I did what they recommended and the car continued to jerk and mist. The jerking would cause the car to slow down the RPM would quickly flip to 4 or 5 all this would happen while driving the car at a speed of 20-30 mph. I am very disappointed with Nissan because I believed that Nissan cars were very good and reliable vehicles.
Nissan 2006 Maxima SE, transmission problem. Car violently jerks between 2 and 3rd gear, revs up to 5 rpms. Nissan refuses to acknowledge defective transmission after thousands of complaints. Occurrence is daily, the recommend 5K repair bill.
I purchased my 06 Maxima when it had 52,000 miles. After a few weeks I noticed the shifting is not proper and sudden jerking when shifting in R or D. eventually the jerking got worst and currently at nearly 72,000 miles it has gotten very scary. At times I feel like someone has rear ended the car. Last week, while making an exit from a highway the car suddenly accelerated and got out of control. I noticed that the transmission had slipped while I was going at around 50 mph. Since then I noticed the transmission is slipping constantly. I have been contacting dealers and they claim this is not a problem they know about regarding this model year. But as it seems, there are hundreds or perhaps thousands of posts all over the internet from people with the same exact problem in the same exact model Maxima. I will not allow my wife to drive the car anymore since I noticed last week that the slip could be very dangerous at high speeds. I sure hope a fatal accident would not be the cause to wake up Nissan to help resolve the issue.
The contact owns a 2006 Nissan Maxima. The contact was driving 20 mph when the vehicle began violently jerking and switching gears independently. The vehicle was taken to the dealer but was not repaired or diagnosed. The contact did not inform the manufacturer of the failure. The current mileage was 111,950 and the failure mileage was 90,000. Updated 03/03/11 updated 03/08/11
I purchased a 2006 Nissan Maxima in 2009 the vehicle with approx. 67,000 as fine for the first 2 months. Here is where my problems started to occur, when turning towards the highway I accelerated to speed the car hesitated and was putting then the check engine light went on. Once I returned from out of state I contacted the dealership empire Nissan in lakewood, Colorado and let them know what the situation was, the salesmen stated to disconnect the wire to the battery to reset the light, I did that and it went right back on after a couple of starts. I took the vehicle to a local mechanic where he said it was the oxygen sensor? it was replaced, then the vehicle was fine for awhile until the odometer read approx. 75,000 I noticed that if I was going down a hill at a fast pace then pushed the brakes to slow down the RPM's revved up to 5 and the engine would make a loud noise to accompany the RPM's at 5. vehicle has been worse ever since I noticed that, it then started to slip in gear, going from R to D or D to R once shifter is in place it would pause then jerk into gear. Took the vehicle to aamco they stated that it was the motor mounts and also the fluids to the transmission. $700 later the vehicle is worse! now the car while in motion will kick and jerk hard in gear while the RPM's go all the way up to 5. when car comes to a stop with foot on the break car will jump forward. My latest incident is when at a stop and move to accelerate the car starts off as if it was in 5th gear! got the car home and put the shifter in manual transmission and it reads the engine is in 5th gear. I am a single mother of 4 young children, the car is so unpredictable, whether it is going to jerk into gear or completely stall out. There has to be something done with the transmission before someone gets killed driving this same type of car, there are several pages of complaints on the same issue with the same car, please please do a recall on the transmission of the 2006 Nissan Maxima!!!!!!
I recently purchased a 2006 Nissan Maxima and have been experiencing some problems with it. After about a 2 months of purchasing it, it starting jerking while driving it. I didn't think anything of it since it stopped for a while. Then some weeks later it did it again causing me to almost rearend someone. Hear it is months later and I was heading home from work and the car just quit on me in the middle of a busy highway. It was cold outside and extremely dangerous. So now I have to get this car towed to the transmission shop to see what's going on with it. I have been reading thousands of complaints of very similar situations. Many people are having problems with the transmissions in early model Nissan Maximas. I have been hearing that these people are paying thousands of dollars trying to repair these cars. I am very scared to hear what the dealer and other shops are going to say. This car has 89,000 miles on it with no warranty.
I purchased a 2006 Nissan Maxima with approx. 16,000 miles in September 2006. In 2009 with appox. 50,000-60,000 miles on the car, the transmission started to slip. It jerks when I put the car in reverse and drive, it shifts up and down hard and it jerks when I am at a complete stop with my foot on the break.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Ceres, CA, USA