Your Nissan Altima transmission is an essential part of your car. It helps your vehicle to reach higher speeds and save fuel when cruising all while still having enough torque to get moving from a stop. However, transmissions are complex machines and sometimes they break, especially if they haven’t been maintained well.

A transmission repair or replacement is typically covered by your warranty. However, if you are out of warranty, such as if you are replacing a 2007 Nissan Altima transmission, the cost can be quite steep. The cost of the part alone can be between $2,500 and $4,000. If you are having a mechanic do the work for you, expect to pay around $1,000 to $1,500 extra for the labor. So, you can save yourself a significant amount of money if you do the repair yourself, provided that you have the equipment.



Nissan Altima Transmission Replacement Cost At $798 Per Mile

Oh boy. The old adage that the higher the brand, the more expensive the car appears to hold true here. According to CarsDirect , a Nissan Altima buyer can expect to spend more than $800 a year replacing the transmission due to the car's relatively high base price. The report shows that replacing the transmission on a 2018 Altima costs more than the first year of car ownership, when considering the current average lease payment.

For reference, The average 2017 Altima sedan with the All-Wheel Drive Premium trim listed at $28,844. That's about $60 a month and $754 a month. To replace the transmission in an Altima S without the All-Wheel Drive Premium trim would set you back $798 per year. That's actually a pretty good deal compared to the cost of a new transmission in a Honda Accord, where a new automatic transmission costs $940 per year, on average. At a base MSRP of $24,550, you could expect to pay over $2000 per year for the parts and labor required to swap a $20,000 transmission from a $25,000 car to a $25,000 car, at least, according to the report. A new automatic transmission in a 2018 Ford Fusion is around $885 a year.

The cost of the car, however, does not appear to be affected by the number of miles it has been driven. The report indicates that the cost of the transmission for a 2014-2016 Altima with 17,000 miles on it has decreased between 2014 and 2016.

How do automatic and manual transmissions work?

Jase: Automatic transmissions are not the same as conventional manual transmissions. While manual transmissions consist of a specific number of gears, an automatic transmission allows the driver to change gears with the press of a button. This eliminates the need for shifting gear on every acceleration and deceleration, saving time and effort.An automatic transmission is a continuously variable transmission (CVT). It’s in fact, a step-change automatic transmission that can be controlled from a PC, much like an engine shift program.

How Does a Transmission Work?

The basic principle of a transmission is quite simple. Transmissions have an input and an output drive shaft. These are connected by some gears. If you change the ratio of rotations of the input shaft to the output shaft, you can change the number of engine revolutions that are needed to turn the wheels once.

The result of this is that you have extra torque in low gears, helping your vehicle to get started moving. When you move up to higher gears, you will be delivering less torque to the wheels, but the engine doesn’t need to work as hard to turn the wheels. Since you have inertia on your side at this point, the lower torque is fine.

Nissan Altima transmissions are slightly more complex, starting with the 2007 model year. For example, a 2010 Nissan Altima transmission is likely a continuously variable transmission (there’s also a manual option). CVTs don’t have gears. Instead, the driveshafts are connected by a belt or chain mounted on a pulley system. The pulleys can be manipulated to adjust the input to output ratio. This means that there are no pre-set gear ratios, but rather the vehicle can set the ratio to whatever suits the moment.

Symptoms of a Bad Transmission

There are a variety of signs that may indicate that your transmission is bad. These are some issues to watch out for:

  • Difficulty switching gears
  • Weird noises when your vehicle is in neutral or idling
  • A burning smell (you should visit a mechanic immediately)
  • Leaking fluid from the transmission
  • Grinding or shaking as you move through the gears
  • Poor responsiveness when changing gears
  • Humming, whining or clunking noises
  • Check engine light on (this can be checked with an OBD-2 scanner)

While some of these symptoms may be caused by other issues, you should inspect them as soon as possible. Even if your transmission isn’t the issue, they can signal serious problems.

Replacing Your Nissan Altima Transmission

With the above information, you can consider changing your 2013 Nissan Altima transmission or the transmission on any other vehicle. It is not a small undertaking, but it can be a very rewarding experience.

Replacing Your Nissan Altima Transmission To the Track - Part Two

While the short-pitch, belt-driven, torque converter transmission is a durable design, sometimes it is time to update to a torque converter overdrive transmission. Here is a more detailed description of the torque converter overdrive (TCO) and how it can improve performance and also make an old car competitive. We will show you how the TCO works, its similarities to a traditional overdrive, and describe how to set up the TCO for your car.

There are two basic types of overdrive transmissions: direct-drive and timing drive. A direct-drive transmission is similar to a conventional torque converter automatic in that it uses a belt to move the driveshaft. However, a direct-drive torque converter has no clutch and is not powered by a separate clutch assembly, power pack, or drivetrain. The automatic clutch operation on a direct-drive transmission is inherently more responsive than a conventional torque converter and also enables more responsive shifting.