I was pulling off the freeway ramp this morning with the car in D mode, going maybe 30 mph. I started accelerating once off the ramp at a moderate rate (not slow, but not overly fast either). Suddenly felt the transmission completely disengage for no apparent reason. It was as if the car was in neutral. When I gave it gas, the engine would rev up but there was no power at the wheels whatsoever.

Luckily I was able to coast to a stop on the shoulder where I put the car in Park and back into drive to see if it would go again. With the car in D and from a stop, I gave it a little bit of gas and the transmission seemed to engage. As I gained speed (accelerating very gently), the AT shifted to 2nd and then 3rd, but I could tell the shifts were not quite right, they were happening with the rpms higher than would be expected and just did not seem very smooth.

I tried shifting the car into DS mode to see if it would change anything, but the display on the dash would only stay in D, and not change to DS no matter what I did. While stopped, it seemed like every other mode P/R/N/D seemed to come up just fine on the dash display.

Now that the car was at least moving when accelerating gently, I tried pushing just slightly more. I found that when just revving up a little faster, the same issue would happen: the tranny completely drops engagement. I pulled over on the side again and turned off the car and turned it back on. After the restart, the car behaved completely normally, like nothing was ever wrong. I shifted it into DS mode and sure enough, "DS" was shown on the gauge cluster display.

On the way to the dealer, I pushed the car hard just to see if I could get the same problem to happen again, but everything seemed pretty normal. Now I'm waiting to see if the dealer will be able to figure out anything. Has anyone else had a similar issue? Makes me pretty nervous about driving the car around...

 

It just shows how much of transmission performance is relegated to the trans ECU. And when that goes a bit haywire, it acts crazy. By shutting it down and restarting it appeared to reinitialize the trans ECU.

These transmissions have their own circuit board, which is apart from the chassis ECU. I also wish for more control in my 5AT with shift delays, but very few have experience OR have a means to do changes.

Mine will shift like a boss when it's in 'limp' mode. Too bad the car wont run.

Pat at Level Ten tells me the difference between a Mercedes trans that handles 400wp, and one that can handle 1000whp is one thing only: Software changes.

Glad it appears to be OK now.

Coop

 

I had the same thing happen to a Ford Expedition I drive at work. Everything was normal then suddenly it was like I dropped the tranny. In drive and the motor just free reved. Turned it off and back on again and all was good. Happened a second time several months later. Weird.

Definitely a software/electric glitch.

 

Infiniti has notorious problems with their 7AT transmissions. Just look at Consumer Reports not to mention that they have fallen near the bottom for overall quality and reliability. I believe there are 150 incidents reported for every car.

 

The standard measurement is per 100 cars. If you saw 150, that would mean about 1.5 problems per car, like squeaks, rattles, lights out, etc.

I had one warranty issue on my '11, a single led out on the taillight and the whole thing got replaced.

 

There is a TSB out for the 7at to get The software reflashed. Confirmed it with my dealer on Friday and I will be heading in next week sometime to get it done. I know it's for hard shifting, but I'm wondering what other issues it fixes as well.

Update please when the dealer gets back to you.

GL!!!

 

You are correct in that some of those problems can be squeaks and rattles but 150 reported incidents per 100 vehicles is still very high and some can't point to major problems.

If you also look to the transmissions for the 7AT there are lots of below average and poor ratings. Remember consumer report looks to owners for their survey. Depending on their size if sample this can be very accurate of an indicator.

 

I'm on the border of say the heck with these g's they don't even call Wm that now what's the point. Don't go misunderstanding. I'm not a rich kid but yes I busted my *** and worked hard after overcoming the limitations of being wheelchair bounder for 10 years for 14 Ito 24, sold my 2 customized for show and racing not for lack of ablility and bought a new 06 g3

 

I'm not too satisfied with the 7 speed auto, it can be comfortable and all and at times really quick to shift but there's time that I change lanes on a freeway or when I'm Turning that the transmission seems to be in too high a gear and barely accelerates, it scares me because what if in a emergency I needed to accelerate quickly and the acceleration lag prevents me from doing so like changing lanes etc. I have the updates already done and still feel that lag at times that is annoying

 

I installed the stillen grounding kit and I still feel the stupid lag as well. It's probably my biggest regret 2nd to not getting a 6MT to begin with

 

Yeah I wish ours was like the Q50 transmissions I heard they were revised and it didn't appear to have that issue, I surely do miss my g37 coupe 6 speed

 

I simply can't relate to this at all. With the paddle shifters and being able to drop gears, I never experience what you are stating. Though I wouldn't mind having a 6MT, the 7AT is doing just fine for me.

 

Screw it lets go get a CTSV Kenny......
Reset, always drive with traction control off, drive only in DS mode and get a throttle controller and with all that you will still have a bit of lag...

 

After the update and the ECUTEK tune I have 0 issues

 

Well yeah if I control the gears in DS Manual mode it's fine it's on DS Auto that I have issues every so often such as certain turns or certain times I'm in traffic when I get that acceleration delay/lag. I'm going to mention to the dealer again but I got all my updates done. Can the updates erase when battery goes out? I highly doubt it