1994 Infiniti J30 Stuck in Gear

1930 INFINITI
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MAJORJ30T
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Just bought a 1994 Infinity J30t with 118,500 miles, but engine has 40,000 or so miles on it.

I was on my first roadtrip, and while driving down a steep hill at a moderate speed (30 mph or so), I downshifted into third, then second, then first. When I moved the car back into drive, it was stuck in either first or second gear. Finally, I pulled over, shut the engine off, and restarted. It was fine after that. Does the car have a problem, or did I do something wrong or ? (Please help ASAP, because I have a 1,000 mile or 1 mo warranty on engine/power train.) Thanks!
Dec 1, 2006 at 4:18 PM
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CANVIS69
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why were you going first at 30mph? And is it auto or stick? Either way it shouldn't of stuck. Use it as a warranty check on the tyranny. It has 108k on it.
It may if it was automatic, been in 3rd not od, or if it was a stick, angry for the down shifting the clutch hydrolics or clutch components jammed. I'm just confused because the is no drive on a stick....and you never said you went to neutral. Some cars have grommets in the shifter that when old make shifting really hard, especially from neutral. Also it can be a sign of damaged gearing.
Dec 14, 2006 at 4:48 PM
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2CARPRO JACK
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Take it back and have them scan it.If a solenoid or something stuck you might get lucky and it stored a fault code for thr drivetrain.How high did you spin the engine(rpm's)? maybe it went into failsafe(limp) mode thinking something was wrong because of the manual downshift. Regardless take it back.
Dec 14, 2006 at 11:46 PM
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BRUCE HUNT
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I might make a suggestion. I believe this is an automatic. We don't know the hill the situation at all, but I would never manually downshift the automatic. Let the tranny do that as it calls for it. What rpm you had when you downshifted and how fast you ran it down through the gears may not have been good.

Be good to the car and it will take care of you.
Dec 15, 2006 at 1:11 AM
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Suggested Repair

Return the car under the powertrain warranty and have the transmission scanned for stored fault codes. A stuck solenoid or limp/failsafe mode after aggressive manual downshifts is possible. Avoid manually forcing the automatic down through the gears and let it select gears itself.

Conversation Summary

The owner of a 1994 Infiniti J30 with an automatic transmission manually downshifted from third to second to first at about 30 mph on a steep hill. After returning the shifter to Drive, the car stayed in first or second until the engine was shut off and restarted, then drove normally. Replies advised a warranty transmission scan for a possible stuck solenoid or limp mode, and recommended not manually downshifting the automatic.

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