ok you geniuses, chew on this one!!!

hi guys, i think i have a good one for you mystery buffs:

1993 inifiniti j30, 175,000 miles. i'm the original owner. relevant history: i learned about transmissions from it about 7-8 years ago when i changed the trans fluid after 100,000 miles and the teeth washed out and i had to buy a re-built.

well, that worked fine until a few months ago. then, although everything was still fine most of the time, once every month or so i'd be cruising along and then press the accelerator for some reason, say to pass a car, and nothing would happen: just, the engine would whirrr a bit faster but no boost in speed. i'd release the accelerator, then press it again and everything was fine.

yesterday, i started the car and shifted into gear, and there was a noisy, but brief spell of grinding right below the gear shift lever/center console. it quieted down and i pulled out of the garage and drove away.

then it started to rain a little. i turned on the windshield wipers - but they didn't work, didn't move at all. so, as it started raining a bit harder, i turned around and went back to get the other car. i pulled into the garage, stopped the car, and shifted into "park," and as i did so, it made an even louder but still brief grinding noise, in the same spot.

so, in short, i'm guessing its the transmission, and my usual mechanic agrees. but what exactly about the trans would make it react with either no acceleration when i wanted a burst of speed, or grinding shifting in or out of gear/park? and what is this business with the wiper blades seeming to be connected to the action of the trans!!??

my primary concern: safety. i don't want to be tooling around one day and have the transmission just stop working, especially since i travel between illinois and michigan pretty frequently during the summer months...

...and if anyone can explain the wiper blade phenomenon, i will nominate them for the diy hall of fame!!

anyway, thank you all! have fun!!

 

i forgot to specify, what might be obvious anyway, that when i brought the car to the mechanic, there were no noises (and on a previous visit, no slippages) ... and the windshield wiper blades were working again.

so it doesn't seem like there should be any connection at all between the blades and the trans, but....

 

Have you had your PCM (powertrain control module) and ECM (engine control module) diagnosed?

These two items play a vitale roll in how the transmission works.

Also, was the valve body replaced when you got the rebuild?

 

my first thought was torque converter

 

thanks, guys. i'll check those ideas out with my mechanic. would any of these things account for the fact the car runs fine most of the time, but has an occasional, very brief 'hiccup'?

also - i'm not kidding about the windshield wipers! they have never stopped working like that - and this time their failure to function coincided exactly with the grinding noises.