Well heres the story about two days ago I went to purchase some aftermarket wheels or my X ended up settling on the aukuza rissa 18"
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/18-in...ts_Accessories

Anyway after I had them intalled I noticed a slight rubbing/grinding noise didnt think much of it because it stopped after a short period of time. The next day I took it back to the wheel shop to have them re-check everything...What do ya know nothing is found wrong so I continue to drive it. As im returning from school today out of nowhere there is a horrible grinding sound so I immediately stop to check it out, I dont notice anything but there is slight burning smell not like plastic but something else ,also the check engine light came on. So I stop at the wheel shop again on my home the whole just making this horrible grinding noise. When i get there the owner manager decides to take it for a test drive...5min...10min...15min...he calls back to the shop for someone to pick him WHY?? because he says my trans is gone!!!! This just came from nowhere, I mean my car was working fine before the new wheels now this?? If im not mistaken dont some X types come with 18" sport wheels so im sure the werent to big. By the way its a 2.5 X thats a 100k miles old maybe the trans was about to give out anyway and the bigger wheels pushed it over?? Didnt get a chance to scan for codes was towed straight to the trans shop to have a look. Any thoughts as to what else it could be?

 

sorry, man. maybe they tightened the wheels before putting the tire on the ground and spun the axle a bit to push it over the edge.

 

The grinding noise and smell after the wheels were installed (assuming it wasn't there before) would concern me. Have a competent mechanic (not the tire shop) look at it. I assume you have an auto transmission...any codes?

 

Probobly more coincidence, but take a short at this. Those look like heavy steel wheels, not light weight aluminum. Anytime you and rotational weight to the car with bigger/heavier wheels/tires you increase the stress put on everything from brakes, suspension, trans. But your trans was probobly not in great shape at 100k and was more time for it to go. But a burning grinding smell on an xtype is useally more the transfere case. But you make have taken out the differential in the trans.

 

A little more info...
I wasnt able to get any codes but I should on monday also the car will shift between drive,neutral,park,and reverese but in doesnt move at all in reverse and it moves forward very slowly in drive... How much am i looking at it if i need another transmission or transfercase? oh and yes its an auto.

 

4-5k

 

A couple more Q's. So with replacing the trans or tc am i just waiting for this to happen later down the road or is there a way to "BEEF" them up to prevent this from happening? Can I use parts from newer models like 05,06,or 07? What about 3.0 parts will they work? Thanks for any info you can give.

 

Don't worry about the rotational mass of the larger wheels. That's no more of a factor than driving with your mother-in-law in the back seat.

A few other concerns come to mind. If the car was driven at all with substantially different diameter tires on the front vs the rear, that would put a severe load on the transfer case, which could certainly damage it. But it's so unlikely that the tire/wheel shop would have driven the car *at all* - let alone driving it before the wheel swap was complete - that I would not seriously consider this possibility without some further evidence (a witness, for example) that this was done.

I would be more concerned that some damage was done to the rear suspension link when the car was raised with a lift. It's a common enough issue with these cars that a novice (or half-blind!) mechanic might not realize that "the thing under/behind the rocker panel" is not a lift point. (Don't forget that tire and wheel shops don't necessarily have cracker-jack mechanics doing that kind of work.) The result is that the suspension link gets bent and suspension damage results. *Note that there's a parking brake mechanism there, too.*

I'd want to check that out as a possible source of your grinding and burning smell. A binding parking brake would certainly cause a load on the powertrain that could be misinterpreted as transmission failure. Or - and here's my cynicism about many service "professionals" coming out - it might serve as a convenient excuse to hide the fact that "we damaged this guy's suspension and parking brake mechanism."

So now the car is at a transmission shop. Tranny shops are notorious for "finding" faulty transmissions. You might not get an honest evaluation on this issue, especially if the root problem is the parking brake and a bent suspension link. They might be good enough to spot the suspension and parking brake problem - if my theory is correct, that is - but they might just come up with an "extra" diagnosis that you managed to burn out your transmission, too. The transmission, in fact, might be fine.

The bottom line about my rant is this: get a second opinion, and make sure that opinion comes from a source that's independent of both the tire/wheel shop and the transmission shop. You can even check the parking brake issue yourself by jacking up the rear wheels and trying to spin those tires.

Good luck with this. Keep us posted.

 

now that i think about this is a very what happened... While driving the car with the grinding sound it would slow down really fast and grind a lttle louder like i slammed on the brakes then let me accelerate again, but there was never any "limp home mode" just the check engine light. Also when they put on the wheels they used four jacks like the kind you would change a flat with.

 

Don't get yourself too convinced about this. When a knowledgeable, honest mechanic gets a look at it, and he *shows you* what he found, then you'll know.

The use of floor jacks does not prove or disprove any theory about suspension damage one way or the other. Such damage can be done on a lift or with floor jacks.

 

I'll find out monday what really went wrong and I'll let you know. While testing this out should the rear tires be able to move at all or will they just be really tuff to spin.

 

depends on how and what went out. Ive seen t cases lockup the car and other whine real bad and others only have front wheel drive

 

Thanks for the info. by the way that nissan is really sick!!

 

^^^Thanks Ive done it all, Suspension, engine build, head porting, exhaust. Sent off the factory wheels to be converted to street bead locks. And alot of fun on, and off road. Alot of people dont believe a heavy(5500#) V6 4x4can be that fast. Im gonna do more down the road. Like Avos's Jags path with a twin screw and ditch the Eaton. I want 400+ to the wheels instead of the 330 Im at now

 

Thats a v6 WOW!! Great job!! When you get all 400 ponies thats that gonna be insane!

 

O.K stopped by the shop after school, from what I heard this is what I understood... so apparently something is wrong with the rear differential, the trans shop thinks that when the wheels were put on the car was lifted incorrectly and damaged something causing all the fluids to leak out out of the diff. I think he told me that there was a seal that that was broken and that diff was just hanging inside whatever it was supposed to be connected to... hope this makes any kind of sense

 

Sounds a lot cheaper than a transmission though. Hopefully the noise was just the diff with no fluid and not the diff eating itself.

 

???? Thats way too vague and at this point nonsence, you need more exact and correct info. I dont see how jacking it up could do anything cause youde have to be on the drive shaft or axles shafts, and even then.......

 

Brutal thats not word for word what he said just what I could remember. This is my first car so everything is jus kind of a blur. lol anyway as you can tell im not real good with car terms.

 

Did they use the diff as a jacking point? I'm sure they could be tempted.

I hope that's the case although neither my tranny nor transfer case made it past 81k miles.