Hello all;

I have a 1993 Nissan 240sx convertible, which normally runs pretty
well,
except for one issue.  Sometimes, after a cold start, it will not shift
from 1st to 2nd.  You can gun the engine, etc, but it will not shift.
Then, all of a sudden, it shifts just fine.  After it does it once it
is usually OK, though rarely it will do it twice.

It actually did this quite frequently two years ago; I took the car to
AAMCO, but they must not have tried very hard to figure out the
problem.  Eventually the transmission broke (wouldn't shift at all) and
I got the transmission replaced.  That fixed it for a while, but now it
looks like the problem is back. Fortunately, it's under warranty for
another month.

I have done some searches on the web and have seen a number of other
people complaining about this issue with regard to Nissans.  People
point to two things 1) "Weak transmission," i.e. people say that
Nissans from this era have a weak transmission, and in general should
be avoided
2) Some people say that the shifting is actually linked to the oil
temperature, i.e. the car will not shift unless the oil temp reaches a
certain level.

Can anyone authoritatively say if either / neither of these things is
actually true?  I don't want to go back to AAMCO without some idea of
what might be going on, as they couldn't fix the problem given two
tries.

Thanks,

Alan J. Laser
alaser@techempower.com