I'm going to be rebuilding the 5 speed automatic on my 05 SER while I wait for my engine to get balanced so I've got a question.
After painting the car I was waiting for the paint to dry so I could pull the car into the sun, and got to looking at the transmission.
I want to put a conventional fluid cooler on the tranny [heat is an auto tranny's biggest enemy], and I can't really see at a glance where I would be able to tap into the trans fluid.
I know these things are water cooled, but if there is a way to cool the trans fluid itself I would like to do it now while the tranny is out of the car.
Good luck bro...this tranny is a POS. It was used in a number of other cars including Volvo, as a way to save manf and costs, and they all shared some of the same issues with VBs, solenoid failure etc. What are you doing specifically to rebuild, and are you doing this yourself or farming it out? Check to see if Level one is still around and working on this tranny. If I had to do it all over again I would have held out for a 6sp manual.
this is where you NEED to buy your parts for your rebuild. from Sonnax, try the link. Sonnax
other than that +1 to what was said before me. i also had an auto SER and the auto transmission was no fun UNTIL i had it rebuilt with sonnax parts. but.. sigh.. i totaled that car and now i have a 6spd manual transmission car. waaaay better if you have the time and money swap to a 6spd. but honestly do not get your parts from anywhere else sonnax carries the best transmission parts in my humble opinion.
Or if you're po like me, you can tap the fluid from the 2 hoses that run to the bottom of the radiator. Our radiators are different than the MT Altimas because we have 2 extra ports where the tranny fluid flows to cool it. You can run those lines (or extend them) to a cooler that can be mounted to the front side of the radiator.
Interesting my SE-R don't have those radiator lines [as I would have used them to tap into the tranny fluid].
The tranny is a 55-51sn........
Also, I've been building transmissions for years now, and so far there isn't anything too hard about them except for some special tools that some require to overhaul.
I know from a little bit of reading that the bushings burn up [probably due to the lack of fluid cooler], which is what I'm trying to eliminate.
I used to be plant manager at a torque converter company, and we used Sonnax for all of our tc parts. The are a good company.