2006 SE - Replace Auto or Convert to Manual?

[Off Trail]

Guys - I'm in Steamboat Springs, CO. I'm new to Xterras but have been shopping for one for a while now, and have my sites on a couple.

One option is to buy an '06 SE that is currently sitting with a bad trans (SMOD). It has 110,000 miles on it and appears to be in near perfect shape other than trans. One owner, maintenance records etc. Unfortunately it has been sitting parked for a year with the SMOD in the trans.

I'm looking for help with a few questions, none of which I could find through 2 days of searching the forums (maybe I'm not searching correctly....). Any help with the following would be appreciated:

1) Should I do a manual conversion?? As far as preference I would probably prefer manual, but wouldn't incur extra cost or effort to have it. I'm wondering if it might be cheaper to do the manual conversion than it would be to get a quality reman'd auto in there?

2) If i go manual - anybody with experience doing the conversion on a 2nd gen? What is my best bet for finding the parts? I'm mechanically inclined but have never gone junk yard hunting etc. I'm a little leary about buying used parts and don't really know how to shop for them.

3) If I keep it auto - where should I look for a replacement trans? It seems to me that I would be better off spending $2500-$3,000 on a nice reman'd auto than paying the same to have someone rebuild the SMOD trans, right?? Same as #2, I'm a little leary about buying a used trans because I don't know what to look for or who to trust. I'm also not really equipped to go pull one out of a junkyard. At least I don't think I am....

4) If I'm buying a replacement trans - can I just buy a reman tans from JC Whitney/Certified Trans/etc. etc. and bolt it right in? It looks like they come with a reman torque converter but will I need to buy anything else? Does the new one plug right in?

5) I think it best to replace the radiator as well. Thoughts? Probably put an aftermarket unit in after doing the cooling line bypass?

6) Will also be putting a locker in the rear, but can dig up info on this through the search.

Thanks!

 

[P&P]

Guys - I'm in Steamboat Springs, CO.

Jealous.

I'm new to Xterras but have been shopping for one for a while now, and have my sites on a couple.

One option is to buy an '06 SE that is currently sitting with a bad trans (SMOD). It has 110,000 miles on it and appears to be in near perfect shape other than trans. One owner, maintenance records etc. Unfortunately it has been sitting parked for a year with the SMOD in the trans.

I'm looking for help with a few questions, none of which I could find through 2 days of searching the forums (maybe I'm not searching correctly....). Any help with the following would be appreciated:

1) Should I do a manual conversion?? As far as preference I would probably prefer manual, but wouldn't incur extra cost or effort to have it. I'm wondering if it might be cheaper to do the manual conversion than it would be to get a quality reman'd auto in there?

It being cheaper would depend on exactly the route you went in obtaining parts, doing the labor and how you value your time and the time the truck is not available. I would consider it a wash, personally, even if i spent less out of pocket. That's just me.

2) If i go manual - anybody with experience doing the conversion on a 2nd gen? What is my best bet for finding the parts? I'm mechanically inclined but have never gone junk yard hunting etc. I'm a little leary about buying used parts and don't really know how to shop for them.

I would say the best way to do an auto > Manual swap would be to buy a wrecked truck, take off ALL the parts you need, do the swap then resell the donor truck. I don't have 2nd gen specific experience but I do know on the 1st gen hanging the clutch pedal is a MAJOR hassle. I have yet to see a way to do it that doesn't involve removing the entire dashboard.

there should be a hole for the clutch pedal linkage to go through the firewall that would be capped off with a plastic or rubber grommet. Probably easier to find from the engine bay side. Somewhere next to the brake booster. I would pop that grommet out from the engine bay side then crawl under the dash to try to find it in the footwell and see how buried it is.

3) If I keep it auto - where should I look for a replacement trans? It seems to me that I would be better off spending $2500-$3,000 on a nice reman'd auto than paying the same to have someone rebuild the SMOD trans, right?? Same as #2, I'm a little leary about buying a used trans because I don't know what to look for or who to trust. I'm also not really equipped to go pull one out of a junkyard. At least I don't think I am....

If you bought an off the shelf reman how would you know if the core it was built from had been a SMOD trans or not? I would give it a pretty high liklyhood that it were. Maybe 25%? But if its done correctly does it matter if its done by a local trans shop or a national trans rebuilder? They are doing the same job.

4) If I'm buying a replacement trans - can I just buy a reman tans from JC Whitney/Certified Trans/etc. etc. and bolt it right in? It looks like they come with a reman torque converter but will I need to buy anything else? Does the new one plug right in?

Should just bolt right in. not exactly as easily done as said, but in essence yes.

5) I think it best to replace the radiator as well. Thoughts? Probably put an aftermarket unit in after doing the cooling line bypass?

If the vehicle experienced a SMOD event then yes the radiator is trashed and must be replaced.



Welcome and Good luck. I'm about to resurrect a 2nd gen with a SMOD trans as well. I'm going auto, not considering a manual swap.

 

[Off Trail]

Thanks P&P! From what I've gathered the conversion is a non-starter, as I'm not ready to buy a scrap truck and deal with both in my garage. Sounds like a lot more trouble than its worth unfortunately.

Sticking with an auto, I'm leaning towards just taking the truck to a seemingly reputable rebuilder in Denver and let him do the whole thing. Doesn't seem to be much value I can add/ money I can save by trying to do the work myself. Full rebuild out the door is about $3,400, drop the truck off as-is and pick it up ready to run. It doesn't seem like I can even save much by pulling the trans and re-installing it myself by the time I make 2 trips to Denver to have it rebuilt (nobody up here does rebuilds).

Bummer that I can't win by putting my own sweat into it... unless I'm missing something.

 

[P&P]

Bummer that I can't win by putting my own sweat into it... unless I'm missing something.

Dealing with the SMOD makes it tough. There is a TON of money in the electronics inside the trans case that have to be replaced. So much so that the couple hours of labor a shop has into pulling and installing the trans are barely even noticed on the final invoice. At that point you may as well let them do it and save yourself the hassle, IMO.

The only way to save any real money is to buy a used trans. They seem to go in the neighborhood of $15-1800. But there is inherent risk in that. There's not much way to know it's good until it's in the truck unless you can take the donor truck for a test drive.

 

[Off Trail]

Thanks again. That reinforces what i've been finding.