Nissan RS5F32 / RS5F50 / RS5F91

Nissan's transverse five-speed manual transaxles — in the Sentra, Primera, Maxima and Versa.

The naming says the layout and the size: RS is a transverse manual, 5F a five-speed front-drive, and the digits the torque class. Two Nissans of one year carry different members, and the engine decides.

Their recurring faults are the ordinary ones, in the ordinary order: the clutch first, then the shift cables and their bushings — which produce a long, vague change that reads as a worn gearbox and is a fraction of the cost — and only then a synchro.

Where something inside wears it is the third-gear synchro on a car driven quickly, and the differential bearings on the higher-output ones. A whine that rises with road speed and is present in every gear including with the clutch pressed while rolling is the differential, which separates it from gear noise.

A crunch into every gear is the clutch not releasing — hydraulic, outside the gearbox, and cheaper than what it is mistaken for.