RE4F02A / RE4F03A / RE4F04A

4-speed automatic · transverse · 1987–2015

Also known as: re4f02a, re4f03a, re4f03b, re4f03c, re4f04a, re4f04b, rl4f02a

Jatco's transverse four-speed automatics for Nissan — in the Sentra, Maxima, Note, Versa, and the Mercury Villager, which was a badge-engineered Nissan Quest.

The naming is systematic and worth reading rather than memorising: RE is electronically controlled, 4F a four-speed front-drive, and the digits are the size. Two Nissans of the same year carry different members, chosen by the engine, and their parts do not interchange.

The recurring failure is the valve body and the solenoids, presenting as a harsh or delayed engagement into drive, then a flare on the 2–3 change, then slipping. The early stage does not feel like the start of a failure and is where the cheap repair lives.

Fluid is Nissan Matic-D or -J depending on the year, and it is not a generic ATF. These predate sealed-for-life entirely, so the interval was specified and is simply often skipped — which on cars of this age and value is what decides whether the transmission is worth repairing at all.

Cars fitted with this gearbox

7 generations. Only where a source names the model and the generation together — a gearbox is documented as a product far more often than as a fitment, so this list is deliberately shorter than the truth.

Mercury

Villager Second generation

Nissan

Information, not instruction

CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.

Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.

Community experience

Be the first to write this up

Nothing posted about this yet. Whatever you found is worth writing down — even a dead end saves someone the same afternoon.

What makes one worth reading:

The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
What you measured, not only what you replaced.
What actually fixed it — or that nothing did, which is worth knowing too.