2009 Infiniti M problems

Filed Jan 3, 2012 · Transmission · CA

I recently bought a 2009 infiniti m35. My vehicle and probably many other 2009 infinitis with the 7-speed transmission has the following issues: 1) harsh downshifts: the vehicle suddenly downshifts and this action brakes the vehicle significantly without the driver's will. If there is another vehicle following closely it might crash the infiniti from behind. 2) lag of power: sometimes the car is "searching" for the right gear, resulting in a lag of power. This is very dangerous especially while merging into highways since the car sometimes delays/refuses to accelerate. 3) downshifts at wrong time: I will describe this issue using an example. Assume you make a full stop at a stop sign. The car still has 2nd or 3rd gear even if the car has stopped completely. When you begin accelerating the car downshifts to 1st gear, which pushes the car forward in a very harsh way. Very dangerous in city driving. (imagine what happens when you downshift form 3rd or 2nd gear to 1st gear while the car is moving with 5-10mph and 2500rpm). This above issues exist not only in the 2009 m35 model but in other models with the 7-speed transmission like the 2009 g37 and others. The issue probably exists in later year models. On 1/2/2012 I had a call with infiniti customer affairs, they verified that infiniti is aware of the issue and that they are working on a software update. However, some vehicles have been already 3-years old and their owners are still waiting for a fix. Moreover infiniti released technical bulletin itb09-032b to address the harsh downshift issue, but in my opinion that only partially improved the issue. There are plenty of internet sites where many other infiniti customers complaint about the 7-speed transmission. Here is just one link. Http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/webx/.f1fbf24?displayrecent.