2025 Nissan Patrol Pricing and Specs

If your can manually force the shift then there’s probably nothing wrong with the actual gearbox and its mechanicals. Instead, the problem is likely to be an electronic one, perhaps with the speed sensor that tells the computer the car’s road speed and tailors the gearshifts to reflect that. Don’t forget, however, that gearboxes like the Nissan’s with many gears, often won’t select higher gears at low speeds. So if the car refuses to select sixth or seventh gear at urban speeds, that’s possibly just the calibration Nissan has fitted to it.

If this is an actual problem (and not just a characteristic) this is a very new vehicle and would be covered for this sort of problem by the factory warranty.

You could be looking at something internally wrong with the transmission, but the clue that this might be something simpler is in the way the engine will start in Reverse which, of course, it shouldn’t (for safety reasons). The suspicion would be that the relationship between the selector (inside the cabin) and the actual gearbox is somehow out of synch. So when the selector is telling you the car is in Reverse, it’s actually in Park or Neutral, which is why the engine will start.

That might also explain why the car won’t select fourth gear; the position that actually coincides with Drive (or fourth gear) looks – from inside the cabin – to be the Neutral position. So, to check this, put the car in what looks like Neutral and, in a safe place, see if it moves when you give it some throttle.

Failing that, you’ve got two separate problems. The first is the inability to select fourth gear (which could be a hundred things) and a failure of the safety switch which is allowing the engine to start in Reverse.

You could be dealing with either a worn transmission itself (where wear inside the gearsets, shafts or torque converter has made something sloppy) or there’s something else in the driveline (such as a differential or universal joint) that has likewise allowed some looseness or play to enter the equation. In either of those cases, a thump or clunk during shifts can be a symptom. It feels worse under acceleration, as that’s when the maximum stress is on all those moving, meshing parts.

Sometimes, a transmission can be serviced and adjusted to get rid of thumping or banging during shifts. Take the car to a transmission specialist who will be familiar with this transmission and may be able to return it to civility.