2008 Nissan Rogue - looks like the CVT is toast

[bbhero]

How do you even make a CVT go to engine redline? Don't they usually go to 3400 rpm and just resonate and buzz in place?

Nah…

It just keeps pulling…. Easily I might add. Granted mine was a V6 VQ.

It’s keeps it in a lower gear ratio.

And I could use the manual mode and downshift the transmission going down a mountain and never need to hardly touch the brakes. Did that gout diem Rte 58 ast off off Lovers Laep at 3,300 feet elevation down to 1,500 feet east of Lovers Leap.

 

[sloinker]

Nah…

It just keeps pulling…. Easily I might add. Granted mine was a V6 VQ.

It’s keeps it in a lower gear ratio.

And I could use the manual mode and downshift the transmission going down a mountain and never need to hardly touch the brakes. Did that gout diem Rte 58 ast off off Lovers Laep at 3,300 feet elevation down to 1,500 feet east of Lovers Leap.

Sounds like it was malfunctioning. Isn't the whole premise of CVT's the ability to manage the vehicle into an optimum range for emissions and economy. Did yours have the fake shifting points too? I have no idea what a VQ is but sounds like a keeper.

 

[350Rocket]

I personally saw several of these fail when I still worked in automotive. I do however work with a guy who now has 200k miles on his 4 cylinder rogue (2010?) and it's still holding up. He does have a long steady highway drive into town every day and I think that's what saved his. Another coworker lost his Versa CVT at 80k miles. He lived in town and mostly drove in town, although it failed and stranded them 2 hours from home on a trip.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Sounds like it was malfunctioning. Isn't the whole premise of CVT's the ability to manage the vehicle into an optimum range for emissions and economy. Did yours have the fake shifting points too? I have no idea what a VQ is but sounds like a keeper.

Had a 2014 Rogue with a CVT. Part throttle they hold engine speed at the lower torque peak and slide the pulleys to speed up the vehicle instead of the engine revving up.

Then, If you put the gas to the floor to pass on the highway, it will jump way up to the horsepower peak and just sit there while it accelerates, near 6 grand on the tach!

The Nissan suv's have hill management that puts the CVT into a lower ratio and kills fuel for engine braking on downhill runs.

My CVT shifter had a thumb button for O.D. unlock, and also a low range that you could select for moderate speed city or around town driving. If I wanted to shift the pulleys myself, I would start in L with O.D. off shift to D the hit the PD button when at speed. it was like 3 gears but with a little bit of a CVT range within each "gear".

 

[sloinker]

Had a 2014 Rogue with a CVT. Part throttle they hold engine speed at the lower torque peak and slide the pulleys to speed up the vehicle instead of the engine revving up.

Then, If you put the gas to the floor to pass on the highway, it will jump way up to the horsepower peak and just sit there while it accelerates, near 6 grand on the tach!

The Nissan suv's have hill management that puts the CVT into a lower ratio and kills fuel for engine braking on downhill runs.

My CVT shifter had a thumb button for O.D. unlock, and also a low range that you could select for moderate speed city or around town driving. If I wanted to shift the pulleys myself, I would start in L with O.D. off shift to D the hit the PD button when at speed. it was like 3 gears but with a little bit of a CVT range within each "gear".

View attachment 183566

I have had the misfortune of only driving CVT's that angered me, mostly on rentals. On the vehicles I have driven they had zero upside. I haven't driven one in about 3 years so they have probably gotten better. I am glad you like yours and I hope it goes a million miles. I have always liked Nissan's and felt they were never as appreciated as other Japanese makes. I owned a 1980 200sx and it was decades ahead of its time. 4 wheel disc brakes. Sequential fuel injection etc. That car went nearly a half million miles before it wouldn't pass emissions and was driven to the scrapyard.

 

[bbhero]

Sounds like it was malfunctioning. Isn't the whole premise of CVT's the ability to manage the vehicle into an optimum range for emissions and economy. Did yours have the fake shifting points too? I have no idea what a VQ is but sounds like a keeper.

Nah man. No malfunctioning there…

It ran seriously really quite well. . That Nissan VQ of mine was especially quick from say 30 mph to 80. If you needed to punch it from 30 mph that car ran extremely fast from that slow to 80 mph. In a hurry. I never had a problem getting in to a highway because of not having enough power.

From a dig that car did decent considering it was a cvt. But where it really did well accelerating from steady slower speed to a much higher speed. I was impressed by that.

 

[y_p_w]

Just posting a photo as a sanity check. Looks to me like a broken serpentine belt with two ribs partially separated, but I’m no expert. I pulled out a piece of the belt. I believe it’s a single long one driving everything and doesn’t have a separate A/C belt. The ground wire insulation has been damaged (I’m thinking from the flapping bits of the belt), although I’m thinking that can be patched with electrical tape.

 

[350Rocket]

Just posting a photo as a sanity check. Looks to me like a broken serpentine belt with two ribs partially separated, but I’m no expert. I pulled out a piece of the belt. I believe it’s a single long one driving everything and doesn’t have a separate A/C belt. The ground wire insulation has been damaged (I’m thinking from the flapping bits of the belt), although I’m thinking that can be patched with electrical tape.

View attachment 184550

That belt sure looks shredded.

 

[y_p_w]

I felt the belt and it wasn't terribly hard. I've had a squealing belt before, and that was really, really hard and cracked. But other than it breaking (I know that's bad) it wasn't severely degraded and the condition of the remaining rubber was pretty good. Obviously it needs to be replaced.

 

[y_p_w]

My dad brought it in to his “guy” on the weekend and my mom picked it up but asked me to take her there. I talked to the mechanic. He said that he’d actually installed a few Nissan CVTs and said they weren’t that expensive. Talked a bit about a Honda Civic (he did the job for my wife’s) and he recommended doing an ATF change every 6000 mile to keep the fluid clean. He owns one himself.

There was a bunch of other stuff where I’m not fully understanding what was done but he charged them $450. The belt looked way different than the factory belt, which was really soft and smooth on the flat side - possibly EPDM. The replacement looked way different and I was thinking aftermarket, but I started and stopped the engine a few times until I saw it was a Nissan 11720-JG30B belt labeled as Made in USA. The flat side was cross hatched and somewhat rough, unlike the factory belt.

Another issue is that my dad just drove it there with the broken belt (on recommendation of the mechanic) and it looks like it ripped off more of the ground wire insulation. But I guess I can patch that up with electrical tape.

 

[Brons2]

How do you even make a CVT go to engine redline? Don't they usually go to 3400 rpm and just resonate and buzz in place?

No, my wife's car, a Mitsubishi with Nissan/Jatco CVT, will go to 5000+ if you floor it and sort of approximate automatic shifts, vary between 5300-6000.

 

[Brons2]

My dad brought it in to his “guy” on the weekend and my mom picked it up but asked me to take her there. I talked to the mechanic. He said that he’d actually installed a few Nissan CVTs and said they weren’t that expensive. Talked a bit about a Honda Civic (he did the job for my wife’s) and he recommended doing an ATF change every 6000 mile to keep the fluid clean. He owns one himself.

There was a bunch of other stuff where I’m not fully understanding what was done but he charged them $450. The belt looked way different than the factory belt, which was really soft and smooth on the flat side - possibly EPDM. The replacement looked way different and I was thinking aftermarket, but I started and stopped the engine a few times until I saw it was a Nissan 11720-JG30B belt labeled as Made in USA. The flat side was cross hatched and somewhat rough, unlike the factory belt.

Another issue is that my dad just drove it there with the broken belt (on recommendation of the mechanic) and it looks like it ripped off more of the ground wire insulation. But I guess I can patch that up with electrical tape.

Every 6000 miles?? That seems...excessive.

 

[Brons2]

Just posting a photo as a sanity check. Looks to me like a broken serpentine belt with two ribs partially separated, but I’m no expert. I pulled out a piece of the belt. I believe it’s a single long one driving everything and doesn’t have a separate A/C belt. The ground wire insulation has been damaged (I’m thinking from the flapping bits of the belt), although I’m thinking that can be patched with electrical tape.

View attachment 184550

You can change this yourself with a long, deep slotted box wrench to put on the tensioner bolt. It's not difficult. It looks difficult because of the limited space available but it's surprisingly easy with the right tool.

 

[dogememe]

Every 6000 miles?? That seems...excessive.

Might be missing a 0, I'm assuming they meant 60000 miles?

 

[y_p_w]

Might be missing a 0, I'm assuming they meant 60000 miles?

No. 6000. He seems to think it reduces the floating bits even though it’s about 2.5 quarts. He thinks it’s more important than oil changes.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

I think the Severe Service schedule or at least 30k fluid change intervals for CVT's are warranted since there is quite a bit of oil shear going on inside these trannies.

It's been pretty well documented that 20-30K mile fluid and filter change will keep even the Nissan ones going for the life of the vehicle. There is oil shear happening in all of them. In the case of the Nissan CVTs that use a pusher belt with the metal elements, they will create a lot of trash.

"Car Wizard" on youtube has a video of servicing a high mileage CVT that was his daily driver and the filter has a lot of trash on it. But that's apparently normal and won't affect the operation of the tramsission until it plus up the filter.

I did the first drain/fill on our 2019 at 15000/16000 ish miles this spring. Next spring I'm going to change both filters and do another fluid change. That will be around 23000 miles. Then I'll leave it alone for a while

Had a 2014 Rogue with a CVT. Part throttle they hold engine speed at the lower torque peak and slide the pulleys to speed up the vehicle instead of the engine revving up.

Then, If you put the gas to the floor to pass on the highway, it will jump way up to the horsepower peak and just sit there while it accelerates, near 6 grand on the tach!

The Nissan suv's have hill management that puts the CVT into a lower ratio and kills fuel for engine braking on downhill runs.

My CVT shifter had a thumb button for O.D. unlock, and also a low range that you could select for moderate speed city or around town driving. If I wanted to shift the pulleys myself, I would start in L with O.D. off shift to D the hit the PD button when at speed. it was like 3 gears but with a little bit of a CVT range within each "gear".

Our 2019 Sentra also has the grade logic. Sometimes it's cool, other times it's not. I'd rather the car pick up speed on longer downhill sections so I can not get on the gas for a while and save gas. But I can understand how it would be less desirable to have to ride the brakes to maintain speed.

 

[dogememe]

No. 6000. He seems to think it reduces the floating bits even though it’s about 2.5 quarts. He thinks it’s more important than oil changes.

Well I think the sky is rainbow colored and unicorns are real...

 

[nthach]

No. 6000. He seems to think it reduces the floating bits even though it’s about 2.5 quarts. He thinks it’s more important than oil changes.

30K is my limit for ATF regardless unless it lives an easy life.

 

[02zx9r rev2]

Well I think the sky is rainbow colored and unicorns are real...

And I thought I was the only one

 

[02zx9r rev2]

fiancés daughter just picked up a 2012 Rogue “Special Edition” for $4400. Has 148K miles on it. Paint is in good shape, no leaks that I could see. Lot of rust underneath but is to be expected being in New England.

I changed the rear differential fluid, transfer case, cvt fluid, oil/filter, drained/refilled radiator. I’m hoping it last her awhile. She has a heavy foot and tends to drive like she is in NASCAR so we will see.

I’ve read on the interweb that this years cvt has its flaws, others say that if the cvt had problems it would have manifested early on, around the 70K mile mark or even sooner. Next door neighbor is a mechanic at Nissan in Brockton and said the suspension components are the biggest thing with these. Tie rods, control arms etc….

Maybe since the two previous owners were mostly highway miles that helped it out. I told her if she makes it to 200K miles I will change the cvt fluid again. But I will probably do it in about 25K miles just to be safe.

Fiancés 2015 Altima with cvt I did a 3X drain and fill around 50K miles to Castrol cvt fluid. Did a single drain/fill around the 75K mile mark. Has 92K miles currently and have enough fluid for one more d/f at 100K then will see if the Castrol cvt fluid is still available if the Castrol universal has taken its place at that time