CVT Issues

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As most here know, I bought a used 2016 Nissan Altima with under 77,000 miles on it 2 weeks ago. Had the key fob issue last week, which was fixed. Just took a trip from the Tri-Cities area, through Portland, and up to Bremerton, WA. Going into Bremerton, the CVT went into "limp mode" just a mile from Dad's house. Next day, drove it a couple different times with no issue, but the tranny did have a herky-jerky attitude (like hunting for gears).

Coming back yesterday (in the reverse route), still had the jerking issue and went into limp mode once. Called the dealer, told to bring it in when I get home. Drove fine most of the way, until reaching my home base. Limp mode kicked in again, and the car struggled to get the handful of miles to the dealer, sometimes barely going over 20 MPH. Dealer says they will get Nissan to fix the problem, since a TSB was recently issued for the 2012-2018 Nissan w/CVT transmissions.

I'm mainly posting this for anyone who's got one of these vehicles, or is thinking about getting one. I think overheating is the main issue of these. Hundreds of them going out well under 75,000-100,000 miles.
 
The Jatco CVTs have a reputation for fairly abysmal reliability. Hope you get the issue straightened out, a 3 year old vehicle is much too new to be having transmission problems!
 
I hope they fix it no cost to you. Sorry you are having these issues, they happen but I still believe they are far from the norm.
 
Wonderful. Simply wonderful.

Forget Ghosn. That gang of rag-tag thieves in Japan should all be indicted.

I had the dealer perform a drain and fill at 30k miles on my 2014 Altima. At 61k miles, being out of warranty, he exchanged ALL of the CVT fluid.

With 88k miles on that ride, I plan on doing it again in the near future.

In spite of focused maintenance on this and all my vehicles, with the Altima it seems like the 30k mile CVT fluid replacement is just delaying the inevitable.
 
Hopefully they take care of you given you just bought the thing.

Thing is, how do you know the issue is definitely CVT related? Lots of things can throw the vehicle into limp mode and cause the transmission to act weird.
 
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Originally Posted by dkryan
Wonderful. Simply wonderful.

Forget Ghosn. That gang of rag-tag thieves in Japan should all be indicted.

I had the dealer perform a drain and fill at 30k miles on my 2014 Altima. At 61k miles, being out of warranty, he exchanged ALL of the CVT fluid.

With 88k miles on that ride, I plan on doing it again in the near future.

In spite of focused maintenance on this and all my vehicles, with the Altima it seems like the 30k mile CVT fluid replacement is just delaying the inevitable.



I had a Rogue Select and did and early pan dump as these thing shed tons of "mud" during wear -in and if left in will mess up the hydraulic logic.

Aftermarket Valvoline works fine - nothing magic here about Nissan Fluid. Just don't overfill due to foaming issues.

This fluid expands over and inch from cold to hot on the dipstick!

Rogue select and Sport are two of the most comfortable, competent and best affordable CUVS out there - if you dont need tons of passenger space.
 
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I beat that Nissan like a rented mule under warranty. No trans problems with that early pan dump.

Now my lease VW is showing signs of early demise at only 6K miles.

Ill keep you posted.
 
Originally Posted by JTK
Hopefully they take care of you given you just bought the thing.

Thing is, how do you know the issue is definitely CVT related? Lots of things can throw the vehicle into limp mode and cause the transmission to act weird.


From what I've seen on both YouTube & Google, the "limp mode" happens when the CVT gets overheated, due to a too-small tranny cooler. People have had them go out with as little as 600 miles on them. Mine has just over 77,000 miles, the first 45,000 of them as a rental car. As far as the fluid, I have no idea if it's been changed or not. CarFax didn't indicate that it had been.

Luckily, I bought an extended warranty, which will last 3 yrs./36,000 miles. It also came with a 3,000 mile/60 day dealer warranty. So, with 3 warranties, including the Nissan extended CVT one, something will get fixed. I like the car. It's a little sporty and has great gas mileage. Just has a poorly made design for a tranny.
 
Originally Posted by PimTac
The CVT issues were taken care of a few years ago.

Obviously not.
 
It very well may be the transmission. It looks like it's had two owners before you. A rental and then a private owner I assume? Makes you wonder if the previous owner traded it in because of this.

Regardless, a lot of issues will put the car in limp mode. Without a code scan and some good diagnostic work, don't jump to conclusions.

People are so gun shy with Nissan CVT issues, when their key fob battery goes out, they think it's the transmission... Oh wait! I'm just kidding. Keep us posted. If it is the trans, it will be pretty sweet to get a new one.
 
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My boss had 3 trans go out on leased Altima ( He'd get a new lease every 3 years) One was fairly recent with the redesigned unit.

I've had these for loaners and I didn't like them, or the Camry.

Not good enough cars. The terrible EPS is a major turnoff. Meh to blahh helm feedback.

Subaru knows how to tune IPS and front strut geometry

But like I said, I beat the *&&%^$# out of my 2014 Rogue Select in all ways you could punish an A/T and it didn't flinch.

I always manually shifted it - this one didn't have paddles Just LOW and O/D lockout.
So I started in low, shifted to D at 4500 while simultaneously hitting the O/D lockout then ran it up to 3500 an then hit the O/D button.

I would also throw it into low for engine braking when taking a 90deg turn, since this thing ate brakes like grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches.

I thought I would get a new trans at 50K then I would be good till 100K But no the thing wouldnt flinch.

For service I had a fluid change a bit before 30K. Dealer service reprogrammed the trans then and I hated the new program - it held the revs to high with just moderate throttle and the fuel mileage took a dive from bad (25) to abysmal (22)

Anyone have a free carfax ? Id love to look up the service history on this thing after I sold it
 
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Re the EPS (electtic power steering) - so many mfrs have a devil of a time getting it right ( especially oncenter steering feel) it must be a hard thing to do. I hate it typically compared to an HPS system.
 
Originally Posted by ARCOgraphite
I beat that Nissan like a rented mule under warranty. No trans problems with that early pan dump.

Now my lease VW is showing signs of early demise at only 6K miles.

Ill keep you posted.

crazy2.gif
 
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