I had it towed to the Nissan service repair department. I was told it needs to be replaced. Its hard to beleive because it only has 73,600 miles on it.
I asked the tow driver if this has been a trend with this year and model a he said several had shut off cold and had to be towed. I will get details tomorrow from Nissan. I am so disapointed I like my Murano a lot.

Muranomae

What happens when I get to about 35 to 45 miles an hour it seems to struggle and not shift to the next gear.The mechanic I spoke with mention of some sensor that may cause it to slow. He said if it was my transmission it would make noise and shake. I haven't experienced that only the slow feel. Are you in Maryland? I feel Nissan needs to research this closer. They are saying sense I'm over my 60 thousand miles I have to pay for this myself. I wrote the Attorney Generals office to complain. That's why I was trying to find more 03 Muranos with this problem. I am aware of two others with Transmission problems. I'll let you no what the service department says today.

Muranomae

I had to get rid of my Murano or fix it for 4900. I was not pleased how Nissan delt with the whole situation.

My dad took GMC to court twice and beat them for a new tranny about 4-5 years ago. Once at 40k (out of warrenty) and again at 65k.

Make sure you get a second oppinion from a place like ammaco or something to bring with you to court.

sue there *** they will lose!!!

At least take them to small claims court it only cost $50 and I think you can get up to like $3k depending on what state you live in.

Good luck.

Did you have problems with your Murano shutting off when you started it?
I had that problem form the very beginning, I complained about it the service dept could never find anything wrong. I'm not sure if this was related to the transmission problem.

Muranomae

I'm sorry to here about your Murano. I do believe the 2003 year was a lemon for this make. Nissan need to follow their complaint records they would see a bad trend going on with the Murano transmission.

Muranomae

We also get a mechanical noise when the car starts, 1st accelorates and is tunred off. It sound like a servo-motor adjusting about 5 times "weeee, weeee, weee, weeee, weee" The dealer says its an autmatic engine mount adjusting but when we test drove a new Murano the same sound occured but only 1 time "weee" implying to me that the engine mount on my car is having trouble gettting to the adjustment it wants. My wife suspects this might be the power robbing culprit.

Anything new since August?

michiganmutano

I have seen this several times. I work at a Nissan dealership. If the battery is replaced the ECM looses its memory. The fix is an Idle Air Volume Learn.

Quote, originally posted by michiganmurano »

Hey Muranomae, I think we have the same problem you are describing. After the car warms up, the power in the 35-50mph range is low. It seems like the car is in a gear that is too high for the speed. The result is also that the engine sounds throaty and you must punch the accelorator to get more than 1500-2000rpm. Is this what you are experiencing? We also get a mechanical noise when the car starts, 1st accelorates and is tunred off. It sound like a servo-motor adjusting about 5 times "weeee, weeee, weee, weeee, weee" The dealer says its an autmatic engine mount adjusting but when we test drove a new Murano the same sound occured but only 1 time "weee" implying to me that the engine mount on my car is having trouble gettting to the adjustment it wants. My wife suspects this might be the power robbing culprit. Anything new since August? michiganmutano

If that noise is at start up only, it is very possible it is the ABS actuator. They are somewhat noisy. Nissan has not comeout with a fix for this yet.

FS: RB20DET Part out
http://forums.nicoclub.com/zer...d=227

Can you check your info on the below response you provided? NTSB does not have service bulletins; they are the Transportation Safety Board and focus on accidents.

The NHTSA has service bulletins for defects and recalls, but the number you gave does not match their format. A scan of "2003 Murano" tech bulletins does not provide any similar sheets.

As a review, the issue I was concerned about is a behavior of too high a gear when running around 35-50 mph causing a throaty engine / exhaust sound along with poor response. Everything performs great until the engine warms up (~ 5 minutes) and the choke? kicks out causing the RPM to drop. Is this the symptom you were responding to when referring to the CVT valve body assembly?

Thanks for any information you can provide.

Michiganmurano

Also I’ve been having a ton of issues with the dealership trying to get my vehicle fixed. One service person I spoke to told me I should ask about a Good Will Form. The dealership can fill out this form and send it directly to Nissan. The form gives a little bit of background to your situation and Nissan may be willing to help you fix your vehicle.

Also the person I spoke with told me that I would be able to get a refurbished transmission installed for a little less than a brand new one. He quoted me $3000 instead of $7000 for a new one. Originally the dealership I have been going to informed me that Nissan had not come out with a manual for the 2003 CVT transmissions so they couldn’t help me repair it I would just have to buy a brand new one.

It seems that Nissan really doesn’t want to help solve this problem and everyone has a different story. I hope this bit of information helps a little.

http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/WebX/.f133968/111

Nissan has known this problem and they are not owning up to it. We need to all stick together and not let them get away with endangering the motorists and reaping millions of profit from all those costly repairs.

http://nissan.justanswer.com/m...o-cvt

At my shop, the only CVT problems we've seen were from lack of fluid exchange or having fluid exchanges done by somebody who didn't know that it took special fluid and burned up the CVT by putting Dexron in it. Neither of those situations is a warranty issue, it's lack of and/or improper maintenance.

Very good point!!!!! Have service done at a Nissan dealership, they know what they are doing, and it stays on record, that way if you do have an issue in the future, everyone can see how well you maintained your Murano.

If you did have the fluid completely exchanged at some point, then there is always the possibility that the part failed. But the problem I see time and time again is that you have a recurring problem that people complain about but they leave out the part where they didn't maintain the vehicle. So the ones that have a legitimate part failure get bunched in with the ones who treat them like crap. What is Nissan to do? Warranty everything that goes wrong regardless of maintenance intervals? All that would do is encourage people to NOT maintain their vehicle since they'll give you a new powertrain regardless of what you do to it.

I can tell you from firsthand experience that those who do preventive maintenance have far fewer issues than those who don't. And the ones that do that maintenance and have proof of it stand a far better chance of making a valid point when trying to get something warrantied that doesn't normally have a problem. The CVT has been around for quite some time in other countries, and if there had been a persistent issue, Nissan would have fixed it by now instead of putting a known bad part in a vehicle that they take pride in as being more advanced than the competition in the same vehicle category.