08 Altima- left my wife as a sitting duck

[maxweenus]

hi everyone,
A VERY BIG thanks for looking.
Im hoping for some guidance, my first post and i dont want to get run through the mill by the service department. i did some of my own online research already.

The problem: The car, when at highway speeds, will somehow totally lose all acceleration power. At around 55mph all of a sudden the gas pedal becomes unresponsive. pressing it down to the floor will barely maintain that 55mph speed, but you can not go any faster. I equate it to driving 15mph in 5th gear on a manual. Just no response.

At lower speeds you can regain acceleration, but you need to bring it way down first.
If you take the car off the road and wait 10-15 minutes it will resume normal operation (for a while at least)

Today, my wife drove from CT to NJ, and the car failed on her multiple times. Dangerous.

history/ Other Issues.
This happened to us last summer. Once. On our way to vacation. When we got it to the dealer after we returned a week later we were told it had been too long, the computer showed an error 20 starts ago, but it wasnt showing now.
Common themes were that it was at highway speeds, it was hot out, and it was a longer trip.


The car also on longer trips starts to whirr. A noise that increases its pitch on acceleration and is very distinguishable. Again, only at highway speeds and long trips so even though i gave my service dept 10 recordings of the noise, they couldnt "recreate" it.

Car is 2008/ has 96k on it, always up to date with oil tires etc.

Im hoping for some insight and guidance from some experts here, or anyone who knows more than me (everyone).

The only remaining warranty on car is on the CVT, to 120k.

Many Many thanks in advance. Please help.

-Max

[SHIFT_COUPE]

Welcome Max!

Sounds like "limp mode" where the car just shuts down and won't move past the lower RPMs. This is typically attributed to an issue with the mass air flow sensor found in the air intake system.

[maxweenus]

Thanks Shiftcoupe,
Would this explain the whirr noise as well, it seems to happen much more often.
Would limp mode allow normal operation at lower speeds, not just hwy?

[AlexN09]

The car goes into limp mode I believe to protect the cvt under heavy acceleration, high temps, and possibly other factors. Several drivers experience this after very heavy braking as well, although you did not mention this. If it's happening when it's hot out than perhaps your engine or transmission are overheating.

[maxweenus]

Service department just told me that the car showed absolutely no codes at all re the complete loss of power.
Does this give anyone any insight?

[SHIFT_COUPE]

Things just got stranger...they weren't able to diagnose the problem? Was this a 2.5 or a 3.5?

[maxweenus]

Great... ShiftCoupe...i really appreciate your response.
however...like the Dr., having something diagnosed as "strange" is never good!

Anyway...the head service guy at the dealer (very nice gentlemen btw) is taking the car for the night and will be driving it with his computer hooked up..
Ill keep you abreast but when he told me no codes showed up i was kinda taken off guard.

(noob question warning)

Do the codes only show engine (check engine light) issues, or can they diagnose the entire car?

He told me the "whirr" sound is def coming from the trans and that there are two fixes, there is a kit for one, and the other, if its the belt, will require a new trans (ok w me cuz its under warranty)

Question 2...if it was in "limp mode", would there be a code for that?

Thanks again

max

[maxweenus]

2.5

[AlexN09]

I dont think that going into limp mode would trip any codes. This would theoretically be a normal occurrence if you were driving the car really hard. In your case the transmission might be on its way out.

[stevewaclo]

Hmmm

Another dangling post :-(.

Been away from the forum for a long time and amusing myself by yelling at posters who leave everyone hanging :-)

Wazzup, Maxweenus?

And don't get me started on your user name :-).

And alexn09, gotta disagree on setting codes in limp home mode. Cars don't just decide to go into lhm, something unpleasant had to precipitate the event.

[AlexN09]

Well that may very well be the case, steve. (I've noticed you bringing up lots of unresolved threads and I think it's funny)

However I must say in my own year of driving this car, especially in the first few months, my car would lose all acceleration and torque momentarily after braking very hard, accelerating hard, or switching frequently between automatic and simulated manual modes. This loss of torque would then reside after only a few seconds.

I have also seen several other members reporting the exact same problems under the same conditions.

None of these occurrences were followed by engine codes of any kind.

Now in the OP's case this sounds like a very similar problem although the effects seemed much more severe and did not go away within a few seconds like the other reported cases.

It has been said many times that the car protects the cvt by going into this low power mode to stop you from doing whatever it is you are doing. With that in mind it seems possible that a damage cvt transmission would "limp" more often and more severely.

I may be completely off here but I just tried to follow my knowledge logically to arrive at that conclusion.

[amxguy1970]

With all the mentioning of CVT protection and overheating, I would suggest a fluid and filter change. 96k is up there, around our family we always do the transmission fluid around 70k, fresh fluid at the proper level and a new clean filter can help it run cooler especially with the fluid moving more freely. Just an idea going off a few suggestions above. Also I would maybe clean up the mass air and make sure it is clean and tight. Worse case you buy a new one if that is one of the issues. My moms car had a mass air problem (yukon denali) and it was only $80-90 dollars and cured the light. Good luck!

Tyler

[kerrton]

Hi everyone, this is a known issue with us at the Rogue forum (We share the 2.5QR engine and identical CVT). The solution for the overheating CVT going in to limp mode (has only happened in very hot weather conditions), has been to drain a small amount of the CVT fluid. I know it sounds very strange, I couldn't believe this at first either, but from those who have had this service performed by the dealer, they all report that the problem hasn't repeated itself. Apparently the extreme heat has pushed this CVT outside of its tolerances in some cases. Remember that 2008 CVT is an early model, and I have documentation that there have been 2 to 3 minor changes to the original early 2008 CVT found in the Rogue and Altima.

Regarding the "whirring" noise from the CVT during long, hot highway trips, my 2008 Rogue makes this noise with only 50,000 km, and many other Rogue owners report the same. Most who have reported this issue have had limited success with getting help from Nissan, one or two have reported getting replacement CVT's from proactive dealerships. After extensive discussions we have all concluded that the noise is not something to get overly excited about just yet, we have many owners who have had the noise for thousands of miles and it has not gotten any worse, and th driveabilty has never suffered, fuel efficiency and performance remains high. I wouldn't worry unless you notice a difference in performance or fuel economy. We have many 08-09 owners with high miles, one in particular just hit 300,000 km with his original CVT, no repairs or major maintenance required, and he reports everything runs almost like the day he purchased the car! So my point is, this powertrain appears to be very durable, the early 08 CVT may have an issue with hydraulic noise or noise resulting from slightly uneven wear, but it does not appear to affect reliabilty or durability. I have had basically zero complaints of this vehicle leaving someone stranded with a castrophic failur in about 4.5 years on this forum since the first model year 2008.

I would recommend that you mention to your dealer the fix for hot weather CVT limp mode as advised by Nissan Tech Support at other dealerships, which is to drain some CVT fluid to lower the level. If they check with Nissan Tech support they should get this recommendation from Nissan. Good luck!

[kerrton]

....oh and I agree with AlexN09, this car(s) will absolutely go into limp mode, and otherwise freeze-up without throwing a single code. I've heard many owners complain of this, for the obvious reason that the service shop can't find evidence of the intermittent issue stored in the computer, and it is almost impossible to recreate an intermittent issue at will with a service tech ride-along. I agree it should not be this way, especially for something major like the transmission going to limp mode, there should be a code stored but it doesn't appear to be the case and we have many owners who will attest to that.

[AlexN09]

Wow thanks for the info, Kerrton. I can say that during this entire summer, my car hasn't "limped" at all! I think I'm definitely driving differently.

[RicerX]

Kerrton be da man. WERD.

[kerrton]

A Nissan Tech has given us some more detailed info. on this topic, and I've referenced a new TSB. It's worth taking a look:

rogue-cvt-issues-fail-safe-and-whining- ... 63940.html