Hopefully someone can help me figure this out as I've not been able to find any insight anywhere....

My '12 Coupe 2.5L CVT, mileage 110,000 usually runs great. Lately, it has been making this noise that if it were a conventional AMT, I would say sounds like it is not kicking into overdrive. My MPG has also dropped 5-7 from a normal 29-32. I'll be on the freeway going 80MPH, my RPMs will be at about 1500, but this whining noise persists.

From what I've been able to gather thus far, I'm of the impression that the CVT is not going into "final gear" I have an OBD2 reader with WiFi and have looked at the gear ratio but I cannot find a)what this should be during regular driving and b)what should be final gear ratio be? On top of that, what would cause it not to go into that final gear?

Any insight anyone can share would be greatly greatly appreciated!!!

If you are at 1500 rpm at 80 mph then give up on that idea, not being in final gear is borne out by the rpm being too high and you are nowhere near that.

There is no overdrive in a true CVT anyway as the trans is infinitely variable, there are no gears at all, just one gear set that ramps all over the place to take the place of separate gears.

The whine may well be the chain beginning to slip and what CVT does when it gets wear on the pulleys and chain teeth. A fluid change may help that.