Hi all!

I noticed an issue with my Rogue this year. It appears that when it's cold outside (0 degrees C ... yes I'm in Canada)., the car doesn't want to shift and doesn't seem to want to pass 30-40km/h for the first 1-2-3 minutes of driving. I'm guessing it's got something to do with a safety on the transmission when it's cold or something? It really drives me nuts...

I start the car remotely for 2-3 minutes to let it warm up when it's 0 degrees or less. When I jump inside and want to take off, i'm stuck doing 30-40km/h at 4K rpms.

Any help?? 2014 Rogue SV AWD, 97,000 km's.

TIA!

Andrew

Well CVT's don't shift, although they did add a computer generated fake shift feel to the 2nd gen models like yours.

32°Fahrenheit is a bit on the cool side. IIRC the Canadian version of the Rogue comes equipped with an engine block heater that you can plug in.

mine doesn't have a block heater - but is this normal behaviour? Even after letting the car warm up for 2-3 minutes at idle? Scary stuff when the highway is 2km away from my house and have to get on it doing 40-50km/h at 3k rpms. Doesn't seem normal, never had a car do that before.

2-3 minutes is not going to warm up the engine much and certainly not the tranny fluid you need to be moving. My 2016 would rev high until the fluid warmed up and I live in VT and drove it in sub zero weather regularly. A regular transmission shifts hard as well when the temps are that cold.

I would let the car warm up longer and see if that helps. regardless of the transmission issue you are having, it is a good idea to let the car warm up before driving it in the cold.

exactly, and usually I give it 2-3 minutes or so.
Update: My wife lets the car warm up for almost 8-10 minutes and still has the same result!!

I feel like this would have premature wear/tear on parts...no?

The wear is worse on the engine when it sits idling in bitter cold, best to get in it and drive it will warm up a lot faster when it's moving.

true... just scary to get onto the highway trying to climb to 100 km/h when it's struggling to do 50km/h at 3-4k rpm steady.
So this is normal, then?

Installing Block Heater in the Rogue QR25DE engine

Qashqai wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 27, 2014 1:09 pm

All Canadian Rogue's have block heater installed as a default.

As far as I know, they are using Philips&Temro block heaters (look at page 21 below).

http://www.phillipsandtemro.com/userfil ... xed(3).pdf

Thanks RogueOne! I’ll check that out. Then again, the car sits outside most of the day at a train station and there’s no plug. And also, that means I’ve got to plug it in everyday overnight during the winter since it’s always below 0 degrees C. Seems like a terrible idea for a vehicle for Canada... there’s no fix or anything to this that the dealer can reprogram or anything? It doesn’t seem ok to drive a car at city speeds at 3-4K rpms for a few minutes... unless it’s just me? Lol

Do you know if you are still using the original Transmission fluid? Not sure if changing it would actually help.

Yeah, have you tried getting the fluids changed? You could also get one of those magnetic oil pan heaters to at least get the oil up to temperature a bit sooner. Also, like Frzninvt said, idling alone won't bring up the temps as fast as just driving the car slowly up to speed.

The trans is slipping too much when cold and long term like that will kill it likely. The not wanting to go faster is slipping bad enough the car weight is making it slip more.

No, fluids haven’t been changed. Is there a DIY on it?

Amc49, so what’s the fix?

Bass4ever wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 16, 2018 10:45 pm

No, fluids haven’t been changed. Is there a DIY on it?

Just to confirm, did you mean the CVT fluid's never been changed for the 97K km? In that case, you would probably need to have it changed then. If you have access to the Field Service Manual, refer to page TM-190 for instructions, but I'm not sure if there is a more convenient way of replacing the fluid. Maybe a quick search in this forum could yield you more comprehensive info.

Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll definitely get on changing the fluid ASAP. Hopefully that’ll solve the issue

My Rogue was doing the same even when brand new. Yes plugging it in helped a bit but when the temps drop below -10c and lower it acts the same. Driving it around is the only way to warm it up. Find a longer route to the highway.lol

There really is no fix other than heating the fluid overnight or a new car or trans. The transmission does not warm up as fast as the motor does, the fastest way to warm it is in gear and loaded against the converter, what makes all trans heat. Sitting at idle in neutral is pretty much worthless unless you have a half hour. Maybe putting an airblock on radiator of cardboard cut to restrict air just right will help the warmup to go faster.

40-50km at 3-4K rpm is a slipping trans, it has damage already likely. What Nissan CVT does best, remember it with your next car purchase.

When the engine rpm seems to stay the same that is NOT the CVT not shifting, rather it is the trans slowly shifting little by little the whole time and what CVT can do vs. normal trans. Meaning the few parts doing that are working far more percentage of the time than with normal 'shift and done' ATX. Why they wear out much faster at the drive interface. They are literally shifting most of the time.

The modern fluids are like water too, to improve mileage, but that makes even the slightest of hydraulic leaks leak that much easier and anyone that has even been inside a modern ATX knows there are hundreds of 'normal' leaks occurring all over the place in normal use and operation.

It may well prove out that CVT by the drive method does not work well when very cold, there could be some reason behind that. I'm surprised they last as long as they do to begin with. The main drive method is just too contrived to last long.

The transmissions tear up left and right even when you change the fluid on time and not doing so pretty much guarantees early failure. They are EXTREMELY picky as to the fluid quality as part of it serves as a frictional drive component that helps the belt grip the pulleys better to not slip. I myself when it comes time will be changing my fluid at 30K instead of the recommended 60 that Nissan calls for, in my view that length of time is to get in more trans repair into the dealerships.

Thanks for the info. Fingers crossed it lasts a couple of years. I called two of my loca Nissan dealers and they both said Nissan’s recommendations is to change the transmission fluid at 200,000 kms!!! Wtf?! They said changing it at 98,000 kms (where I am currently) is a waste of money.

As they say, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. Someone correct me if I'm mistaken, but you can probably just buy the CVT fluid and charging adapter from a reputable supplier and change it yourself.

This is normal. My 2018 Rogue does the same when it's cold out. My 2003 Toyota Camry with a regular transmission did this also.

A block heater will not prevent this from happening since the block heater warms the engine block not the CVT. Not sure why people were suggesting a block heater as a solution.

It is NOT normal. My '18 CVT Altima does not do it at all and neither have any of the other many ATX I have driven (and built) over the years. I don't run at zero temperatures but I have many times at 5+ and above and they run and shift like normal other than you can tell the trans is cold, it does not shift as smoothly as when hot.

I have 3 cars now with over 200K miles on each and none of them do that and stone cold I can drive them away and at speeds much higher than that. I could go directly to freeway but I take it easy until the car gets some warmth built into it. Meaning say 60 (in OD of course, and 100kph) for a bit and no hard loading or trying to be a race driver. My normal ATX Versa will do the same thing at 100K. The trans should act not quite right but it should still be able to get into all gears including OD. No undue excess rpm at ALL. Now, am I saying go directly to the freeway one block away with a trans at 20 below? No, but it should still operate correctly after say 60 seconds of warmup and 2 minutes even better. Past that I for one do not care, the trans has an issue if not doing correctly past 2 minutes of warmup.

I would be instantly selling any car that did not do that as it is useless to me. A car with an overlong warmup period is going backwards by 50 years. It will also for that reason be in violation of emissions laws, the engine revving that high with car speed that slow will NOT be in full compliance.

About the dealers and any whacky fluid change ideas. One has to be smarter than them, that doesn't take a whole lot. WHY would you change engine oil at a periodic time say 3K or 6K or whatever, if you don't on an assembly that has more moving parts than the engine? It's utterly stupid to think the cars have anything approaching a lifetime trans fluid in them and if you study the fluid change requirements from year to year and the various OEMs you figure out pretty quick that ATX fluid changes are used for several different things. One is to bullsh-t the lemmings into thinking the fluid (and the trans, by extension) lasts forever. It DOESN'T. That line of attack is to further fool the buyer into thinking the trans MUST be reliable or they wouldn't do that, would they? YES THEY WOULD and how Nissan drives CVT repair into the dealerships. Even the 60K oil change is not soon enough in my opinion. And take a good CLOSE look at how many fail after that 60K number, there will be a reason behind that that takes Robert Mueller to get to the bottom of, but not hard to guess at. Past all that the fluid changes are always a war between the money people and the marketing people in the corporation, the money guys want more and earlier fluid changes to drive profits to the dealerships and sell parts and the marketing guys want the fluid to never change to brag to new car buyers how good the trans is. The number to change fluid at has changed so many times you won't believe it, it can change year to year in the owner manuals.

Don't believe me? Look at any brand new fluid and one that has been in an ATX for 60K miles, the difference is night and day or you are blind. If you really want to know when to change fluid then learn to read it for color distortion away from new and the change number will be different every time. I change normal red ATX fluid as soon as it goes to orange, the usual progression there is red to orange to brown and then toward black. If you got the darker you already have trans damage it just hasn't shown up yet. CVT fluid is blue or blue-green and clear, you are looking at getting darker and adding black tint to it from all the metal dust from the CVT chain (belt). On either color of fluid the more opaque the fluid goes away from clear the badder it is. I put a dipstick in my Altima to be able to look at it. AND. know that if you simply drain what is in the pan only you are only changing 1/3 to 1/2 of the fluid, the converter holds most of it. Meaning you have to drain more than once or pump the old out and fraught with problems doing that. Another way to drive the trans work to the dealers, by leaving out the 25 cent converter drain plug all used to have in them. That money goes to the CEO now. What! You say they just threw him in jail? Carlos Ghosn is responsible for where Nissan has gone since year 2000, and do a study of how he approaches business by stealing from everyone he can and why Nissan is where it is now makes a lot more sense.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A LIFETIME FLUID. Anybody telling you that is trying to drive more work into the shop. The same applies to power steering systems which most people ignore as well, if you want to never change another power steering pump or other then change the oil every once in a while, I do and have never lost a power steering part on multiple cars and over 45 years.

I'm not sure what the novel you wrote about changing the fluid and lifetime fluids has to do with this thread, but the fact the original posters car revs at high rpms when it's cold and doesn't shift right away when it is cold IS perfectly normal and is nothing to worry about.

The main reason is that the low temperatures increase the viscosity of the fluid and it doesn't flow smoothly in the system and the transmission will not shift at the regular RPM intervals. It holds the rpms a bit longer than usual. Perfectly normal and has happened on many different cars I have owned including my 2003 Camry that I sold in January that had 245,000 miles on it and now my 2018 Rogue.