amc49 wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 12, 2018 2:33 am

What dipstick tube, if they have the short standpipe in the pan then there should be no dipstick tube at all. The fluid normally gets handpumped into the pan below.

The fluid amount varies because the torque converter does not drain and it holds a sizeable amount of fluid in it. You only drain what is in pan and that is not all of it. Your hole leaking though may put you in the middle of BOTH of those amounts as you have no idea of the total amount of fluid lost there.

To drain pan you pull the plug and then the standpipe comes out after too, or you leave the pan full. You refill with standpipe in place and until the fluid just begins to run out of it as it is the level setter there.

v_maxim wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 26, 2018 9:51 pm

To top-up some liquids in your car looks fairly simple, you have a minimum and a maximum marks on a bottle or on a stick... But in your case two of the most important things are missing: the information (how much fluid) and the tool (the dipstick). I think you can overcome this with some research and help from friends:

1. Find the CVT model: Jatco CVT-7?
2. Other cars with the same gearbox: Juke, Altima, Versa, Qashqai, etc.?
3. Dipstick code and dipstick-tube code: perhaps something like 31086-3TA1A and 31080-1HA0B; compare with as many as possible cars found on 2.
4. CVT fluid? for a new generation xtronic, NS3 - most probably;
5. Did you notice that some a little bit older models really had a dipstick not just a cap? If it is the same gearbox and the same dipstick-tube... hmmmm! Most probably you can measure the fluid level with one of these dipsticks!
6. Could not find a dipstick? No problem; take a general one, flexible enough and long enough (at least 50cm I suppose) so that inserted on the dipstick tube will reach the bottom.
7. Get a whitness/comparison car from a friend, a neighbour... something with *the same gearbox* (see 2.) Read the fluid level on the dipstick on that car. If possible, make 2 or three readings: engine stopped, engine running, cvt fluid temperature cold (let's say 30 Celsius degrees), cvt fluid warm (60 Celsius degrees, for example).
8. insert the dipstick down to the bottom in your CVT. Does it read anything? I suppose not yet, given you had a hole in it. Add 1 liter (or one bottle) of cvt fluid through the dipstick tube. Insert the dipstick and read again. Anything? The level increased with... about 7-10mm?
9. Repeat: add another 1l/bottle of cvt fluid, measure again; thus you want to know how much to add, step by step, to reach the minimum level you read on the whitness car with the cold engine, i.e. stopped.
10. Make sure the level in you cvt is as in the other car, the one taken as whitness, on the same conditions.
11. Start the engine. step through the P, R, N, D, slowly, keep it few seconds in every mode. Stop the engine, wait for the fluids to settle, measure again. Add fluid if neccesary. Repeat 11. until the reading on the dipstick is steady.
12. Make the readings with engine running, with cold and warm CVT fluid. Should match those made on the comparison car. Add fluid if neccesary. Make a drive test, measure again in the next following days from time to time. That's it.

How much fluid? I really don't know; maybe some is trapped in the torque converter, but can't tell how much; most of the rest has been drained, you said.

On the other hand, the ECU counts something like "the deterioration level" for the CVT fluid; therefore you should reset this counter when you change or flush the fluid, accordingly. If your car is almost new, maybe you can skip resetting this counter, but you shuld check it's value with an OBD tester anyway.

Well, hopes it helps. Don't take this procedure as a precise solution to your problem. My advice is to ponder carefully and proceed only when sure.