This two months long saga all began when my boyfriend replaced the front right hub for me. Simple enough of a job. I drove the car for two days after and all seemed to be well. I went and bought 4 used tires. Upon leaving the tire place, which is a fairly reputable establishment, I noticed a clunking noise when making hard turns, and then again when straightening out. I could feel it in my steering. The tires are 225/65 R17 and are Michelin brand. I really don't see them being the issue, but now I'm questioning everything. The clunking happens after it's been driven for about a mile or so. So when something heats up, it's happening. It does not happen when I first take off.

We were first thinking along the lines that something else had worn, and that the old tires wore evenly with it, which is why I never noticed the clunking before.

The car is under warranty through MaxCare with car max, but I have a $250 deductible. I didn't bring it in for the initial hub replacement, because it was something my bf felt comfortable doing himself and could do for well under $250.

Because it was a mystery noise, I decided to go ahead and take it into a shop. We were leaning toward a bad cv axle, thinking that would explain the clunking and why the hub went bad in the first place.

While waiting for my appointment at the shop, I continued to drive it. However, one day, I took off from a stop light and smelt the most horrible burning smell and heard a horrible sound. I had the car towed back to my house.

The first shop looked the vehicle over for 3 days and found nothing wrong with it-nothing to explain the smell or horrible sound, let alone the mystery clunking. Upon paying the shop $90 for nothing and leaving, I figured out that my ac compressor wasn't working. That would explain the horrible sound and smell I heard just a few days prior. It was the serpentine belt burning bc the AC wasn't engaging. The shop did not want to work with the warranty company and ended up trying to charge me an arm and a leg out of pocket, past my deductible for the part.

I decided to take it somewhere else, since they also still couldn't diagnose the mystery clunking.

Fast forward a month, and two warranty inspectors later, a second shop has now diagnosed the mystery clunking as my transmission.

The second shop put a whole new transmission in and fixed the AC. They stated that I had a lot of corrosion on my right front cv axle and recommended replacing it. Warranty wouldn't cover it due to corrosion. We decided my bf would replace that himself. Upon driving the rogue home, I realized the mystery clunking was still there. I got a new transmission for nothing basically. There was nothing wrong with my old one. I have no idea how the shop managed to convince 2 inspectors for the warranty company that it was bad, because that obviously was not the issue, and it was still making the clunking noise.

We were thinking that due to the corrosion on the cv axle, maybe we were right in thinking the cv axle was the culprit all along. The only corrosion turned out to be that it was seized in the bracket holding it up. It took an act of God to get the thing out. Upon doing so, the differential seal broke. It also took a secondary act of God to find the correct differential seal. My bf finally replaced everything for me, and drained and refilled the diff fluid bc it had lost a lot of fluid during the seal replacement.

This POS is still making the clunking noise.

I need my car for work. I'm about ready to set the car on fire. I haven't been able to go in to work in 2 months because we don't know whats wrong with it, and I'm scared of the thing falling apart on me.

And honestly, at this point, we are out of ideas as to what could possibly be bad. 2 shops and 2 diy later, we still don't know whats wrong with the thing.

Ideas? Comments? Help. Please.

Try looking at the subframe... push up on the front end and see if it moves up.
bushings could be bad.

Or check the control arms, swaybar links, etc...


By the way.. when you say clunk, is it metallic, metal on plastic, or metal on rubber?

I had a mystery clunk noise while back. It ended up being drive shaft going out and it would make the back end of the car jump a little. New shaft solved it.

So the transmission was replaced for no reason then? I'm kind of confused after reading this several times. The car drove okay but made a clunking noise and after a new transmission it drives the same but makes the same clunking noise? What did the shop say that replaced the transmission say was wrong with the transmission? That's a 5 to 8,000 dollar job, right? (finding a rebuilt CVT or replacing it and then the labor). There are sound kits the shop could have used to pin point the clunking noise before they replaced the transmission and would have saved you days/weeks and about 5,000 to 8K for your warranty company.

Personally 2018, that’s still kinda new to me. Should be a robust vehicle. Did your bf torque all the bolts to specifications. Moreover, was the vehicle’s weight on the ground when doing so.

If the vehicle was not settled and torque correctly maybe something is loose enough to clunk somewhere.

You never really know but wow, a 2018 needing a transmission replacement is unusual. This is a crazy story for sure. Maybe it had 2 things wrong, a broken transmission but also a problem with other parts of the drivetrain causing the "clunking noise" which is why they still have it after the replacement?

That must be the only situation unless the shop defrauded the warranty company to replace a transmission unnecessarily.
Isn't it like 5 to 8 thousand dollars to replace a CVT even if it's re-manufactured?
(3,000 dollars for remanufactured CVT and 2500 for labor)?

It's difficult to find shops that are truly capable of rebuilding a transmission properly in my opinion.

RickFlorida wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 07, 2023 9:09 am

You never really know but wow, a 2018 needing a transmission replacement is unusual. This is a crazy story for sure. Maybe it had 2 things wrong, a broken transmission but also a problem with other parts of the drivetrain causing the "clunking noise" which is why they still have it after the replacement?

That must be the only situation unless the shop defrauded the warranty company to replace a transmission unnecessarily.
Isn't it like 5 to 8 thousand dollars to replace a CVT even if it's re-manufactured?
(3,000 dollars for remanufactured CVT and 2500 for labor)?

You're right that there must be some funny business in this particular instance, but it isn't a bit unusual for a 5-year-old CVT to need replacement if it isn't cared for. To any CVT, fresh fluid is life and dead fluid is death, full stop. The most foolish thing Nissan ever did in their whole 112 year history was the "lifetime CVT fluid" fiasco, and for very bad reasons, they still refuse to recommend proper maintenance in their OM's. Prematurely-dead trannies are the natural result of that misguided policy.