Hi,

CVT in my beloved 2010 Cube is about to die. The car has just under 30k miles. One morning I started the engine, begun switching into drive and when I came to reverse there was a dull bang in the transmission and car lunged forward once. After that it would not drive in reverse but after 5-6 ignition cycles it 'fixed' itself, still I have following permanent symptoms now:

1) When in idle or neutral there is a noise as if there is a bad bearing (which it probably is)
2) When I switch from neutral / park into drive / reverse and back there is audible 0.5-1 sec scratchy shift sound as if something is moving over sandpaper.
3) Once in drive or reverse transmission sounds absolutely normal in idle
4) When driving in reverse the "bad bearing" noises reappear
5) Normal driving is fine, no abnormal noise, acceleration / shift is good etc.

I am in Europe and Nissan Europe refuses to honor extended CVT US warranty for 2010 cube (No class action suits, Nissan / Renault can relax and sell broken cars). I have gotten a 'generous' offer of 9k$ for repair and fighting corporation now but if I will not succeed I would like to research other options besides scraping the car.

What went wrong down there? I have a feeling some bearing(s) lost ball or two....
If it is "just" a bearing, can a person with little car experience but two hands and a nicely tooled workshop attempt to replace it or is that a lost time?

The car is stationary now, I am not driving it but how long would you guess would it take this tranny to fail if I flush it to remove debris and continue to drive without repair?
How likely is some potentially catastrophic failure that would endanger the health / life of the driver?

Thanks

Don

While I've personally never had a CVT replaced, it's my understanding that unlike a regular transmission, when a CVT develops a serious problem they replace it. Can you just replace a few bearings? No, because CVT's don't work that way. This video shows how a CVT works:



I'd recommend reading through this thread: CVT Transmission Issues. (Fail safe, Whining, Temps, & FIX!)
And these as well: Concerns about CVT Trans - Replace your CVT yet? I did...

See if you can find one out of a salvage yard that is still good. Over here in the states, most salvage yards that aren't pick and pull yourself will give you a 30 day or more warranty.

Not likely to lose balls in an ATX as they are so flooded with oil. Of course it's always possible though.

CVTs most likely shed the main drive chains as the interface between the chain and the sheaves is the highest load area and the way the teeth cut into sheave leads to heavy wear, it's in the nature of the beast by the design. They really are some of the simplest of ATX but all the big 'magic hoodoo' about them makes everybody scared of them. Nissan likely fosters that even more by replacement only instead of rebuild as the chains and sheaves are what they will most likely change in them when the trans is rebuilt. What a marketing gimmick. They are actually MUCH easier to rebuild than a standard ATX, that is, IF you can find the parts to do it. Why they prefer to keep that genie in the bottle. It's all about the money, like always.