CVT Rattle/Noise - Discussion Thread

[kcfm]

Did you guys catch GMA this morning and the piece on Audi transmission failures. OMG! Audi refused to do anything until the news broke the story and then the NTHSA stepped in and ordered a recall. Audi's response was to recall only 2/3 of the affected vehicles and claims they are safe. The long and short of it is they completely loose power in traffic or when accelerating with the new Direct Gear Transmission. Anyhow, I figure if Audi won't recognize this as a serious safety issue after the media and NTHSA stepped in; well, there is no hope for Nissan.

I concur

[1125Altima3.5]

I concur

I concur

Sue em all and let God sort 'em out.

[mx6bfast]

Just a hair under 16k on my Rogue and I heard it the other day. Greeeeaaaaaatt. So the dealership will replace with an 09 transmission?

[kerrton]

Yes, they don't continue to make defective parts, it was only a relatively narrow window of time when CVT's were produced with a "weakness" that sometimes resulted in the low speed rattle noise. The replacement CVT will have a completely new part number and will be the part that is installed in current 2010 Rogue's. Just relax and let your warranty take care of you, mine was replaced 10,000 k ago and it has ran perfectly ever since.

[1125Altima3.5]

Sue em all and let God sort 'em out.

Just realized I didn't explain this quote. I had my transmission replaced and the noise disappeared....for about 1000 miles/3 weeks. The noise came back and Nissan is not authorizing repair. One way or another I will not be driving this car (or any other CVT) in a few months.

This noise is really only a problem for people who demand unquestionable quality/reliability in their cars. For someone who just wants a cool car at a decent price, I think Nissan is the way to go. If you can deal with the uncertainty over small, nagging problems which may or may not get worse over time, then I would say that Nissans provide the best combination of price/features/performance. But if you need to be 100% comfortable with your car at all times, and have access to helpful dealers who stand behind their product, go with a Honda/Toyota.

good luck to all with their CVT noises. I think I'm going to drop another few grand for an Acura or an Infiniti.
Modified by 1125Altima3.5 at 6:31 PM 8/24/2009

[kerrton]

Just realized I didn't explain this quote. I had my transmission replaced and the noise disappeared....for about 1000 miles/3 weeks. The noise came back and Nissan is not authorizing repair. One way or another I will not be driving this car (or any other CVT) in a few months.

This noise is really only a problem for people who demand unquestionable quality/reliability in their cars. For someone who just wants a cool car at a decent price, I think Nissan is the way to go. If you can deal with the uncertainty over small, nagging problems which may or may not get worse over time, then I would say that Nissans provide the best combination of price/features/performance. But if you need to be 100% comfortable with your car at all times, and have access to helpful dealers who stand behind their product, go with a Honda/Toyota.

good luck to all with their CVT noises. I think I'm going to drop another few grand for an Acura or an Infiniti.

Modified by 1125Altima3.5 at 6:31 PM 8/24/2009

I strongly disagree. I'd say greater than 99% of Rogue owners have an above average, quiet vehicle with obvious build quality.

THE CVT IS SILENT. The only exception to this is a small group of 2008 owners who received a defective CVT, I was one of them, but Nissan replaced the defect with a new re-designed 09-10 CVT and it has been dead silent and perfect in every way for the past 10,000. I feel for the few who have the defective CVT and who can't get Nissan to replace the part, that is obviously unacceptable and but is not representative of the Rogue, it is representative of an extremely small minority who are not getting proper customer service. My customer service was excellent, and my vehicle runs on par with any of its competitors in terms of performance, silence, build quality and fun to drive.

Lets not confuse the small minority who are having problems with the 99% of us who have an awesome vehicle free of problems, AND lets not extrapoloate a few CVT problems and make the conlusion that all CVT's are bad, if you research conventional transmission's they'll have an equal number of failures, including Toyota and Honda, talk to my buddy who replaced 3 transmission's in his 07 RAV4 before finally giving up.

[1125Altima3.5]

I strongly disagree. I'd say greater than 99% of Rogue owners have an above average, quiet vehicle with obvious build quality.

Where are you getting that figure? It might be true, but the experiences here indicate otherwise. What percent of Rogue owners would you say are on NICO? Do you think that number of CVT problems reported here is less than 1% of that number? I doubt it.

[williammoses]

When I was quite a bit younger than I am now, I was blindly loyal to Ford products despite a lot of evidence that they were flawed products. It was a love affair that eventually extinguished itself.

I have seen several surveys on car quality. In every one of them Toyta and Honda rank first and second. Nissan tyically ranks well below the top two but above the "Detroit three" (Ford, GM and Chrysler). Nissan ranks with Mazda and Hyundai, and there is no shame in that.

[skiperoo...107]

same girggling sp noises new transmission at 35000km 20000milesjust got worse...new transmission appears fine

[skiperoo...107]

here is a great suggestion buy the car and get them to include an extended warranty right from nissan up to 100000km or more if they want the deal their cost is about $400.00 to include this

try to get the leather package so the drivers seat is power ...you will need it

[1125Altima3.5]

Of these 200 (1% of total), I'd estimate around 50 people reporting CVT problems, but to be conservative lets say 100, so grand total that is 0.5% failure rate. Very rough numbers, but even if you apply an additional liberal factor of error, you still won't exceed 1% failure rate in the worst case scenario. Modified by kerrton at 9:59 AM 8/25/2009

Not to get too much into sampling statistics, but in your example above, our best estimate for the frequency of CVT problems is 25% (50/200) or 50% (100/200).

I definitely don't think the total failure rate is that high - with so few owners and so much uncertainty in their participation rate, this number is very uncertain. It's troubling nonetheless, though.

There's a CVT poll going on in the Altima forum, and the about half of the respondents are reporting the rattling noise described here. The rate is even higher for people with the V6, and surprisingly no one with the I4 (same transmission as the Rogue) is hearing the rattle.

http://forums.altimas.org/zero...-here

[mx6bfast]

I took my Rogue to the dealer by me. They had no idea about the rattling issue. One of the techs rode around with me in the parking lot and he heard it many times. They wanted me to try another Rogue so I drove an 09 AWD in the lot and was able to replicate it again. The guy went in and said there weren't any technical alerts out for it. He said it seems like a normal sound behavior from the transmission. They even mentioned it could be the air intake or a plastic piece underneath.

My symptom is between 5 - 10 mph I hear a rattling sound in between the front seats. It's not a screeching, but almost sounds like wooden pieces knocking into each other. It only happens for a split second.

Does what I mention resemble the issue others have been hearing? Should I take the bulletin number with me when I take it to another dealer?

[jmbones]

My wife has a 08 Rogue with 28k miles. It is making a harsh noise and I am wondering if it is the (in)famous CVT noise. It happens at higher speeds, but seems to be when you let off the gas or start to give it gas. It sounds like a heat shield rattling and sometimes like an angle grinder on a piece of thin metal. Does this sound like the CVT issue? It has started happening non stop now. Never did it before. Can be reproduced at will.

[whatmorecanyousay]

Well Mr. Jimbones it is time to take it to the dealer and talk only to the service manager and convince him to drive the car. The transmission is broken.

My final report on my transmission Trip. I just picked up my Rogue this week after returning from the beach after a month. The new 2nd replacement was installed to deal with the whine in the 1st replacement transmission.

IT WORKS! no noise just smooth and quiet like the car I purchased.I cannot tell if the replacement was a 2009. Or I missed the part number for the 2009 transmission which had changed from the 2008. Any one out there have the part number for the new one?

I did get lucky and have only worked with 2 dealers in a car lifetime. (we have owned 16 new cars in my 70 years on this earth) that take a customer complaint and investigate and communicate like this dealer in Ohio. I take my Lincoln for service there because it is a Ford/Lincoln/Nissan dealer. The lincoln dealer back east was the 2nd of the 2 best mentioned.excellent service organizations. Service sells cars to existing customers and references for new sales.

Any rattles at low speeds is one problem. Low pitch whine is another (slow speed) High pitch (60mph ) all under moderate load. Bearing in the AWD transfer case usually the cause. We are good and my wife has her cool car back running better than the day she picked it up.

Remember you need to be flexable on giving up the car this helps the dealer able to tackle the transmission when it arrives or when not stressed with a deadline. I did not have to take the free rental program and was able to leave the car for almost 30 days while traveling. I am not sugguesting 30 days but you can corridinate your drop off when the new transmission hits the dealer and ask them how much time they need.

This should be my final report unless I need to answer the 08-09 part question. I just do not have the worksheet handy at this time

Wife and I are happy how the dealer and Nissan worked together to resolve our problem and gave us back the car we purchased and love.Again this car has an overall value in build, ride, handling, style and yes that includes the drive train that is now quiet again.

BobWhatmorecanyousay

[mx6bfast]

I took my Rogue to the dealer by me. They had no idea about the rattling issue. One of the techs rode around with me in the parking lot and he heard it many times. They wanted me to try another Rogue so I drove an 09 AWD in the lot and was able to replicate it again. The guy went in and said there weren't any technical alerts out for it. He said it seems like a normal sound behavior from the transmission. They even mentioned it could be the air intake or a plastic piece underneath.

My symptom is between 5 - 10 mph I hear a rattling sound in between the front seats. It's not a screeching, but almost sounds like wooden pieces knocking into each other. It only happens for a split second.

Does what I mention resemble the issue others have been hearing? Should I take the bulletin number with me when I take it to another dealer?

Can anyone advise?

[kerrton]

Yes, sorry for not responding quickly, but if you look at this thread we've had a lot of people with the exact same question and we've answered over and over the same way. Definately not trying to make light of your situation, it really sucks, but I've just typed the same thing out so many times now.....but I understand, when a thread gets this long it sucks to go through and try to read everything, it's just easier to post a question. If you do have time, scan this thread for repeateded detailed descriptions of the CVT rattling noise, and there is even a sound clip of it posted on the "CVT Sound Clip" thread. Like I said, its been documented to death on here.

So, it sounds like you do have the CVT rattle problem. I was told the cause has been clearly identified by Nissan as a a loose or improperly tensioned steel belt, and/or an improper meshing of the steel belt with the pulleys. This was only a problem with 08's and the CVT design was subsequently altered to address the problem. This info was provided to me by 2 seperate Nissan dealers, one of them is a good personal friend so I know for a fact they are telling the truth. They even referred to my replacement CVT as a "countermeasure, new and improved CVT to address a 2008 CVT design weakness".

The way you can easily tell if you have the problem is to go to a parking lot, and coast at very slow speeds lightly pushing on and off the throttle, each time you release the throttle you'll hear a rattling, grinding type noise for about a half a second, very quick but very easy to hear. Also, when you are decelerating to a stop, you will hear the momentary grind/rattle/crunch sound just in the moment before coming to a stop. This is how the sound first starts. After a while, the sound will get worse, mine started rattling almost contiuously in parking lots as I coasted along, so if you're having trouble hearing it now, wait another couple thousand miles and it'll become much clearer and more obvious. If your dealer isn't listening to you now, maybe take it back when the sound is more obvious.

According to both my Nissan dealer/Service managers, this problem is very well documented, they were aware of it very early on and it affects a good percentage of 08 owners so it is very unlikely that your dealer has not heard of the problem, so I'd be wary of them, each of my dealers has now replaced more than 10 Rogue CVT's, so it's not uncommon.

And I'm not sure what you mean by "should I take this bulletin number with me", what bulletin are you referring to? As far as I know, Nissan has never released a tech service bulletin for this issue. If you are referring to this forum, this is not official and I doubt they'll care, but definately mention it and if he's interested to read it you can provide the link.

Good luck, post back on your outcome please, I'm very interested to know how your dealer will handle this, it should be a no brainer.

[CALGARIAN]

I live in canada,thanks to everyone here,"godlin"..."kerrton"....。my 2009 rogue got same problem, now nissan will give it a replacement.I read all detail about this noice defect issue,it just happen on my rogue which I bought in april. before 4000Km. after I read this thread last month,I am surely know what I warry about finally, they promiss order a transmission and get it tomorow.One more question here If anybody like to help me."How do I know my car are 2009?"I got a japan transport permit paper nov,2008，but dealer say that is a 2009 car.I don't believe them anyway.thanks a lot.

[whatmorecanyousay]

I do not see how you can determine the year.

My car was a leftover 2008 from Japan MFG 7/2008 after the new 2009 was released from Nashville plant. It is a 2008. I am told they had been in hiding until they got tight on the 2009, they were released to the dealers at a big discount both on the East and West coast where the ships landed with the Japan, overproduction. Dealers were selling the top nof the line SL AWD with leather and every option (including Nav) out the door for $4000 Plus under invoice. Window $29,700. No one would pay that but they were getting it before the bottom fell out of the car market and the units were few.

One dealer in NJ tried to quote me in (June 2008) $1500 over window price saying thats the price everyone was paying. I have proof in an old Email.

In August the market fell apart and in October when I purchased the NEW 2008 I was the only one in the showroom. They chased me out to the parking lot when I went to leave. Thats when they took me to a remote lot that where they had about 10 or more new 2008 units revealed all Mfg in Japan.whatmorecanyousay

[whatmorecanyousay]

Dear MX,

Do not accept the dealers word. Take it some where else.

Also do not accept the naration of some people on this subject to suck it up and live with the noise until the unit breaks. This is BS.

Keep pushing for a resolution.

whatmorecanyousay

[misterghost]

just for the record....i received a letter from nissan, stating they need to REPROGRAM THE CVT COMPUTER to avoid SEVERE DAMAGE to the CVT if harsh drivig conditions occur...

my rogue is a 2008 awd model and it has a very small sound from the CVT as all other have stated (slowing down from 5mph, kinda rattling)dont know if this could be related to the rattling noise or not....i made an appointment for this saturday...ill keep you all updated.....

[kerrton]

WHAT??!! Please give us more details, maybe even post a scan of the letter if you can?!

This is big news man, you're the first to report anything like this - we've never had any official aknowledgment of a problem with the CVT. So if you've got the CVT rattle problem, the solution has always been to replace it with a new unit. But in your case they're saying that a re-program will solve the problem??!! This is crazy, please provide as much detail as possible, including what your service manager tells you. If you've got a letter, I wonder why all of us don't have one, or perhaps they're coming?

Is this re-program going to be required for all Rogue's, or just ones having problems? Many unanswered questions!!

One more question - have you ever reported the CVT rattle problem to your Service Dept or to Nissan before? Just trying to figure out what prompted them to send you a letter?

[misterghost]

emailed you kerrton...

[philipa_240sx]

There has only been one Tech Service Bulletin issued for the Rogue CVT. It covers the 2008 Rogue, 07-08' Altima and '07-08 Sentra with 4cyl engines. It's not a recall or anything per se, it's just a service procedure for vehicles that have certain fault codes within the CVT and unusually dark CVT fluid. The service procedure is pretty involved: replace the CVT and reprogram the CVT computer.

This bulletin was released in June. I had reported it in another thread and it's listed in the Tech Bulletin section of the Official Rogue FAQ.

[misterghost]

ok, heres the results from my visit to the dealer.......

they received my rogue, and i asked the service person about the letter i received....he told me that the procedure (reprogramming the cvt computer) is in order to eliminate the "speed limit governor" and to reload some data that controls the way the cvt limits the top speed when driven several minutes at full speed on big hills or fully loaded...he said there are several complaints about the issue, and nissan decided to eliminate this feature, since it obeys to more regulated countries, where top speed is not as often reached and the speed governor doesnt kick in as often, too...here in mexico, apparently, we are more prone to speed up and cause the governor to kick in and cause discomfort on the drivers....he said that its for the mayority of the 2008 rogues but he doesnt have the number of vehicles affected....he also said that part of this capaign is to replace the cvt oil dipstick, since it is a new piece with different part number, and it is the indicative that the reprogramming has been done.i asked him about owners complaining about noises or malfunction of their cvt and he said that he has no aknowledgement of any complaint or failure....they didnt have a replacement cvt oil dipstick, but said heel call me as soon the new piece arrives, and it will only take a minute to replace it, and close this procedure.with this reprogramming, and change of the dipstick, there will be no perceptible change in wich the cvt works, but the fact that when driven uphill at full throttle or fully loaded, the speed governor, will not be as agressive as before.as a side note, i recently took a drive to a nearby city, about 500 km away and 4800ft of change in elevation...on the way "up" theres a sudden change in elevation for about 100 km but maybe 3000ft elev....i was in a hurry and i was at full throttle almost for the entire trip, and when i reached that steep incline, the rogue slowed down from 150kmph to 120 kmph, even if i had the pedal to the floor, it wont go faster...only after a 45 minutes period of 120kmph it started gaining speed again but didnt reach the 170kmph as i have seen before...when driving back (downhill) there was no problem at all, even when i was again at full throttle most of the time...both times i was the only occupant of the vehicle on daytime driving and straightways about 50 km long...i personally think the dealer is lying about the issue, and wont do anything untill theres a catastrophic failure of the cvt....i, however, felt a slight improvement in the smoothness of the cvt, maybe a little quieter at full acceleration, i suspect they change the oil of the transmission for something thicker or with improved viscosity properties....they even printed 2 service records, one of the 10,000 km service (oil change, engine bay wash, oil filter...) and one that states "CVT CAMPAIGN", and nothing else...i feel somewhat protected if anything happens since i have the report and valid warranty for several months and kilometers from now on....i really hope this can help someone to clear their minds at least alittle, regarding the cvt rattling issue...(sorry for grammar and spelling mistakes)

[CALGARIAN]

Modified by CALGARIAN at 8:00 PM 9/6/2009

[CALGARIAN]

ok, heres the results from my visit to the dealer.......as a side note, i recently took a drive to a nearby city, about 500 km away and 4800ft of change in elevation...on the way "up" theres a sudden change in elevation for about 100 km but maybe 3000ft elev....i was in a hurry and i was at full throttle almost for the entire trip, and when i reached that steep incline, the rogue slowed down from 150kmph to 120 kmph, even if i had the pedal to the floor, it wont go faster...only after a 45 minutes period of 120kmph it started gaining speed again but didnt reach the 170kmph as i have seen before...when driving back (downhill) there was no problem at all, even when i was again at full throttle most of the time...both times i was the only occupant of the vehicle on daytime driving and straightways about 50 km long...

Such close describe ...a guy who on the way to Tibei in China last month.I try to translate by computer from chinese.....

The owner of the ID (lhfit), first discovered CVT failure is in his way to Tibet, i speed generally exclude rotten Road between 120-150 and factors, but longer travel time of departure in the morning till evening to hear the creak ” “ the loudness (it was evening, fired one day, turn off sound quite quiet cars), rule out road noise, drag after judgment such as voice loudly to the cabin, not the engine is the gearbox, attracted attention, and after their own test speed reaches more than 2500 go when the sound will only be obvious.The second day, drive three hours later, shuddered began to appear, the next sections of a series of trial, judgment hot cars circumstances will have an abnormal noise.

[CALGARIAN]

Lhazê on the way to La Sanader has always been downhill or straight road, train speed basic around 100 da Vinci Code.Light RBI oil Kolob disclosed suddenly armoured rose steeply series revolutions, cut transform her hands on anime mode checkbook and no file bit display.rush on the first time to La Saakashvili 4s, asked to do the inspection of the Hosokawa compact.4S shop Shi Fu in tropical stations disclosed vanilla line up to try Monorail, my description, also has variable speed into boxes affected while i.e. sentenced augmented wnat variable transmission failure.Attach the computer on review of the energy to N individualist variable speed box warning, why much alarm may (deadly is oil temperature alarm and variable-speed box Fullmetal band slippage), and some of the alarm can see more than a time, why not the fault lamp?

[jmbones]

My wife has a 08 Rogue with 28k miles. It is making a harsh noise and I am wondering if it is the (in)famous CVT noise. It happens at higher speeds, but seems to be when you let off the gas or start to give it gas. It sounds like a heat shield rattling and sometimes like an angle grinder on a piece of thin metal. Does this sound like the CVT issue? It has started happening non stop now. Never did it before. Can be reproduced at will.

FYI - I finally had some time to check into this noise on my wifes Rogue. The grinding/rattling sound that I though was a heat shield, was just that - the heat shield on the exhaust over the converter. It was loose. Hit it with a rubber mallet a few times and tightened the bolts with a 10mm socket. Good to go.

[kerrton]

jmbones, thanks for the report, that is a really good point to consider, not every strange noise is a catsrophic problem with the CVT.

Calgarian, I'm sorry but I don't think your translation to English is working very well, I'm not able to understand any of your messages. I just thought I'd let you know so you don't expect many quality replies.

[cycomom]

I have a 2008 AWD Rogue that has been making CVT noise since 3500 miles. It now has 17,000. My dealer has told me there is no fix and it is not a safety issue and just to ask each time I come in for an oil change if there is anything new. Of course, there is never anything new from this dealership. They also say I have the only car from their dealership with this problem. I also talked to Nissan1 and got nothing. It's time for me to get serious and either get approved for a new transmission or think about trading. Has anyone in North Carolina gotten a new trans and if so what dealership? I'm located near Charlotte. I just can't afford taking a chance that this 'rattle' will not result in damage, failure, etc. when it's out of warranty and need to take some action. Any help, advice, etc will be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, I'm satisfied with my vehicle and have no clue what I'd trade for. I love the 'intelligent key' and bluetooth. I think I would have to spend much more to get the features of a Rogue in another vehicle. Thanks for your thoughts!