Howdy, So I am at a loss. Worked on cars since I was a kid, owned 15+ sports cars myself and have built engines in my garage but this one has me stumped.

Long story short, I was working on my Grandmothers car, the basic oil change + tune up. Everything went great, changed the oil, topped off all the fluids, added injector cleaner, fixed a crack in the PCV breather hose ect.

Only issue up to this point was that the headlights were on for some reason while I was draining the oil and her battery died but a quick jump later and it was fine, I thought.

I then get in the car and try to back it down, give it a few revs in park to listen for anything. Everything sounds great. I put it in gear and suddenly it will not rev above ~1500-2k RPM's even with my foot to the floor. It will not move under it's own power although I can feel the transmission trying to.

No warning lights, no codes either on the dash or my obd scanner, no apparent issues at all.

I first tried resetting the ECU using guilds I found online, pretty sure I did it right, I did it a few dozen times but nothing changed.

I then unplugged the battery and left the terminal touching overnight and plan to go see if anything changed once it warms up today.

I am at an utter loss as to what the issue could be. The throttle body is obviously just not opening but it works fine in park so the ECU is not allowing it to open for some reason but it will not give me a code to figure out why.

Anyone have any ideas? I really need to get this running and can't afford a dealer vist.

Here is a video of the issue: https://youtu.be/frBiJR-V-ZA

Note that is the video my foot is either off the gas entirely or all the way to the floor, never half way.

Thanks for any help!

For anyone wondering in the future, the transmission fluid was far too low and it finally threw a code complaining about it.

Drained and refilled the tranny and all is good now.

surprised it wasnt making a horrific whine noise too. Low fluid pressure causes that nasty CVT whine.

When I added a little fluid and it started to move some it did start whining but it was so low that it would not even move or whine.

YouTube/autofixpals wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 29, 2019 7:59 am

surprised it wasnt making a horrific whine noise too. Low fluid pressure causes that nasty CVT whine.

So is that was that whine is when I'm doing about 70mph.. Sounds like i have the car in 2nd gear, but rpm shows at 2100 -2300 .. Is that what needs to be done? Drain fluid and put new fluid?? No need to change filter right?
2012 Altima 2.5 = 100k miles

Romeo5k wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 23, 2022 9:30 am

So is that was that whine is when I'm doing about 70mph.. Sounds like i have the car in 2nd gear, but rpm shows at 2100 -2300 .. Is that what needs to be done? Drain fluid and put new fluid?? No need to change filter right?
2012 Altima 2.5 = 100k miles

If it's at 100K and it's never had fresh fluid, that's very possible. I'd give it a couple of quick changes so at least 3/4 of the fluid is new. Nissan doesn't recommend changing either of the filters, but there's nothing wrong with cleaning out the screen if you plan to drop the pan. The paper filter under the beehive should be left alone.