Is my CVT going bad?

[SilverSurfer89]

only have a little over 3000 miles on the car but after its first oil change and inspection, the cars been making like a squeaking noise that sounds like a belt noise but its coming from the front left of my car. The car only makes the noise in Drive and NOT when i rev it in Park or Neutral, the noise also seems to diminish once the car is warmed up and has been driven a little.
Now heres what really makes me think its the CVT, i was driving it around my town and went to push the gas and the car seemed to misfire for a second and sounded like i heard a boom, jerked for a second went limp ( not much power output when giving gas) and then back to normal after ( its done this twice).
Previously i had a thread about it going into limb mode but nissan made som bs up for it saying the cvt was trying to protect itself.

when the squeaking noise or what ever you wanna call it happens now the car seems to rumble like... i dont know how to exactly explain this but the cvt is suppose to be a shiftless and smooth transmission, now when it does the noise while accelerating it also seems accelerate and is shaky like its having trouble finding the gear ratio or something.

cars going to nissan and this better be fixed under warranty, but whats everyones opinion?

[Hussain]

were you playing with the car when it misfired? I had it happen to me ones at the track when I was playing with "D" and manual mode.

also the limp mode has happen to a few people, a few times. I thought my CVT was going out like 30,000 miles ago when it went limp. but it hasnt done that for a long time. It only happened once or twice when I wasn't even driving aggressive.

but like I said, I've had both things happen to me like 30k miles ago and the car still drives perfect. I've done at least 100+ hard launches at the track (and on the street), did 130+ mph, pretty much just abused it since I heard the CVT warranty goes to 120,000 miles. It still drives strong.

[SilverSurfer89]

nope i just went to punch the gas and the car just felt like it went boom, my sister thought i caused road kill lol. the noise happens in manual diminishes when i shift up and the noise happens in regular drive also but it seems to not accelerate smoothley all the time, im pretty sure its a CVT problem and rule out a suspension issue.


edit - did i mention i started having the limp problem at about 1100 miles, not a good start

[Hussain]

ya my limp problem happened pretty early on and then stopped. But I know when my car was under 36,000 miles I would take it to the dealership anytime I heard any little noise or anything since it was free lol so take advantage of it while your miles are low and everything is free

[Ranga14]

Sounds familiar... Just take it to Nissan. See what they say.

[DJ_B_Easy]

You should not be going limp at such a young age. <---See what I did there?

On a serious note, def bring that in to the dealership. Like Hussain said CVT warranty was extended, and you arent even close to the previous 60K miles so you are covered either way. If they keep fighting you on fixing it, bring it to them like this. Tell them they will be liable for any damages or injury caused when the transmission fails and causes an accident.

[SilverSurfer89]

its at the dealership they said my accident is doing it even though i had cvt problems before, when my accident happened the engine and cvt werent touch their was not fram damage and the nose of the car was untouched, lets see how this goes, keep your fingers crossed for me

[Ranga14]

Accident?

[SilverSurfer89]

yea, so heres the low down accourding to them i was 2.5 qts low on CVT fluid and they have to recalibrate it or something. but according to my adjuster and body shop there was no engine and tranmission damage, the damage for my car was along the side. in order for cvt fluid to be missing it would have tto have leaked or theirs a consumption issue. they say its gonna coast 276 + tax for me, $108 per hour so its 2 hours plus the $60 in cvt fluid they fill up. does this sound right?

[mmkeller]

Does not sound right to me. If it is a consumption issue then it falls under warranty. Need to find out why it is losing fluid? Having to pay for something that's not your fault is bs.

[SilverSurfer89]

well insurance is paying but i still want to know why the fluid was low it transmission wasnt touched and since then the car has been inspected by 2 nissan service places and routine maintenance done

[Ranga14]

Provide them the documentation of the body shop/insurance saying no engine/transmission damage. There's no freaking way you should be that low on transmission fluid at 3k miles.

[seldomseen]

So what are the telltale signs that a CVT is failing?

1. Whining Noise
2. Jerking
3. Shuddering
4. Unresponsive Acceleration

[seldomseen]

Hell if folks think Nissan's CVT is bad....you should look at the GTR's (Non-CVT) transmission which is known to croak within 500 - 3000+ miles.

[RicerX]

Hell if folks think Nissan's CVT is bad....you should look at the GTR's (Non-CVT) transmission which is known to croak within 500 - 3000+ miles.

That transmission also handles 300-500 lb ft of torque (in stock form) more than any CVT from any Altima and is used in a street legal race application, so the comparison is pretty silly.

But if we're entertaining the comment anyway, that's only the 2009 model. The 2010 and 2011 utilized a TCM revision which limited driver abuse on the transmission, while the 2012 model got a completely new transmission, and when not abused, takes quite a beating. There are several people with 60k+ miles on their only transmission, even in the earlier model GT-Rs. Meanwhile, you have Altimas putting down 120lb-ft of torque at the wheels and that's blasting through CVTs.

When you put it like that, you realize how much of a bag of fail the early CVTs from Nissan/Jatco really are.