hey guys, just bought a used 05 murano s awd with 37k miles on it.

it has a hesitation or loss in power when pushing on the accelerator. I know i need to take it back to dealer as we just bought it like 3 days ago, but wanted to get opinions on what it could be.

almost like when you punch it, it hesitates like a deer for about 3 seconds then you get about half power.

thanks

first poster, hopefully long time hanger

Welcome Billygg,

Check out the thread a ways down titled:

"My car started sputtering when Idle and then when accelerating from a stop"

One member mentioned an issue like yours and what he found to be the issue.

Good luck

Wanted to give everyone an update on my issue. Of course I had just bought this vehicle on sat. So today I had some time to run it over to the dealership i bought it from.

couple things to note before i got there:- engine had a sludge build up when unscrewing the oil cap (top of engine)- did not notice this from the dipstick- car hesitates on acceleration after warm, not when cold.

Took it to service department. The manager, service tech was very nice and hopped in to drive it while i rode shotgun.

instantly he felt the hesitation/small surges (almost feels more like hisitation, but he is very familiar with this car, i am not. The minute he pulled out he was like, yea something is not right. We then drove for a good 5 miles, partially interstate.

After about 3 miles he mentioned that the CVT wasnt responding right and that it was jumping up gears at times. (something I didnt really notice)

After getting back to the dealership i mentioned the sludge in the motor. He popped the oil cap and definitely noticed it. He said with 37k it should definitely not have sludge. He said they might have to possibly replace the CVT (under warrantee) and he said he would drop the oil pan and clean out all the sludge.

Amazing. Many people have had very bad experiences with the stealership, and today they did me right. I have a feeling the previous owner slacked off on oil changes which has caused the sludge. of course that is not my deal as i just bought this car 5 days ago.

Hopefully (fingers crossed) i hear some good news in the next day.

Currently I am cruising in a 08 rogue!!! not bad not bad.

billygg wrote:Amazing. Many people have had very bad experiences with the stealership, and today they did me right. I have a feeling the previous owner slacked off on oil changes which has caused the sludge. of course that is not my deal as i just bought this car 5 days ago.

I hate to tell you but, since you bought this car, it IS your deal. That is unless the dealer has offered to switch the one you have for another Mo with fewer problems. Personally, that's the only option I would be pursuing right now if I were you.

Unless you got the car for a song (I'm always suspicious of cars on a lot with only 37K miles on them), this dealer has hardly `done you right.' That's also why it is hardly `amazing' that they are (at this point, at least) still willing to deal with you after you purchased the car. Though it's never happened to me, I have heard horror stories of dealers not wanting to know anything once the car has been driven off their lot.

`Doing you right' would be telling you - `We're sorry we sold you a car with a sludged up engine (hardly fixable by merely cleaning out the oil pan) and a faulty CVT. Bring it in and we'll switch it for a less abused used Murano.'

Anyone else think I'm being too pessimistic here?

A little pessimistic. lol. I do understand that it is MY car now, i get that. But, understand that this car is still under factory warranty. Whether they like it or not, the engine and trans is under 50k warranty and they will have to replace anything damaged. The only thing they would have against me is saying I didn't performance general regular maintenance. What is funny is that there is proof i bought the car not even 5 days ago. So unless they can prove i broke the trans in 5 days and sludged the oil in 5 days they (the stealership) is going to look like morons to nissan.

I talked to them today and they already talked to Nissan (corporate) about the cvt. Nissan is making them do some mandatory diag on it before they can pull it out. I assume that is standard since corp will have to ship a new one out.

Trust me naf, i hate dealerships as much as you. It took me 3 months to work a deal with them and barely did so at that. And yes, they did already shaft me because they sold me a problem car.

But, because of how this is working out I am actually not to bad off YET because i may get some new s*** put into this thing at no cost.

I almost think they might have sold it because they got more money for it off the lot without a new trans in it, then will replace it at no cost covered by nissan. Needless to say, of course they screwed me up front, but if everything is going as is so far i should come out ok. But i am still crossing my fingers.

billygg wrote:Trust me naf, i hate dealerships as much as you. It took me 3 months to work a deal with them and barely did so at that. And yes, they did already shaft me because they sold me a problem car.

Good luck with the repairs. Keep us informed

I really don't hate dealerships. I just recognize that they are a necessary evil at times. Dealership labor prices are higher than most other places that work on cars, and parts are almost always more expensive there as well. But that's to be expected (dealership overhead has to be partially covered by higher labor rates), and I do like having my cars worked on sometimes by people who are more likely to have received Nissan factory training. Fortunately, Nissans require fewer repairs - in general, of course, there are always a few exceptions, of which we read about 100% of them on these forums - than domestic cars. So, though I've used my local dealership for a few things (most recently an accessory belt tensioning pulley that froze up, along with new belts on my Maxima) I never feel as if I have to spend an inordinate amount of time there.

As for parts, there are some things you almost have to go to a dealer for (like many emissions control devices). You know you are going to pay top dollar for those. But routine maintenance parts - like filters and brake parts - are available at most auto parts stores. Even here in New England where foreign cars are still viewed as as still - well, `foreign.'

I got a call from nissan today. They had been doing some testing on it. They determined it was the differential. They have a new one on order, it will be in tuesday. Covered 100% under warranty and told me to hang tight in the loaner.

Tech said something about the differential uses magnets to pull the gears together and something with a control box failed and caused the gears to not lock properly and hit each other.

Not sure if that sounds even remotely right, but i have a new diff coming for free.

whew so far so good.

Boy,Been watching this thread and hoping for the best but predict issues. You have an engine with sludge and surging and loss of power during acceleration and the dealer is focusing on the rear-end..

I have 0 knowledge of/with the CVT yet much with other areas given my 8+ yrs at a Nissan dealership (all prior to CVTs). Are we talking rear diff or are we talking the front differential gears within the transmission?

Either way, you may have an issue within that/the above area, but my main concern, and personally I believe your root issue will be the result of whatever it is that is causing the engine sludge. Engines "do-not" sludge up these days unless the oil change intervals are 5+ times that of manufacturer recommendations (or you have other issues). I hope not but I would not doubt if you have an induction issue and possibly have been bombarding the engine with contaminants etc. Was the sludge oil/brown-black or semi-cream in color? I hope I'm way off base yet you could very well be arguing for a new engine in the near future.

Best of luck - keep us posted.

Cheers
Modified by KJSmitty at 11:33 AM 3/14/2009

I don't think there is reason to be suspicious just because the vehicle only has 37k miles on it. That sounds about right to me for a vehicle coming off a 36 or 39 month lease. The problem is that lessees are typically in brand new vehicles when the tolerance level is at it's highest. That allows some lessees to almost get away with vehicle murder by performing the least amount of maintenance necessary to keep the vehicle operating until their lease is up. Some dealerships turn a blind eye if that person leases or purchases a new vehicle with them.

Or, it could have easily been one of the people that always gets a new vehicle every 3-4 years. Even in this economy those people still exist.

The problem with previously owned vehicles is that it's difficult to tell what the previous owner did or didn't do and what mods they may or may not have installed. For example, KJSmitty mentioned an induction issue. How can we tell if the previous owner had a cheap high airflow filter in for a slight hp increase at the expense of high contaminants and engine life? Not so easy if they or the dealer put an OEM filter in its place now.

I agree Bunshaw. It is just tuff to tell when you buy used. I used to work in a body shop and did some mechanic work. It is just tuff to look at a car a few times and determine everything that is wrong with it in that short amount of time.

Anyway, for the final update. I picked up my MO today.

They did put a new differential in the back. I guess these AWD MO's have the electro magnet that pulls the AWD in gear depending on the situation. (computer controlled). That was acting up which was causing it to engage/disengage as incorrect times. This caused loss of power and hesitation when accelerating.

I got a 09 rogue as a rental. Everything was 100% paid for by the dealer which was nice. Always worried about that when you go to pick it up.

Also, update on the engine sludge I noticed. They did an engine oil flush and also dropped the oil pan and cleaned that out. Granted they could be full of %$&*# here, but everything looked cleaner than before. Big thing I wanted is documentation from the dealership on paper that i mentioned sludge and they did that work on it. That way if there is an issue with this (motor blowing) down the road i have papers for the warranty.

I had a 30 mile drive from work to the stealership. All the way back it ran like a kitten, purring nicely. No issues yet, but I have had it about an hour lol.

I know dealerships have screwed people in the past, including me, but they took all the right steps in my book at least this time to correct the issues. We will see how she drives in upcoming weeks. Ill drop a final follow up then.

Sounds good Billygg,

Hopefully that was all it was and it treats you well for years. Definitely good to have all the issues and current repairs on paper. It sounds like your dealer did you right and probably gained your trust to where you may return for further warranty/non-warranty repairs. And that's good due to many stealerships having the opposite effect!

Just me, but I would probably perform another oil change early on to ensure any cleaners/residue etc. are out of the engine from their flush/oil pan job.

Cheers