I own a 2008 Nissan Altima 2.5 with 160,000 miles. Its a freeway queen and has not been drove hard at all. In fact the first set of front brakes came at 104,000. I've had the dealership perform all maintenance on this vehicle. The transmission fluid has never been changed. I was somewhat skeptical of this but the dealership assured me that the fluid was fine and that Nissan does not require the fluid be changed. So that's a bit of the history of the car....

About 3 months ago while driving for about 3 hrs straight in warm weather I notice that the RPMs on the tach jumped up to around 3500rpm at 70mph. Normally the car operates at around 2100rpm at 70mph. The Check Engine light came on, so I drove it to the nearest Nissan Dealership. The dealership was too busy to get me in, but told me that most Check Engine light issues were emission type problems and I would most likely be ok to drive it home. I drove it the rest of the way home with no issues. (Transmission had cooled down while at dealership). The check engine light even went out after a few more short trips. I figured I would keep an eye on it and bring it back in if it showed more problems.

About a week ago, I was driving home in similar conditions, (2hrs, hot, 70mph) and the same problem happened. Check engine light on, RPMs up. I take it to the dealership, they do diagnostic and 4 or 5 codes come back from the tranny. Tech says I'm going to need a new transmission. I go through the grieving process of the thought of having to buy a new car. No way am I investing 4 -5k into a car with 160,000 miles. So I decided to do some research and found this site and lots of good info.

So here is what I think I have learned might be going on, along with some questions that I hope you guys might be able to help me with. The CVT was going into fail safe mode because it was overheating. Fail Safe is designed to keep you from blowing your car up. It does not necessarily mean that damage has been done, only that a sensor has picked up something operating outside of normal parameters. This is apparently common with Altima's of this vintage, usually much sooner that mine. Nissan extended the warranty on these to 120k, so when these problems showed up the dealership just swapped the CVT out with no further investigation. Many times the second transmission exhibited the same problems. This makes me think that it is in the design of the CVT and it is operating as designed. My guess is that Nissan put either too big an engine on this tranny or too small a tranny on this engine and it will overheat when pushed. Now the big questions are these: Does the fact that my car has gone into Fail Safe twice mean that the CVT is on death row and will certainly fail soon.....OR is the CVT just going into fail safe as designed to prevent damage to the CVT and as long as you let it cool off all will be fine?

I understand that having a car go into fail safe with under 100k is unacceptable and most customers demanded a fix. However, if the car can operated indefinetly as long as you let it cool down and don't mind it occasionally going into fail safe then I shouldn't need a new transmission unless it bothers me?

I am thinking doing a drain and fill of the tranny fluid (with the NS-2 OEM fluid). My theory is that maybe this fluid has thinned out and is not dissipating heat as good a new fluid, which might be why I am just now experiencing these problems. I realize this is a bit of a gamble with changing fluid this old, but I was going to forego any flush to try and avoid any issues. The transmission fluid that is in it does not appear to be burnt or particularly nasty. When its drained I can look to see if there is any signs of debris or damage, which would instantly turn this car into trade bait.

Any insight you guys can provide would be appreciated.

TLDR: CVT overheating and going into Fail safe as designed is not a sign of doom VS CVT going into Fail Safe is a sign that failure is imminent.

If your CVT is only going into safe mode when it's hot outside and when you drive for extended periods of time, and your CVT isn't shuddering, whining,not gearing, et cetera. Then changing your CVT fluid using the OEM fluid would be the best first step to take. Due to the high mileage of your CVT do not change all the fluid. See if you can determine what percentage of the CVT fluid should be changed at 160k miles, e.g, 25%, 50%, 75%, you will want to retain some of the metal shavings to mitigate CVT slippage.

Importantly, you might want to consider just having a Nissan dealership change the CVT fluid to ensure that everything is done correctly, and so you have documentation of the fluid change. If your CVT continues to go into safe mode after changing the fluid, your CVT will need to be replaced. But you're better off buying a "new" car due to vehicle age, and mileage. However, on the positive note, 160k miles on an '08 CVT is a quite impressive. Also, it's understandable why the dealer never recommended that you change your CVT fluid due to the history of CVT's on '08-'10 Nissans.

seldomseen, thanks for the reply,

Can you expand on the idea of not changing all of the CVT fluid based on age? Thanks.

Nihansir wrote:seldomseen, thanks for the reply,

Can you expand on the idea of not changing all of the CVT fluid based on age? Thanks.

The same principle applies to changing the transmission fluid on typical geared transmissions. The metal shavings that are in high mileage transmission fluid provide the necessary/additional friction/grip enabling the transmission to operate without slippage. Completely draining the fluid from a high mileage transmission, will cause the new fluid to be overly slick for the wear and tear a high mileage transmission developed, and will likely cause the high mileage transmission to slip and or fail. (you can google this practice for more technical explanations). Draining a percentage of CVT fluid is a practice that Nissan performs too, and Nissan determines the percentage of fluid to drain using the consult device.

Put a transmission cooler on your car and eliminate the overheating.

Throckmorton wrote:Put a transmission cooler on your car and eliminate the overheating.

This... nissan has a bulletin out to install a trans cooler if trans is overheating on previous body style altima, sentra, and rogues. It is covered under the cvt warranty extension. We can go into the tcm and see the overtemp count with consult 3 and if it is over 2 then you install the cooler.

I have a 2009 Altima 2.5SL with 127k and recently I've been having problems with my transmission doing the same problem. I commute daily about 65-70 miles each way and about 30 minutes into the return trip as I'm ascending inclines, the rpms will shoot straight to the redline as I'm running 75-80mph. I've taken it to the local dealer a few times and they could not get it to duplicate. They mentioned it sounded like the fail safe. However there's no history of codes in the sytem. They said the transmission fluid looked and smelled good, etc. I'm very concerned since the warranty has now expired on the transmission. The day I picked it up from the dealership and they couldn't get it to duplicate, it happened on the way home.

Nihansir, any update/resolution on your issue? I have the exact same problem for a 2010 Nissan Sentra SR.

I just went through the same thing with my 2008 Altima 2.5 that has 135,000 miles on it. Since about May I have noticed a slight whine coming from under the hood when accelerating and it's hot out ( I live in Georgia). I went on a road trip over the blue ridge mountains and had no end of trouble. Stopped at a Nissan dealer in North Carolina and they just told me I needed a new transmission ($4,500). I limped it another 1,000 miles until I got home and figured out a few things along the way.

1. Fail safe mode does not cause the service engine soon light to come on, that appears to be the torque converter when it overheats which is after you've been in fail safe and keep driving.

2. The transmission overheats dramatically faster the faster you drive. 80 mph I could drive for 15 minutes before fail safe, 60 mph I could go for an hour.

3. This may be obvious, but if you stop to let the transmission cool down, pop the hood to give the heat somewhere to go.

4. The transmission cooler seems to have completely fixed the issues I was having. I have beat on it in 90F ambient at 80 mph and haven't even heard a hint of whine coming from the transmission.

The cooler I ordered from the local Nissan dealer was 21606-ZX59A and cost $250 with tax. I installed it myself and even though it doesn't come with any instructions, it was fairly self explanatory. Best money I have spent in a while.

Auslander, I had 100% the exact same symptoms as you. I also got the TCC code from trying to limp it home when it was overheating. I had the code reset and it has not re-tripped so I'm hoping there was not permanent damage done. Nissan insisted that I let them replace the transmission for $4,500 and I declined. I asked to get the cooler kit assembly you mentioned below that is referenced in one of their tech bulletins about this issue and they said it was a restricted part and they couldn't order it for me. As a result, I started doing research and found an alternate/similar solution.

For those that don't wont deal with Nissan's shenanigans a guy on ebay has also discovered this issue and had a part machined so that an external cooler can be added. Most current Nissan designs have a water cooler directly attached to the transmission so this guy made an adapter plate that has two ports so you can attached a supply/return hose to a cooler.

The adapter is $100 and found here:

http://m.ebay.com/itm/Nissan-rogue-juke ... nav=SEARCH

His ebay description also describes very similar information about overheating, etc. Also the Hayden cooler that can be used with this is $53 and found here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000C3DDK ... ref=plSrch

So for $150 you can install an external cooler and not have to deal with Nissan.

So I own a 2011 Nissan Altima and have experienced this fail safe mode as well. The car has 104,000 miles on it which is within warranty, as Nissan increased the warranty on these cvts to 120,000 miles. Last weekend as I was driving back from Tennessee driving over 75+ mph, the temp was 85+ , I had been driving for over 3 hours and obviously going up inclines thru the mountains (the exact conditions Nissan says could cause the fail safe mode), the vehicle began to decline in speed about 65 mph and would not allow me to accelerate, with the pedal down to the floor! I slowed down and drove at that rate and a few minutes later the vehicle began to run as usual, and it has ever since.

I've read plenty of blogs about the issue and am going to have the dealership look at it today. My concern is, the tech I spoke with said they would have to run diagnostics (although he admitted they already know those cvts have an overheating issue) and would probably only change the transmission fluid. He stated the tranny coolers are only made for 4 cylinders not 6, and that it is $550+ and NOT included in the warranty, which is opposite of what I've been reading. I have 2 long road trips coming up in the next 3 weeks, one to Detroit from Atlanta, and from Detroit to California.

I feel like he may be trying to take advantage of me because I'm a female..what should I do? (This dealership has also never serviced my vehicle, haven't had the need to. All that has been done is oil changes, breaks and tires by a local shop)

I have had the same issue with my 2012 nissan altima and was able to the the local dealership to install the cooler It just cost me $50.00. Th cooler that you get from Nissan is only for the the 4 cylinder but you can have any good mechanic install a universal transmission cooler and you will get the same results.

Just a quick side not the CVT warranty was only extended on the 2003 to 2010. The 2013 and up come with the the 120,000 warranty but 2011 and 2012 only have the 60,000 unless you paid for the extended warranty.

https://owners.nissanusa.com/nowners/na ... ntyContent

I have the 08 2.5S up to 85,000 miles.
Last two trips over 50 miles I have had the problem occur and the car has gone into failsafe.
Do I just pull over and let car cool off?
This has restored performance to normal and I did not know this issue is supposed to happen until now reading this.
Do I need to have this checked out by Nissan or do I just need to let the trans fluid cool off?
Does not make driving fun.
Also, will Nissan do a warranty replacement if the problem is not occurring when I bring it in, or there is no code in the computer when they do a diagnostic?
Also, does anyone have an answer as to if the cooler mentioned here is covered under warranty?

Thanks a lot for any help.