2010 Nissan Cube CVT maintenance

[newoilguy1]

i learned two lessons . Don’t skimp out on CVT drain and fills and also when chasing a squeak noise at idle it’s not in the engine bay check out the transmission.

126k. No prior service on the CVT.

Used to be very noisy whining noise at speed and at idle. Went into limp mode and put up some transmission codes.

Oil on transmission dipstick was black. Dropped the pan. Like half of a grenade exploded.

Replaced filter and cleaned out the screen. The whine went away it sounded great.

Drivability is good so far no hesitation and no slipping that I can tell. Maybe the belt damage is limited and we can get a few thousand more miles out of it.

It’s been a good little car, literally grandmas car for most of its life. Maybe if these cvts stayed limited to small under powered cars they’d have a better reputation.


Edit: we used valvoline CVT fluid which smells like death incarnate. But so much cheaper than the Nissan fluid.

 

[newoilguy1]

Oops I should have put this in atf forum maybe

 

[JavierH19]

That's the second post in a few days about a jatco close to blowing up making horrible noises with blackened fluid. And my goodness that's a ton of metal in the pick up tube.

When I dropped the pan and pickup tube at 93k miles on the outlander sport for the first time there was no metal in the pickup and hardly any in the two magnets and what it had was super fine i couldn't see nor feel any small chunk. But I did change the paper filter before just not the pickup tube and did many spill and fills before since it has a nice drain bolt and dip stick tube to make it a breeze. I'd be looking to getting rid of this thing while it still runs and drives. It's got almost no life left in it if the belt is that shredded.

I wonder if valvoline cvt also has that weird bad smell the STP cvt fluid has since you mentioned it. The castrol transmax fluid smells like a normal atf to me. I wonder if that weird smell is a type of high pressure additive like in gear oils but different. Maybe it's good to go for the smelly cvt fluid.

Thread 'Poor little CVT! Change your fluid!'

May 10, 2025

Daughter’s boyfriend is over and as he pulls into the neighborhood I hear this screech, like someone is killing robot babies off in the distance.

It gets louder and louder and as a car turns onto our street I can hear it in stereo. Like a high pitched turbo sound revving up and down.

Boyfriend pulls up and says “somethings not right, it’s slipping and making weird noises”.

That poor CVT. 2012 Lancer with 2.4 Mivec has 245,000 kms, could be original fluid. Kid bought the car for cheap couple years ago.

I pull the tranny dipstick it has a terrible smell. Like burnt plastic…

I offer to...

• webfors
• Replies: 59
• Forum: ATF, Differential, Trans, Brakes, P/S

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[Lockasiam]

same thing happened to my dad's cube, limp mode due to heat, drained the tar out and refilled, performed better and no more limp mode. these things should have some kind of cooler seems like

 

[SwampSurvivor]

When I did the second drain and fill on ours at 15K miles, I was 2 quarts short and grabbed a quart of Valvoline fluid. I try to stick with the recommended fluid but realistically I just don't see how fluid types would be too big of a difference on a CVT as long as you're using CVT fluid. The valvoline fluid STINKS!!!!! It manages to smell worse than the cat-pee smelling type F fluid.

They definitely need maintenance. As a whole, I think CVTs would have a better reputation if the OEMs recommended fluid changes every 15-20,000 miles.

 

[JavierH19]

When I did the second drain and fill on ours at 15K miles, I was 2 quarts short and grabbed a quart of Valvoline fluid. I try to stick with the recommended fluid but realistically I just don't see how fluid types would be too big of a difference on a CVT as long as you're using CVT fluid. The valvoline fluid STINKS!!!!! It manages to smell worse than the cat-pee smelling type F fluid.

They definitely need maintenance. As a whole, I think CVTs would have a better reputation if the OEMs recommended fluid changes every 15-20,000 miles.

Have you ever used the stp cvt fluid. It has a stink to it.

And I agree on those intervals if it doesn't have a trans cooler. if it has a cooler it could probably do closer to 30 but even then oil is cheap and metal isn't so it's still a good idea to do early changes even if equipped with a cooler.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Have you ever used the stp cvt fluid. It has a stink to it.

And I agree on those intervals if it doesn't have a trans cooler. if it has a cooler it could probably do closer to 30 but even then oil is cheap and metal isn't so it's still a good idea to do early changes even if equipped with a cooler.

I have only used Idemitsu NS-3 which smells like power steering fluid and the Valvoline fluid in ours.

It has a "cooler" in that it has some coolant lines piped to a heat exchanger on the transmission. There's no external transmission lines unfortunately. If there were, I would have piped in a cooler. I might see what our options are for getting an external cooler on some day via swapping the heat exchanger for one that is set up for a transmission cooler.

I figure $50 to $80 every 15000 miles is way cheaper than a transmission. If we get 150,000 miles out of the car, that's $800 in transmisison maintenance where a new CVT costs $5000?

 

[JavierH19]

I have only used Idemitsu NS-3 which smells like power steering fluid and the Valvoline fluid in ours.

It has a "cooler" in that it has some coolant lines piped to a heat exchanger on the transmission. There's no external transmission lines unfortunately. If there were, I would have piped in a cooler. I might see what our options are for getting an external cooler on some day via swapping the heat exchanger for one that is set up for a transmission cooler.

I figure $50 to $80 every 15000 miles is way cheaper than a transmission. If we get 150,000 miles out of the car, that's $800 in transmission maintenance where a new CVT costs $5000?

Do you know what thermostat temp your engine runs at. mitsubishi's tend to run cool at 185-190. Some thermostats don't open until 210 and I know some cars run at 225 to reduce emissions. I know it's not good to go too low as the engine might run rich all the time but it depends on the vehicle. I have a basic obd reader I should check to see if it has the air fuel ratio measuring feature and if it does see at what engine temp it has to be to not burn rich since all cars have to burn rich when cold. Lets say the engine stops burning rich at 160 so using a 170 thermostat would be fine and won't damage the cats from always running rich but cool the trans fluid better with only a tiny mpg hit but helps the longevity.

 

[Lockasiam]

It has a "cooler" in that it has some coolant lines piped to a heat exchanger on the transmission. There's no external transmission lines unfortunately

Are oil to water coolers really effective at all? I guess it's better than nothing since OEMs keep installing them, but an oil to air cooler would be the best option. The 41TE on my Grand Caravan has an oil to air cooler built into the (bent) A/C condenser and I've never had any overheat problems and the fluid has maintained it's pink colour throughout my almost 60k miles of driving it, under some extreme conditions

 

[JavierH19]

But in all seriousness see what you can get on a trade in for it while it still runs. That shredded belt has little left in it. Don't dump it on someone let the dealer dump it at auction and let someone else make the mistake of buying a high mileage cvt auction car which is 100% their fault and not you or the dealer.

 

[Nick1994]

My mom had a 2012 Jeep Patriot 2.0L with the CVT (Nissan CVT). At 50k-60k miles it was whining. Dealer changed the CVT fluid. I sold it to a friend and around 120k the transmission failed, car sent to the junk yard.

 

[JavierH19]

My mom had a 2012 Jeep Patriot 2.0L with the CVT (Nissan CVT). At 50k-60k miles it was whining. Dealer changed the CVT fluid. I sold it to a friend and around 120k the transmission failed, car sent to the junk yard.

I actually liked those little boxy things. A shame they didn't specify to spill and fill those transmissions frequently in the owners manual as most would've lasted longer than they did.

 

[drfeelgood]

I'm the maintenance man for my daughter's 2010 Cube. She absolutely loves that little car and would probably keep it forever. Frequent spill and fills with Valvoline CVT fluid and occasional screen change and it still functions great. The engine has been problem free

 

[JTK]

It has a "cooler" in that it has some coolant lines piped to a heat exchanger on the transmission. There's no external transmission lines unfortunately. If there were, I would have piped in a cooler. I might see what our options are for getting an external cooler on some day via swapping the heat exchanger for one that is set up for a transmission cooler.

I'm probably misunderstanding, but you're saying there are no transmission fluid lines running to a cooler in the radiator? The heat exchanger on the transmission itself I thought was a fluid heater for these little jatcos. If you remove that heat exchanger, there should be a filter under it that people often don't realize is there.

 

[D1dad]

Cvts will last with a little upkeep. My niece by marriage brought hers over @150k, never been serviced. I thought I drained the oil it was so black. I did a double D&F and it’s been good to go. Surprisingly, it drove fine before. Now if there’s a mechanical issue then that’s different. The new Nissan cvts are tuned to run hotter than even my 2021. Nissan has come to the conclusion that condensation contributes to fluid degradation more than heat. I’m not sold on that theory so I’ll just keep doing a spring D&F on all my cvts.

 

[D1dad]

I'm probably misunderstanding, but you're saying there are no transmission fluid lines running to a cooler in the radiator? The heat exchanger on the transmission itself I thought was a fluid heater for these little jatcos. If you remove that heat exchanger, there should be a filter under it that people often don't realize is there.

That’s how they’re ran. The beehive isn’t a cooler by any means. You can run a cooler off the return line and then back to the cvt itself. I bought one but never installed it. I change my fluid quite often and monitor temps in hard runs. No issues and my 18 has 105k and no signs of slowing down.

 

[JTK]

That’s how they’re ran. The beehive isn’t a cooler by any means. You can run a cooler off the return line and then back to the cvt itself. I bought one but never installed it. I change my fluid quite often and monitor temps in hard runs. No issues and my 18 has 105k and no signs of slowing down.

That's interesting. I've owned and serviced a bunch of different Nissan/Jatco CVTs and I've never seen one w/out a set of fluid supply/return lines for a cooler in the radiator or an external cooler.

 

[Nick1994]

I actually liked those little boxy things. A shame they didn't specify to spill and fill those transmissions frequently in the owners manual as most would've lasted longer than they did.

A garbage transmission that maybe would have gotten another 5k miles out of.

A service at 60k miles is more than enough, and far more than most cars on the road get. Yet those will last 200k no problem.

 

[D1dad]

That's interesting. I've owned and serviced a bunch of different Nissan/Jatco CVTs and I've never seen one w/out a set of fluid supply/return lines for a cooler in the radiator or an external cooler.

I think I misunderstood you or vice versa. There’s the beehive and lines that run to the radiator. I always planed on running a line off the radiator to a cooler in front of the radiator, then back to the cvt. But luckily I haven’t needed to. But the beehive is a warmer and not a cooler.

 

[JavierH19]

A garbage transmission that maybe would have gotten another 5k miles out of.

A service at 60k miles is more than enough, and far more than most cars on the road get. Yet those will last 200k no problem.

True to a degree. But these jatco cvts are very easy and cheap to service. In fact the easiest transmission I've ever serviced. Easy to reach drain both at the front to where I don't need to lift it up and a straight large diameter dip stick tube up front that goes straight down so i don't have to worry about it spilling when the funnel is at an angle. Cvt fluid is pretty cheap most use transmax and have no issue.

I did many spills on the outlander sport which I believe has the name jatco jf011e but others are identical in terms of servicing. Did the first pan drop at 93k with no metal in the fine mesh pickup and just ultra fine metal on the magnets which there wasn't much of. I changed the paper filter once before but there wasn't any metal on it.