2015 Nissan Altima Cutting Out

You can read the positive new car test drives and rental reviews in this forum. But this is an example of the real world Nissan experience. The Jatco CVT was and still is bad. Unreliable and very costly to replace. With no proof there's been any improvement over time. Join a Nissan Altima group on Facebook and you'll see how big the problem really is. Every day someone posts about a CVT failure. Between 4-5k to replace. In many cases more than the car is worth.
 
I got some more news on this car. The dealer fixed the transmission, but the car is apparently still cutting out. Various warning lights appear and then all electrical quits: you can't even open the trunk. They suspected the alternator again, but seem to be stumped.
 
I would suspect a bad main fuse box cable or the box itself before the alternator. I had a feeling the transmission wouldn't fix a thing.
I have seen a car with something locked up in the transmission (very rare, IIRC it was a 73 Mercury) and no jump start was getting it going, it acted like a hydrolock or a broken crank or other internal, when we pulled the flexplate bolts the engine was free.

They have fired the parts cannon and now have their finger up their backside. I don't know what kind of mechanics they have working there but they appear to be lacking in some skills IMO.
 
Had a '03 Murano pull this same nonsense with a JATCO CVT. There was an open recall for it's intake tract clamps after the airbox cleaner. Recall stipulated that unmetered air making it past the clamps and seals can foul with the MAF and cause engine stall. Got it done at dealership.

The car still randomly stalled. Then one day it would crank and crank and not catch and fire. No codes. Walk away from it for 15 minutes and try again. This time she did start. Still would randomly stall... but acted up again. This time the MIL came on. BINGO! I thought. Cam bank A sensor low voltage. CKP circuit malfunction/out of range. Back probed to check reference and signal wires, grounds. Check. Pull trigger on parts cannon. *BOOM!* A month later, stinking Murano pulls the same act.

Check power and grounds to ECU, since when it would crank and not start? I couldn't hear the EVAP vent and purge solenoids click and cycle or the fuel pump whir at key on, no dash diagnostic lamps. Checked fuses. Good.

Got a wild hair up my nose and pulled down the glove box. Checked power and ground at ECU. Power, check. Grounds. Grounds? Grounds?!

After half disassembling the dash and tearing down the kick panels in front foot wells, there are two studs the ECU grounds to. Rust and greenie crusting for miles. The moon roof tract was plugged and years of trickling water inside but not to carpet flooding levels just chewed them up. Clean and air blast the tract out. Wire brush, sandpaper and terminal clip and re-crimp. Fasten up the nuts and terminals on clean studs with a shot of battery terminal red grease over them.

Fixed for 5 more trouble free years until I traded that money pit on chrome wheels. Should have checked those grounds up under the dash before swapping those two sensors but hey, live and learn.

Edit: Memory just woke up after a half pot of coffee:

Nissan JATCO ECVT's indeed do have a locking torque converter. There was an ECU code stored for a transmission error too while the ECU grounds were acting up. I theorize that the computer couldn't drive the lockup solenoid properly with poor current/voltage. Something about an input clutch overrun/speed input-output mismatch. Fixing the grounds took care of all of it in my case.
 
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Since when does a CVT have a torque converter? Someone is either giving you bad information or getting bad information. Also, didn't Nissan have to extend the warranty on CVT's to 10 years and 120,000 miles?
Most CVTs have a torque converter.
 
I got some more news on this car. The dealer fixed the transmission, but the car is apparently still cutting out. Various warning lights appear and then all electrical quits: you can't even open the trunk. They suspected the alternator again, but seem to be stumped.
At least they got a new CVT out of it.
 
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