Nothing wrong with Nissan. You get a lot of car for your money. I change my fluid often and see no issues and have had none. I just did my soon to be nieces 17 Altima with 150k on it, never touched and surprisingly the trans ran just like my wife’s 24 Altima. Of course there’s some bad ones but the cvt is destined to fail is overblown. There’s an 07 Murano running around my small town with close to 400k on it.
CVT durability
- Thread starter penz08
- Start date
I drove my Rogue for the first time in 2 weeks today and smiled at how comfortable it is. Plus I have lots of options and didn’t have to pay $45000.
I sure see a ton of Nissans here. Nissan, Kia, and Hyundai are still affordable, so that’s what sells. That makes them relevant.
My 18 rogue has been driven hard. Lots of family trips through the mountains and plenty of work trips. Everything about it is still like new at 92k. Of course I’ve probably over serviced the cvt and the whole car in general. It owes me nothing and I’d buy another if they wouldn’t have ruined it with a plastic oil pan and 3 cylinder engine. I just bought the wife a 24 Altima sl and couldn’t touch a Toyota or Honda or basically anything for the $33k I paid.
My parents are on their second Rogue, the first one was totaled, a 2008 model. Their current Rogue, a 2015, has been great, neither Rogue has had any problems. I owned a Maxima with a CVT, it too was a great car.
No problems with my 17 accord sport with cvt, just ticked over 89K miles today. I’ve changed cvt fluid twice with amsoil cvt fluid, fixing to do a third next spring.
Wife’s 15 Altima with cvt has a little under 104K miles, no cvt issues so far. Changed fluid at 50K with Castrol cvt fluid, again at 75K, and again at 102K miles.
Revving2redline member has a 17 accord sport cvt with over 355K miles
Wife’s 15 Altima with cvt has a little under 104K miles, no cvt issues so far. Changed fluid at 50K with Castrol cvt fluid, again at 75K, and again at 102K miles.
Revving2redline member has a 17 accord sport cvt with over 355K miles
300k miles is definitely doable on CVT but the cars they've attached to probably won't last that long in most cases. Aside from mfg defects all you need is proper maintenance to get there.
He’s probably not wrong. My 09 failed at 95k but Nissan replaced it under extended warranty. The dealer tested the fluid at 60k and said it was “fine” and I knew no better. Since then I’ve been diligent on annual spill and fills. Heat breaks the fluid down and there’s the issue. My wife’s new 24 cvt temp runs about 40 degrees warmer than my 18 and 21. I went straight back to the dealer with many questions about this and the tech got the factory service manager on the line to verify my findings. The reasoning was to burn off any condensation that may accumulate and that the cvts on the newer ones have been beefed up to compensate. I can’t say that gives me the warm and fuzzies, so I’ll be doing 20k services on this at most. A scanguage or any tool that shows tft, 4qts of ns3 and an extra half hour while doing an. Oil change for piece of mind. For reference, my 18 rogue and 21 Altima run 170-185 depending, while the 24 runs 205-220 no matter the weather or terrain.
If you want piece of mind look at Amsoil CVT fluid. It's heavier than NS2 and will very likely out perform it. In my area I can get it shipped to me for much less than anything from the dealer (NS2 or 3).
It is most important to drop the CVT pan to clean it and the MAGNETS annually until they stay "clean", then move to every other/third year as the CVT breaks in.
I would not be concerned about CVT fluid temperature unless it overheats. In my case that only happens after an hour if driving, in 20C+ ambient with traffic. The fluid can handle the heat just fine (especially the Amsoil) but if it's old/dirty/OEM fluid you are going to accumulate damage. If your CVT has fluid COOLING as well as WARMING (only warming in my case) then you should be fine with a more commodity fluid like Valvoline, Castrol, etc.
Keep that fluid clean, and in check, and your CVT should last and perform well. Keep an eye out for TSBs and firmware updates for your vehicles.
I dropped the pan on my 18 rogue at 75K and felt like I wasted the time doing it. There was next to nothing that needed cleaned honestly. But this car had drain and fills every spring which seldom amounted to over 20K. I changed that PITA filter above the beehive at that time as well and it wasn't in bad shape at all. Fluids been enoes eco or oem and it sets at 93k. I've got a cooler to put on it but since it was relegated to a 3rd car I haven't gotten around to it. Nissan extended the warranty out to 84k on the 18 so i stayed away from any fluid that wasn't blue. The highest temp I ever saw was reaching the top of a 20 mile climb in the blueridge mountains and it topped out at 218. Luckily I had just serviced the trans before that trip and did so after. I'm more concerned about the new 24 living in the 215 range TBH.
These transmissions can easily live or die based on the control system. A software change could be all that's needed to make the difference.
Was it serviced before 75K? I just did our sentra at 30K and all 3 pan magnets had a decent amount of stuff on / under them.
I changed the CVT fluid in my Civic at 30k miles, because 90% of my driving is in the city, and I drive the car pretty hard. The fluid was only slightly darkened, and it didn't have any burned smell I could detect. The maintenance minder typically triggers at about 60k miles, so 30k is 1/2 normal service interval. Sort of like changing the engine oil at 5k miles, instead of the MM trigger of 10k. Does this make the car last longer? Maybe. But evidence is scarce.
