Justice Brothers CVT Conditioner

[Jimmy9190]

I had the CVT in my Rogue serviced at the Nissan dealer, picked the car up today and the invoice shows they used 5 quarts of Nissan NS-3 CVT fluid and they put in an additive, it says CVT Conditioner 61P. I googled it, it is a Justice Brothers additive, I did search here but did not come up with anything for it. Does anyone here know if this stuff is any good? The transmission is working fine, very smooth and responsive. The Justice Brothers website says

Universal CVT Conditioner​

Supplements the properties of CVT fluid, while helping to improve the performance of CVT’s found in many new cars.

• Designed for use in both belt and chain type CVT’s
• Compatible with all CVT fluids
• Works with both new and used fluid
• Helps provide a high friction coefficient
• Improves fluid oxidation stability
• Improves anti-wear characteristics
• Prolongs fluid life
• Helps prevent deposit formation

 

[97prizm]

I'd keep the invoice if there is any future issues. Is this officially approved by Nissan or is it just the dealership that you visited using this?

 

[hrv]

I'd keep the invoice if there is any future issues. Is this officially approved by Nissan or is it just the dealership that you visited using this?

or not even use the stuff so you dont have worry about any future issues from it....

 

[Reggaemon]

Dealers always do this. Add some kind of conditioner, snake oil, to every fluid they can. Maybe so they can charge you more or that you believe they are doing an even better job at maintaining your car. Is the official Nissan fluid sub standard or lacking? I would guess not. Does it matter, probably not.

 

[Jimmy9190]

Thanks, the invoice does not list a price for the conditioner. It looks to me like it was included in the price of the CVT service. I don't know for sure but I would think since it was done at a large Nissan dealer here in Florida that they would only use fluids/parts/whatever that are approved by Nissan. I have no way to know if other Nissan dealers use this or any other Justice Brothers additives. I tried to find that out too on Google, I must not be searching it right because I got no results. I always thought most branded dealers use BG additives.

 

[LenZee]

I've had good results with lubegard cvt additive in my wife's Kizashi cvt. Lubegard would be the only additive I would trust with a cvt.

 

[D60]

This is ZERO help, but I kinda like their JB80 penetrant.

 

[joekingcorvette]

I have heard good things about Justice Bros. products. A local salvage yard talk show talks highly of the product.

 

[bdcardinal]

Thanks, the invoice does not list a price for the conditioner. It looks to me like it was included in the price of the CVT service. I don't know for sure but I would think since it was done at a large Nissan dealer here in Florida that they would only use fluids/parts/whatever that are approved by Nissan. I have no way to know if other Nissan dealers use this or any other Justice Brothers additives. I tried to find that out too on Google, I must not be searching it right because I got no results. I always thought most branded dealers use BG additives.

It will probably billed out as a "kit" on whatever DMS they use. I have kits built in Dealertrack for the different wallet flushes that service pushes. I just bill out that kit number and there is a price associated with that number. Then the system relieves the individual part numbers from inventory.

 

[jghall00]

Some obvious bias there...

I have heard good things about Justice Bros. products. A local salvage yard talk show talks highly of the product.

Some obvious bias there.

I'm skeptical of these automotive additive companies. The O&G majors spend millions on R&D. How can these small mom and pop shops compete? I looked up Justice Bros. on LinkedIn. They have more people in sales than any other department. Doesn't mean they aren't working on product development, but they aren't spending like Castrol (British Petroleum) or Valvoline (Aramco). My Nissan CVT is at 173K now with OEM fluid changes. It's not as responsive as it was when new, but it's also not failed yet.

 

[KGMtech]

New one to me. Don't know this company at all, but if they are going to put their reputation on the line, any CVT is perhaps the most risky choice to play around with...just sayin...

 

[martinq]

I had the CVT in my Rogue serviced at the Nissan dealer, picked the car up today and the invoice shows they used 5 quarts of Nissan NS-3 CVT fluid and they put in an additive, it says CVT Conditioner 61P. ... Does anyone here know if this stuff is any good?

It doesn't matter if it's "any good", automatic transmissions (and CVTs) do not require (or benefit from) one-size-fits-all additives. If your transmission fluid needs an additive then you are using the wrong fluid.

Most additives are an easy & simple cash grab.

I would not get service from that dealer again.

 

[Jimmy9190]

Thanks for the info on this. I had no idea the dealer would use the cvt additive. I dropped the car off at the service drive this past Sunday afternoon, I left my key and a note with what I needed done in the key drop box. They had the cvt service done by noon on Monday but the advisor never mentioned the additive. I knew nothing about it until I read the invoice today. I doubt they did it maliciously but I also imagine not many customers really read their invoices either. I bet the Nissan Parts Manager does the same thing BDcardinal does with the kits already factored into the R.O. At any rate, the car is running and driving fine now, the CVT is smoother, shifts better from reverse to drive and it feels like there is better throttle response. I am going to leave well enough alone and just drive the car but being curious I wondered about the Justice Brothers. I did read on another forum that CVT additives may help the Nissan NS3 work better because NS3 is really thin, which is really only done to try to improve gas mileage. I do appreciate your help here.

 

[Jimmy9190]

I have heard good things about Justice Bros. products. A local salvage yard talk show talks highly of the product.

Thanks

 

[Jeep_Riot]

They probably didn’t add anything at all. People just feel warm and fuzzy when they read stuff like that so they put it on paper hoping they’ll come back for more warm and fuzziness in the future.

 

[SatinSilver]

Thanks for the info on this. I had no idea the dealer would use the cvt additive. I dropped the car off at the service drive this past Sunday afternoon, I left my key and a note with what I needed done in the key drop box. They had the cvt service done by noon on Monday but the advisor never mentioned the additive. I knew nothing about it until I read the invoice today. I doubt they did it maliciously but I also imagine not many customers really read their invoices either. I bet the Nissan Parts Manager does the same thing BDcardinal does with the kits already factored into the R.O. At any rate, the car is running and driving fine now, the CVT is smoother, shifts better from reverse to drive and it feels like there is better throttle response. I am going to leave well enough alone and just drive the car but being curious I wondered about the Justice Brothers. I did read on another forum that CVT additives may help the Nissan NS3 work better because NS3 is really thin, which is really only done to try to improve gas mileage. I do appreciate your help here.

How many miles on the car when you had this done?

 

[Jimmy9190]

How many miles on the car when you had this done?

About 64,500. I bought the car as a used CPO from the local Nissan dealer in January 2020. It had about 40,000 miles on it then and had never had a CVT service so I had the flush done at the dealer two days after I bought the car. I had it done again a few days ago because I had taken the car in to the dealer for a problem with a noise in the front end. They found a bad left front strut and replaced it under the CPO extended warranty. I didn't even have to pay a deductible. And while it was there I had them do the CVT service because I understand it needs to be done every 30,000 miles so I had it done a little early but figured I might as well have it done while the car was there and to avoid another trip to the dealer in the not too distant future.

 

[MolaKule]

Thanks for the info on this. I had no idea the dealer would use the cvt additive. I dropped the car off at the service drive this past Sunday afternoon, I left my key and a note with what I needed done in the key drop box. They had the cvt service done by noon on Monday but the advisor never mentioned the additive. I knew nothing about it until I read the invoice today. I doubt they did it maliciously but I also imagine not many customers really read their invoices either. I bet the Nissan Parts Manager does the same thing BDcardinal does with the kits already factored into the R.O. At any rate, the car is running and driving fine now, the CVT is smoother, shifts better from reverse to drive and it feels like there is better throttle response. I am going to leave well enough alone and just drive the car but being curious I wondered about the Justice Brothers. I did read on another forum that CVT additives may help the Nissan NS3 work better because NS3 is really thin, which is really only done to try to improve gas mileage. I do appreciate your help here.

This action by the dealer is a typical "up sale" to charge you more.

Check your owner/users manual. I would bet it says not to add any aftermarket additive to the engine oil, transfer case, or AT. Show it to the dealer; they should know better.

Furthermore, since you did not ask for this fluid to be added, they should discount your service.

The dealer should replace the ATF without the additive.

This practice is atrocious.

 

[MolaKule]

@Jimmy9190​

"Universal CVT Conditioner​

Supplements the properties of CVT fluid, while helping to improve the performance of CVT’s found in many new cars."

Look at it this way Jimmy, if the Nissan NS-3 CVT fluid is so poor that it needs a CVT conditioner then you need to find a better fluid.

BTW, HPL, Amsoil, and Redline all offer CVT fluids that are, in my opinion, better performers than OEM fluids.

The second question to ask yourself is, what is in this Third-Party fluid that was left out of the Nissan NS-3 CVT such that it needs supplementing?

I.e., what chemical component or components did the formulator leave out of the Nissan NS-3 CVT that it needs from a third-party additive?

I have yet to see any customer bring litigation against an oil company for leaving out a needed chemical component or third-party additive company IDENTIFY the chemistry that needs to be supplemented.

I hope you guys see the illogical, nonsensical marketing attempts here to make you think you need these off-the-shelf, third-party additives.

 

[Jimmy9190]

Thank You, @MolaKule and everyone else here for your insight and information. I did find a little more about the Justice Brothers CVT additive, I read online that the NS3 is a thin fluid, it is made thin to try to improve MPG and the CVT additives can kind of bump up/improve the composition of the thin NS3 to be on par with Eneos or Amsoil CVT fluid. I can't quote my source for this because it is from a Master Nissan Technician on another forum, and he might not agree to that.

I will say my Rogue does drive better and the CVT works smoother and quieter since the dealership did the CVT service. It is true the dealer never asked for my permission to use the additive but after driving my car I can't find anything wrong with anything the dealer did, either. The car runs and drives as good as new and I really do not want to push this issue with the dealer. Even if I did ask them to drain and refill without the additive, I would still have no way to know if they really did that unless they let me stand in the shop and watch the whole process. I don't think they would allow that.

I will definitely keep my invoice from the dealer. If the car has any cvt problems resulting from this cvt service with the Justice Brothers additive, I will handle that if/when it happens. Right now I really like the way the car drives and the smooth cvt operation. I would rather just leave it at that.