My CVT Adventures
06-01-2017, 09:43 AM
#1
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Cleveland
Posts: 22
My CVT Adventures
I had a post here a few years ago where a local car repair chain ruined my tranny when they put regular atf in for a fluid change so this is about the new replacement from Nissan in January 2014. Last august when it got really hot i noticed the CVT whine starting after about 30-60 minutes of driving.
Took it to I90 Nissan and the service manager even kept the car for a day and used for a parts run, I told him just get on the highway and when your next to cement wall you can hear it and it if you pop into manual at 5 when revs build up it gets much louder. Of course where they said they could not find a problem. I had checked the levels and fluid seemed good and color was clear. Then the weather started getting cooler and the issue went away.
In October I hit a deer and radiator needed replaced so had new one installed with with the tranny cooler I thought well maybe that might help keeping fluid cooler in summer.
Fast forward to this past memorial day weekend, we took car to Michigan on 163 mi trip, no whine going up which it did develop in past about 100 miles into trip however on way back Monday when it was a bit warmer, whine came back fairly loud. I checked levels and they appeared to be a quart over high mark as you can see from pic. One is with engine off the other while running, but both are high. Yesterday i changed fluid with Valvoline CVT fluid. I drained out 6-1/2 quarts and from pic you can see how filthy it was. Well I only put 5 quarts in and level is at second notch in fill area when cool and at top of hash mark when warm. And I called the shop today where my car was done and he said there was no record of cvt fluid added, but seriously 1-1/2 quarts over?
Took it for a 15 minute ride on highway and it responded nicely, no whine and seems ok, rpm's even seemed 200 lower on highway at about 75mph. the only thing when i got home to verify levels were still good I thought I smelled a slightly burnt smell under hood. So this tranny has about 60k miles on it and now that levels are correct do you think there was any major damage done? Still would like to know how the hell it was over filled, hopefully not from Nissan dealer when they replaced tranny 3 years ago.
Thanks
Bill
Took it to I90 Nissan and the service manager even kept the car for a day and used for a parts run, I told him just get on the highway and when your next to cement wall you can hear it and it if you pop into manual at 5 when revs build up it gets much louder. Of course where they said they could not find a problem. I had checked the levels and fluid seemed good and color was clear. Then the weather started getting cooler and the issue went away.
In October I hit a deer and radiator needed replaced so had new one installed with with the tranny cooler I thought well maybe that might help keeping fluid cooler in summer.
Fast forward to this past memorial day weekend, we took car to Michigan on 163 mi trip, no whine going up which it did develop in past about 100 miles into trip however on way back Monday when it was a bit warmer, whine came back fairly loud. I checked levels and they appeared to be a quart over high mark as you can see from pic. One is with engine off the other while running, but both are high. Yesterday i changed fluid with Valvoline CVT fluid. I drained out 6-1/2 quarts and from pic you can see how filthy it was. Well I only put 5 quarts in and level is at second notch in fill area when cool and at top of hash mark when warm. And I called the shop today where my car was done and he said there was no record of cvt fluid added, but seriously 1-1/2 quarts over?
Took it for a 15 minute ride on highway and it responded nicely, no whine and seems ok, rpm's even seemed 200 lower on highway at about 75mph. the only thing when i got home to verify levels were still good I thought I smelled a slightly burnt smell under hood. So this tranny has about 60k miles on it and now that levels are correct do you think there was any major damage done? Still would like to know how the hell it was over filled, hopefully not from Nissan dealer when they replaced tranny 3 years ago.
Thanks
Bill
