I don't think it is widespread, but the dealership here in Franklin, TN (who does all of the service for Nissan Corporate from what I understand) indicated they've replaced several transmissions in the 2009/2010's.

I'm not sure if I should post this but the person I know within Nissan indicated there will be a TSB issued in the near future (once more parts are available) relating to the type of issue I experienced.

 

That would be great if the only known problem with this fine Maxima CVT has a TSB fix arriving shortly. Nissan has been known in the past to delay releasing a TSB until the parts are available to implement it. I have no problem with such a delay.

 

well today it was raining and i felt my wheels spin and then i heard a loud pop as if it missed shifted well not my check engine light is on.
anyone have any ideas on what it could be im afraid to drive it now the car did drive back home about 4 miles and seems fine just the light is on now after this happend.

 

I have the 2010 Sports package and my car is starting to have this problem. I have 38000 miles on it( a lot of road trips) and this is about the fourth or fifth times this has happened. When I hit the gas, the rpm get to about 2500 rpm to 3000 rpm before the car will even accelerate. Its weird because after the car sit over night or it wont do it again. Its only after I'm on the highway for several hours at high speeds.

 

I just experienced this, similar to you, I was doing some spirited driving, I hit some rush hour traffic and decided to pull off for some gas and food and my car would not pull away normally from the light, I thought I may have overheated the CVT and was somehow in limp mode, I was able to pull onto the highway and get up to cruising speed of 70/80, next time I stopped for gas the problem seem to vanish

 

This CVT does indeed have a system of 'self preservation' whereby it becomes much less responsive when excessive heating is detected. At least two auto magazine testers had that happen after very aggressive driving when testing the 2009 in spring of 2008, just before its official intro at dealers June 26, 2008.

 

I hope this was the case, considering the weather and how I was driving, I will keep an eye on it

 

I just started having that problem myself after a road trip to Lake Mead. Gonna take it to the dealer after the 4th.

 

I will be interested to hear what they say

 

While the transmission seemed VERY smooth to me, the one I drove the other day definitely seemed to have some hesitation between shifts when using the paddle shifters. No sure if this is normal or not... Only problem I've ever had with my 01' Pathfinder was the transmission slipping from time to time almost ever since we got it.. dealer even put a new tranny in lol. Sometimes I think nissan just builds cheap trannys.

 

For the last forty years, Datsun/Nissan has been known more for their power train (engine/tranny) than for any other feature. I have owned nothing but Datsun/Nissan products since spring of 1978, and have yet to have an engine or tranny problem. That driving period includes manual, automatic and CVT trannies.

Of course every manufacturer sometimes has a bad tranny show up, but Nissan trannies are not known as troublesome. If we scan across the Nissan lineup in Consumer Reports reliability tables, they have earned orange ***** (much more reliable than average) for trannies for almost every model year for every vehicle in their lineup.

Of course, if that rare Nissan bad tranny shows up in our personal vehicle, then we aren't impressed with Nissan's overall tranny reliability.

 

This is true. Overall, I think nissan/infiniti is a great brand. I'm currently in a pathfinder with 110,000 miles, my gf drives an 04 350z with 89,000 miles on it, and my brother has an 07 G35x with about 58,000 miles. Never had an issue with any of them to date except for the tranny glitches mentioned above in the pathfinder. I think just about any Japanese car has a pretty damn good reliability rating behind it, especially in relation to german cars : P lol

 

Nissan FTW!

 

My CVT was a little sluggish in the low speeds, but I had them apply the CVT TSB and it increased in power and RPMs - perfect. I also had the brake light and traction control lights come on - that's due to low brake fluid easily fixed. Other than that I haven't had any real problems with this, the CVT has kinda grown on me...

 

Really clean-looking ride there, danielevans83. Nice work.

 

I have had the same issue. Nissan followed their protocol of replacing the valve body, but I was told the issue was worse than before, so they are now replacing the transmission. As many of you have said it is under warranty, so no out of pocket expense for us owners.

 

Nissan does not build the transmissions, they have Jatco for that, but you gotta change the fluid every 30k

 

Thanks man! Means quite a bit coming from the Nissan Guru.

 

Umm. Maybe the Terraplane, Pierce-Arrow, Reo, Cord, Tucker, Packard and Studebaker guru. There are hundreds of things on this 7th gen Maxima I don't yet understand.

But thanks anyway.

 

Well, they must have made some improvements in the tranny now because they ditched the free extended warranty on the 2011 models.

 

My car is currently at the dealership for a valvebody replacement i was showing the same problems. I hope it fixes the issue and i dont need a whole new trans maybe its time to upgrade to a audi S5

 

My CVT feels fine, the only thing I dont like is how after I really get on it and get to like 5000 rpms, I let go it goes to 3k and sis there for a few seconds and eventually starts dropping.

 

My mom has a 2010 Maxima and her tranny failed at 27K. She parks it on the driveway(slope) without the E-brake and all that weight sitting on the transmission is bad(my own opinion). The car was covered under warranty so no biggy right there.
With this being said, I just purchased a 2011 without any hesistation. I love the car and like someone stated before, any and every car has some sort of issue. It comes with mass production. I got a 75k powertrain warranty so I'm not too worried.
On another note, When i park my car, I always set my E-brake.

 

Another question i have is, are the CVT's fluid based transmissions like Dual Clutch Transmissions(DCT)? If this is the case, a lot of problems will get solved with an Transmission oil cooler. DCT's are fluid based and overheat in aggressive driving and oil cooler eliminate 90% of the problems.

 

Its been 2 - 3 weeks since Nissan had to rebuild the tranny on my '10 Maxima...... seems like it is back to normal. The tourqe steer is back when I jump on the accelerator!!!!!!!

 

I'm a little jealous because I have not been able to create appreciable torque steer in my '09. Only when I attempt a sharp turn under very strong acceleration can I feel a little tug. Accelerating straight from standstill, I don't even need a hand on the steering wheel. This thing just tracks straight down the road.

I'm glad your tranny seems fine now.

 

BBmax: I get the same thing. I've noticed it recently. I do detailing work on the side and had a customer with a 2010 Max and his is very responsive. Mine seems limp. I have to really push the pedal to get it going. I even tried pulling the negative off the battery to try to reset the ECU hoping that it would take me back to factory defaults (someone on the370z.com suggested that). I'm going to take mine into the dealership and see what they say. Something's not right.

 

When we test dfrove the 2010 Maxima, my wife and I felt the same way. My 2003 Max felt a lot quiker of the line and faster in general. That is why we didn't buy one and went with the 2010 TL.
These stories about the CVT is really putting me off from buying a new Mazx. My wife loves the car but???
You would think by now Nissan would have figured it out, but still hearing complaints about it. Maybe Nissan will figure it out by 2012/2013 when I may consider another Max in the family.

 

Idk but my CVT feels fine, and still pulls really good. Then again I have less than 10k on her.

 

Mine does fine also, and I have not had the TSB installed that improves acceleration between standing start and around 40 MPH.

 

I wanna take mine in for that soon Light, If it makes the car perform better and on top of that its free.

 

I don't have the non accelerating issue...but is it normal for the engine-tranny to do a very, very slight jerk when releasing the gas pedal after a slight tap...it doesn't happen all the time, but sometimes, when I slightly tap the gas pedal to get going from a stop and then I release the gas pedal, I notice a very slight "downshift" feeling.

what u guys think?

 

Mine seems fine, maybe I will take it in but I honestly don't have a reason to and I try to avoid dealers even though I recommend most people go to them

 

10k does not matter, unless you never change your oil, and or never let the engine warm up, those 2 will eventually effect the performance.

I have almost 24k and feel the car feels like new

 

I think it depends a lot on the dealer, the Nissan dealership near me has an awesome service department and never gives me any trouble. Every time I go there I have the sales/service guys checking out the car and the service is always great. Granted if I have to pay for anything, I take it to my mechanic cause he hooks me up on price, but for warranty work they're great.

It can go a long way if you develop a good relationship with your local dealership and don't try to get them to cover crap that is your fault.

 

I get a good amount of torque steer. Maybe that is because I really notice it a lot on the way to work because I am usually jumping on the gas to switch lanes after merging onto a highway where people do not merge well and middle lane traffic maintains considerable speed while the outer lane I merge from barely moves. It doesn't help that the lanes are separated by an uneven line.

I know the belt loosens over time. I will miss it when I lose the torque steer Who knew it was a good thing?!?

 

If this is happening around 17 MPH (somewhere about the same time the doors automatically lock), you are probably hearing the ABS system checking itself. This sound is most pronounced if we happen to be letting up on the gas at that particular time. Worried me at first, but then I found many of the more **** drivers here had noticed this sound.

 

Bumping this thread up. Noticed my car does seem to bog quite a bit off the line. Really noticed it after hitting the track all day back in October. Does anyone happen to know the exact name of the TSB to sharpen the trans response down low in the rev range? I'd like to get this done while I get the trans fluid flushed in 4K miles.

Thanks!

 

Here you go

http://forums.maxima.org/7th-generat...nsmission.html

 

Crap! I didn't search far back enough

Thanks for the link. Now I have the powwahhh!