Tommy6905

I'm trying to diagnose a sound I have, sounds like a whine but I can't tell if it's wheel, engine or transmission related...I tried to kill the engine while cruising in neutral but it won't let me. I use to do this other cars to diagnose sounds.

The sound occurs once I reach 40mph, between 1.5k rpm and above 2k rpm, I'll let off the pedal and it sounds like the rpms continue to rev but constant. It's kindve hard to describe.

May not be related or it may be, but crawled under the car and sounds like hissing sound from maybe the exhaust? I'm going to lift it and look for any holes or whatever. I hope that helps, maybe someone can help diagnose it before I bring it to the dealer, the only thing I've done is lower the car on eibachs and install strut bar, that was about a month ago, and this just started about a week ago

Akiyukio

iTrader: (1)

First, a disclaimer: Please perform whatever test you are trying to do in an isolated safe area, and always ensure your own safety as well as the safety of others before doing anything.

Another word of warning: The CVT is not designed to be run with the engine off. Somewhere in the manual states that "serious damage could occur" if the car is towed with all for wheels on the ground and the Transmission in Neutral. (I know you're not towing, but the same concept applies to what you are doing)

Now then, If I remember correctly, the "emergency shut down sequence" should be one of these two methods:
1. Push and Hold the Push-To-Start button for at least 3 seconds
2. Press and the Push-To-Start button three times in quick succession

If those do not work, a small work around could be to shift the transmission into Neutral and try turning off the engine then. I don't have my car manual at the moment, so I can't double check for you at the moment.

Tommy6905

Of course safety always comes first, I lifted the car at work and found a pin hole at one of the welds along the back of the exhaust. Which I believe could be something minor and nothing to do with the rpm issue

While driving on the highway I put the car into neutral and hit the start button, but nothing happened. If your telling me that I can damage the transmission by killing the engine while driving, I will not try it again. I don't want to damage anything.

Is it possible that I need to do the idle relearn?

Thanks for the help guys

Akiyukio

iTrader: (1)

I'm sure it will be fine for short durations, but I for a longer durations, I suspect it has to do with heat generation and no lubrication.
Nearly everything in there is electronic after all, so I assume with no pump powered to keep the CVT cool and lubricated, etc etc.

As for the engine idle/noise, can you record it somehow and post it for us to see/hear?

Perhaps related, our cars have something called "Deceleration Mode" where the CVT will downshift in gear ratios with your foot off the brake pedal.
On flat roads, the effect is not really noticeable in D or Ds mode.
On hilly roads in D mode, the effect is less pronounced, but it is there.
If you have a chance, find a hilly road, place your car in Ds mode, and you will definitely notice the transmission doing the deceleration.

Lastly, if your car is still under warranty, try the dealer.
But try and get a recording for us.

Tommy6905

I tried to record it but it's hard to hear it so it's not worth posting. I guess I'll just bring to the dealership. Thanks for the help

Tommy6905

I forgot to mention, the only other thing I've done to the ride is take the sound generator off and capped it? Would that explain the continuing "revving" when accelerating over 40

Tommy6905

I'm fairly confident that it's a wheel bearing as the sound seems to get louder as I accelerate. Any tricks to check it out? And should I bother bringing it to the dealer or just bring it to a local mechanic? I'm out of basic warranty, but still have 60k mile power train warranty and 120k mile transmission warranty

BlackMaximus04

There's a couple of ways to check to see if the wheel bearing is bad. The easiest way is to jack up the car & then grab the tire at 12 & 6 & basically jiggle the tire. If it's real loose & you hear like a clunking type noise then it's definitely the bearing.

Another way I do sometimes is take the tire off & spin the rotor as fast as I can & listen to see if I hear a whining noise. I also grab the rotor at 12 & 6 to jiggle to see if it's loose.

Tommy6905

thanks for the response and I plan on jacking each wheel to see what happens, just kindve crazy, got a 2010 with 30k miles and already talking wheel bearings

lightonthehill

I have owned nothing but Maximas since October of 1984, putting over 200K miles on several of them, and have never had a wheel bearing cause trouble.

I have been reading that the massive flooding all around the country in recent years has resulted in hundreds of thousands of cars that should have been (or maybe were) declared as 'totaled' or 'salvage' being cleaned out and resold. You might want to remove the trim holding down the edge of the floor mats and check to be sure there is no rusting or sign of moisture trapped underneath the padding.

I hope you find nothing bad under the carpet padding. If your car has never been flooded, it should give you excellent service, even if wheel bearings at 30K is certainly not normal.

Tommy6905

Thanks for response lightonthehill, I'm a 100% sure this is no flood car, but i do live in Boston where the winters are pretty bad. Anyway I got some time to check the wheels for any signs of wobble and they all are nice and tight. Searching around a bit, i think my problem may be bad motor mounts? It's 2010 so it's almost 6 yrs old, regardless of mileage which is 30k, that could just be wear and tear I guess? Driving home last night I could feel a vibration real bad in the gas pedal which gets louder and worse when pressing the gas,, and my gf said the passenger seat/area was vibrating real bad... I'm going to bring it in to the dealer, I'm just trying to figure things out first hand. Has anyone else had to replace motor mounts on there 7th gen? And is this something that would be covered under power train warranty? Thanks guys, sorry for the long response

Tommy6905

So like I said I check all tires and they seem fine, no signs of faulty bearing. Also did a few tests to see if the motor mounts were no good, and they seem fine.

Last I have not had an alignment done since I had the lowering springs because I was told I didn't need it. Could I need an alignment? Could this humming/vibration be caused from not having the alignment?

I'm trying to avoid the dealership if I can, so any feedback or advice is appreciated

Tommy6905

Didn't get any help with this so I'm scheduled to bring the car in today at 3 to the dealer. I'll report back for anyone who might be interested, otherwise you can close this thread. Thanks

Tommy6905

Front drivers side wheel bearing was gone, replaced under warranty.

dr_2010SV

An earlier post mentioned you were past warranty...so they replaced it for no charge anyway?

Tommy6905

I was out of 3/36k warranty that covers everything pretty much, but still have power train and cvt warranty, it was covered under power train. They took it upon themselves to fix some metal fasteners on the exhaust that were broken also. I'm happy to report the car is dead quiet now, next time anybody's in for service have the bearing checked out. According to service guy, this is common with our cars