Just took my 2012 with 46k in for a CVT flush at my local dealer. The dealer had a coupon for $10 off online. The price with tax was $160. Not bad, I think. I had a good book to read and only waited a little over an hour. I made it clear I wanted a flush and fill, not just a drain and fill.

 

Yeah that's a good price, about 4 yrs ago I had some warranty work done and asked what they would charge for a drain and fill. It would have cost me about $200 dollars, I said no thanks, bought the fluid myself and never looked back. I've since changed my fluid 2 times, once at 50k and again at 100k. Car drives fine and my fluid had a good color on both changes. I'm now at 117k miles and plan on keeping this car at least until I hit 200k or more.

 

Maxgig,

Have you ever heard the "cvt whine" in your car?

 

do me a favor, look at the receipt from the service. Under fluid, how many quarts of fluid was used? If it was 4-5, you got dump and fill.
$160 is way too low for a flush, especially since the quart of the fluid goes for like$20 at the dealer.

 

See, now, I always though a dump and fill was better than a flush based on feedback I've read on the .org

It was my understanding that a flush gave a higher likelihood of throwing 'service engine' codes as opposed to the drain/fill?

Can anyone clarify, or is this one of those debatable topics with no definitive answer (e.g. which octane gasoline to use)?

I'm at 30k miles in my '12 SV and will most likely be doing this next year, so, any information is appreciated.

 

the truth is that auto manufacturers do not recommend use of flush machines, especially on older tranny's. The thinking behind it is that there are lots of small passages and/or filter that can get clogged up with junk when forcing fluid through the system. I know for a fact that Honda says not to flush their tranny.
That said, it is easy enough to do drain and fill on most tranny's, except you are only replacing a partial amount of total fluid. The best way is probably disconnecting ATF return line, but it is much more work that way.
The best DIY method is dump and fill. You can repeat it after driving the car for a few miles, for a more complete fluid replacement.
Honda calls for 3 repeated dump and fill with driving in between as a fluid replacement service.

 

So if you change the oil doing the dump and fill method three times, driving a little between changes, what would be the percentage of dirty oil in the CVT after the three changes? Any math wizards here. I would think any dirty oil left would somewhat contaminate the new oil and shorten its life. I think that the dump and fill method done three times every 60K miles is better than not doing it, but I bet some on here have done the dump and fill only one time and think that will be satisfactory in completing the CVT oil change. Next time to the dealership I will ask my service manager what the best system would be.

 

Why were you specifically wanting them to do a flush? I've never heard of anything good from a flush on any trasmission, so that has made me leary. I briefly thought about letting the dealer do my fluid, and when they said that they flush the system I said no thanks. I'll just do the drain and refill with the filter changed method, as outlined as a write up on this forum.

 

I believe my tranny flush was just over $200 at the dealer. The transmission seems more "fluid" after the change. I doubt Nissan would do tranny flushes if it was bad for the transmission. It would just ruin the reputation of Nissan if that were the case.