Yesterday I changed out the CVT fluid in my 2013 Maxima SV. The car is at 107,325km and I previously did a partial change at 78,210km about 2 years ago.

The fluid I use is the Pennzoil Platinum CVT-2 because it is far cheaper than the Nissan stuff and the MSDS for the Nissan NS-2 shows that it is made by SOPUS which is Shell Oil Products = Pennzoil, and the Pennzoil is the exact same green colour as the OEM stuff. You decide what you are comfy with, OEM or aftermarket, and we can all rest easy.

This time I changed the transmission filter (Nissan # 31726 - 1XEOA) in addition to the fluid. I got the filter from Tasca parts in USA, my wife picked it up when she visited her sister in Florida in January.

I won't bore you with how to change the filter, if you are curious there are lots of YouTube vids and other photos on the net showing the DIY's. It's not much harder than changing the engine oil filter.

Here are the cut away photos:
by , on Flickr

by , on Flickr

This is a very well made filter, the bracket and deep drawn metal can are plenty thick for the job, from my use of a hacksaw...any conclusions of what the paper pleats might have held is negated by the hacksaw cutting debris, but the car drives fine and when I inspected the pleats I found nothing that made me concerned. COVID-19 processes were not followed, but I did wash my hands carefully because the oil has a particular stink.

Hope you find this interesting? I'm off for 2 weeks because of the pandemic and this cut-away kept me busy by myself for 45 minutes.

 

Thanks for the pictures.
What do you say about a new cvt filter sitting in my storage room for like a year and a bit now? Still safe to use?

 

Go ahead and use that filter, just clean off the dust first.

 

KG you haven't had any issues using the Pennzoil CVT fluid? I'm impressed at how well built that filter is and the pleats aren't collapsed for what I see in the pics.

 

These pics of the gutted old filter leaves no doubt this filter needs replacing at 60k miles at most, if not earlier. It may well be the root cause of these transmission failures when they are deprived of fluid running around it properly.

 

I believe a lot of the issues with the CVT's on these cars stem from the CVT oil cooler, apparently it doesn't always do a great job at keeping the CVT cool and causes it to overheat and fail prematurely. I've read that a bigger CVT oil cooler may be what Nissan should have went with for these cars.

 

I think one lead to the other (fluid and heat), dirty fluid and/or clogged filter will not let fluid to circulate properly to cool itself and cools down the transmission.

 

I agree with that, I love these cars but I'm terrified of these CVT's..

 

I have had zero issues using the Pennzoil Platinum CVT-2 Oil. In my research I found online a MSDS for the Nissan NS2 oil and it showed the manufacture is SOPUS, which translates to Shell Oil Products US.

From my own research the CVT in the Maximas doesn't seem to be a problem, even the Altimas that have the 3.5V6 are more robust than the 4 cylinder versions as far as the CVT. Life is too short to worry about stuff like this, you buy any car, you take some chances, no brand makes a 100% bullet proof car that doesn't have some slightly weak points. Do your preventative maintenance, wash your hands and go forward.

 

Amen to that KG!

 

KG where are you getting the Pennzoil CVT fluid?

 

I got the Pennzoil CVT2 from a Canadian industrial supplier, OhCanadasupply.ca, but I could also have gotten it from Shell oil suppliers. It cost me $ 12.54 CAD per quart delivery included on $100 order value.

I think that USA based customers would have a much easier time to get this in a Napa, Autozone, O'reillys,

 

1. I have a Nissan max 2012 sv, it won’t move in drive or reverse do u think my trans is gone or.....

 

As far as a "clogged" filter is concerned, there should be a bypass valve somewhere just like there is for the engine oil in the event of a clogged filter in that system. A filter shouldn't ever "prevent" fluid flow, as once the resistance reaches a certain point the bypass should open to allow flow. Of course at this point contaminants are allowed to circulate, but lubrication shouldn't be an issue.

Yes, the CVTs Nissan put behind the 3.5L engines are more robust to handle the increase in torque, particularly in the form of stronger belts. Still picky with fluid changes, but shouldn't experience the same failure rate if taken care of.

 

I don't see a bypass valve in this filter, seems like there's an adhesive mount on top (from the inside), now if that comes loose and disconnects the whole filter will no longer be a filter, it will be only a large pipe. All in all, this filter definitely is not a past-60k-miles one!

 

Thanks for sharing this I was planning on doing the same thing when I change mine to see what it looked like. Sad that we have to go the states to get this part. I also had someone bring one back for me. Up here at my dealership they had never heard of the CVT filter and couldn't even find a part number for it. I even spoke with a Nissan tech who had a maxima and he hadn't heard of this filter either. Thanks to this forum for the education!!!

 

i apologize if this is dumb, but is the cvt-2 fluid change a fair compassion to a normal cars transmission fluid change? and if that is the case, can these cars benefit from Auxiliary Transmission Cooler ? to be proactive in helping the not so great cvt oil cooler?

probably the first thing I ever i installed on my 2002 was an Auxiliary Transmission Cooler, and it's been great smooth sailing ! never looked back and fingers crossed I have been pretty good with my Auto for 11-12 years now.

 

Prophecy99,
Change the CVT fluid and filter every 30k miles, if you plan to keep the car for long enough. The engine is almost built proof if you keep changing the oil and filter. CVT is the weakest point in this car. If you don't know if it ever has been changed, do it now. Use NS2.
if you do a lot of stop and go summer commutes, CVT will get HOT, some reported good success with an additional cooler.

 

nice! i dont have a 7th gen , im holding onto my 2002 for dear life =) , i am glad others have thought of the aux transmission cooler and found positives from it though.

 

I'm amazed to hear that dealer techs don't know anything about a CVT filter. All filters need to be replaced- if there was no need to replace the filter, there'd be no reason to have the filter in the first place. It's concerning to hear those assertions though as CVT's are so assuredly the best way for the industry to move forward I'd hate to hear of people giving up on them for performance issues just because of such a simple misunderstanding- that's ridiculous.

 

yea sometimes logic isn't the answer. there's a "lifetime" fuel filter on the 5th gen.....i guess they designed it to have a duration as long as the vehicle would last, and not "require" them to be replaced on a maintenance schedule etc, that's not to say that we all know if its a filter it has a life expectancy no matter how "lifetime" it is. i changed the lifetime fuel filter on my car twice so far and saw great results.

 

This thread is old, but was just what I was looking for. I have 270,000km on my 09 Maxima and despite 5 or 6 CVT Fluid flushes, my external CVT filter has never been changed. I haven't experienced any issues at all with my CVT, but every time I ask my dealer to change the filters, they tell me it's not required. So after seeing many threads on the topic, I'm going to do it myself, just finished ordering the part online. I was going to cut my old one open just to see what it looks like, but this thread showed me what I wanted to know. Thanks to OP.