999

to preface this: i don't have a whole lot of automotive knowledge, let alone maxima knowledge.

got a preowned 7th gen maxima a little over a year ago. car's been running pretty great, not too many issues. when i was purchasing the car,
i did a little reading online and was somewhat aware of the notorious CVT and it was @ ~140k miles. i was still really into the car and decided to buy it anyways.
car has roughly 160k miles on it and from what i remember, that's around when the transmission starts to give out. (could be wrong, would greatly appreciate
it if someone could give me the correct info)

i was driving like normal, i haven't really *pushed* the car too much, just some pulls every once in a while, nothing too crazy. one day, the CVT light on the dash illuminated, and i was driving it like normal, didn't notice any issues during gearshifts or while cruising at a constant speed. the light just disappeared randomly about 2-3 weeks after it had appeared. i didn't do anything as far as maintenance goes in that time. i am unsure if it's worth my penny to hang in there and replace the transmission eventually (not sure about cost, but ive been told $5k without labor).

what do 7th gen owners suggest my best course of action is from here? i don't really want to dump too much
money into it if it's expensive. transmission replacement? sell and get a new car? what's the best option here?

also, apologies if this is the incorrect place to post, i'm new to this and am pretty unfamiliar with everything. any and all help/advice is appreciated

thanks in advance :)

Bificus99

Did you check on previous maintenance or perform any maintenance on the CVT? Is it making noise or car not moving?

MaximusN8

First I would change the title of your thread, as for what I'm reading you don't have a transmission problem as of yet, so Transmission replacement or? Doesn't seem to suffice this thread. Now to answer your question what maintenance recommendation for 7th Gen Maxima? Well seeing that you may or may not know the history of the maintenance of the CVT, then it's best you do a drain and fill and replace the external filter. Repeat this every 30k. These CVT's are trial and error. Some of us are very strict with maintenance and still end up with premature failure. Some aren't as strict and end up with the same trial and error. The favor is more towards the strict maintenance than not. My best advice to you is, don't beat on it. I change my oil and filter every 6k miles with synthetic oil. Change my CVT fluid and filter every 30k miles, power steering every 60k miles and brake fluid every 60k miles. I'm at 180k miles on my Max with no CVT issues.

999

the previous owner took pretty good care of the car, regular oil changes and CVT fluid replaced every ~30k miles from what i know. the car runs pretty well, but i failed to mention that the CVT light on the dash did illuminate one day, didn't hear and audible issues and couldn't feel any while driving as well. after about two or three weeks, the light just randomly disappeared. any ideas what that could mean?


also, unsure if im meant to use the quote feature to reply, as i'm not sure whether you'll get notified with this reply.
thanks for the help!

999

forgot to mention that the CVT light on the dash did light up one day spontaneously, i drove like normal for about 2-3 weeks and it just disappeared randomly. i'll edit it in the main post, that info is crucial, not sure how i forgot to mention it initially. if my CVT really did hit the end of the road, have you got any idea if it's worth replacing or not? askin a lot of questions here, sorry.

thanks for the help! (also, not sure what to re-title the thread, and after adding the transmission light info, i think the title does the post justice. however, if it still needs to be changed, i can do that as well if it's not good as it stands after the edit)

MaximusN8

Seeing that the light has been coming on I would get this scanned for codes. As far as the price of a replacement CVT your looking at anywhere from 3k-4k. In my opinion I wouldn't invest in replacing the CVT if needed. There's no guarantee of the longevity of the replacement CVT especially after the initial warranty is up. Even the 8th Gen CVT's although better are still failing prematurely. In my opinion, cheap components for the current designs Nissan is going with, maybe what's causing these failures. I have a 2010 Maxima wit 180k and my wife has a 2012 with 140k. If/when either CVT'S fail we will not replace them, I would rather us invest on something more reliable preferably not with a CVT.