CorollaULEV's recent poor luck with his CVT made me think I should drop my own pan and take a look around, eventhough, as he mentioned, his failure didn't seem to be related to any detritus in his fluid. True to his word, dropping the pan was very easy. 20 some odd 10mm bolts and done (note, after you drain!) I also replaced the filter and "so called flush" by removing a quart at a time thru the filter until it tuned clear. So here are pictures of my pan at 291,000 before and after. I honestly thought it would be much worse so the external filter and internal magnets do a fair job. [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG] http://<a href="http://s1371.photobu...cyn.jpg"/></a> http://<a href="http://s1371.photobu...iwe.jpg"/></a>

 

Thanks for thr write up and photos. I only have 15k on my replacement cvt but will be doing this once I get to 60k to avoid any issues down the road.

 

In 290K how many times prior to today had you changed the CVT fluid ?

Do you ever manually shift your CVT ?

I asked Coralla couple times how often ( if ever ) he manually shifted but as of yet he has not replied

 

Interested as well.

 

I do normally "downshift" quite often to prevent using my "feet" (I primarily drive the hi-ways, when safe, with my cruise, coast, accelerate, and paddle shifters.) downshifting to decelerate primarily on exit ramps, but rarely above 4000 rpm. Although I can't say I haven't "ever" used them for up shifting. I can quite truthfully say I very rarely use more than 50% throttle and that would still be exceptional.

This was my first "flush" and filter replacement, normally doing a drain and fill every 60,000 miles.

 

Do you have a link that describes this method to "flush". I havent heard of it before and am definitely interested in reading more about it.

 

Correct me if I am wrong

"I also replaced the filter and "so called flush" by removing a quart at a time thru the filter until it tuned clear."

Same and the drain and fill except you keep putting in another quart (and draining a quart) until you have pure NS-2

 

Exactly, by disconnecting the hose from the filter ( I put my drain hose on the discharge to the cvt side of the filter as it was easier than adding a "bullet" adapter to the return from the radiator) and running the engine a few seconds to pump out a quart at a time ( and then replacing a quart via the charging port (dipstick)) I had to remove the return from radiator hose to get to the discharge to cvt side of the filter, but only had to slide it back on the filter without clamps during my "flush."

 

I found this http://my6thgen.org/f107/how-change-...n-refill-3264/ which got me thinking about my 7th gen. Maybe I read his wrong but the output line seems different than our 7th gen, I found the discharge was on the inside of the filter and not the outside.

 

Thanks for posting this sir. I am at 47k and have been contemplating addressing the transmission recently. Now I have the courage and motivation to ***** up and deal with it.

 

Thanks. I think you posted the wrong link. I think you meant to use this one: http://my6thgen.org/f107/how-change-...id-flush-2822/

 

Everyone must follow their own mind but I would think every 60k for a drain and fill with new filter and then 120k for the flush would be more prudent. For 8 or 9 dollars and a few extra minutes to replace the filter should be SOP in my mind. Just make sure you get a few extra Nissan bumper retainers as these do get brittle and can be destroyed very easily when you take off the splash guard!

 

I would about guarantee LtLeary has been much nicer to his Maxima than I have mine. I used manual mode every once in a while - same thing as LtLeary...occasionally "downshift" to slow down on off-ramps. 90% is highway driving, but I frequently went WOT. That's a difference. I hit it to the floor more times than I could count and had no problem pegging it at redline. Yup - I was deliberately abusive a handful of times and overall, just drove the car harder than most people would. Drove it no different than any other car I've had, but also have kept this one longer.

Next car will be a Honda Accord Coupe EX-L V6 with manual transmission in 6 or so months. Yup...already looking and working with dealerships.

 

Switched to the dark side! Nissan for life and FTW!

 

LOL.....i'd say you did pretty damn well getting 150k out of that transmission then. You'd be lucky to get that out of any automatic transmission or clutch in a manual driving like that. I think you're unfairly blaming Nissan's CVT here for your driving habits.

 

Agreed, but then he would only be out a few hundred for clutch, pressure plate, throw-out bearing and maybe fly-wheel, vs thousands for new CVT. I reckon it is about matching expectations to sales hype...both cars would need work done with aggressive driving and both would probably last about as long Mean Time Between Failure but the "cost per incident" (for cvt vs standard tranny) really favors the standard. Do I like the CVT? Sure do, but it is still a young technology and that means higher repair costs. I believe someday, it will be ubiquitous in most cars and then some modularity in design will come about, perhaps with replaceable belts or stepper motors and a design to put the filter BEFORE the cooler (still shaking my head at that one,but it probably made sense at one time.) I am just glad I can drink my coffee and shift at the same time now!!!!

 

bingo

 

+1 here, he even used ITIL Framework to explain his logic.

Love it.

I think a good skill for the kids to get into would be CVT transmissions. All these repair shops will only know the old style 4,5,6,7,8 gear AT/MT. If you open up your own business youll be good to go. That and diagnostics of hybrid/full electric vechicles. Way of the future... even if some disagree

(Kind of like the difference between unlocking phones using the cable vs remote codes. It's all remote now my unlock set full of 1001 cables still in my closet -- it's night and day)

 

Yup yup. Probably right. My expectations from the car and the CVT were probably too high. However, at least we all know now that the CVT can't tolerate aggressive driving for the long-term. It's not built for that. I've proven that. As far as any other automatic not being able to tolerate my spirited driving style - that's a very broad statement and there are a LOT of variables in that equation. The length of time my car spent at WOT was easily <2% of it's lifetime. Best advice is to keep it as close to 0% as possible if you want the transmission to last. Bottom line is, without a proper disassembly and root cause analysis, no one, including me has any idea what failed inside the transmission. Was it because of my driving style, probably, but that's purely conjecture. It's just safer to assume that my driving is to blame for the failure so word to the wise - go easy on it. For my driving style and what I want out of my vehicle, the Accord seems like a better option. Not to mention, Nissan continues to be above average in reliability ratings, but only marginally. Honda Accord is listed at #1 for vehicles most likely to go beyond 200,000 miles and I can get all of the options I want for thousands less than the Maxima costs - sold!

 

what?

 

It's kinda funny how peoples standards are rapidly diminishing:

are we one day going to be like remember when cars used to go 50 000k without a major repair?

my friend across the street is a cab driver his 98 camry clocked in at 640 000 - one transmission, one motor.

The accord has CVT now too not sure about the v6 version.

 

Too True. I don't know if you are going to pursue the repair but if you ever find out, I would love to know. Like you, I suspect we are a bit under-engineered for sustained "non grandpa" driving as it wasn't that long ago that Jatco started press releases about cvts that would work in the 2.4 - 3.5L cars. And there aren't that many of us in the 100k plus club for any meaningful comparisons.

Best of Luck and good luck with that Honda!

 

Thanks. Seems to be a pretty stellar ride. I need something that can move it when I need to. Not looking to buy until I can double or triple on payments for around 5 or 6 months.

You said that Nissan placed the filter inline AFTER the transmission cooler, right? Meaning that the ton of junk that didnt make it to the filter will still be inside the transmission cooler (radiator) on my car? The shop says they always do a transmission cooler flush before any reinstallation, so I am hopeful they will, but if they do not, then does that mean any metal shavings will go through the transmission before they get to the filter or through the filter (and hopefully trapped) before they get to the transmission?

Thanks LtLeary!

 

True, it probably made sense at the time and even the fsm warns of flushing the lines and/or replacing the cooler/radiator if blocked (their process involves using shop air to clear the lines and cooler) but for $8 I would still replace the filter (again.)

 

My DD is an Accord and I have 305k miles on the clock and still ticking on the factory motor and trans!

 

Just saying. The CVT that Honda made is pretty bad in reliability. Honda makes reliable engines with garbage transmissions. Nissan engines are just as reliable and realistically JATCO is a great company that makes a lot of transmissions for other companies. I believe they use to make AT for BMW.