My wifes 16 is sitting at around 42k miles. We have religiously changed the oil, but have done NOTHING with the CVT. We plan on keeping it for longer, as its in great shape and still a nice car. So should I do a flush of CVT? Or just a drain refill? My local Nissan dealer recommending just a drain refill. I am thinking flush, and new filter inside and outside would be the way to go. She drives very easy going, but I just started driving it more often, and yes, I get on it sometimes. Thoughts?

 

I would do 3 drain and refills a week apart from each other, thats what I did on my 07 SL awhile ago.

 

Drain and refill.Do not flush. If you have an owner's manual, consult recommendations based on average driving habits. If you are **** about maintenance, then do a drain and refill, then have it driven for an hour. Then do a second drain, this time changing both filters and pan gasket, including a thorough cleaning of the inside of the pan, including the three magnets residing in the bottom of the pan. A review of the magnets will give a pretty good indication of the health of the trans. The reason to drain and refill twice is because with each drain they're only going to remove about half the fluid. The other half of the dirty fluid stays in the trans. This way you can probably remove maybe over 80% of the old crud. I drive my 17 easy and just performed the double drain with fluid, filters and gasket changes. The old girl looked very clean inside. There was a very small amount of residue on the pan magnets but not enough to set off alarm bells. My trans operates just like it should. I have over 230,000 mi on CVTs with never a problem. Stay off consistent jackrabbit starts and winding her out, and you should be fine.

 

Respectfully, I think this would be major overkill. A drain, drive and drain and fill should be plenty. The drain of my second fill after a week's driving show Dane near the same clear blue fluid that I put in it. Of course it was discolored a little bit by the old fluid that remained in the trans after the first drain and fill.