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Comments
Tell your dealer about this new-fangled delivery service called Federal Express! They may not be aware of it. ;-)
tidester, host
Never drove a Murano, but I have followed progress of the "CVT" for years (studied it in Engineering school 20 years ago). That is why I am looking at this message board, just to see how they are doing.
There have been very few attempts to bring CVT to production, but reliability and customer feedback that it "feels different" are problems. We are all very used to how a conventional 3 or 4 speed auto feels accelerating and decelerating. The trans will automatically pick a gear to be in and that is the gear you will be in. The shift points can be felt during both accel and decel. Many traditional automatics feel different decelerating because of differences in torque converter settings, which will affect how much "engine braking" is applied when coasting. The torque converter is the interface between engine and trans that allows car to sit still with engine running without moving, and allows car to coast, sort of like an automatic clutch. On Big 3 cars, there is very little engine braking-they coast like they are in nuetral when car is being slowed to a stop! On German cars, there seems to be more engine braking - the downshifts can be felt much more when slowing down.
For a CVT, there are not fixed gear ratios. There is a computer that is continuously adjusting the gear ratio depending on what it thinks the driver wants. For hard accel, it keeps ratio low, lets engine rev to peak power RPM then "adds ratio" as the car gains speed, using engine speed to control how fast it changes ratio. If it adds ratio too fast, engine speed will slow below peak power point. If it adds ratio to slow, engine will over rev. The computer must continuously adjust. For the contrary condition of slow starting and good fuel economy, it does opposite- computer leaves engine speed at a lower, more efficiet but less powerful speed, and adds ratio earlier to speed the car while keeping engine speed low. This is the basis for why a good CVT is so desireable! The engine can be kept at optimum speed points because the transmission can set any ratio to optimize engine speed for a wide range of car speeds.
Regarding deceleration, the CVT computer needs to try to keep gear ratio at a place where it will be ready to accelerate at any time. The computer does not know why the driver is slowing down. If it knew the driver was planning to come to a complete stop, it would probably let engine RPM drop off completely, then let trans ratio change as vehical slowed. On the other hand, if it thought the driver was racing and only slowing for a corner, and at 25mph, driver was going to stomp the pedal to speed up again, it would leave engine speed up and let trans ratio drop. then engine/trans would be ready for peak acceleration again.
My guess is the CVT computer is set up to always be ready to start a moderate acceleration at any time during the slow down process - after all, how does it know? For safety reasons, better to be ready to go than to assume driver is stopping. So, it is not letting engine speed go below 1200RPM until the bitter end of the slow down process. That way it is keeping the engine at a good "ready" speed if called upon to GO. If vehical speed keeps dropping, it will reach a point where speed becomes so low that the trans is at lowest ratio, then it has to bring engine speed down. This transition point is probably what these owners are feeling as a "let go" or "hang up". It is felt as a variation in engine braking, accompanied by a change in engine sound. Our senses, combined with our years of "what feels normal" are raising a flag. I don't know if it is normal to feel it as much as described. If it were a traditional auto, the torque converter could be adjusted to "coast" more, to reduce the engine braking effect. It would seem that the CVT also must have a torque converter, so maybe it could be adjusted to transmit less engine braking. There may be a lot of variation car to car, or a lot of variation drive to driver. Could be that there is some adjustment available to settle this feeling. Or it could be something to get used to. That is hard to tell without driving multiple units.
I hope this helps and good luck!
But, just one question, I guess alot of us owners or potential owners are concerned about is the reliability of the trans, are we in for alot of problems down the road? should we buy an extended warranty just in case? Any thoughts anybody
Thanks
Regarding extended warranties, I tend to not buy them. They sell them for a reason! They make money on them. That means on average, they pay out less for repairs than they charge for them. Of course, then it is a roll of the dice! If you are the person with the "problem child" car, then you may get your money back. Don't they charge like $1000 for the warranties? One big repair can make it worth while-if you are the person who needs it and it is covered.
If I were buying an extended, I would only buy it from the car company, and not a third party. At least the car company should be around for a while.
My thought is to wait until the original warranty is about to expire. If my Murano has been relatively problem free, I will not inquire. If I have had some problems, I will will explore this plan.
I saw some problems reported earlier on the driver's side door locking inadvertedly. Has anyone reported this to the dealer and if so what was the fix?
http://www.nissan-techinfo.com/nissan/TSB/Nissan/54275.asp?mscssi- d=
Thanks,
Don
You're not doing anything wrong. The site uses Japanese characters which don't show up properly on most computers in the U.S. You can download the appropriate download (you browser should offer to do it for you) the appropriate extensions that will display the characters properly - but that only helps you if you can read Japanese!
Better yet, go to their U.S. site: Nissan U.S.A (you'll need an IE or NetScape based browsers though or one that will identify itself as IE or NS.)
tidester, host
Thanks,
Don
Just bought a Murano in about 12 hours (from - hey we should buy a car to Hey we just bought a car) needless to say edmunds helped greatly. A quick question, we can't get our cd player to display the extra data - like song title, artist, etc. We had a disk with us when we test drove and salesperson said it "should" have worked. Have y'all gotten that to work properly?? We do have the upgraded stereo system. Also, thanks for the heads up on the website - that is the smallest font I think I have ever seen.
JL
Try some other CD's......I'm ure some of them should work.
Don't forget to use the RANDOM ALL CD feature.....I just discovered it the other day. Press the PROG/RPT button and the shuffle features will come up on the display.
So.....I feel much better now.
tidester, host
I am still waiting to hear from the VP&GM of Nissan NA regarding driver's seat (leather). It is definitely getting worse and looks horrible. When I was in for service I spoke to the Manager and he said he would speak to his boss, no word from him either. Has anyone else experienced a inferior quality leather seat? If so what did you do about it? That is all for now. I enjoy learning about the Murano from these chats. I thought I got a great deal on the purchase until I read some of the others, now I'm not pleased, TOO LATE.
so what did you decide on whether to buy an extended warranty on the tranny or not? I'm considering purchasing a Murano in the next month, but my only worry is the new CVT transmission... have you heard any other negative comments on it?
After 7 months and several thousand miles, The CVT is soooo smooooth, you won't want to drive nothing else.
Our left headlight is aimed noticably lower than our right headlight (you can tell since the have such a clean line). Salesguy said it is supposed to be that way. Is It??? (we have the high intensity ones)
Thanks.
We have not had an automatic in a while and are concerned how much the car moves in park. For instance when in park you can get it to rock quite a bit. I know emergency brake will hold it, but we are trying to figure out if it moves more than it should. I would guess the rock is at least a few inches.
Any thoughts?
Thanks again.
JL
If your coming from a manual transmission, this should be a lot easier for you!
The problem is that when you exit the vehicle and use your left hand to pull out the handle, the bottom edge of your hand often times is pressed against the door lock, which is just behind the handle, forcing the lock into the locked position. The only way to avoid this is to be aware of this design flaw and not let this happen. I suppose you could open the door with your right hand, but that is not customary and a little akward.
This insight may have been discussed here before, but I don't remember it so I thought I would pass on what I discovered.
Do you have the pedals adjusted to fit you?
Something is very wrong for it to cause you that much pain.
Sounds at least like your dealer is one of the good ones whose willing to try and fix it for you.
Did your test drive last more than 10 minutes?
As for the door locking, I believe that there is a Service Bulletin about this problem. It has to do with the wiring in the door.
I don't understand why people would go to those places in the first place. My dealer charges 24.95 for the same service. For a couple of bucks saved if any, I don't think it is worth it.
Now I know some of you will say that you don't have the time to take it to the dealer and the quick lube is closer and faster. Ok, take your $30,000+ Murano to those quick places and good luck.
I ask because, if you're comfortable in the passenger's seat, maybe something could be wrong with the driver's seat?
My wife loved German cars because their seats fit her better than any other country; she liked Japanese seats the least.
It happened to me three times. Everything dies, the dash and console lights go off, the engine quits, nothing works. Fortunately, after 3 or 4 minutes, dash and console lights reappear and I can start the engine. Need to reset the clock and all the radio stations.
My car is in the shop for the second time. The difficulty is that the problem is not a hard failure and the region technicians are not able to duplicate the problem. I have another Murano for as a loaner for a week and no problems.
Anyone experiencing similar problems?
I started noticing a squeaking noise coming from the engine compartment when idling in Drive at a stop light and also when changing gear from Park to Drive. So I took it into the dealer to check it out and they told me that the front air scoop under the front of the car had been damaged and pushed slightly back. This was causing the air scoop assembly to touch the transmission pan and thus cause the squeaking. I don't know why that air scoop is so big and protrudes down so far. Look under the front and you'll notice a large sqaure metal thing hanging down at least a few inches - that's the air scoop. They told me it would cost $175 (parts and labor) to fix. I remember a couple of times I pulled up too far into parking spaces with high curbs. Doh! Darn curbs!
So be careful when you pull into a parking space with a high curb not to pull in too far. Of course, I know you should always be careful, but sometimes you forget when you are in a hurry or not paying attention.
tidester, host
Love driving my M-O, but find the quality of the interior materials a little sub-par. Also had an especially bad "rattling" day again today. The dashboard / loud speaker cover was grinding away at who-knows-what... uugghh...