Transmission Issue Help!

bimmerman97

I recently bought a 2006 Nissan Murano with 130K from a friend for cheap. The alternator went on the car 6 months ago and he didn't want to deal with it. The car has been sitting in his driveway since. I had the car towed to my house and fixed the alternator and the car runs great. The problem now is that I'm showing codes P0840 and P0845 "transmission pressure sensor A and B circuit". When I drive the car I notice it struggles to get up to highway speeds and the tranny almost sounds like its whining and runs at about 4-5K RPM at 60 mph. Other then this problem the car runs great and is spotless inside. Id hate to have to junk it. I don't believe my friend was hiding a problem from me but its very strange that the car would run fine, sit outside for 6 months and then all of sudden have a bad tranny. And stranger yet when I first started the car it had no check engine light on. It only came on after I drove it a little. Is it possible I have an electrical issue? Maybe a critter made a home in there and chewed a wire? I could really use some advice other then replace the tranny.

PF_Flyer

I've seen a lot of "noise" about the transmission in the Murano (and CVTs in general) in reviews posted here on Edmunds. Here's a link to the 2006 Nissan Murano Consumer Reviews if you want to look at some of the things people are saying. Nissan did extend the warranty on CVTs back in 2009 to 10 years/120,000 miles, so you're outside of that. Part of my job here involves working with the reviews of Nissan vehicles, so I see a lot of negative comments about the CVT. This is just the sense I get, I see more complaints about CVT problems in the larger vehicles like the Murano and Rogue than in the smaller vehicles like Versa, Sentra, or Altima.

It's possible a critter chewed a wire (has happened to me) but given that the codes you're getting are transmission related and you're experiencing definite transmission issues, I'd think there's something going on you need to have someone who is versed in the CVT look at. The check engine light off only meant that the fault that caused the code hadn't happened yet, or the code had been cleared and the light came back the next time the fault threw the code.

We had the fluid replaced in our Versa Note CVT at 60K. They don't "flush", but replace the fluid as they lower the level. Apparently draining the CVT will/could damage it, at least that's how they explained it to me. We're at about 106K now and no issue, although I'm still antsy about the CVT and how it feels since we'd been driving nothing but manual transmission vehicles for over 30 years.

Your friend may not have thought there was an issue and was living with the behavior. Who knows, maybe he didn't get out on the highway at 60 mph enough to notice.