Nissan Altima CVT

nizzan1

The answer is YES Nissan does cover the cost of rental and it should be provided. They gave me one without even asking but i had to know more so i asked.

mfarazkhan

Hello I recently bought 2009 Nissan Altima 3.5 SE equipped with CVT Transmission. I'm experiencing some trouble with its transmission. When I let go off accelerator engine makes a rattling sound and when it decelerate the engine gives a strong jerk and this jerk also happens when I accelerate the car. At high speed the car runs smoothly but at low speed I experience these problems. My car has done 76,000 kms on it. So warranty is expired.
I took it to Nissan Service in Saudi Arabia and they didn't mentioned anything about the transmission but after that when I took it to private workshop the mechanic pointed out that it's a transmission fault. Plus nothing was detected on computer diagnose testing by both Nissan and private workshop.
So any suggestions on what should I do and what could be the exact problem and how it can be rectified?

mike780

Take it to the Nisson dealer and have the CVT fluid changed

rainbow9

I have a 2008 Altima with 2.5S engine and cvt. The car has only 29700 miles. Recently I noticed the following: when driving on highway at speed 55+mph, I swiched the gear shifter from auto to manual mode. The digital shift indicator on the instrument panel stays on 5-th gear even if I increase my speed. The only way to get the indicator on 6-th gear was to manually up shift the transmission to 6-th gear. It does not seem right. Does my cvt has a problem? How do I know if my transmission works properly on auto mode? Is there any way to reset the cvt to default mode?

jhimech

I have a 2009 Altima and am going through the same CVT issues a lot of people on here have complained about: surging, slipping, etc. I took the car in today and it's covered by the 10 year, 10k mile warranty, but I was told my replacement transmission would only have a 1 year 12k mile warranty. This seems strange to me...anybody have any input on this??

rainbow9

I do understand how manual mode functions on automatic transmissions. But let me rephrase my point. I am driving our 2008 Altima, 2.5s, CVT (my wife is the primer driver on this car). I am on highway, on the flat open road. My speed is steady at 65 mph. The car is on normal (auto) mode. The indicator on instrumental panel shows “D”- like it supposes to be. Then, without of changing my speed, I switch the shifter from auto to manual mode. Having the same driving condition and the speed, my manual gear selector must be on the highest possible gear, which is “6th” – in my opinion. But instead, the indicator shows “5th” and I have to manually up shift it to the “6th” gear. This is not how my 2013 Azera’s automatic transmission on the manual mode would work in similar situation. That made me confused and bring my question to this thread , and also made me bring our Altima to the Nissan dealer ship to solve the issue. The mechanic did test drive our car and did not find any problems with CVT. Then he drove another similar age Altima – its CVT was working the same way as ours. After getting invoice from a service adviser with the statement “normal operation”, I decided to take another Altima from the dealers lot and take it to spin by myself. The CVT on that one was working/acting exactly the same way, as well. I was relieved; nothing was wrong with CVT, however: I still don' t get it.
Obviously, automatic transmissions with manual mode and CVTs are two different animals...

piper_chuck

Ask to speak to someone else. When they replaced my transmission I specifically asked this question. They told me the new transmission was covered through the remaining 10 year 120k mile warranty.

piper_chuck

When you shift to manual the transmission is going to select the gear that is appropriate to the speed you are driving. Comparing the gear it chose to that chosen by a transmission in a different model car is totally meaningless.

heylees

A couple of months ago, in June, we drove my 2008 Nissan to my nieces graduation, about 100 miles from here. When we exited the freeway, the car had lost power after coming to a stop and would barely accelerate. After the car cooled, it drove fine and made it back home with no problem. About a month later, it was making a lawn mower sound while running and it had a loss of power. Also, I was having occasional problems with the push button start. I took it into the dealer. It had 120,025 miles on it. The dealer said I needed a new exhaust manifold and brake switch. The manifold is covered under an extended 120,000 warranty. It ran fine until one month to the day later. When coming to a stop, the car would only accelerate when the pedal was to the floor. After reaching a higher speed, it was fine. But it had the same problem I brought it in for at 120,000. Now the car has 121,000. The dealer says that it needs a new CVT and is outside of warranty. I contacted Nissan Consumer Affairs. The person I spoke with was very arrogant and unwilling to listen to my complaint. He said the car was outside of warranty and will not help. I told him I brought it in for the same reason a month ago and they did not properly diagnose it. They do not care. This is my 5 th Nissan. I have been a life long customer with Nissan. I feel like I made a mistake when purchasing this vehicle. My next car will be a Honda or Toyota.

juanca08

Greetings;

I had a 2010 Altima and at 10,000 miles the transmission started to act like yours. They have replaced the transmission three times and the computer once, it did not resolve the problem. After the fifth time my car was in the shop for the same problen, Nissan sent an engeneer and I test drove the car with him, they connected a computer to monitor the transmission, he did a lot of tests and the probelm was still there. At the end Nissan agreed to buy the car back. I own a 2012 Honda Accord and I'm very happy. I know that the 2013 Accords come with CVT transmissions, I did not hear any problems so far. My recommendation is to trade your car in very soon.

love4cars1

I agree DO NOT...DO NOT purchase any Nissan with CVT Transmission, first one replaced at 75,000 miles on my Altima 2008, I need replacement again and when the price surpassed $4000.00 I towed my car from AV Nissan in Palmdale CA. (that looks bad for a dealer). My technician called the dealer for a generic question regarding my vehicle, and the answer was: "you" are going to fix it, "you" figure it out. The week before we were looking for a Nissan Rogue at the same dealer, well guess what....GOOD BYE NISSAN, bad quality transmission and horrible Customer Service

ryandbm

Nissan issued a recall for Altima of 04-13 cars but my car is not in the list. My 2006 Altima showed the acceleration stop in highway in 2010. The dealer didn't fix it at that time but simply put off the engine light. In 2013, the car has this problem very frequently. It occured in 2 months, then 2 weeks, then 2 hours. The dealer just kept charging me. They even asked me to change EC panel for 2 grands.
I called Nissan that this is their problem but Nissan says Arizona state is not in the recall list.
Can anyone let me know how to report them to BBB? Is there any other place for complaint?
Thanks

Karen_S

Sorry to hear about your troubles with the Altima!

You can find your local BBB here:

http://www.bbb.org/us/find-a-bbb/

Also, you can submit a dealer and a vehicle review on Edmunds.

To find the dealership, start here:

http://www.edmunds.com/dealer-reviews/

Start here to submit a vehicle review:

http://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/consumer-ratings-reviews.html

Kirstie_H

Also, make sure to report your problem to the NHTSA at www.safercar.gov. That's the agency that has the authority to conduct investigations into vehicle problems, and they're the only organization that can do that and ask the manufacturer to issue a recall, if they think it's warranted.

ryandbm

Hi Juanca08,
I have the same problem w Nissan. Mine is 2006 Nissan Altima. I have sent the car for repair for 4 times on the same acceleration issue. Nissan also issued a recall on the acceleration probelm around the end of September this year but my car is not in the list. I called Nissan and Nissan says AZ state is not the list. The dealer keeps pushing duty off. They could not fix the acceleration problem but kept charging me and persuading me to pay more and more to change other parts. Finally, they even asked me to change the engineering control unit which costs about $2k.
I asked them to fix the problem for free but they just simply left my car in their parking lot for 2 months without doing anything. I wonder how you force them to buy your car back? I don't know what to do. Now I am filing report to NHTSA now. Next I am going to report them to BBB.
My car has suddenly lost acceleration in high way for 4 times from 2010 to 2013. It was scary and fortunately I didn't get hurt. But it ruined my 3 long weekends: 2 labor day weekends and one independent day weekend. I usually drove the car in local and only go out on highway during these weekends. That is how I found the problem.
My lesson is the same: I will never buy Nissan again. In addition, Nissan dealer is the worst ever.

juanca08

Sorry you are going thru this, is not fun.
My car was under manufacturers warranty and I did file a Lemon Law claim to the State of Texas, they assigned an attorney (paid by the state of Texas) to help me with the claim. After about 6 months of talking with Nissan directly, the attorney pushing Nissan to resolve the issue, and before the claim got to court, Nissan decided to purchase the car back. In your situation, the car is no longer under manufacturers warranty (unless it falls under the extended warranty Nissan offered for the transmission only). I am not sure what type of laws you have in AZ regarding customer protection when you buy a car. Definitely, the lack of acceleration is a safety issue and it has to be addressed. My recomendation is for you to check if your transmission is still under Nissan's extended warranty and review the laws in your state. If you don't want to be involved in this long process, you can trade your car in for another one. I believe Nissan upgraded their CVT transmissions for their new vehicles but I did not want to take any chances buying another Nissan. In my case, Nissan responded as I expected and the dealer (the middle man) was great handling the situation.
I hope this helps.

mattw6

nissan has only upgraded the pathfinder's cvt with a trans fluid cooler.

heres the issue...

cvt's have no flluid cooler.
once the trans protection/auto power down mode occurs, the algorithm is saved in the computer, and will continue.

there is no fluid cooler system issued. nissan cannot/will not remove that algorithm.

STAY AWAY FROM THE C.V.T. AT ALL COSTS!!!

mattw6

wrong. my manual did not oreface it. in fact, the oaragraph i mentiin was hidden within the descriptors of INTERIOR FEATURES. additionally, my vehicle was at -/+ 45000 mi. good try.

ryandbm

Hi Juanca08 and Forum managers,
Thanks. I bought the car from Nissan dealer. It is definitely out of warranty.
I tried to file a report to NHSTA but got confused with the following selections. Currently there are 4 recalls on 2006 Nissan Altima. None of them is related to the lack of acceleration. I need to select the affected parts from the following category. I just listed the relative ones and please help me to select one: 1) Elec Stability Control; 2) Electrical; 3) Engine; 4) fuel/Propulsion system; 5) Power Train; 6) speed control; 7) Unknown or Other.

Now the dealer just use computer to re-write the programs and the engine light is off. But this is what they did before and it has been having problems for 4 times. Dealer called me around 4pm today and asked me to take the car back. I don't know if I should take it back or not. I know it is not solved. It will happen again. I don't want to sell it to private party because I don't want other consumers to suffer what I have been through. I want to sell the car back to dealer.

Please give me some suggestion here.
Thanks.

ryandbm

I encourage everyone who has the same acceleration problem and not in the recall list to report the problem to NHTSA. Please google and find the website.

Two other places to go: report the dealer or Nissan to BBB and file consumer complaint to your State's Attorney General.

I don't know if my problem can be solved. I simply request Nissan to fix it for free or buy the car back even at KBB's trade in value. Whether my wish becomes true or not, I would never buy a Nissan and would influence the people around to resist Nissan due to the poor reliability and horrible service. The company's response and the dealer's response are not satisfactory. The recall is like a business show. They don't care of consumer's interest.

Kirstie_H

You can find the NHTSA website here:
http://www.safercar.gov

mdeebs1

I just bought a 2011 Nissan Altima with 39k miles. The first few days it was fine. Suddenly I have noticed a sound similar to the sound an engine would make when running at high RPM's like when a transmission is in a lower gear. However when driving the RPMS are a normal range (2k highway). When the car is driving slowly I put it in neutral to see if the sound went away (indicating possibly not a transmission problem) and the sound remained. Has anyone had similar symptoms and if so what have the results been?...thanks.

hault

2013 Altima 2.5 has vibration issue at 21000 miles. Nissan told dealer to tell me "it was normal." Obviously no one would buy the car if they experienced the vibration issue. Mine developed around 15-20,000 mile area. Before that it was good. Still working on finding a solution.

orcinus1

I recently bought a 2014 Nissan Altima 3.5 V6 SL. This car keeps shuddering when travelling in speed range of 25-40mph, noticed this issue around 500 miles on odometer. I had to drop of my car at dealer who was able to replicate the issue but Nissan is clueless on how to fix the issue. Really had a great feeling when I test drove this car, but it has been giving me nightmares recently.

orcinus1

I recently bought a 2014 Nissan Altima 3.5 V6 SL. This car keeps shuddering when travelling in speed range of 25-40mph, noticed this issue around 500 miles on odometer. I had to drop of my car at dealer who was able to replicate the issue but Nissan is clueless on how to fix the issue. Really had a great feeling when I test drove this car, but it has been giving me nightmares recently.

crshann

I have a 2013 3.5SL with the same issue. Problem is called "judder" by Nissan and at least for 2013 there is a TSB (Technical Service Bulletin) issued by Nissan with instructions on how to diagnose and potentially cure the problem. Mine is in for the fourth or fifth time for this issue and is fast approaching the stage where Nissan will have to replace the tranny on their dime. It is a well know problem with this CVT and I am surprised there are no recalls associated with it.

mongo98

how often should I change atf

wayne21

I had a 2015 3.5SL and several days after buying it I started noticing "jolts" (aka shuttering) between 15 and 25 mph. I waited to see what other issues I may have before bringing this to the dealership's attention. After reading many posts, I came to realize there was no real fix for this. But my car had other issues that we didn't care for so we traded it after about 8 months. This is the shortest time I've ever kept a car. We normally keep our cars 5-10 years, but we'd had enough of the Altima and just bit the bullet on a trade in.

malikjr87cb7

I have just this forum , and would like to shed some light of my experience with the 2007 honda odyssey ex-l 109k miles that i have , it had a Active mount control system with a series of front and rear mount that a electronically activated with respect to driving conditions and engine motion .

Can it be possible that you guys have missed out on the fact that maybe the 2015 has mount electronically controlled by a separate control module that causes this droning of shuddering feeling between low speeds such as 25-30mph ?

Only asking around a parts department would be the best route for easy info rather than a sales or service department

dagrlady

I have a 2010 Nissan Altima that had a transmission rebuilt at 90K and now at 124K Nissan is telling i need a Valve Body replacement and an after market cooler Kit for $2100.00 is this normal on altima's? I think it strange it should need this done so soon after having the transmission rebuilt.

hault

I sold my 2013 Altima shortly after Dealer said I needed a new transmission, then Nissan Central said no "shudder is normal!" Go figure.