The Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet was perhaps the most misunderstood vehicle that Nissan ever sold. It was big, it was complicated, it was expensive, and its massive hydraulically-opening convertible top had a failure rate that would make a Volkswagen timing chain blush. Yet, after driving one some 8,000 miles across and around America for the past seven months, I’m convinced it’s actually one of the greatest cars on the planet. Well, except for one issue that has me panicked. Somehow, against all odds, the roof remains functional. Instead, a new issue with the transmission has me in a bit of a funk.
Last week, Matt, Jason, David, and I made a trek out east for some regular-octane fun. First, we paid a visit to Watkins Glen International in New York to watch an Autopian Member absolutely send it in a Lamborghini on a race weekend. Then, we beat it on over to Connecticut to host the Autopian’s 1rd Members Only Track Day at Lime Rock Park. I was away from home for a whole week, and my base of operations was the Autopian’s Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet, which I put about 2,000 miles on in the week alone.
This car has far exceeded our expectations. Remember, the Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet is already a sketchy starting point for a build with its famously unreliable convertible roof and its iffy CVT. Then, we threw on a lift kit, Ford Mustang wheels, XPEL PPF, and oversized Vredestein Pinza AT tires just for good measure. Back when I took possession of the CrossCab back in December, Jason told me that the roof probably had two total cycles left in it. The guys at our partner company, Galpin, were seemingly taking bets on when the CVT would fail during my 4,050-mile trek across America. Basically nobody expected the CrossCab to make it.
Yet, I believed in this car. I didn’t just limit myself to using the roof twice, but I have entirely ignored Jason’s warning and put the roof down every single time I get behind the wheel. I’ve lowered the roof in temperatures as low as 27 degrees Fahrenheit and as hot as 100 degrees. Somehow, the roof still works, even though it’s definitely injured. The drivetrain has also been shockingly reliable. I’ve even been able to score 20 mpg out of the CrossCab despite the huge tires and fueling it only on regular gas.
Weirdly, the CrossCab’s become perhaps the third-most reliable “daily” vehicle in my fleet aside from the Mazda Miata and the Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen TDI. It’s only third place because my heart still stops every time I press the roof button. I still expect the roof to fail on me at the worst possible time. But for now, I have a working theory that, so long as the roof gets regular exercise, it won’t break. Also, the roof fabric is getting pretty messed up, and even if the roof mechanism keeps working, I’ll have to tackle the top fabric itself one day.
The CrossCab has also taken my abuse in stride. I have now taken it off-roading in Sedona, to the Oppocross Rallycross in Michigan, around the autocross course at Lime Rock Park, and across the country, hitting the west coast, the south coast, the Great Lakes, and now the east coast. I haven’t even taken a single one of my own cars to all of those coasts! It’s not like I’ve been easy on the CrossCab, either. I’ve taken it on Jeep trails and jumped it twice – the landing after the second jump was so hard that I blew both front shocks at the same time.
Yes, I have used and abused this thing, yet I have also fallen so hard for it. It doesn’t matter where I go, the CrossCab always gathers a small crowd. Everyone wants to know the same thing: “Is that custom?” I could go to a gas station in the literal middle of nowhere and at least four people will ask me that question. Everyone wants to take a picture, and everyone loves it. My fleet has everything from a rotary-powered motorcycle to multiple Japanese Kei cars. No other vehicle even comes close to getting the same attention. The CrossCab has even ended up on some car-spotter Facebook groups.
This has been a bit of a revelation. I’m in love with a Nissan! Not just any Nissan, either, but one with a CVT and a roof that threatens to quit every single day. I should run as far away from this thing as possible. Yet, I keep gravitating towards it. I can’t even remember when the last time was that I drove my own cars 8,000 miles in six months, yet I’ve been happy to do it in the CrossCab.
There’s a very good chance that the CrossCab will become an official member of my fleet soon, which means it’s the perfect time for the CrossCab to break in a way that has me scared.
My First Time Deep In America’s East Coast
My Watkins Glen and Lime Rock trip began after I punched the clock after writing for the whole day on Thursday, June 25. I dropped the roof, pointed the hood towards New York, and punched it. Everything was dreamy. I got to watch a Boeing 757 land at O’Hare from my open top and had an unimpeded view of the Chicago skyline. I didn’t even have an address for where in New York I was supposed to be going, but life was good.
I made it to a town just outside of Cleveland that night, and shut down my drive at around 3 am. The CrossCab performed beautifully, returning 20 mpg and giving me zero issues. The next day, I snaked my way through the rest of Ohio, through parts of Pennsylvania, and into New York. Amusingly, despite leaving several hours late on Thursday, I was the first to get to camp at Havana Glen Park on Friday.
The CrossCab then brought plenty of smiles through our time at Watkins Glen. Even Matt’s kid got to take a ride in it!
The car and I were riding high for sure. After the Watkins Glen portion of the trip concluded, Matt took his kid back home while Jason and Otto marched towards our Vrbo in Connecticut.
Me? I was having withdrawals from not being able to swim much this summer. So I drove up the eastern side of Seneca Lake to Lodi Point, where I got in a deeply refreshing swim in the deep, clear waters of the lake.
This meant that I’d also be all by myself when I rolled toward the Vrbo. But I didn’t care. The CrossCab had never failed me, and I had no expectation for it to fail me then, either. I mean, we didn’t even get the CrossCab a spare tire, so I’ve been driving it with little backup in case of a tire failure.
The CrossCab Finally Skips A Beat
Sadly, my trust in the CrossCab would be eroded on the drive to the Vrbo. At some point in the 300-mile drive to Connecticut, I found myself driving through the Catskills on New York State Route 17. There were many grades, but they weren’t particularly steep, so I didn’t think much about them. I spent much of my time keeping up with a Mercedes-Benz C-Class and a GLC that were having a bit of a spirited drive in the mountains.
I was having a blast right up until I came to one particular grade. Cruise control couldn’t maintain the speed that I set, which was a bit weird because it never had that problem before. The CrossCab would fall 5 mph to 10 mph below the speed I set, then the cruise control would rev the engine to no more than 3,600 RPM. But then again, it had been a very long time since I climbed a mountain in the CrossCab, maybe it was normal?
As the cruise control continued to fall behind pace, I turned it off and assumed manual control. When I put my foot down, the engine went no higher than 3,600 RPM. Huh. I then welded my foot to the floor, sending the pedal through the kickdown switch. It made no difference. Getting into a slight panic now, I slapped the overdrive button on the gearshift. The O/D Off light came on, but nothing changed.
Thankfully, the CrossCab was still able to accelerate to 80 mph on flat ground in this state, so I backed off the throttle and settled into a much slower cruise for the few miles I had left before I got to my exit. Once I got off the highway, the CrossCab had demonstrated that something was horribly wrong. When I stopped at the red light at the end of the ramp, I smelled the distinct aroma of hot gear oil. Oh no. When that light turned green, a horrible whine erupted from the CVT and the CrossCab moved with great lethargy. Somehow, I overheated the transmission.
Not wanting to do any further damage, I pulled into a grocery store’s parking lot, put the CrossCab in park, and let the system cool itself for a while before shutting the engine down.
Heat Is The Enemy Of A Nissan CVT
As I waited for things to get cooler, I hit the Internet. Apparently, the transmission went into overheat protection mode. When the transmission gets too hot, the computer limits max RPM and the transmission’s response to throttle. It’s not really a limp mode, exactly. The mode doesn’t trigger any error light, and as I noted, you can still drive up to 80 mph in protection mode. But the idea is that the transmission will limit itself in an attempt to halt the rise in temperature.
A Nissan Technical Bulletin from 2016 says:
A Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) is designed to go into fluid temperature protection logic mode (“fail-safe mode”) if the CVT fluid temperature rises above a certain threshold. If the CVT goes into fail-safe mode, engine performance is reduced. Customers may report this condition as “low power” or “reduced engine performance”.
[…]
While the CVT is designed to go into fail-safe mode if the fluid temperature rises above the threshold, the following conditions may cause the CVT to go into fail-safe mode prematurely during normal vehicle operation:
1. Overfilled CVT fluid level.
2. Incorrect type of transmission fluid – Use Genuine NISSAN CVT Fluid NS-2 or NS-3* (or equivalent).
3. Incorrect coolant/water mix.
This bulletin doesn’t include the Murano, but from what I’ve been able to find, the CVT in the Murano uses the same logic. Another bulletin that’s specific for the Rogue and the Sentra had more interesting details:
The vehicle speed is, or was, reduced by the CVT fail-safe (reduced vehicle speed) after continuous operation under the following conditions:
– High RPM and/or high speed driving. (4000 RPM or more, and/or 65 MPH or more for 1.0 – 1.5 hrs or more).
– Driving in ambient temperature of 96 degrees or higher.
– Climbing steep or extended hills for 6 miles or more.
– Whine or rattle type noise occurring during reduced engine performance (vehicle speed decrease).
What’s also interesting is that, through parameters CVT-A and CVT-B, the transmission’s control module has the ability to track how many times the transmission’s been overheated and thus, its fluid degraded through high heat.
In my case, it was about 80 degrees outside, but I was definitely doing high-speed, high-RPM driving over the course of multiple hours and climbing long-ish hills. Of course, you cannot forget to factor in the oversized tires, too.
Nissan’s solutions to CVT overheating include checking CVT fluid levels, changing the fluid, and making sure that the engine’s cooling system doesn’t have more than a 55 percent ethylene glycol mix in it. The engine’s cooling system also contributes to the transmission’s cooling, and if there’s too much ethylene glycol in the system, the transmission’s cooling ability will be diminished. Another solution noted by Nissan’s bulletins is the installation of a transmission cooler (above). Apparently, if the CVT-A count is greater than 24, Nissan recommends replacing the entire CVT in some models. Nissan doesn’t say when the overheat protection kicks in, but it seems to activate at temperatures above 230 degrees Fahrenheit.
After digging around forums for a while, I’ve found that many Nissan CVT owners change their fluid frequently (between 15,000 miles and 30,000 miles), and they also install an upgraded transmission cooler.
Sadly, I wasn’t in a position to do any hardcore diagnostics. I didn’t even bring my advanced scanner, so I couldn’t even monitor the temperatures live. What I was able to do was check CVT levels. If the CVT dipstick is to be believed, the Murano might be overfilled. Nissan says that’s one of the causes of overheat protection mode coming on. The good news is that the fluid was a sort of dark amber, didn’t smell bad, and, at least, there wasn’t any glitter on the stick.
I Still Had To Get It Home
The CVT also operated perfectly once it cooled down, like the overheat event never happened. I would end up overheating the transmission a second time during our track day. In that case, the engine was revving high, but there wasn’t a lot of forward speed. I shut it down the moment I heard the telltale whine.
Sadly, that wouldn’t be the end of my CVT woes. As luck would have it, I drove home from our track day right on the hottest day of last week’s heatwave. It was cool enough when I left at four in the morning, and I enjoyed snapping quick pictures of the area surrounding Cornwall, Connecticut.
I also got to see a great sunrise! In fact, it was chilly enough that morning that I contemplated turning on the heat.
But the heatwave eventually came in hot and heavy. As I approached the western side of Pennsylvania, I watched the temperature readout march past 80 degrees onto 85 and then to 90. As I rolled into Ohio, the gauge clicked past 95 degrees before racing to 101 degrees and staying there. Driving in this heat sucks so much. Once you get to 100 degrees, the wind blowing at you no longer makes you feel cool-ish. Instead, it’s like you’re in a convection oven because it’s just more heat.
I also started thinking about the part of the bulletin that noted that continuous operation in temperatures of 96 and above can trigger the overheat protection in some Nissan models. Again, the huge tires probably weren’t helping. I didn’t really know what to do here. It was going to be blazing hot for the whole day with little reprieve the next day – was I supposed to just park and wait it out? Do I attempt to flush the CVT fluid in some random part of Ohio in dangerous temperatures? Do I make a go of it at night?
I hated all of these options as it probably meant wrenching in the worst possible conditions in addition to being a day where I wouldn’t be able to get home or work. I already had one of those days earlier in June when I got stuck in Portland after Operation Frodo.
I decided to drive exactly the speed limit and take frequent breaks. From what I can tell, the transmission spent the entire heatwave portion of the drive either on the edge of overheat protection or slightly in it. Periodically letting it cool down did seem to help, but driving right back into the heat was clearly hard on the car. I made sure to keep the revs under 3,000 for the whole drive from Ohio to Illinois.
Thankfully, the CrossCab did get me home with only a few hiccups. There were times when I tested how far the CrossCab could rev, and it wouldn’t go above 4,000 RPM. Acceleration from tollbooths was also slow. That drive made me feel like I aged 10 years in the span of only 15 hours. I kept waiting for the transmission to blow up or to go into actual limp mode. It never happened, but the worry was still there. It was early evening when I got home and finally saw temperatures fall below 100. I took side streets for the final miles to get home, and little by little, the transmission came back around. It’s now back to operating exactly as it always has. No whining, no hesitation, and no delays.
What Do I Do Now?
… But I won’t let that fool me. That transmission fluid got cooked. So, my first plan of action is to do a couple of transmission flushes and get some fresh NS-3-grade fluid in there. Then, I’ll install an OBD monitor so I can keep track of transmission temperatures. I also want to check the CVT-A and CVT-B values. Maybe I might even do the upgraded transmission cooler. But I’m also afraid that’s not going to be enough. I’m scared that this is the beginning of the end of the line for our once-trusty Jatco CVT. Am I about to spend hundreds of dollars just to end up stranded on the side of the road somewhere? That’s my greatest fear, especially as I’m about to become the actual owner of this thing. Check out the transmission fluid!
But I also don’t want to give up on the CrossCab. This car and I have been through so many adventures together that I’ve grown quite attached to it. I’ve been having so much fun with the CrossCab that it’s regularly been my first choice of cars to joyride in this summer. I want to take it to the Northernmost Point, the Southernmost Point, and parts of America I’ve never been to. I want to take it on a Gambler 500 and to some car shows. I even found a CrossCab roof specialist in a Chicago suburb.
But what’s going to happen to that transmission will probably determine the future. I expected to have to fix the roof at some point, but both the roof and the transmission? That’s too much for me. So, I’m in a bit of a funk. I’m worried that the transmission is toasted, or will probably fail in the near future. Somehow, it survived off-roading. It survived a rallycross, but a road trip on pavement is what does it in?
I’m not sure what to do. Is my plan to at least try to save the transmission solid? Should we, as in the Autopian as a whole, run as far away as possible? What would you do here? Help put my mind at ease!
Top graphic image: Mercedes Streeter
“Somehow, I overheated the transmission.”
Somehow? Really?!
Mercedes, slightly off topic, but once you get this thing fixed up, I’d love to see you take it up the Mount Washington Auto Road. I did it today with my son in a rented Polaris Slingshot, and the no-roof thing was amazing. Plus, I’d love to read your take on driving down the road. Drive Yourself – Mt Washington Drive | Mt. Washington Auto Road
This looks much more fun than earning the “This car climbed Mt. Clemens” bumper sticker.
(This is a very Detroit area joke).
I will tell you, I don’t get to drive a stick often, but it was nice going down an 18% grade. Still, amazing views!
Mount Washington also has the cog railway- perfect for a bonus railroad (even steam railroad) article too.
Edit- looks like the steam trains aren’t running at the moment due to boiler problems 🙁 hopefully they get them running again, the tilted boiler gives them a really unique look.
I think the biodiesel trains are running though, and you can still see the steam ones. Still a very cool experience.
Swap in a manual transmission seems to be the logical choice here
Does SWG make wrenching house calls? I’m all but certain he can pull a jatco from his local yard and bring it to you in his Titan.
Ah… automatic transmissions…
Shortly after seeing Apocalypse Now, I drove myself and four family members from Sacramento to Carmel for a family reunion. A few miles north of Morgan Hill on US 101, a transmission fluid line to the cooler up front that had, unbeknownst to me, been rubbing on a suspension member and decided then to wear through.
My first clue was when suddenly my Peugeot 504 Automatique was trailing white smoke that would have made a skywriter proud. The movie fresh in my mind, I said out loud “Mayday! Mayday! I’m hit.” My dad, riding shotgun, gave me a funny look and I told him to look behind us.
It was two miles to the next exit and towards the end the transmission started whining. Fortunately, there was a Shell station right off the exit and I essentially coasted in. They had a very competent mechanic on duty who quickly diagnosed the problem and patched the line with a length of tough hose and a couple of hose clamps making sure the hose was not going to rub on the suspension. He refilled the transmission (a 3-speed ZF) with new fluid and it was good as new.
Here’s a pretty interesting article about ZF, this transmission and how it saved the company:
Peugeot 504 – The Game Changer – ZF
The ZF8 changed my mind on automatic transmissions. I’d much rather have that than even the best DSG.
My wife’s X5 had that transmission. No complaints. I think the ’18 MDX that replaced it had the ZF9, but it took a year and 15,000 miles for them to figure out a software fix for its hunting and sometimes harsh shifts. Once it was reflashed, it too was fine. There comes a point where too many gears is too many. I had an RDX with a 10-speed and it was ridiculous how many shifts it went through getting up to speed from a standstill even when driven gently. Six is plenty in my ’17 Accord V6.
I feel the same way about my F150. All of my cars have been 6 at most until I got a CX90 which had 8 and now the Ford with 10. It’s way too many at 10. I felt like the 8 in my 90 was sufficient but being a hybrid, maybe that had more to do with it.
It really is an excellent transmission series. I have a 1st gen in an X3 and a 3rd gen in a 440i.
A local dealer has the Rover iteration of the Cross..tempting no, interesting, certainly.
Now, if either were a Rav4 I’d be in line!
I feel your pain here! We made tracks due south on the Jersey turnpike in the Subi right after Lime Rock. Got to D.C. late at night, then left the next day at 3:30pm to get back to southeastern Virginia at a reasonable hour. Our timing meant going on the Beltway right before rush hour in 100+ degree weather.
I did get super nervous when we hit a 15-minute backup, but I was genuinely shocked at the Subi’s ability to keep cool. We were idling or moving 5mph that entire 15 minutes and the temperature barely moved. That car kinda blew me away. We were hot, though. We had one bottle of water in our cooler that we drank from and another bottle of water outside of the cooler that we poured on our heads a little at a time.
I was about to say “worry about the roof, not the transmission, you’ll probably find several in a junkyard for $500”, but WTF!? car-part.com shows them at roughly the 1500-2000 range with over 100K miles. Check with Nissan first on what it would cost for a brand new one. Out of all the brands, they sell aftermarket parts the cheapest. For example really nice Frontier rims for $250, the insanely good CD009/A transmission for $2600, etc.
One things I’ve learned is that why buying a used car you aren’t pretty familiar with – look at the prices of engines and transmissions. If one is really high, and the other really low – it’s the high one that fails. Like my former C-Max. Transmissions are over 2k, while engines are under $500.
Nissan dealers want a fat $6,000+ for a new CVT. I’d be willing to put some money into the roof, but not both the roof and a transmission. At that point, I’d rather cut my losses and run. Or, if it all falls apart before the title is in my name, I’m sure the Autopian would cut and run! I wonder how many desperate people roll the dice on those 100k-mile used ones?
Personally, I wouldn’t… And instead use that money to buy a questionable land rover evoque convertible. At the very least you’d still have a source of entertaining content.
Oh, that question wasn’t because I was considering it. A transmission is one of the things I’d never buy from a scrapyard, second only to an engine. $6k can buy me a Honda Beat or get me most of the way to an Audi A2! But I know a lot of folks don’t have new transmission money sitting around. I shudder (like a dying CVT) to think of what a junkyard Jatco CVT is like.
For various shitcan race cars I’ve probably bought about 20 junkyard transmissions spread evenly between ebay, car-part, and local places (if you find it on car-part don’t call ahead… they may offer it for less in person, then when you see it maybe you can haggle down again, if they demand more just buy it online right there in front of them)
90% of the time a manual has roughly the same lifespan as a new OEM one when mistreated, and I would probably make up my determination of whether it’ll last or not within a mile.
Torque converter automatics seem to always last half as long as you expect them to regardless of the milage.
As far as CVT’s go I don’t want to go near them unless it’s a Prius style 3-input planetary setup. If it is one of those I’d love to know the crazy story about how you got a transmission to break.
In essence I’d risk a $500-700 transmission considering just how many of these cars were made so surely not everybody driving them is as hard on them as me, but if they’re a rare commodity I’d just walk away especially knowing you have a “roof” looming over your head.
There is a CrossCab for sale down the street from me (across the street from a Toyota Chinook RV for sale). I haven’t bothered to look at the price or specs, but it appears to be in good condition.
I feel like a manual swap may make sense if you’re going to keep it as a project. It may mean going FWD only and swapping in Altima parts.
This sounds too good to be true that it’s likely an ambush of some sorts in some way…
(BTW I recommend you use the Toyota to tow the Crosscab and not the other way around lest you repeat this story)
I was thinking the same thing. The Toyota has been there for a few years, the CrossCab just showed up recently.
I feel like it’s bait for some roadrunner trap for Mercedes.
This CrossCab has had an amazing life. If the transmission OR the roof goes, just let the whole car go.
I’d attack the radiator and transmission fluid cooler with a good cleaning. If the air conditioning is dead, rip out the condenser (getting any refrigerant properly recovered).
But good on Nissan to put protective measures in place. Though a dash warning to accompany it would be nice.
If it were me I’d duct tape the roof, flush the fluid, drive it until something that cost more than $100 gave up, then sell it for scrap.
Great article! Mercedes is def one of the best authors on this site (and they all rock!). I love how you share your emotional journey with us, as well as the mechanical bits. Good luck, looking forward to more doggo articles too!
I just noticed the Montana plates. LOL.
Autopian, show me on this model car where the DMV touched you…
It’s not personally owned by Mercedes yet.
True, but I am not a fan of how much The Autopian seems to have contempt for emissions regulations and paying taxes. While it does truly represent car culture’s “fuck the rules” attitude I do not enjoy such toxic behavior.
It’s a shared world. Quit being selfish.
Absolutely no rules were broken. It’s a work-around and completely legal. As the richest of the rich continue to exploit every tax loophole and pay far less than 99.9% of the rest of us, it’s telling when people call us selfish.
Matt has a whole explanation for why the site went with Montana for the taxi and this. Apparently, some of it was just to see what the Montana process was like, and some of it was because both cars had title issues. The plates won’t be staying with me if/when the CrossCab becomes mine. It can easily pass an Illinois emissions test!
Matt says that the process to create a Montana LLC and register the cars there actually ended up being more expensive than just registering it in California. I guess the math only works out if you’re registering some high value exotic.
I’ve heard there’s a similar process for North Dakota plates. Some retired acquaintances do this for tax purposes and most of them own beaters. If it wasn’t cheaper they would all do CA plates instead.
CrossCab roof specialist in Chicago? Time for the Louis Vuitton knockoff roof material.
Absolutely YES. It’ll be so tacky it goes full circle back to cool.
As annoying as the self protection measures are, they do seem to be fulfilling their function. Without more information, it’s hard to say whether the frequent kick in was due to a slowly fading transmission or prolonged encounters with climate conditions it wasn’t built to handle. It’s a neat and relatively rare vehicle, so perhaps you should consider moving to Alaska or Canada to prolong its road life.
The list of conditions seemed pretty weak. Plenty of areas of the US experience temps over 96 in the summer. Our speed limits are over 65, so one should expect a car to be able to go 70-80 for hours on end. Lastly, we do have long grades on our mountains.
This was my thought. How on earth is a newish car not designed to run at 65+ mph for more than an hour at a time, especially if it’s hilly or hot out???
Mercedes, I am absolutely certain the hooning on the autocross track DIDN’T hurt the CrossCab one tiny bit…well, except for the peculiar wear on the tires…
If it’s free to you, just change the fluid and send it.
Now if it requires money, don’t buy it. The top will cost more than it’s worth.
Between this and the Aztek, I like how Mercedes is becoming Autopias’s real-time operational crisis lady. Just as SWG is our guy for rescuing dying vehicles or if there’s a need for a vehicle to be completely taken apart and put back together, David’s the man…nobody handles immediate, potentially catastrophic issues like her!
I’m basically a human crash test dummy. 🙂
– High RPM and/or high speed driving. (4000 RPM or more, and/or 65 MPH or more for 1.0 – 1.5 hrs or more).
The 65 MPH part is unacceptable for U.S. roads.
But very acceptable for the service department!
Drop the pan and install a new filter and fluid.I had a 2012 Altima that overheated the transmission once and lasted almost 150k until a deer was good enough to sacrifice itself for insurance purposes.I believe I used Castrol Transmax and it worked well.
That’s promising! I’ve read similar reports of people who overheated their transmissions, flushed things out, and got a normal life out of the CVT.
One thing I was pleased by was the rather normal color of the fluid. Maybe the previous owner(s) did CVT fluid changes in the past?
Former owner of a 200k mile Altima on its original JATCO CVT here. I’ve overheated mine a few times and it didn’t do any noticeable permanent damage because I took the overheating as a cue to perform service. Here’s how you rescue the transmission:
Do a proper fluid flush with a full replacement of the transmission filters; there are two of them. I’m assuming it’s similar on the Murano as on the Altima. That meant replacing a cylindrical transmission fluid filter that’s housed outside the main casing and also dropping the transmission pan to a) replace the mesh particulate filter at the sump’s oil pickup and b) fully clean off the magnet that lives in the sump and collects shavings. That magnet is also why your dipstick comes out clean; CVTs naturally shed metal off the belts, and it’s picked up by a sump magnet.
If you don’t have a shop do a proper transmission fluid exchange, you’ll need to do at least 3 driveway drain/fill cycles.
Once you’ve done the big fluid + filter service, you’re looking at doing a full fluid exchange every 15k miles. Expensive, but cheaper than a new transmission.
Also: CVT fluid doesn’t get nearly as gross-looking as motor oil, so relatively clean looking fluid can still have compromised lubricity and heat capacity.
If you need to find a deer for insurance purposes, I’m sure Torch can help you out.
I feel like Ohio has 2-3 weeks of convertible weather. You freeze, or the humidity kicks in and you’re driving a massive hair dryer, as you noted.
We actually had more than usual this year with it staying relatively cool but not cold for about 6 weeks until the crazy heatwave last week. The real danger in Ohio is the random and sporadic rain showers
65 MPH is sufficiently high speed driving to cause the transmission to go into limp mode? No wonder these have the reputation they do.
Right? I don’t think I’ve ever seen an Altima drive that slow on the highway.
I have seen that. But it only had 3 wheels bolted on at the time.
their owners have perfected the ability to do 90 MPH bursts then desist just before the CVT goes boom.
That’s 65mph at over 4000 rpm. I’m betting the only way you run 65mph at over 4k is if you’ve turned off the overdrive to tow something.
It seems weird to be able to turn off a “gear” in a CVT, but Mercedes mentioned it in the article.
It says “and/or”, so I take that to mean either of those conditions can cause limp mode independently.
See if you can get eBay to sponsor doing a manual transmission swap on it?
Of all the crazy, hairbrained ideas out there, this is the BEST EVER. Lets see this happen! I have not been a fan of the crosscab (still love the writing!) but a manual swap would make this amazing and would turn into one of my favorite vehicles.
You might have to give up the AWD, but I bet the Altima SE-R transmission would bolt right up.
But why would you swap in something less reliable than a Jatco CVT?*
*Said somebody.
Manual swapping a CrossCab would not be a cost-effective car fix. But as a source of content, that’s another story!
It would, literally, be another story. Hopefully a series of them. *rimshot*
This and a SWG + DT team up. Or lets get Jason and Matt to spin some wrenches.
That would be GOLD
I see references online to people installing secondary trans coolers in addition to the standard one. I think I’d also want a live readout of the transmission temperature too, so you can shut it down before it’s a problem – Torque Pro on your phone and a bluetooth OBDII adaptor will probably do the job.
Assuming replacing the transmission is really off the table for you, I’d wait and see what the CVT-A and CVT-B values are before giving up hope. If they look okay-ish then I’d say trust that the system can successfully protect itself and go ahead with adding the trans cooler to maximize its lifespan. Otherwise just accept you’re on borrowed time, change the fluids, take it easy in hot weather, and enjoy it while it lasts.