Hello Scotty and everyone,
I have a question about the 2017 Nissan Murano S AWD. Over the years I’ve had the classic just do the oil changes and the engine filters and the cabin filters and all of that. I never replaced the transmission fluid at 50 or 60,000. I never did the all-wheel-drive fluid or whatever it is period. in the last couple of months my car has been very choppy starting out of a stop sign or out of a stoplight or when I accelerate sometimes and when I’m slowing down to it. Also, it also had done that when I was going up the mountain. Now my dad was trying to tell me when I called him the other day that it was because of the air conditioning unit. He used to work on cars for Ford but I don’t know if that’s true or not. This year in it of itself I’ve had to replace the front rotors and front brakes as well as the torque strut also known as the dog bone and I’ve had to change my control arms. According to some websites the car value is worth $9000 but Carvana is offering me 6000 and Carmax is offering me 5500. Car gurus is offering me 10,000.
my question is this, with the issues that I am experiencing now is it something that I trade the car in and get a new car or do I ride it out and just fix what needs to be fixed?
the car has 103,100 miles on it and driving around in the DC area there’s a crap ton of stop and go traffic. It is the worst area in the United States. So I’m curious to what you all think
if I was to trade it in the cars that I am looking at are the Broncos sport, the Ford F150, the Nissan frontier, and the Hyundai Santa Cruz
It's likely the CVT is giving out on you. The Jatco CVTs that Nissan uses are horrendous quality and it's even worse when they are not maintained. You could try changing the CVT fluid and see if that helps. If you want something that's going to last a long time the Murano is not a good choice.
@chucktobias I appreciate your response. Do you think it has any life left? What would you do if you were in this position?
Today I was driving in the evening and as I was crossing some pretty busy intersections coming out of stoplight and what not the car was sputtering again but this time it felt like it was going to collapse in the middle of the intersection. But then once I started getting going it seems like it was perfectly fine and it was able to smoothly drive. Obviously there’s that accelerating grinding sound but that seems to be on a lot of cars.
I’m just trying to figure out why it seems like a lot of this stuff is starting to happen at 103,000 miles. I mean it kind of is lining up with what happened with my Honda element when the transmission was going at 96,000. I mean I don’t Run the car ragged but again in the area that I live There’s a lot of slamming on the brakes accelerating pretty fast. I mean going into work I have to take one of the busiest roads in the area and then I have to get onto the beltway. The beltway I can navigate no problem but the people on the main road like to drive up at the last minute cut you off and slam on their brakes which forces you to slam on your brakes and it makes it even more of an adventure with that new set of front rotors and brake pads which again the old dealership put on a discount version of them. And I did not even know about it until the dealership that I’m going to see tomorrow where I get my service done told me about it. I’m gonna have them run a system tomorrow to check everything
The thing is is that I had that done before and there were a couple things that were in the yellow and one thing in the red.
Nope. No way inspecting the CVT should cost anywhere close to $1200, that price is way too high.Let me ask you this, would you pay the $1200 to have them inspect that transmission
@hixster i’m glad you said that because we fairly honest with you the lady I work with at the dealership told me yesterday that she would not pay that amount. She wasn’t the one who’s suggested it in the first place it was a different person but she told me they’ll take $1200 regardless whether they find something or not. But I’m glad you said that
@synnersyndrome Unless you need warranty work, stay away from that dealership. City driving and no maintenance, yeah your cvt is likely failing. Any good independent mechanic can check out the cvt by using his scan tool while driving and physical inspecting the tranny fluid/filter. In my area were talking about at most about 300 bucks...
Do you think it has any life left?
Not possible to say, but most of those Nissan CVTs are done around the 100K mile mark. Some do last longer, and some crater well before that. (Of course lack of maintenance doesn't bode well for its future.) Also Nissan vehicles are not very good quality overall so it's not surprising that it's starting to fall apart at that mileage.
What would you do if you were in this position?
Aside from the fact I would never have bought one of those in the first place, if I were in a position to get rid of it I'd do that in favor of something more reliable. ("Reliable" by the way does not belong in the same sentence as Hyundai/Kia, Ford, or another Nissan. Though per Scotty previous-generation Frontiers are not bad trucks.)
So I took my car into the dealership today and I told him of what I was feeling and they told me after evaluating it that they felt the exact same thing. They said they did not see any error codes when they ran it through the test but they did feel the throttling. They got in the car and when they just started they could feel this throttling. They definitely said with a CVT engine that’s what happens. They said right now my car is what they call a ticking time bomb. What their suggestion is since there was no errors is to take the bottom of the CVT engine off check for any filings or metal filings or anything like that and change the fluids and try it that way. He said if there’s any issues that they find when they take the pan off they’ll just stop right there cause it’ll be a loss at that point. Which is not a good thing but he said right now that my car is on the better side of good rather than on the complete loss. However he said right now he would suggest to trade the car in and get something else. He said CVT engines just in it of itself are not good engines. Sorry transmissions I should say. He said problem is a lot of dealerships or companies I should say are all going that direction. He said now, if he wants to change the fluid right now that could destroy everything because the fluid might be the only thing holding everything together because it’s very thick. He said next time you buy a car if it is a CVT engine but he recommends against it but he said if you buy another CVT engine change the fluid at 30 to 40,000 miles
@synnersyndrome CVTs are not "engines" they are transmissions. That's what the "T" in "CVT" stands for - "Continuosly Variable Transmission". It's getting tougher to find cars without a CVT these days but there are some out there. Also, not all CVTs are created equal. Nissan's are the absolute worst.
I know I apologize but I was driving home from the dealership. It’s just habit for me to call it an engine I know it’s a transmission. I didn’t know that Nissan’s were the worst of all of them though. Because I had a Honda element and I loved that car and that stupid thing And I do mean the transmission on this one I loved that car but the transmission started having issues at 96,000 miles. And I had to get rid of it then too. So it’s kind of a source subject for me if you know what I mean
@synnersyndrome No problem, just pointing it out. Scotty has mentioned many times in his videos and here on this forum how horrible the Nissan CVTs are. Of course the dealer is not going to tell you that! As far as the Element, older Honda automatic transmissions are known to be weak and prone to failure, especially if not maintained. You need to research known problem areas in vehicles before purchase and keep up with maintenance. Even a well-designed transmission will fail prematurely if not serviced regularly.
That should say sore subject but I’m driving using voice so if it comes out incorrectly blame it lol
I mean I kept up to date with about 90% of it so I thought all would be good. But now I heard from people that the transmission fluid doesn’t really need to be checked on and I think I learned the hard way
@synnersyndrome If anything the fluid in a CVT needs to be changed more frequently than a conventional automatic transmission. Don't fall for the "sealed transmission" bologney spouted by manufacturers and dealers. There is no such thing as a "lifetime fluid".
Let me ask you this, would you pay the $1200 to have them inspect that transmission and if it’s good get another two or three years out of it potentially or would you cut your losses? Personally I love the drive and I love the smoothness but I’ve got this concern of something else crapping out on me
Yeah they told me back at like 40,000 miles that I should replace the transmission fluid. My dad was always under the mentality that when they go for the increments that you didn’t really need to get that done. Then again he used to build old Fords so I don’t think he had any experience with the CVT Transmission. He said his first major work that he usually got was when it hit like 100,000 or if it was needed beforehand. So I never really got it back when I had the Honda element and I didn’t get it With this car and ironically both of the cars had issues with the transmission.
my 2011 Honda element EX started making a whining sound when I was accelerating from 1st to 2nd gear and it got pretty loud but the only way to drown it out was to blast music in the car. I took it to a transmission specialist and they had told me that that’s just the shifting sound but there was no real issue. It could die out in a month two months a year five years no one really knew. But my parents were insistent on me trading the car in before I headed back to my place. Against my better judgment I did although I wish I Hadn’t because I loved that car
With this car the Nissan Murano (2017) I had really no sound at all and I didn’t really even notice anything until I was heading to a family reunion a couple of years ago and I was driving up the mountains in West Virginia and I had the air conditioning on full blast because it was hot that day in the car was struggling or at least feeling like it was struggling anyway. Then I called my dad about it because again he has experience on cars and he had just told me oh that’s when you blast the air-conditioning it makes the car struggle so if you turn the air conditioning off going up or down the hill you shouldn’t have that issue. well when I went up the mountain on the way home I turned off the air-conditioning and I was sweating profusely but it seemed to have had at least a somewhat of an effect so I figured that was correct. Came back and I had to get an oil change and they recommended again that I changed the CVT fluid and I declined. But over the next two years I started to get this shutter feeling. This year it’s been more pronounced. In fact coming home from the dealership today it was shuttering at every traffic light going into heavy traffic light slowing down accelerating from a slower position. But when I was moving it didn’t have any issue. When I was that speed or a higher speed there was no issues. So I’m wondering when they said they found no codes does that mean that the car doesn’t see the transmission as a complete failure yet but it was heading that way?
I planned on calling a transmission specialist today nearby. To see their input for some reason like there are days that it has no issues driving and then every now and then you’ll get that shutter feeling. Like today I jinxed myself by saying it wasn’t having an issue and then it started Shuttering all over the place. I called up an auto body transmission shop. One that specifically works with transmissions where my parents live and the guy had told me it’s a decision you need to make between a new car and not. He goes the Nissan dealership trying to charge you $10,000 for a new transmission and $7000 for a remanufacturer it seems kind of high. he told me he could get me a new one for 5000. But a lot of people have told me that if you fix it it’s not always guaranteed to keep and when that gets fixed something else will go. I told my parents about that because they have been asking to keep them up-to-date. My Parents are under the inclination that I should get a new transmission to drive it again. I just don’t know. I’m coming to see you guys seeing what you would do.
Get a remanufactured one? Get a brand new one? Or just get a new car
Have you considered getting another Murano? The new ones 2025+ have the ZF 9HP transmission and does not have the CVT and its problems like your current one does. New Muranos also have a $1,000 loyalty discount on them.
