Nissan Murano Forum banner
Cancel
Create thread New Garage Forums

CVT transfer case and differential oil change at dealer

Jump to Latest
1 - 10 of 10 Posts

mattski

· Registered
Joined
·
844 Posts
Discussion starter · #1 ·
Decided to bite the bullet after 7 years and 70k miles to change the CVT, transfer case and differential oil. Although I know I could have mechanically done it myself, thought it would be more convenient to go to the dealer in case anything went wrong. I will be selling the car next year and thought it would be good to have done this service or avoided a potential failure by never having done this.

Cost was $320 at the local Nissan dealer. Took them almost three hours, but not sure how much of that was actually work time (perhaps letting oil cool before opening the drain plugs?). Anyway, seemed that everything was good until we drove away and the smell of burning oil got worse and worse. Looked under vehicle and saw dripping, so went back to dealer. They put up on lift and showed me it was just AC water dripping. Mechanic admitted that they had quite a bit of oil splash onto exhaust and they tried to wipe it off (this is where the braided heat shield part is up by the manifold).
I felt kind of dumb for rushing back, but better safe than sorry, right? :)

One question - the MO drivetrain continues to be quiet and silky smooth, but it feels slower. Any chance the CVT control module is reset and needs to relearn my more spirited driving style?
 
Save
Reply Quote Like Like
#2 ·
Let me know how this all comes out. If I keep my 2012, I'll probably have it changed at around 60,000 which will be at about the 7 year old mark.

I had 2 cars with conventional transmissions where I had full transmission flushes and the fluid changed at 60,000, which was the recommended mileage for changes. In both cases I started to have transmission problems, slippage and hard shifts, and one car I had to have a transmission rebuild, the other I traded off before spending all that money.

I swore I'd never change transmission fluid again!
 
#3 ·
Yet on the other hand of the spectrum, I always do complete transmission fluid exchanges via the cooler line method every 30K with all my cars. Never had a lick of problems with my transmissions. I usually keep my cars to 200K.

The Murano is an exception. The fluid will be exchanged every 60-80K. I'm guessing CVT transmissions don't produce as much wear debris as the old transmissions, which have a number of clutch packs that produce wear debris.
 
#5 ·
I'm curious how many clutch packs are in the CVT versus the old 4-spd transmissions. Also, how many shift events in a regular driving cycle are there between the different transmissions? Each shift event sheds clutch pack wear debris. All these conditions factor in to how much wear material is shed to the fluid. For 5-, 7-, and 9-speed transmissions this represents a lot of wear.
 
#6 ·
I have a 2009 2WD SL that I bought new. I changed my transmission fluid for the first time at 195,000 miles using the drain plug method. I've driven about 10,000 miles since and have not had any trouble. I used Valvoline CVT Full Synthetic and it's compliant with Nissan NS-2 specs. I spent about $60 bucks and it took maybe 30 minutes from start to finish. The drain plug is very easy to get to and the Mo sits high enough off of the ground that there is no need to jack it up. It's much easier than changing the oil, but that's not saying much.
 
#7 ·
To follow up on the OP, I worked in a Texaco service station back in the early 70's and we did a lot of oil changes. On certain big Chrysler products, the exhaust crossover was directly under the oil filter and it was nearly impossible to change the filter without getting oil on the exhaust. We make it a point to tell the owner that this had happened and they might smell oil burning off for a few minutes when the car warmed up. That tended to allay owner problems.

Texaco's Havoline oil had a distinctive smell when burned, so the burning off process was pretty detectable for a few minutes when the exhaust got hot.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mattski
Save
Reply Quote Like Like
1 - 10 of 10 Posts
About this Discussion
9 Replies
8 Participants
Last post:
DaBudMan
Nissan Murano Forum
posts
312K
members
57K
Since
2002
We’re a community dedicated to Nissan Murano owners and enthusiasts. Discuss specs, safety rating, towing capacity and more!
Full Forum Listing
Explore Our Forums
Problems General Discussions 1st Gen (2003-2007) 3rd Gen (2015- 2024) 2nd Gen (2009 - 2014)