Depends on whether you trust another transmission that failed on you at a ridiculously low mileage. I don’t intend to ever own a Nissan CVT longer than 60,000 miles. The fact another one died at 65K and customer is just screwed reinforced my logic.

I would not. I would fix it and dump it. It could fail in 15,000 miles and you’ve played Nissan’s game (read: Scam) twice.

 

if the rest of the car is in good shape, and you can get a good deal on the trans, then the only reason to get a new car is if you want a new car.

I just got my MO transmission replaced by dealer , luckily for me it was under warranty. I plan to keep the car for 2 more years .

 

I'd like to hear from owners that have over 100,000 miles on their CVT transmissions as to how their transmissions are functioning.

 

My '04 Altima had right at 100,000 miles when I traded it in for a 2009 Maxima.
The 2009 Max had around 110,000 miles when I traded in for my 2017 Platinum Max.
Wife's '04 Murano had around 110,000 miles when we traded it in for a 2011 Murano. That vehicle just turned over 110,000 miles and we will probably keep it for another year or so. A fluid drain and refill was done on each one at around 90,000 miles. Not one issue with any of them. Love that CVT.

Probably most of the people that talk down the CVT's have never owned a vehicle with one.

 

I cant imagine that all Muramo CVT fail so early. It must be a small portion. its just that we hear about the failures on the forum because no one is going to start a thread talking about how theirs is still functioning.

I'm curious to know if the 3rd gen CVT failure rate is similar to other transmissions. Anyone know?

 

I cant imagine that all Muramo CVT fail so early. It must be a small portion. its just that we hear about the failures on the forum because no one is going to start a thread talking about how theirs is still functioning.

I'm curious to know if the 3rd gen CVT failure rate is similar to other transmissions. Anyone know?

If you look at the total number of Murano's produced, to the number of reported CVT failures, it is less then .005%, with most failures in the 2003 year.


If you look at the total number of CVT's that Jasco produces, I'm sure that you'll find that percentage number is even lower.


I always keep this little nugget in the back of my mind when reading some of the issues here on the forum:


"A bad experience will get talked about 100 times, a good experience only 10 times."


Have a good day.

 

My own observations say otherwise. I hear about it all the time. Two of the only people I know who’ve had Muranos had the CVT die.

A friend of mine said her mom was getting a new fake-Murano Lexus. I asked her why and she said her mom’s 2015 Murano transmission went out and will cost $5000 to fix.

People can rationalize it away if they so choose, but a pragmatic person will notice there’s a real problem in my opinion.

 

My own observations say otherwise. I hear about it all the time. Two of the only people I know who’ve had Muranos had the CVT die.

A friend of mine said her mom was getting a new fake-Murano Lexus. I asked her why and she said her mom’s 2015 Murano transmission went out and will cost $5000 to fix.

People can rationalize it away if they so choose, but a pragmatic person will notice there’s a real problem in my opinion.

I agree with Paul,


If you go to a Honda or Toyota forum, I bet you will hear the same horror stories about CVT failing early.
I don't think the CVT design changes that much from one car manufacturer to the next, they are pretty much the same, and it has its pros and cons. If CVT bothers you that much, then you should not drive a CVT.


I was on the same boat as the OP, 2015 nissan murano SV, CVT failed early, it was completely dead, the car would not move forward in drive. Took it in, they said CVT needs to be changed, they did not tell me why it failed. But since the change, I am now at 95,000 miles and no issues (touching wood...)

 

What PaulDay's post captures and Robotaz's misses is the idea of sample size.



You may think that since 3 out of 3 (or 100%) of Murano's that you're personally aware of had a CVT problem, means that the 100% of the rest of the population has the problem. But in reality, you're making an assumption on ~200,000 vehicles based on only three (0.0015% of 3rd gen MOs).


I think a pragmatic person would look at a significant sample size to form an opinion.

 

Thanks for that clarification.

I have an electrical engineering degree and a masters in math. I understand sample size, statistics, and infomatics very well.

What I say, and will continue to say, is that my own observations cannot be denied. The probability that I’m in a tiny, isolated 100% sample size, within and relative to a tiny overall sample size with the opposite trends, is statistically much smaller than the transmissions having a relatively high failure rate.

If you ignore the observations of others around you, who have no statistical predisposition to having skewed observations, and instead fall back on speculative conjecture about industry-standard fail rates (which frankly nobody here knows anything about if we’re honest), then I don’t know what to say that can help.

I stand by my observations. The CVT is problematic relative to all transmissions, and frankly relative to all car parts that I have ever heard of. The fact that it continues on and is not isolated just rams it home. I will not personally own my Murano after the warranty is up. Period. My wife’s, I expect to dump $5K at any time after the warranty is up and we lived the bad lesson so many seem to have to live through.

This topic is no different than any other fail rate topics on car forums. People want to believe they’re not next and have a warm, fuzzy feeling about their cars. On some forums, people stating the obvious are attacked (e.g, Mustangs, Civics, etc.). Ask me how I know. Im not in denial. It’s a problematic transmission and I feel that any reasonable person can agree.

 

I'm at 145k and no issues (knock on metal). was always maintained by dealer.

 

I will tell you that I had 6 Ford Explorers from 2004 to 2016. I had transmission failures in 3 of the 6. Does that mean that 50% of Fords will have transmission failures? Absolutely not. However, I have heard of many more Ford transmission failures that Nissan CVTs. What that shows, is that there are a lot more Fords in this country than there are Nissans.


Point being that anything mechanical can fail at any point in time. Don't draw conclusions from something posted on a forum.

 

Wait. Are we talking about the Murano CVT compared to other CVTs? Or are we talking about Murano CVT fail rates in general? Two different conversations.

 

Thanks guys for all the comments. I shop around at transmission shops and my mechanic is asking for $3500 . Also he is giving me a 3yr, 100000mile warranty while the other shops where only 2yr, 24000mile warranty. I am also talking to Dealer, he said that best he can do is $4800 but he will just give 12months/12k warranty. So thats for sure that I am getting the Murano repaired and will plan to sell after 3 years . Hopefully, without any more problems it will go to over 100000miles. Thanks for the help.

 

Im not sure if you're going to read this, because is an old forum, but what happened with your transmission after you changed it? Did it last long? I only can find 1year warranty or 12k, that it makes me think ,( after reading the warranties that they offered you 3 years ago), that is not going to last much more than that. Is it worth it to do that job? I have a Murano 2014, that broke one week after I purchased it with 128k, and nothing to do because it passed the inspection. It'll cost me $5035 to change the transmission. I dont know what to do.

 

My 07 Murano had about 110K miles when the transfer case grenaded and split in half. Dropped in a used transfer case, sold the car immediately.

I thought I detected some looseness in the tranny before this happened, but it could have been the transfer case.

I bought a BMW 3-series wagon with AWD and 98K miles. It's now at 126K miles and hasn't missed a beat.

 

07Murano FWD .. fluid drained&refilled (myself) every 30Kmiles. Traded in from 2017.5 Murano FWD, at 159Kmiles ... while everything else got old, the trans was the only thing that was still working like new.
I'm thankful Nissan doesn't take away the fill-tube.... will do the same 30K drains&refills. (My 14Avalon comes with "WorldStandard" life-time fluid and Toyota took away the fill-tube ... We don't even "need" to check the fluid at all.. haha
that makes me worry).

 

Own a 2004 Murano 2WD. Vehicle has 225k miles. Have been the only owner. Still have the original transmission which is still working like the day I bought it.

 

Murano CVT

We had a 2003 Murano with the CVT and drove it for over 130,000 miles before trading it on a 2015 Murano. No transmission problems in all those miles.

 

I have an 07 murano 189000 never had a problem just had to replace struts and wheel bearing .I don have one issue that has came up when going down a hill at a low speed the rpms run up to about 3000 and it feels like I down shifted but I chalking it up to needing to be serviced

 

umm isn't it supposed to do that? Some sort of controlled hill descent system?

 

I have a 07 Murano S with 134,000 miles and so far the transmission is doing ok. Bought it about 4 months ago. Only problems are: AWD doesn't work, today the engine just died - will start and then die a few seconds later like it's not getting enough fuel to keep running, rear wiper, TPMS sensors.

I have no idea if the CVT fluid has been changed before I got it, any way to tell, and if not, should I?

 

If you have no idea if its ever been changed, for f**k sake get it done


I really do believe that the key to long CVT life is regular maintenance.

 

I have an 05 1st gen, Japanese built FWD, with 120,000K on the clock, which I've owned now for four years. I have it serviced every 10,000K and the CVT fluid changed every 30,000K. Touch wood, the only repair i've ever needed was to replace a partially seized rear caliper, and the trans has never missed a beat and is running like the day i bought it.


In my view, the key to transmission life is Service, Service, Service.

 

Is changing the CVT fluid something easy to do at home, or should one take it to a transmission shop or a quick lube place? I doubt if I will get as much mileage as my Oldsmobile, whose transmission lasted 243,000 miles without transmission fluid change. What kind is it supposed to take? (Yes, I know, the manual will say to use a certain Nissan fluid, but it also says to use T-10 and T-20 light bulbs, too! I meant if I go to the shelf on my local auto parts store, what should I use?)

(Note, the engine dying was not a fuel pump, I changed it myself by the highway, then found out it was just a loose air hose between the engine and the mass air flow sensor.)

"umm isn't it supposed to do that? Some sort of controlled hill descent system?"

Yes, I think it appears to be some sort of engine braking to keep you from having to ride the brake downhill so much. I kinda like it, actually, but then again, I usually drive a diesel truck with a real engine brake all day.

 

Wife bought a 2007 Murano in 2011 and drove it for 125,000 miles with no CVT problems. Traded it in last Saturday for a 2015 Murano SL with 34,000 miles. Next day noticed a jerking between 15-30 mph. Took it back to the dealership today and spent seven hours waiting for them to tell me what I already knew. Transmission gotta be replaced. Did find out something about the Nissan extended warranty. We bought their warranty that cover bumper to bumper plus car rental, towing and lodging. Was told that being the repairs were under drivetrain warranty and not extended, no rental was covered. But they did furnish me with a loaner till ours is finished.

 

Not good news. Let us know how it goes.

 

So I had my 2005 murano for 13 years and never had issues with ANYTHING. I spent less than a grand on total repairs in 13 years aside from the general maint items like brakes and oil changes. Just bought a used 2015 SL and after only owning it a month, I'm having issues with the tranny jerking at 1000rpm's. I've researched it intensely and it seems the 2015 had an upgraded tranny and many owners are having this issue. Some say the module upgrade fixes the issue, most are saying a new tranny was a must and they had no further issues. Hence why I purchased the extended warranty. Needless to say I'm disappointed that Nissan decided to mess up a perfectly good tranny for the 2015 model. I would much rather spend $4 g than go through the hassle of purchasing another car, and you aren't guaranteed the new purchase won't have an issue that would need fixing for $4g.

 

Update on our 2015. Picked it up from the dealership today, it took a week to repair. The warranty papers report that they removed control valve and found scoring on pulley/chain. Repairs say they replaced sub assembly per bulletin (no bulletin number references) and reprogrammed transmission Control Module to correct. 14.10 hours labor
Drove home and so far so good

 

I have a 2009 Nissan Murano CVT transmission with 150K miles, so far so good, the only issue I can tell since about 2 years ago is that sometimes when I press the gas from 0 m/h, the car hesitates, feels like you just released the pedal before it shifts to second gear, then after two or three seconds it goes again, does anyone have an idea on what's wrong with my Murano?, I'll appreciate any information, thanks!!!

 

My 2003 AWD started throwing P0868 persistently possibly about two years ago, along with five inactive P0746 codes daily. I also had P1778 (step motor) codes a lot. My issue seemed to be worst at a cold start up, after the car had been parked for about five hours. After warmed up, I had to perform a pre-normal driving ritual for about ten minutes before things returned to normal. I drove it like that for at least two years over maybe 60,000 miles. If you haven't done so, you might have a trusted mechanic drop the tranny pan and check (and change) the internal filter for obstructions, typically in the form or sludge or metal shavings, and then new CVT fluid will be added once everything's put back together.

The pan magnets will also reveal if there's a significant problem with metal shavings. Changing my fluid three times in about three months seemed to help the CVT problem, then the engine blew a head gasket, so it hasn't moved since mid-April 2021.

This thread/post shows my CVT fluid change and massive amounts of metal shavings on the pan magnets and caked onto the mesh-screen of the internal filter..

Rear differential, transfer case, CVT filter/fluid...

In combing through the threads here, it seems strange that MO owners are overwhelmingly using the drain/fill plugs to change the tranny fluid, despite Nissan's manual providing what I believe to be a simplier option, where you don't have to jack up the car or crawl way underneath it. It appears...

www.nissanmurano.org

EDIT: BTW, it's also a possibility that you have another issue besides the CVT fluid line pressure and possible problems with VIAS solenoids (if P1700/P1800 return.) A failing throttle body or tear in the rubber-ribbed air intake duct could cause acceleration issues such as you've described. A bad throttle body and intake tears/looseness probably won't trigger a trouble code. I'd look more closely at the throttle body...

 

I am not sure of the codes but the service manager told me that every possible code lit up and if I did not leave it now I might not make it home. The car would buck at low speeds and rpms also the down hill assist never worked. Never knew I had it till I got the new CVT and I thought something was wrong LOL. Hope this helps.

 

I hear about it all the time. Two of the VLC only people I know who’ve had Muranos had the CVT die.

 

I hear about it all the time. Two of the VLC only people I know who’ve had Muranos had the CVT die.

I don’t think basing it off of 2 people should count as hearing about it all of the time. Just saying…