V35 Cvt Box

[HERV35]

Hi all,

Im hopping some one can help with this we have recently picked up our V35 350GT8 2002, Most of the time the car is fine but twice the car has been on the Highway and twice the car has appeared to start slipping, ie. revs increase but the speed does not to the extent that the car is doing 100klm/h and doing 4500rpm (there is still drive there) at which point I pulled over let the car sit for a minute then once we had taken off it was fine.

Has any one heard of this before???

[Stephen Thorpe]

Hi all,

Im hopping some one can help with this we have recently picked up our V35 350GT8 2002, Most of the time the car is fine but twice the car has been on the Highway and twice the car has appeared to start slipping, ie. revs increase but the speed does not to the extent that the car is doing 100klm/h and doing 4500rpm (there is still drive there) at which point I pulled over let the car sit for a minute then once we had taken off it was fine.

Has any one heard of this before???

Without specifically knowing anything about that box, I suggest you need to find out what oil you need, as this could be an issue.

As per a Motorbike with a wet clutch plate, the wrong oil can cause no ends of problems, especially slipping.

If you have the wrong oil you can destroy these clutch plates and from how I understand the box is not that well known in Oz, as for repairs!

Research the oil and make sure that is the type inside, would be my first step.

[HERV35]

Without specifically knowing anything about that box, I suggest you need to find out what oil you need, as this could be an issue.

As per a Motorbike with a wet clutch plate, the wrong oil can cause no ends of problems, especially slipping.

If you have the wrong oil you can destroy these clutch plates and from how I understand the box is not that well known in Oz, as for repairs!

Research the oil and make sure that is the type inside, would be my first step.

Thanks Stephen,

I will do that but its not so much a case of slipping but when this happens it it slike its decreasing the gears available and it wont flip to manual mode

[Chris Rogers]

when was the last time it was serviced and what oil was put in?

to my knowledge they use a special oil. its been covered here a few times now.

general consensus on the CVT is to stay away from them when buying for that reason.

lately I have been seeing cheap sedans only to find they are all CVTs with I figure half dead boxes.

[Rx_Pete]

maybe its not the gear box, maybe theres an issue else where, the car will only drive in 3rd gear when in limp mode, ie theres a major issue somewhere, 100kmph at 4500 kinda sounds like 3rd gear

[HERV35]

maybe its not the gear box, maybe theres an issue else where, the car will only drive in 3rd gear when in limp mode, ie theres a major issue somewhere, 100kmph at 4500 kinda sounds like 3rd gear

Yes that sounds about right Pete,

any ideas what would make it go in to limp mode after being driven for some time with no issues then to do it only on very odd occasions ??

[HERV35]

when was the last time it was serviced and what oil was put in?

to my knowledge they use a special oil. its been covered here a few times now.

general consensus on the CVT is to stay away from them when buying for that reason.

lately I have been seeing cheap sedans only to find they are all CVTs with I figure half dead boxes.

Thanks Chris,

Have you heard of this specific porblem before??

[Stephen Thorpe]

Yes that sounds about right Pete,

any ideas what would make it go in to limp mode after being driven for some time with no issues then to do it only on very odd occasions ??

I'm guessing and if it isn't Oil (which is my number 1 pick) and without seeing the wiring diagram but a loose or bad connection and/or faulty speed sensor or input to the Gearbox Computer.

Could be a multitude of stuff unfortunately, but you have to start with the easy stuff first such as Oil and then check continuity of all the connections...

[350GT-ATE]

Just wondering if it occurred when you're happening to go downhill? It may be of no help but when I'm at 60km/h down a slight slope (albeit a short one) I tend to let my foot off the accelerator and let the car cruise by itself. The car tends to increase its revs slightly (to around 1500 if I can remember, from the normal 1100/1200rpm) until it reaches a falt surface where the revs drop back to the normal 1200rpm. If so I think it's just a normal occurence.

[Stephen Thorpe]

I think he said 4500rpm at 100km/h, which to me seems that he has an issue... Might be a simple fix though.

[FlyingEL]

Hi Just to share my point of view. As you all know, CVT(Continuously Variable Transmisson) box have no gears in it. The Jap box usually use a belt to run on the 'virtual' 8 gears. I know there is quite a few porblem with the CVT box from Honda. The CVT box is design for city use and not for hard acceleration. The CVT in AUDI's cars (Muliti-tronic) are different too, they do use a series of gears but they are chain driven. From the description of the problem when driving above 100km/h, I believe the belt will tend to slip. That why if you keep pushing, it will just slip more. I think it's best to let someone to look into it for you. And BTW, they do have a Torque Convertor in a Nissan.

Edited October 2, 2008 by FlyingEL

[Stephen Thorpe]

Good point FlyingEL, I think it is a belt too and yes once it starts too slip, more gas will make it worse, just like a clutch...

[Blitz]

when was the last time it was serviced and what oil was put in?

to my knowledge they use a special oil. its been covered here a few times now.

general consensus on the CVT is to stay away from them when buying for that reason.

lately I have been seeing cheap sedans only to find they are all CVTs with I figure half dead boxes.

Spot on.

If you use anything other than the factory recommended Nissan Gearbox oil for the CVT, its history.

Replacement costs are not friendly either.

[Ant]

Hi Just to share my point of view. As you all know, CVT(Continuously Variable Transmisson) box have no gears in it. The Jap box usually use a belt to run on the 'virtual' 8 gears. I know there is quite a few porblem with the CVT box from Honda. The CVT box is design for city use and not for hard acceleration. The CVT in AUDI's cars (Muliti-tronic) are different too, they do use a series of gears but they are chain driven. From the description of the problem when driving above 100km/h, I believe the belt will tend to slip. That why if you keep pushing, it will just slip more. I think it's best to let someone to look into it for you. And BTW, they do have a Torque Convertor in a Nissan.

Nope - the V35 uses a very different type of CVT gearbox - they call it the 'Extroid CVT', basically uses a sliding set of angled gears to acheive the same thing as a belt.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/cvt3.htm

The rest of the Nissan range uses a belt type CVT (Murano, Maxima etc).

Getting back to the original problem, these guys might be able to help:

http://www.cvt.co.nz/index.htm

They're pretty much the only ones in this neck of the woods that know anything about the Extroid CVT, the Nissan dealers will likely only be familiar with the belt type.

Sounds like the gearbox controller is detecting something wrong with the gearbox and putting it into 'limp' mode. Not sure if there is a diagnostic mode for the controller that might allow you to work out what is wrong? When it gets into this mode does it flash anything on the dash cluster?

[Stephen Thorpe]

Nope - the V35 uses a very different type of CVT gearbox - they call it the 'Extroid CVT', basically uses a sliding set of angled gears to acheive the same thing as a belt.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/cvt3.htm

The rest of the Nissan range uses a belt type CVT (Murano, Maxima etc).

Getting back to the original problem, these guys might be able to help:

http://www.cvt.co.nz/index.htm

They're pretty much the only ones in this neck of the woods that know anything about the Extroid CVT, the Nissan dealers will likely only be familiar with the belt type.

Sounds like the gearbox controller is detecting something wrong with the gearbox and putting it into 'limp' mode. Not sure if there is a diagnostic mode for the controller that might allow you to work out what is wrong? When it gets into this mode does it flash anything on the dash cluster?

good work and great advice...

still think the first step would be ensuring the right oil is inside.

Edited October 3, 2008 by Stephen Thorpe

[d.coy]

My cousin is having the exact same problem on his 2003 v35 sedan with 8speed CVT.

He can't get the car to change gear, and the engine seems to not like revving over 4,500rpm. I believe that the car is in limp mode.

The oil hasnt been changed to the nissan cvt one. Would we go into the dealers and ask for another models car gear oil (e.g another nissan with CVT) and just buy the oil from that...?

Any help would be appreciated. It has been off the road for a while now.... Your help is greatly appciated

[DRIFTT]

Take the car back to who ever you bought it off as their are issues with high klm GT-8's and tell them to sort it, the oil is $1,500 and $26,000 for the gear box from Nissan Australia (last time I checked Nissan Japan don't stock them).

They overheat which causes a few issues but the materials used are not up to standard as they have various failures, the guy in NZ repairing them makes his own parts that have failed as they are not available Ex Nissan.

I can go on all day about why they fail, why the were released in Japan only and other problems but just do a search and everything is mentioned.

[autoworx]

you would think given the price of gt-8s now a wrecked one will be dirt cheap to get a gearbox out of

not going to fix a design/component fault but would get you back on the road

[d.coy]

$1500 for gearbox oil?????

so no one else makes toroidal CVT transmission fluid? let alone have part numbers for it?

[HERV35]

Thanks for all the advice guys.

Took it back to the dealer and they said thery could not fault the box but, They SAY they changed a solanoid, but they couldnt produce the solanoid (convenient)

By the sound of things they are hopping the car will be out of warranty by the time I have a BIGGER issue