Transmission problem

RIGULATOR

MEMBER
2011 NISSAN QUEST
3.8L
6 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
258,000 MILES

I have had this problem for a month. I will be driving on a highway and it drops out of overdrive and the RPM's go up to 4000 and I can't go over 60 MHP or I will be at 5,000 RPM's. I have taken to several mechanics and dealer and have replaced 2 camshaft sensors, 1 transmission rotation sensor, air intake hose because it was cracked, and a catalytic converter. No codes have come up for any issues with the transmission. Sometimes when I'm on a hill at a light when I start to accelerate the car barely wants to move even though it's at 2,000 RPM's. I have replaced 3 transmissions in the past all of them seem to last 70,000 miles. This issue now with my car doesn't always happen, it seems to happen more when I am going up an on ramp trying to accelerate and it goes up to 4,000 RPM's and stays there for the rest of the ride. Sometimes I pull of the highway and park for ten minutes with engine running and it runs better on the highway.
Thanks

1 Reply

KASEKENNY

MECHANIC
18,907 POSTS

I wasn't aware but the Quest appears to have a CVT transmission in it and that makes perfect sense as to what is happening and all the failures you are having. Unfortunately this failure is pretty common for a CVT as what happens is the belt inside the unit starts to slip and you cannot get proper RPM because the belt is not gripping the pulley properly.

The way this works is the engine is connected to one side of the transmission via a pulley and then the drive wheels are connected to a separate pulley. These pulleys are connected to each other with a steal belt. When this gets too hot or is worn out it starts to cause all sorts of transmission issues.

The way to get the dealership to be able to duplicate this, is they need to drive the vehicle for a while on the highway and up hills so that it gets hot and it will start to slip. It rarely sets codes so this makes sense.

I attached some info about this below.

Also, here is a video that will help with understanding how this works:

https://youtu.be/PEq5_b4LWNY

Thanks

Image (Click to make bigger)