My Nissan Altima is normally fine but after about 40 minutes to an hour of driving even in cool temperatures the car stops wanting to accelerate much and the RPM needle will jump from 1-2k to 5k almost instantly when applying more gas. I can be at 5k RPMs and barely climb 1 to 2 mph every few seconds in my car. This issue will persist till I turn the car off for a short while. Once The car has cooled down and been idle for a bit the car works fine again for 40 to 60 minutes.
I’m worried is the CVT. Any ideas? I also don’t want to take it in because I doubt they’ll get the problem to reproduce unless they drive it for up to an hour.
Is the Powertrain Warranty still in effect?
If it is, your first stop should be a Nissan dealership.
If the PW is no longer in effect, you need to take the car to an independent transmission shop that has been in business for at least 3 years.
Ask friends, neighbors, relatives and co-workers for recommended indy trans shops.
Just be sure that you do NOT go to a chain-run trans shop such as Lee Myles, Cottman, Mr. Transmission or…<>…AAMCO.
Take it in. Even if they don’t get it to reproduce, there are still things they can check. I guarantee you that they’ll never fix it if they never see it.
If it is still under warranty, you need to get this on record NOW.
Be specific on your complaint. Say that after 40 min. to an hour of driving the rpms go from 1-2 thousand rpm to 5 thousand without the speed increasing. If your service writer won’t put that on the work order, complain about that by email to Nissan America.
Keep all work orders and correspondence.
Do not take it anyplace else but the dealer until you have the problem on record. You don’t want them to have anyone else to blame.
When the rpm meter jumps from 1k to 5k, do you hear the engine speed up too? I presume you do. In that case it certainly seems like a transmission issue of some kind or another.
Even if it isn’t under the warranty that the car came with, it might be under some special program if this transmission has some kind of design related problem. So phone up a dealership and ask I guess. If you luck out, you might can get it fixed for free at a dealership shop.
Another source, Consumer Reports has a “Car Reliability Guide” or titled something like that. It lists problems by make/model/year that the manufacturer is offering extra help to its customers for, b/c of known problems other customers are having.
I took it to a dealership I should hear back from them today about what they found. I just hope I don’t need a new transmission. This car is too new for me to start replacing transmissions. I thought Nissan Altima’s were fairly reliable cars.
Hi! I know this is an old thread, but I’m experiencing the same problem with the same model and year of the car. What turned out to be the problem? I also acquired the car not too long ago and it would be extremely annoying if I had to change the whole transmission.
We don’t know what the problem was because the original poster never cam back. What you read is all there was. I assume you do not have a powertrain warranty, but if you do, follow the advice in the thread.
We have a 2015 Altima we purchased at Christmas 2015 from a Dealership that disappeared without telling their customers (that’s us). We’ve had brake squeal and the rear pads are wearing faster than
the front, which we read about and now know the faulty part there. But that’s not the real big problem.
We rarely drive the car, and have had it serviced and oil changed at the marked tune-up intervals. But it is not accelerating from a stop after 30min of city driving. We called Nissan North America and the customer service people (three we’ve spoken with) have been super. Then we got kicked up to a regional person and … things are getting less so! We took the car to Nissan’s award winning service department in the area, and they were super. However, their diagnosis is suspect. They claim its a brake light relay switch, that is keeping the car from forward movement from a stop. The mechanic got the car to replicate the issue, but they did Not say it coded from the computer. So the mechanic used a brake tester. They want 200 bucks to replace a brake switch. That is Not the same symptom that we are experiencing. The car does not feel like its being held by brakes. The tach jumps up and it feels like its out of gear. We are NOT getting help from Nissan customer service. We are not
getting any traction from the dealership! We feel like they are charging for something that is Not addressing the problem. Our sense is we pay out 200. bucks and our warranty time ticks away, and we won’t be covered for the CVT transmission. Thoughts??