Oil change every 6 months or between 7,500 to 10,000 miles?

I know a guy who owns a transmission shop near me and they make a lot of money rebuilding Nissan CVT tranny’s. When I bought my Highlander, I was also looking at the Pathfinder (which at the time had a CVT). The main reason I went with the Highlander was because of Pathfinders CVT. And now the new Pathfinders come equipped with a 9-speed automatic. No more CVT.

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Maybe I’m too cautious but I change my oil/filter and automatic transmission more frequently than most ( 3-4,000 engine oil & 30,000 tranny fluid) because I hope it might also be beneficial for the oil seals?
Is my thinking way off? Is that even a concern these days with better modern oil seals?

Do you have any evidence that changing oil and tranny fluid will be better? I’ve kept vehicles well past 300k miles by just following the owner’s manual. You plan on keeping your vehicle past 300k miles?

No. That’s why I was asking :slightly_smiling_face:

300,000 ? It will never make it. 16 years old now with 138,000 … I image too many things will go wrong from simply old age. Including me :confused:

You can not over change your fluids (might wear out drain plugs and pans faster and might/can waste money doing it) but you CAN under change your fluids and cause premature failure…

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The main reason we bought a Quattro Audi A4 is to avoid the CVT! The FWD version was CVT and the Quattro has the 8 speed ZF conventional automatic.

I had not seen any complaints here or anywhere else negative to the life of Audi’s CVT, nor most any others EXCEPT the Nissan.

The CVT felt weird to me, and my wife (who drives the car!) as well.

AWD and a conventional auto = happy wife

Bottom line, if you are under warranty, follow the schedule to not jeopardize your coverage. After the warranty is up, your money, your vehicle, your choice. But if you follow the schedule, you can expect to get at least 200k out of the vehicle, maybe 300k baring a major collision.

Nissan was an early adopter of the CVT, and the early CVT’s had some reliability issues. As those got worked out, other manufacturers like Honda, Subaru and even Toyota started using them. AFAIK, the newer Nissans have not had many issues with their CVTs, but because of the early reputation of CVTs, many manufacturers are shying away from them.

My 2018 Versa is a manual transmission and according to the owners manual the transmission should be inspected for leaks only, no oil change needed. I’ll change it at 60K anyway. With Nissan’s reputation of poorly designed CVTs I never considered buying one. Hope they got the bugs worked out on the newer models.

The Nissan manual transmission seems to get good reports here, good choice. Changing the gear oil at 60K seems reasonable, but if it has been gently driven, probably not necessary. Important to check the gear oil level is correct though.

I drive a 2018 Honda Civic (manual) and use strictly synthetic oil. I do a lot of long-range driving, though, so not really relatable to the OP. The Honda maintenance minder takes into account the driving conditions, but usually will trigger at about 10K. Which the car I traded in for this one, a 2004 Civic auto, had 330K on it, and as I was driving it to the dealer, I’m thinking, “Gee, this still drives pretty well.” But I had the Fever: 6-spd Turbo!

I think the earlier Mitsubishi Mirages used the same basic CVT that the Versa used for a while and it was crap in those cars as well. Basically it was a 120,000 mile transmission for most people. I wanted a manual and ended up with one. Those are pretty much rock solid in these cars as well.

A mailman around here used a Nissan Juke with the CVT. The thing was in the shop more than it was on the road so guess it wasn’t meant for that kind of duty with all the stop and go driving. You never see these in big trucks either. A trash truck would probably eat CVTs often with the type of driving they see.