evilmiata

I love my wife's car! Super smooth power, nice fit and finish, lots of room, and better MPG than my 8.

However....

Our Murano couldn’t idle (but ran fine otherwise) so she had it towed into the local Nissan dealership. They ended up charging me $95 for diagnostics and really laid into my wife about a $200 transmission flush. Before picking up the car, I read through the corporate website about scheduled maintenance. There are three service interval schedules online, the PM (premium maintenance?) is for “people who love their car” and “might even increase resale value (sure).” Schedule 1 is for stop-and-go driving, and schedule 2 is for mainly highway driving. PM suggests changing the CVT fluid at 30,000 miles, but the fluid is never serviced in Schedule 1 or 2. The service manager tried to tell me that the PM was for Florida vehicles, since the heat and ‘special gas’ make for extreme driving conditions. I blew through that BS pretty quickly by pointing out that the PM includes replacing crap like the radiator cap (I still have the original one on my ’97 626) and didn’t bother to get into an argument about regional fuel blends.

I am really concerned about the CVT transmission, since I’ve never owned an automatic car and am not familiar with the service interval. Also, the CVT calls for special fluid which is only available from Nissan for $23/quart (needs 11 quarts). I’ll pay it if the car needs the service, but not just because some service writer wants an upsell. Turns out Nissan has a sensor in the car that somehow measures the fluid wear and is read by a computer called the consult-2 (its not obd-2). I asked the service writer about the test results and he replied that there is no such test. I told him I knew about it from the service manual that is downloadable from the Nissan website, and even gave him the page number. He answered that the test may be my opinion, but his dealership will still require proof of CVT service in the event of a transmission failure. I said it wasn’t a matter of opinion, but a matter of fact in his service manual. I gave up at that point since I just wanted to get out of there.

I then addressed the $95 fee. The car is still under warranty but the tech diagnosed a loose intake manifold and claimed that the motor must have been tampered with (not by us). After more back-and-forth, I was about to pay the fee until the service writer mentioned the 'extensive' tests. I thought this was odd, since there was never a CEL.
“Tests, like OBD-II?” I asked.
“That, and consult-2.”
“What’s that do?”
“it does everything. Every little thing about the car is printed out.”
“Great! Can I see the results?” The service writer turned the invoice around and pointed to the mechanic’s diagnosis of ‘loose intake manifold’. “No, I mean the actual consult-2 results.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Well, the results of the CVT fluid test are on the consult-2.” I figured I was entitled to the results if I was paying for the $95 diagnosis. He looked at me, took a long breath, and pointed at the invoice total.
“If I made this go away right now, would we still keep you as a customer?” Who’s to argue with free service? I agreed, but am still bothered that I don’t know the condition of the CVT fluid.

Was I getting scammed for a transmission flush?
What do other CVT manufacturers use for fluid?
Is our Murano about to die if I don’t flush the fluid?

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

You got scam, but it seems like you walked away from it.

I would suggest you to NOT to go back to this dealership.

Nissan is really an *** coming up with all these *special* blend of fluids every so often now. I suggest you to buy the tranny fluid yourself (thru online or other dealerships) and bring it to a good shop around you to do the tranny flush.

saturn

Yeah, never go back to these people. Good work though.

Gecko69

I also own a murano 06'. We have about 30km on it and have had no issues with it. However, whenever we get it seviced nissan is always coming up with bullshit stuff that they " recomend" to be done, they will never give me a straight answer on anything and can't explain to me why these things need to be done regularly as they aren't on the schedules maitenence ( ie. the cvt fluid only ever needs to be checked on schedule 1 or 2 not changed). The only thing I would caution is that they will basically have you by the ***** if your transmission does fail in the near future as they will say that they have recomended a fluid chage for the transmission previously and the client refused. Then its basically you against the nissan mechanic to prove that your not changing the fluid didn't cause the transmission to fail. The Cvt was a concern of mine when we got this vehicle too, but the way I figure it is like this; Nissan is the only place that can service your murano' cvt and keep your warranty intact so you really have NO choice, they may be marking the price up a lot but only becasue they know you have to pay it. I would just get it done pay the 300 now flush the fluid and get the peice of mind; all dealerships scam their costomers, nissan is just really doesn't hide it well or care that they do it.

Design1stCode2nd

I owned an 03 Murano before I bought the 8, great car. The tranny doesn't need to be flushed any more than every 50k miles. Thats crap. Is does require special fluid and thats just the facts of a sealed transmission/CVT. The Nissan CVT is a little different than some others since it uses a steel tank tred like belt

For some good people and infor try www.nissanmurano.org. You will learn everything you want to know.