CVT Transmission starting to fail

[KuroNekko]

I keep reading replies mentioning rad fluid in the transmission.
I don't think that radiator fluid can go into the transmission of the Kizashi.
I could be very well mistaken but I think that the CVT in the Kizashi has a dedicated transmission cooler with no attachment to the radiator. Again I could be wrong.
Whatever the problem is, let them find it and deal with it. That's why we have a warranty. It's just unfortunate that I bough this car for reliability and frankly it hasn't been all that spectacular. Accessory drive belt has been replaced, front end work has been performed and now my transmission. Mind you it has never left me stranded, I have owned far more reliable cars.

My understanding is that most passenger cars with automatics utilize the engine's radiator to cool the transmission fluid. Murcod's graphic above depicts this and this is similar to the set up even in my 1995 Subaru Impreza with the archaic 4EAT (its reliability puts any CVT to shame, by the way so Subaru used it until even a few years ago.) I once replaced the radiator in the Impreza and had to disconnect hoses at the bottom which ran transmission fluid to the radiator and back.

Vehicles that have dedicated transmission coolers tend to be full-size trucks with a towing package like the Silverado 2500 HD. In fact, you can see their dedicated radiators which look like mini radiators in front of the engine radiator. A car like the Kizashi would not have this as it's not intended for towing.

I'm very sorry to hear that you are having issues with the car. I hope that once you get your new CVT, things settle down. My Kizashi has been pretty good so far other than the failed rear shocks related to the Technical Service Bulletin. I got it covered under warranty. Some Kizashi owners have bad luck with the CVT while others like weshoot2 have over 100,000 miles with no problems. Given that the majority of Kizashis are CVTs and it's not an overbearing gripe here in the forum, I think they are fine it terms of reliability. That being said, manual transmissions are the way to go if you want supreme reliability. Much like a revolver, the simplicity is the key to its robustness.

[murcod]

Vehicles that have dedicated transmission coolers tend to be full-size trucks with a towing package like the Silverado 2500 HD. In fact, you can see their dedicated radiators which look like mini radiators in front of the engine radiator. A car like the Kizashi would not have this as it's not intended for towing.

The Kizashi has both the integrated "in radiator" cooler and a separate dedicated trans oil cooler in front of the engine's radiator.

See below - item number 3

cvt cooler.jpg (153.5 KiB) Viewed 9367 times

Perhaps that might say something about CVT's and oil temperatures? They've certainly gone to a lot of trouble to cool things down.

[Ronzuki]

Perhaps that might say something about CVT's and oil temperatures? They've certainly gone to a lot of trouble to cool things down.

Another little tid-bit supporting the notion that the CVT may be a wee bit too small for the size car aye? Works harder and generates more heat that needs to be dissipated. Dual coolers...interesting. Murcod's the FSM guru

[KuroNekko]

Yeah, the fact that it has 2 cooling apparatuses is a bit scary. In comparison, a manual transmission has... none.

I hope these CVTs hold up long term, but I don't think I'll ever get one in any car other than a hybrid. The bad things about them seem to heavily outweigh the good. I truly believe they were designed for car companies to meet fuel efficiency standards and then those numbers used to market to consumers. Actual performance, reliability, and longevity were not really their concerns. The only cars that seem to excel with them are hybrids.

[kevvvinc]

Thanks for that diagram murcod. I know from owning three cvt equipped vehicles that they do generate a tremendous amount of heat, especially during the summer months when you feel the fans blowing the heat beneath the car.
I appreciate these diagrams because it now tells me for sure that coolant could have gotten into the transmission OR it could again be a overheat issue for the fluid.
I didn't know that the Kiz had basically dual coolers though. Good to know. In truth we should all be servicing our CVT's every 30,000 miles or 50,000 kilometres. Would probably extend the life of the cvt a great deal. Mine just happened to break well before 50km lol

[~tc~]

I was just going through the maintenance guide, and was surprised to see there is never a "replace CVT fluid" required.

I will be doing it at the next service (52,500 per the 7500 mile guideline for the US)

[SamirD]

really? With the cost of that fluid....they'll let him keep driving what he's got until it won't roll any longer. Personally I would have demanded a rental loaner and left the car until the replacement unit arrived and the car was repaired after seeing that mess in the pan.

I'd still want to know the cause before they ruin another trans, or worse as TC eluded to with CVT fluid in the cooling system whilst driving around in a screwed up car needlessly.

That's what happens when you let the dealership's interest override your own.

ATF in the cooling system of the car is another potential disaster. Looks like that 100k warranty is going to important down the road...

[SamirD]

Perhaps that might say something about CVT's and oil temperatures? They've certainly gone to a lot of trouble to cool things down.

Another little tid-bit supporting the notion that the CVT may be a wee bit too small for the size car aye? Works harder and generates more heat that needs to be dissipated. Dual coolers...interesting. Murcod's the FSM guru

What even more interesting is that RRM made a upgraded module for their Kizashi.

I know keeping it too cool would be a problem, but I wonder if upgrading to the RRM part would be a bad idea on a daily driver...

[SamirD]

Yeah, the fact that it has 2 cooling apparatuses is a bit scary. In comparison, a manual transmission has... none.

This isn't too scary to me. Auxiliary coolers are kind of commonplace in any situation where there might be additional load on the transmission. My Corvette actually had one installed by the previous owner.

With the CVT driving the awd drivetrain, I think it was easier to do this than have two totally different radiator designs. Besides, the cooler in the radiator isn't anything special--it's just a metal pipe:


Any external cooler will be much better.

Manual transmissions don't need a cooler since the fluid isn't the medium that transmits the power like in an automatic. That's why the slipriness and viscosity of the fluid is so important.

[SamirD]

I was just going through the maintenance guide, and was surprised to see there is never a "replace CVT fluid" required.

I will be doing it at the next service (52,500 per the 7500 mile guideline for the US)

I thought I remember seeing a spec in the service manual, but I definitely didn't see one in the owners manual.