I'll be honest straight off the bat here, I hope that whatever the problem may be on this transmission, that it is a small problem and doesn't require the removal of it.
This is a Nissan Murano 4x4 and back in the day these were the luxury vehicle to have and although it's still stylish and fun to drive it is more than a nightmare to work on, especially when removing the transmission. Just too many bolts that need removal, it's a shit show to be very honest.
Now me and bossman decided to take a tackle at the valve-body first before we jump to the biggest possible problem, meh it's probably going to be what we dreaded it to be but if so then so.
Okay, well she was dirty as can be beneath so after I gave it a pressure wash I pulled it up on the lift and I suppose all we can do now is to pull it out hey.
What I don't like about these is the tediousness of every little thing you want to do. Oh you want to remove the oil sump pan, well there's 20 little bolts for you to remove... Why??
Like seriously why? It doesn't even need half of them.
Well the transmission has not burnt yet, the oil isn't the best but it's also not bad. Not bad at all for that matter, it even still smells like how CVT is suppose to smell.
Might be that someone did a drain and fill on it before it came into the shop, well doesn't matter the problem remained. What the computer told us was that it's losing pressure somewhere, now this might be seals that are worn inside the transmission, might be a clogged channel it might be the pressure sensor or it might be dirty oil, who knows.
I can safely presume it's not oil, this oil is still good. Nevermind the colour of it.
After finally removing the last of those pesky and tedious bolts I was finally able to remove the oil sump pan. Took me a good ten minutes removing all those bolts well I did the oil drainage as well so it's not that bad.
Of the top of my eye it doesn't look bad, it's neat and seems well taken care of or serviced, even the magnets in the sump pan didn't have a lot on it, usually they are swollen with metal shavings.
Get ready for a oily mess!
Okay by looking at the filter I don't see anything that might cause a block this early in the system, might be that it's located further up into the transmission. But okay so far restricted oil flow is not yet out of the question but it's nearing an exit point.
Again, the filter looks amazingly clean.
What I like to do before completely removing a valve-body is to let it drip for around 10-15 minutes while I go on with work on a different vehicle. The reason for this is to have less of a mess where I work, these things will drip for a very long time, so what I do is I unbolt it and leave it hanging on two bolts, one for each side. But it has to be unbolted so that it is split from the transmission so that air can fill in the gaps where the oil is leaking out otherwise it just creates a vacuum which doesn't help at all.
So for now let's leave it to drip dry.
Usually when a valve-body is removed one can truely see all the stuff that was floating around in the oil as it lays on top of the valve-body so only upon removal can you see the finer detail, if there is any.
In this case I don't see a residue of anything that got caught up in the corners, nothing at all.
While we were at it, we decided to switch out the entire loom as well with one that we know is working 100% Don't want to be doing all this effort and have it end up being an electrical fault on the loom right?
Would be pointless, although I've a feeling I might need to pull this transmission at the end of the day.
If me and bossman have any luck left in our buckets it would be nice to receive it today, if everything goes as planned it should be this little pressure sensor causing all this havoc.
Now that is if we get lucky.
I know it's real hard to make out what's really going on here, but what I'm trying to show is the selector arm inside the transmission, now most people would just push this back in wondering why they can't select gears....
Well that short arm has a place for it to hook into, and trust me it's a lot harder to hook that thing with oil constantly dripping into your eyes and over your face than you might think. Along with the fact that you have to hold up that valve-body above your head while inserting the bolts and after a while it can get heavy.
Last but not least, oil... Fresh oil this time. At-least that we know was fresh. It might not solve the problem but it will at-least flush the transmission and if the problem now endures a transmission removal might be the only solution.
It will n doubt be a hefty price on that too. So come the morrow I hope that vehicle drives like the beauty it was.
Take note this is not a how to guide, merely myself talking about the work I do and my thoughts around certain things.
To everyone who made it this far into my post Thank you for the read and the support.
If you found this entertaining or educational please consider a re-blog and up-vote.
Most of all please leave a input in the comments below, whether is good or bad critic I would like to know, whether its your opinion or your way of doing things in a different manner I would like.
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