Nissan CVT Whining Noise in 2026: $0 to $11,000, and Which Warranty Windows Are Open

There is no recall for a whining Nissan CVT. There are five Nissan warranty extensions and one INFINITI extension, and by September 2026 almost all of them have run out.

That is the whole story, and it is the part the search results get wrong. Page after page tells owners that "Nissan extended the warranty" without printing the date the extension ends. Every one of these programs is 84 months or 84,000 miles from the date of first use, whichever occurs first — seven years, or seven years of average driving, and then nothing. The newest vehicle inside any of them left the factory on 23 November 2019.

By the end you will know which whine is urgent, which bulletin names your car, the month your window closed or closes, what the repair costs when nobody else is paying, and which whines are not the transmission at all. Claims marked 🟢 rest on a numbered document in Sources, opened and read. Claims marked ⚪ are estimates, and the article says where each came from.

I built PulsCar after a $380 "full diagnostic" in Phuket in 2025 led to roughly $6,000 over six months across several shops, and the sound never went away (the story is on the About page). The Nissan CVT is the most expensive misdiagnosis in this category, and Nissan agrees: it wrote a bulletin specifically to stop dealers replacing transmissions for noise.

Do the calendar before the diagnosis

Do the calendar before the diagnosis. The most valuable minute here is not under the hood, it is working out whether anyone but you is going to pay. Every route below has the same parts: who it fits, what the document says, the cheap cause that gets skipped, where it does not apply, and the sentence to say at the counter.

One rule overrides everything: a whine alone is a diagnostic question; a whine with power loss is a safety question. We read all 228 Nissan and Infiniti complaints in NHTSA's file that put a whine word next to a transmission word, and 21.9% of them also describe power loss or a failure to accelerate, while 21.5% describe shudder or jerking. So roughly half the whines travel alone, and those are the ones you have time to investigate. The other half are the reason the triage box exists.

First: is the whine even the CVT? Nissan's own answer

In November 2016 Nissan issued NTB16-109 for "All Nissan equipped with CVT," under a title that says how bad the problem had become: Information to Prevent CVT Replacement Due to Misdiagnosis of Noise. CVTs are simply loud with no load on them — "much louder without drive load, which may lead to misdiagnosis," then "Do NOT judge CVT noise as abnormal due only to noise on a hoist" — and the bulletin says what happens if the dealer gets it wrong: "CVTs that do not have a defect will be charged back to the dealer."

Four splits from it, each testable from the driver's seat.

The steering split. "With noise occurring while driving at constant speed, does noise increase or decrease with steering input (back and forth) or when cornering?" If yes, the flow chart sends the technician to the front spindles to find a wheel bearing, not to the transmission.

The stopped-versus-moving split. A "warbling/whining noise in Drive when moving, but is not heard in Drive when stopped" points at wheel and propeller shaft bearings, and the bulletin attaches money to getting it wrong: "If a CVT is replaced for noise and follow up repair of front wheel bearing is performed due to improper noise diagnosis, CVT repair may be charged back."

The idle split. "Slight whining noise idle and accelerating, any gear position" can be the engine oil pump, the power steering pump or the CVT oil pump, and Nissan's verdict is blunt: "normal and not warrantable."

The Sentra and Versa split. These have "a single gear shift that can occur between 20-50 mph," and "a slight whine noise during that shift is normal behavior and not warrantable unless it is much louder than a known good vehicle."

Before replacing a CVT for noise the bulletin requires a printed check sheet on the repair order, seven boxes ticked, among them "Noise was confirmed with customer on road test (test drive), not on hoist" and "Noise is NOT a wheel bearing." Asking whether that sheet exists is a free question with four figures behind it.

The 12-minute road test that dates your problem

1. Read the build month on the door jamb sticker. Coverage runs from date of first use, and the build month is your floor for it.
2. Note the odometer. 84,000 miles ends the extension regardless of the calendar; 27% of the failures in our sample happened above it.
3. At a constant 45 mph, steer gently left, then right. If the noise changes, NTB16-109 points at a wheel bearing.
4. Hold it in Drive against the brake. A whine present when moving and absent when stationary in Drive is the bearing pattern.
5. From a rolling stop, accelerate hard once. If the revs rise faster than the car, that is slip — the expensive family.
6. Read the codes, then record 30 seconds where the noise lives. P17F0, P17F1, P0776, P0746 and P0965 all appear in Nissan's CVT bulletins and each points somewhere different.

Eight Nissan CVT whine situations, and which is yours

"2014-2018 Rogue, whine and hesitation, out of warranty." → Route 3. Your window closed, and the options are narrower than the internet suggests.

"2019 Sentra, whine at speed, about 70,000 miles." → Route 1, today. The one window that may still be open, and it is closing.

"Whine changes pitch when I turn the wheel." → Route 5, and you probably need a wheel bearing.

"Revs go up, car does not." → Route 2, after the triage box.

"Murano or Maxima, and I got a settlement letter." → Route 4, and check the letter's date against your car's.

"2013 Pathfinder, warning light and noise." → Recall 14V-142. Run the VIN now.

"Sentra whines a little between 20 and 50 mph." → Route 5. Nissan calls this normal in writing.

"2015-2018 Infiniti QX60." → Route 1, and read your terms: they are not the Nissan terms.

What actually determines a Nissan CVT whine number

The month the car was first used. Larger than mileage, larger than model. Every extension is 84 months from that date, so two identical Rogues six months apart in registration land on opposite sides of the same document.

Whether the odometer beat the calendar. 84,000 miles at 12,000 miles a year lands almost exactly on 84 months: drive more and the odometer ends coverage early, drive less and the calendar does. In our sample of 96 reported failure mileages the median was 71,700 — inside the cap, but the middle half stretched to 88,500 and 26 of the 96 were above it.

Which bulletin names your car. Five Nissan documents and one INFINITI document, from several separate settlements, with terms that are not interchangeable. The Maxima and Murano bulletin covers the Automatic Transmission Control Unit; the others do not name it. The QX60 got 96 months and 94,000 miles where the Nissans got 84 and 84,000.

Whether the previous owner opted out. Every bulletin warns dealers that some owners excluded themselves from the settlement, which removed their VIN. The remedy is a reinstatement request through Nissanassist.com or Consumer Affairs on 1-800-867-7669.

Hybrid or not. The March 2022 notification says "Not including Rogue Hybrid or Pathfinder Hybrid vehicles," and PC500 applied only to "all non-hybrid 2013-14 Pathfinders." The one $11,000 figure in our cost sample is a hybrid Murano.

Valve body versus whole transmission. Out of warranty they are different bills: one owner in our sample reports a valve body at $1,871.68 against a median of $5,000 for a full unit. Warranty work must go to a Nissan dealer; out of coverage, the comparison guide maps which jobs go where.

The Nissan CVT whine price ladder, from the bottom up

Read it from the bottom up. Everything in the red block is what happens when the calendar has already run out, and every rung in the free block at the top is something you can do this week to find out whether it has.

Your window, by which Nissan you drive

Every row is the same sum: 84 months from date of first use, added to the production end date printed in the bulletin. Because first use follows the build, each row is the most generous reading available, not the typical one.

Two rows invert the guide. Murano and Maxima is the one nobody writes down: Nissan activated that extension on 3 October 2025, and for most of the class the seven years it grants had already been spent. And QX60 is the only vehicle here where a whine today may still be somebody else's bill — and it wears an Infiniti badge.

Which Nissan CVT whine route is yours? Answer five questions

1. Does the noise change when you steer gently at 45 mph? Yes → Route 5. No → question 2.
2. Does the car ever fail to accelerate while the revs climb? Yes → Route 2, after the triage box. No → question 3.
3. Is your car a 2019 Sentra or Versa Sedan under 84,000 miles, or a 2015-2018 QX60 under 94,000? Yes → Route 1 today. No → question 4.
4. Is it a 2015-2018 Murano or 2016-2018 Maxima? Yes → Route 4, then Route 3. No → question 5.
5. Everything else with a genuine transmission whine. → Route 3.

The five Nissan CVT whine routes

Route 1 · The whine rises with speed and your window may still be open

Who it fits. A 2019 Sentra under 84,000 miles, a late 2019 Versa Sedan, a 2015-2018 Infiniti QX60 under 94,000 miles, or anyone who does not know their first-use date. A small group, and the only one for whom the noise is free to fix.

What the document says. The wording is identical across the Nissan bulletins: "extended from its original duration of 60 months/60,000 miles to 84 months/84,000 miles (whichever occurs first)," covering "the CVT assembly and internal CVT components, gaskets, and seals, CVT control valve body, torque converter, cooler kit (if applicable) and reprogramming of the Transmission Control Module (TCM)."

The cheap cause that gets skipped. The VIN lookup, and it is free. The bulletins tell dealers to "verify warranty coverage for the specific VIN and then inform the customer of any diagnostic charges" — in that order. A diagnostic fee quoted before Service Comm is checked skips step one of the dealer's own instructions.

Fix it yourself — the paperwork, not the repair. Find the date of first use on your title or original registration, write it beside your odometer reading, and add 84 months. That sum decides whether the next conversation is about warranty or about money. The honest limit: your arithmetic is not the record. Coverage lives in Service Comm, and a previous owner's opt-out can remove a car that passes your math. If your sum says you are inside and Service Comm says otherwise, the bulletin points at Nissanassist.com and Consumer Affairs on 1-800-867-7669 for reinstatement.

Where this does not apply. Rogue Hybrid and Pathfinder Hybrid were never included, the 2013-14 Pathfinder ran under PC500 instead, and Canada and Mexico are excluded by name.

At the shop — say this: "Before any diagnostic charge, please check this VIN on the warranty extensions and customer service initiatives page in Service Comm and tell me what it shows for the CVT."

Route 2 · The whine comes with judder, hesitation or flaring revs

Who it fits. Anyone whose whine arrives with a shudder at light throttle, a hesitation from a rolling stop, or revs that climb while the car does not. Read the triage box again before planning a long drive: this is the combination Nissan's own documents connect to loss of motive power.

What the document says. Campaign PC490, 9 December 2016, reprogrammed the CVT software on 1,657,666 vehicles because "hydraulic pressure may decrease and result in belt slip within the CVT. This may result in MIL illumination (P0776) and poor acceleration in some vehicles." Nissan's stated reason was money rather than safety — "to prevent durability concerns and high out of warranty repair costs for owners" — and asked "Is my vehicle safe to drive?" the same bulletin answers "Yes." Campaign PC500 on the 2013-14 Pathfinder added two codes: "P17F0 — 'Judder' caused by belt slip" and "P17F1 — 'Judder' caused by control valve."

The cheap cause that gets skipped. The code, read before anyone opens anything. One points at the belt and pulleys, the other at the control valve, and in our sample the valve body appears once as a standalone bill at $1,871.68 against a median of $5,000 for a whole unit. The slipping guide covers what slip feels like; the jerking guide covers judder.

Fix it yourself — the observation, not the repair. For one week, log every event: speed, how long you had been driving, ambient temperature, and whether a light appeared. Nissan prints the same trigger list in five separate fail-safe bulletins, one per model family, and the wording barely changes between them: "RPM of 4000+ or speeds of 65 mph for 1.0 to 1.5 hrs. or more," ambient "96 degrees or higher," "climbing steep or extended hills for 6 miles or more," and "whine or rattle type noise occurring during reduced engine performance."

That last line is why this matters to a reader who came here about a noise: Nissan lists the whine as one of the confirming conditions of a heat fail-safe, not as a separate problem. Find the bulletin for your car rather than quoting the Altima one at a Rogue dealer — NTB13079D covers 2007-2010 Altima, NTB16-098 the 2011-2012 Altima, NTB13095C the 2007-2012 Sentra, NTB16-113 the 2011-2012 Sentra, and NTB16-090 the 2011-2015 Rogue and Rogue Select. On the two older ones the action is not a transmission at all: "Install the SERVICE KIT-COOLER ASSY." A log matching those conditions turns a shrug into a diagnosis. The honest limit: you cannot read the CVT-A counter or the stored judder codes without a scan tool that talks to the TCM. Log the conditions, let the dealer read the counter.

Where this does not apply. PC490 covers only 2013-16 Altima and 2014-16 Rogue; PC500 only non-hybrid 2013-14 Pathfinders built 20 June 2012 to 20 September 2014. Neither covers hardware, and PC500's software was explicitly diagnostic: it "does not repair any symptoms nor alter the drive characteristics of the vehicle."

At the shop — say this: "Please check whether PC490 still shows open on this VIN, and tell me which codes are stored. If it is P17F1 I want the control valve quoted separately from a whole transmission."

A wheel bearing and a CVT are four figures apart, and Nissan wrote a whole bulletin because dealers confuse them. Both are heard on the road, and Nissan's flow chart separates them with a steering test at 45 mph — a thirty-second recording of the parked engine can't run that branch, so run it yourself first. What a parked recording can carry is the second family on that chart: a whine that rises with engine speed while the car sits still (oil pump, power steering pump, alternator, idler, compressor). For that, film the engine running, parked, for thirty seconds and upload it with your email; about ten minutes later PulsCar's free report gives an Engine Health Score, a system-by-system read (engine core, bearings, intake, belts, exhaust), a likely cause with severity, an independent second AI opinion and a repair-cost estimate — or "inconclusive" if the clip can't support a verdict. Free, no card, no subscription. The report arrives by email, so use the address you actually read. For the noises ranked by what they cost, start here.

Route 3 · The window is closed and the bill is yours

Who it fits. Almost everybody reading this: every 2014-2018 Rogue, 2015-2018 Pathfinder, 2015-2018 Murano, 2016-2018 Maxima and 2017-2018 Altima, every 2013-2016 Altima, 2013-2017 Sentra and Juke and 2012-2017 Versa from the 2020 bulletin, plus any 2018-2019 Sentra or Versa past its date or mileage.

What the documents say about you. Nothing, and that is the honest answer. Once the extension expires the bulletins hand you back with one instruction: provide a repair estimate, and "if an owner requests assistance, be sure to consult goodwill guidelines available in the Assurance Products Resources Manual (APRM) section 2.2." Goodwill exists, it is discretionary, and it is invisible unless you ask for it by that name.

What the numbers look like. Across 5,236 NHTSA complaints for these 24 model years, 1,324 concern the transmission. Of every dollar figure attached to a transmission repair or quote, 53 were unambiguously a CVT job: median $5,000, middle half $4,300 to $6,100, range $2,600 to $11,000. Failure mileage, from a separate 96 figures: median 71,700, middle half 59,250 to 88,500. How we count.

The cheap cause that gets skipped. Asking whether it is the valve body rather than the whole unit. The extensions list the control valve body separately because it is a separate repair, and the bulletins note that "control valves and CVT belt and pulley kits do not require pre-authorization" — dealer language for smaller jobs. A quote for a complete transmission that never mentions it is worth questioning twice. The transmission repair cost guide covers the range.

The fork, honestly. New or remanufactured from Nissan carries "an additional parts warranty for 12 months/12,000 miles from the date of replacement." A used unit is cheaper and inherits the same design. Selling is the least discussed option, and Nissan's position on residual value is on the record: it "does not believe that vehicle values were diminished because the vehicles were equipped with CVTs."

Where this does not apply. If your whine passes the steering test in Route 5, none of these prices are yours. A 2013 Pathfinder inside the 14V-142 build window still gets the cooler hose repair free, at any age or mileage.

At the shop — say this: "This is out of the extension, I know. Before I authorize a full transmission, is the control valve body a candidate on its own, and can you request goodwill assistance under APRM section 2.2 with the answer in writing?"

Does a whining Nissan CVT always mean the transmission is failing? Not on the evidence we can read. Nissan's bulletin NTB16-109 lists four whines it calls normal and not warrantable, including the single gear shift on a Sentra or Versa between 20 and 50 mph and a slight whine when coasting to a stop under 10 mph, and it warns dealers that a CVT swapped for noise may be charged back if a wheel bearing turns out to be the cause. In our own count of every Nissan and Infiniti complaint in NHTSA's file, 228 put a whine word beside a transmission word, and only 21.9% of those also describe power loss. Half of these noises arrive with nothing else wrong, which is exactly why the free tests come before the quote. A parked PulsCar recording can't stage a CVT; the road test and the code read separate those families.

Route 4 · Your model is in a settlement and you want to know what is left

Who it fits. Murano and Maxima owners who received a letter in late 2025, and Rogue, Pathfinder and QX60 owners who remember the earlier one.

What the documents say, and the timing problem in them. The Maxima and Murano extension activated 3 October 2025, granting 84 months from first use to cars whose production ended in November 2018. Do the sum: for a 2015 Murano first used in early 2015 the extension arrived roughly three years after the seven years it grants had run out. One 2017 Murano owner filed exactly that with NHTSA on 19 November 2025, reporting a whining and humming noise and a letter received on 12 November: "This warranty would have covered my problems with the vehicle but I was told it expired last year."

What is actually still claimable. The reimbursement clauses all read the same way — a deadline, then "or within 30 days of the qualifying repair to your vehicle, whichever is later." That second half only helps while a repair could still fall inside the extension, so a closed window grants nothing. The vouchers are gone too, the last of them on 5 July 2026.

The cheap cause that gets skipped. Not knowing the arbitration route exists. BBB National Programs arbitrates, free, for "2014-2018 model year Nissan Rogue, 2015-2018 model year Nissan Pathfinder, or 2015-2018 INFINITI QX60" over claims that Nissan "after December 22, 2021, breached the New Vehicle Limited Warranty related in any way to the transmission." It runs "for the duration of the Powertrain Warranty," so it closes when your extension does. We found no equivalent for Murano and Maxima.

Where this does not apply. Every settlement website named in these bulletins is unreadable to us: two return HTTP 403 to every request, and www.RoguePathfinderQX60CVTSettlement.com does not resolve. We quote only what Nissan's bulletins print, and make no claim about what those sites say today.

At the shop — say this: "I am not asking the dealer about the settlement. I am asking you to print what Service Comm shows for this VIN on the CVT warranty extension, including the date it ended."

Route 5 · The whine is not the transmission

Who it fits. Anyone whose whine changes with steering, disappears when stationary in Drive, or tracks engine speed rather than road speed.

What the documents say. The most under-used document here is NTB15-102, and the version most pages quote is out of date. The current one is NTB15-102b, dated 28 March 2019, and its title is wider than the original: 2013-2017 Altima and 2014-2017 Rogue; Whine Noise From CVT At Highway Speeds. The trigger is precisely the reader's complaint — "A whine or grind type noise during acceleration and/or constant highway speeds," where "the level of noise may increase as vehicle speed increases," and "there are no other drivability issues or stored DTCs related to the CVT assembly."

The repair is not a transmission. It is a reduction gear bearing shim selection procedure, 51 pages long, needing the J-50255 CVT service tool kit and a parts kit that must be on the shelf before the job starts — on cars whose owners had almost certainly been quoted a full unit. Applied engine is the QR25DE four-cylinder only, and the bulletin adds a line that matters as much as the title: "Does not apply to Rogue Select, Rogue Sport, or Rogue Hybrid."

This is the single most valuable correction in this guide. The Rogue is the model that appears most often in our whining-transmission complaint set — 73 of 228 — and the 2019 revision brings 2014-2017 Rogues inside a bulletin whose remedy is a bearing shim rather than a replacement.

The cheap cause that gets skipped. The steering test, and it costs nothing. Nissan's flow chart branches on one question — does the noise change with steering input at constant speed — and a yes sends the technician to the front spindles. The humming guide walks it in detail; the whine on acceleration guide covers the non-Nissan causes.

The other suspects Nissan names. Engine oil pump, power steering pump, CVT oil pump, alternator, idler pulley and air conditioning compressor all sit on that flow chart. A whine that rises with engine speed while you sit still is in that family. A leaking power steering system whines loudest at full lock, which no transmission does.

Where this does not apply. If the noise ignores steering, is present in Drive when stationary and tracks road speed, you are back in Routes 1 to 3. And NTB15-102b is a four-cylinder document: a 3.5-liter Altima, a Rogue Select, a Rogue Sport and a Rogue Hybrid are all excluded by name, so do not carry its remedy to those.

At the shop — say this: "Before we discuss the CVT, please complete the check sheet in NTB16-109 and attach it to the repair order. I want the wheel bearing, the power steering pump and the oil pump ruled out in writing. If this is a four-cylinder Altima or Rogue, please also tell me whether NTB15-102b applies."

What every whining Nissan transmission in NHTSA's file has in common

Everything in this section is our own count of NHTSA's public complaint file — 777,040 owner reports received between 1 January 2015 and 8 September 2026. We took all 41,498 Nissan and Infiniti complaints in it, then built two sets. The first is every complaint that names a CVT in so many words: 2,282. The second is every complaint that puts a whine, howl, whistle or "high-pitched" word next to a transmission word: 228. Both are published as CSV, with the queries in the method file.

Before publishing the 228, we read 30 of them at random. One was a clear miss — a 2015 Altima whose complaint says "power steering whines and transmission groans," so the whine belongs to the steering pump. Two more attributed the noise to the engine while describing a transmission failure. That is between 1 and 3 misses in 30, so treat the 228 as approximately right and not exactly right. The set also includes Nissans that never had a CVT at all, such as a 2006 Pathfinder with fluid in its radiator; it is a transmission-whine set, not a CVT-only set.

The finding that should change what you do next. A whining Nissan transmission almost never strands anybody. In the 228-complaint set, 0.44% record the car being towed, against a 5.11% baseline across all 777,040 complaints, and 0.44% record a crash against 4.37%. Even the wider 2,282-complaint CVT set is towed in only 2.63% of cases and reports a fire in 0.13% against a 1.82% baseline. There are no deaths in either set.

That is good news and a trap in the same number. A failure that keeps driving is a failure you postpone — and on this car, postponing is what runs the calendar out.

The second finding is the calendar itself. The median mileage in the whine set is 90,000 miles, with the middle half running from 66,840 to 118,000. Every Nissan CVT extension ends at 84,000 miles. Of the 159 whine complaints that carry a usable odometer reading, 85 — 53.5% — are already past 84,000 miles, and 79.2% are past the 60,000-mile original warranty. The typical whine in this file arrives after the coverage does not.

That reframes the whole guide. The extensions did not expire because owners were slow to act. On the evidence in this file, the noise itself usually shows up on the wrong side of the mileage cap, and the owners who got a free repair were the ones whose noise arrived early.

What travels with the whine, counted

Each row below is a phrase search over the same 228 narratives. The categories overlap, they measure vocabulary rather than events, and a complaint that does not use a word is not evidence the thing did not happen.

Three of those rows are worth reading twice.

Two complaints out of 228 mention a control valve body. Nissan's extensions list it as its own covered item, its own campaign distinguishes P17F1 from P17F0 by whether the valve is the cause, and the bulletins say control valves "do not require pre-authorization" because they are a smaller job. It appears in owner narratives essentially never. Whatever is being quoted to these owners, it is not the valve body.

Two complaints out of 228 mention a wheel bearing. Nissan wrote NTB16-109 specifically because bearings were being mistaken for transmissions and dealers were being charged back for it. The mistake is not visible in owner language, which is what you would expect if it happens at the counter rather than in the driveway.

Thirty-two complaints use the vocabulary of a refused claim, and we read every one of them. Four were the filter misfiring rather than a refusal: a car that "refused to start," an airbag quote that was not covered, an independent shop that "refused to work on Nissan Rogue transmissions," and a car that "refused to go any faster." That leaves 28 genuine ones, about one in eight of the whole set — still a large share of people writing to a federal safety database about money rather than about danger. Two of the 28 are worth quoting for what they name: one 2010 Rogue owner reports being told that "adding an external cooling mechanism to the transmission" was not covered by the extension, and a 2013 Rogue owner describes "valve body over heating and CVT transmission coolant mixing with transmission fluid." Both of those are addresses with their own documents, and neither is a whole transmission.

Which Nissans dominate the whine record

By model year, the whine set peaks at 2013 (43 complaints), then 2012 (33), 2015 (25), 2014 (23) and 2011 (18). It thins out fast after 2016: six complaints for 2017, two for 2018, two for 2019. Read that carefully, because it is easy to misread as "Nissan fixed it." Newer cars have had fewer years on the road, fewer miles, and — on the evidence above — this noise mostly arrives after 84,000 miles. A 2019 Sentra has not had time to get there yet.

What the model-year curve does support is narrower and more useful: the model years that dominate the complaint record are the same ones the bulletins name, and every one of them is now outside its coverage window.

What the recalls and the bulletins actually say, counted

We checked the article's central claim against the flat files rather than repeating it. Across NHTSA's recall file there are 12 distinct Nissan and Infiniti recall campaigns filed under a transmission component or naming a CVT in the defect text. Reading them one by one: two are column shift levers on Titan and NV vans, one is a Versa shift pattern indicator, one is a 2015 Rogue gear position display, one is a 2026 Rogue instrument panel display, two are park-pawl campaigns on 2020-2023 Frontier, Titan and Z, two are Sentra driveshafts, one is a 2014 Q50 hybrid and one a 2015 Armada. Exactly one concerns a CVT's own cooling: 14V-142, the 3,065 model year 2013 Pathfinders.

So the sentence at the top of this guide survives the check. There is no CVT durability recall. There is a cooler hose recall on one model year of one model, and everything else is a warranty extension with an end date.

The manufacturer communications tell a different story from the recalls. 249 distinct Nissan and Infiniti documents name a CVT, and we classified them by what their summaries say:

• 89 (35.7%) name a noise — whine, howl, rattle, judder or shudder.
• 72 (28.9%) quote a diagnostic trouble code, and 71 (28.5%) name judder specifically.
• 65 (26.1%) name software, reprogramming or a control-unit update.
• 45 (18.1%) name a warranty extension, campaign, class action or settlement.
• 43 (17.3%) name fluid.
• 32 (12.9%) name the control valve or valve body — sixteen times the rate at which owners name it.

That last comparison is the most useful number in this section. Nissan's own service literature treats the control valve as a distinct, documented repair in one document out of eight. Owners writing to NHTSA mention it in one complaint out of 114. The gap between those two rates is the conversation this guide keeps telling you to have at the counter.

Best and worst Nissan years to avoid, and what the lists get wrong

Search "Nissan years to avoid" and the answer is consistent: 2013-2018 Altima, 2014-2018 Rogue. Not wrong, but built from complaint volume, and complaint volume says nothing about who pays.

What the documents say instead. The 2020 bulletin covers 2012-2017 Versa Sedan, 2014-2017 Versa Note, 2013-2017 Sentra, 2013-2016 Altima and 2013-2017 Juke, and answers the follow-up directly: "CVT warranty coverage on all other Nissan models (except NV200 and Taxi) remains 60 months/60,000 miles." That one sentence is a better buying filter than any ranking.

Where the lists mislead. They treat a model year as the unit of risk. The unit is the VIN and the date of first use: two 2018 Rogues registered eight months apart sit on opposite sides of the same 84-month line, and only one ever had a free repair available.

The honest ranking, by what it costs you. Best position: a 2015-2018 Infiniti QX60 under 94,000 miles, 96 months instead of 84, the only vehicle here where a whine may still be free. Then a 2019 Sentra under 84,000 miles, while it lasts. Buy anything else 2014-2018 with the odometer in mind and budget the $5,000 median. Buy a 2013 Pathfinder only with the VIN checked against 14V-142. Genuinely uncovered: every Rogue Hybrid and Pathfinder Hybrid, excluded by name from the settlement that covered the cars beside them.

Which Nissan CVT problems are covered in 2026, and which are yours to pay for? One is still free for everybody and the rest are decided by a date. Recall 14V-142 covers 3,065 model year 2013 Pathfinders built between 18 April and 3 October 2012 for a transmission cooler hose that can detach, and a recall carries no expiry, so that repair is free today. Campaign PC490 reprogrammed the CVT software on 1,657,666 vehicles, 1,184,100 Altimas and 473,566 Rogues, at no cost for parts and labor, and the bulletin prints no end date. Against those, all five Nissan extensions run 84 months or 84,000 miles from first use and have effectively closed, with the 2019 Sentra and the 2015-2018 Infiniti QX60 the last exceptions. PulsCar gives a first read on an engine-side whine; the first-use date decides who pays.

What happens at the dealer, checkpoint by checkpoint

Checkpoint 1 — coverage before money. "What does Service Comm show for this VIN on the CVT warranty extension?" The bulletins put this ahead of quoting a diagnostic charge.

Checkpoint 2 — the diagnostic fee. "What is the charge, and does it credit toward the repair?" What a diagnostic should cost has the ranges.

Checkpoint 3 — the road test. "Was the noise confirmed on a road test with me in the car, not on the hoist?" Box one of Nissan's check sheet.

Checkpoint 4 — the exclusion list. "Which of the seven check sheet items have been ruled out?" Wheel bearing, driveshaft, propeller shaft, oil pump, accessories and power steering pump are all on it.

Checkpoint 5 — the part, not the assembly. "Is the control valve body a candidate on its own?" Nissan's pre-authorization rules treat it as a smaller job.

Checkpoint 6 — the authorization ceiling. "Call me before anything over this figure." The dispute guide covers what to do when that is ignored; the overcharging guide covers spotting it.

Three diagnostic traps that cost Nissan owners the most

Trap 1: the hoist diagnosis. The situation: a 2016 Rogue at 78,000 miles with a hum that grows with road speed. What the shop says: "We had it in the air with the wheels turning and you can hear the transmission across the bay. It needs a CVT." What is really happening: Nissan wrote a bulletin against exactly this: "Do NOT judge CVT noise as abnormal due only to noise on a hoist." Price versus bill: a $0 road test, against a median $5,000 replacement. Your protective question: "Can you confirm the noise on a road test with me in the car, and complete the NTB16-109 check sheet first?"

Trap 2: the extension that expired before the letter arrived. The situation: a 2016 Murano owner opens a Nissan letter in late 2025 announcing extended CVT coverage. What the shop says: "You are covered, bring it in." What is really happening: the extension activated 3 October 2025 and grants 84 months from first use, so a 2016 Murano passed it in 2023. One owner filed that exact sequence with NHTSA on 19 November 2025. Price versus bill: a five-minute VIN check, against a diagnostic fee and a wasted afternoon. Your protective question: "Before I book anything, read me the coverage end date Service Comm shows for this VIN."

Trap 3: the whole unit quoted for a valve body fault. The situation: a 2015 Pathfinder, judder under light throttle, code P17F1 stored. What the shop says: "P17F1 is a judder code. These are not repairable, it needs a transmission." What is really happening: Nissan's campaign defines the codes separately — P17F0 for belt slip, "P17F1 — 'Judder' caused by control valve" — and the extensions list the valve body as its own covered item. Price versus bill: an owner-reported valve body at $1,871.68, against a median $5,000 for a complete unit. Your protective question: "The stored code names the control valve. Quote the valve body separately and tell me in writing why it is not the repair."

Three Nissan CVT whine quotes, decoded

These are composite scenarios, not individual customers — the mileages, quotes and outcomes are typical of the pattern each item describes, assembled so the arithmetic is visible. We do not publish invented testimonials, so nothing below is presented as a specific person's story.

Scenario 1 — the bearing quoted as a transmission. Take a 2016 Rogue at 80,000 miles with a hum that grows with speed. Steer gently at 45 mph: if the note changes, Nissan's flow chart points at a front wheel bearing; if not, you are still in the transmission conversation, having spent nothing. Lesson: the free test is not a shortcut past diagnosis — it is the first branch of Nissan's own diagnosis.

Scenario 2 — one letter, no coverage. Take a 2016 Maxima whose owner opens the October 2025 letter. Add 84 months to a 2016 first-use date: the window closed in 2023. The letter is real, the settlement is real, the coverage is gone. Lesson: an extension is a date, not a promise, and the date is yours, not the bulletin's.

Scenario 3 — the code worth thousands. Take a 2015 Pathfinder with a stored judder code. P17F0 points at belt slip, P17F1 at the control valve, and the extensions list the valve body separately for a reason. Lesson: the code is free to read, and here it separates a four-figure part from the whole assembly.

Four Nissan CVT whine playbooks for where you are right now

"Whine, no other symptom, older Nissan." Steering test today, then add 84 months to your first-use date. Two free steps decide between a bearing, a bill and a claim.

"Whine plus power that comes and goes." Stop using the car for highway and merging duty. Codes read before anyone quotes, conditions logged each time.

"Letter from Nissan about a CVT settlement." Ignore the model years on it and check your own date of first use. Ask the dealer to read you the coverage end date from Service Comm.

"2013 Pathfinder, any symptom or none." Run the VIN against 14V-142. Free, no deadline, 3,065 vehicles involved.

After the Nissan CVT whine repair: verify, then prevent

Verify within a week. The noise should be gone at the speed where it lived, confirmed with the same steering test that found it, and campaign work should name the campaign on the invoice.

Keep the paper. A replacement carries "an additional parts warranty for 12 months/12,000 miles from the date of replacement," per Nissan's bulletin.

Record the before and after. Thirty seconds from the same seat is the cheapest proof of repair there is. The recording guide has the protocol.

Prevent the next one. Nissan's fail-safe bulletins name incorrect fluid, overfilling and coolant above 50% concentration as causes of the symptoms people blame on the transmission.

The Nissan CVT whine plan: 10 minutes, today, this week

Next 10 minutes — free:

1. Find your date of first use and add 84 months, or 96 on a QX60. Write it down.
2. Read the odometer against 84,000 miles, or 94,000 on a QX60.
3. Note whether the whine comes with power loss. That decides urgency, not the noise.

Today:

4. Drive at 45 mph and steer gently. If the noise changes, book a bearing inspection, not a transmission diagnosis.
5. Record thirty seconds where the noise lives and run a free sound check.
6. If a light is on, get the codes read before anyone quotes.

This week:

7. Ask a dealer to read you the Service Comm coverage line for your VIN, whatever your arithmetic said.
8. On a 2013 Pathfinder run the VIN against 14V-142; on a 2013-16 Altima or 2014-16 Rogue, ask whether PC490 still shows open.

How do you tell a Nissan CVT problem from a cheaper one that sounds the same? Use the two free tests before anyone lifts the car. At a constant 45 mph, steer gently left and right: Nissan's own flow chart in bulletin NTB16-109 branches on that single question, and a change in the noise sends the technician to the front wheel bearings rather than to a transmission that carries a median owner-reported bill of $5,000. Then compare a whine that tracks road speed against one that tracks engine speed, because the second family includes the engine oil pump, the power steering pump and the CVT oil pump, and Nissan calls three of those cases normal and not warrantable in writing. A parked PulsCar recording can carry only the second family — a whine that rises with engine speed at a standstill; the steering test is yours to run.

Sources and documents

Primary documents only. Where a claim is marked 🟢 it rests on an item below, opened and read as text; every date, population and quoted phrase was taken from the document itself. Claims marked ⚪ are our own counts or estimates, and the article says which at the point of use.

1. Nissan CVT Warranty Extension, 2 November 2023, Rev 1 — 2017-2018 Altima (L33), 2018-2019 Sentra (B17), 2018-2019 Versa Sedan (N17), 2018-2019 Versa Note (E12); activation 23 May 2023; "60 months/60,000 miles to 84 months/84,000 miles (whichever occurs first)"; reimbursement deadline 15 March 2023; voucher "prior to February 23, 2024." Bulletin (PDF) · original, 23 May 2023 (PDF)
2. Nissan CVT Warranty Extension, 1 June 2022 — 2015 Rogue Select (S35), 2014-2018 Rogue (T32), 2015-2018 Pathfinder (R52); production to 12 September and 24 August 2018; reimbursement deadline 22 March 2022; voucher "prior to February 23, 2023." Bulletin (PDF) · 30 August 2022 update (PDF)
3. Nissan CVT Warranty Extension, 3 October 2025 — 2016-2018 Maxima (A36) to 7 November 2018, 2015-2018 Murano (Z52) to 29 November 2018; adds the Automatic Transmission Control Unit; reimbursement deadline "was July 3, 2025"; voucher $1,500 "prior to July 5, 2026." Bulletin (PDF)
4. Nissan CVT Class Action Owner Notification, 29 March 2022 — "On March 23, 2022, the Court... gave final approval"; "*Not including Rogue Hybrid or Pathfinder Hybrid vehicles." Bulletin (PDF)
5. INFINITI CVT Warranty Extension, 1 June 2022 — 2015-2018 QX60 (L50), "72 months/70,000 miles to 96 months/94,000 miles (whichever occurs first)." Bulletin (PDF)
6. Nissan CVT Warranty Extension, 11 May 2020 — 2012-2017 Versa Sedan, 2014-2017 Versa Note, 2013-2017 Sentra, 2013-2016 Altima, 2013-2017 Juke; "coverage on all other Nissan models (except NV200 and Taxi) remains 60 months/60,000 miles." Bulletin (PDF)
7. Nissan Campaign PC490, 9 December 2016 — CVT reprogramming; 1,184,100 model year 2013-16 Altima plus 473,566 model year 2014-16 Rogue, 1,657,666 total; "belt slip within the CVT... MIL illumination (P0776) and poor acceleration"; no end date stated. Bulletin (PDF)
8. Nissan Campaign PC500, updated 6 April 2018 — 173,576 "non-hybrid 2013-14 Pathfinders manufactured between June 20, 2012 and September 20, 2014"; defines P17F0 and P17F1; claims cut-off 20 April 2018. Bulletin (PDF)
9. Nissan NTB16-109, 11 November 2016, "Information to Prevent CVT Replacement Due to Misdiagnosis of Noise" — all Nissan with CVT; normal-noise cases, bearing flow chart, seven-item check sheet. Bulletin (PDF)
10. Nissan NTB15-102, 25 January 2016, "2013-2015 Altima; Whine Noise From CVT At Highway Speeds" — L33 four-cylinder only; remedy is a reduction gear bearing shim selection. Bulletin (PDF)
11. Nissan NTB16-098, 13 October 2016 — 2011-2012 Altima, CVT fluid temperature protection logic; the trigger conditions and "whine or rattle type noise occurring during reduced engine performance." Bulletin (PDF)
12. NHTSA recall 14V-142 — 3,065 model year 2013 Pathfinders with CVT, built 18 April to 3 October 2012. Owner letter: "if the warning light is ignored, the transmission fluid will drain further and eventually cause the transmission to no longer operate properly and the vehicle will stop accelerating." Owner letter (PDF) · Part 573 notice (PDF)
13. Nissan NTB15-102b, 28 March 2019, "2013-2017 Altima and 2014-2017 Rogue; Whine Noise From CVT At Highway Speeds" — the current revision of source 10, 51 pages, QR25DE four-cylinder only, "Does not apply to Rogue Select, Rogue Sport, or Rogue Hybrid"; remedy is the reduction gear bearing shim selection procedure with the J-50255 CVT service tool kit. Bulletin (PDF)
14. The five CVT fluid-temperature fail-safe bulletins — NTB13079D (2007-2010 Altima) and NTB13095C (2007-2012 Sentra), whose action is "Install the SERVICE KIT-COOLER ASSY"; NTB16-098 (2011-2012 Altima); NTB16-113 (2011-2012 Sentra); and NTB16-090 (2011-2015 Rogue and Rogue Select). All five print the same trigger list and all five name a "whine or rattle type noise occurring during reduced engine performance" as a confirming condition. NTB13079D, NTB13095C and NTB16-090 were read in NHTSA's manufacturer communications flat file, documents 10192690, 10192604 and 10091606.
15. Our own analysis of NHTSA's public complaint, recall and manufacturer-communication flat files, September 2026 — 41,498 Nissan and Infiniti complaints from a 777,040-complaint file covering 1 January 2015 to 8 September 2026; 2,282 name a CVT and 228 put a whine word beside a transmission word; 12 distinct Nissan and Infiniti transmission recall campaigns and 249 distinct manufacturer communications naming a CVT. Downloads, CC BY 4.0: the sets against the all-make baseline, what travels with the whine, the whine set by model, by model year, the 249 CVT bulletins by theme and the method, queries and limitations.
16. BBB National Programs, Nissan Rogue, Pathfinder and INFINITI QX60 CVT Settlements — arbitration "for the duration of the Powertrain Warranty." Program summary (PDF)

What we looked for and did not find. There is no open NHTSA investigation into any Nissan CVT. We read the investigation flat file rather than trusting a search: only four Nissan powertrain entries exist, all closed. PE13-029, the 2013 Pathfinder cooler hose case, closed 31 March 2014 and produced recall 14V-142. PE24-007, opened March 2024 on 2021-2024 Versa, closed 2 October 2025 and concerned manual transmission cars. We could not open a single settlement administrator website: two return HTTP 403 and the third's www host does not resolve, so this guide quotes only Nissan's bulletins. We also checked the federal court record rather than stopping there. The Murano and Maxima case is on the public docket as Beaver v. Nissan of North America, Inc., No. 3:22-cv-00785 (M.D. Tenn.), filed October 2022, covering 2015-2018 Murano and 2016-2018 Maxima; the notice exhibits filed 23 May 2025 set the claim deadline at 3 July 2025 and the final approval hearing for 18 July 2025, and Nissan's own bulletin activated the extension on 3 October 2025, which is the manufacturer's confirmation that the settlement took effect. We did not open the final approval order and make no claim about its date, and the payment caps circulating on aggregator sites — full reimbursement for dealer repairs, up to $5,000 for non-dealer repairs — are quoted from the notice exhibits, not from an order we read. The Rogue, Pathfinder and QX60 case is Stringer v. Nissan North America, Inc., No. 3:21-cv-00099 (M.D. Tenn.), final approval 23 March 2022; the 2013-2016 Altima case is Gann v. Nissan North America, Inc., No. 3:18-cv-00966 (M.D. Tenn.); the 2017-2019 Altima, Sentra and Versa case is Martinez v. Nissan North America, Inc., No. 3:21-cv-02146 (S.D. Cal.). An earlier version of this paragraph described the Beaver docket twice with two different accounts; this is the corrected one. One conflict is worth knowing: BBB gives the QX60 extension as 96,000 miles, while INFINITI's own bulletin says 94,000 three times. We used the manufacturer's figure.

Sounds: the noise index, whining on acceleration, humming, noises ranked by cost, NHTSA complaints on noises. Money: diagnostic costs, dealer versus independent, overcharging, disputing a bill. Sister guides: Rogue by mileage, Altima by mileage, transmission repair cost, warranty extensions owners miss. And our story explains why I built PulsCar.

Methodology. Bulletin numbers, model and production ranges, coverage terms, deadlines and quoted phrases come from Nissan and INFINITI dealer bulletins and NHTSA recall documents, downloaded and read as text. Every coverage window here is the same arithmetic: 84 months, or 96 for the QX60, added to a date of first use that cannot precede the production end date printed in the bulletin. Owner figures come from NHTSA's complaints database, pulled 6 September 2026 for the 24 model years named in four of the bulletins (the May 2020 bulletin's 2012-2017 Versa, Sentra, Altima and Juke were not in the sample), 5,236 complaints; amounts and mileages were extracted near transmission wording then read individually, with loans, rentals and unrelated parts discarded. These are owner reports, not audited invoices. Coverage depends on your VIN, so verify with a dealer before authorizing paid work.

Prices verified September 2026 and reviewed quarterly — the dollar figures here are owner reports read out of NHTSA complaints rather than estimator quotes, and no estimator site would serve our checks this pass, so nothing was re-priced. Technical documents verified September 2026: every bulletin and recall above was re-opened on 18 September 2026 and the complaint analysis was computed the same day.

Paid for a CVT out of coverage, or found your window still open? Email [email protected] with the model, first-use date and odometer reading — owner data is how these ranges get sharper.