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2017 Rogue DIY CVT fluid change

8007 Views 42 Replies 7 Participants Last post by  VStar650CL
I searched but did not find a DIY for this. I am at 65km and would like to change this even the vehicle is under warranty and dealer/owners manual does not recommend for quite a few more kms.

Can anyone help?
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Good advice. I purchased this about 3 mths ago from my dad. I'll be changing the CVT fluid even more often now that you gave me some guidance and I managed to do it.
Want to look into the diff fluid and transfer case fluid at some point. Have to do that on my F150 too.

Really appreciate the help.
You're most welcome, happy motoring!
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Hey much appreciated all the help.

Car was perfectly level, trans cold. Strange, I only got 3.7 litres (3.9 quarts) drained. I poured 4.5l (4.75 qt) new fluid in, did the 1500 rpm 2min. warm up, and removed level plug. Approx 1.3l (1.4 qts) came out until it was just a small trickle. It had burped at maybe 1/3 of that amount. Total 5.0l out and 4.5l in. That doesn't seem right. Like its half litre short short.
Well, it seems like you should just put in exactly what you have drained out. if no leakage has been spotted, and no one has serviced your transmission except for the dealership. 3.9 quarts sounds like a reasonable amount to put back in.
For the drain bolt, the temperature should be at a certain range measured by a scanner. 1500 RPM for 2 Min may not be accurate since outside temp can affect how long your fluid get warm up.
I searched but did not find a DIY for this. I am at 65km and would like to change this even the vehicle is under warranty and dealer/owners manual does not recommend for quite a few more kms.

Can anyone help?
The tube and cap should be visible right there, in between the starter motor and radiator shroud.
Hello Gents,

First time poster, first time lurker as well.

Does anyone know how much fluid will I need if I drop the oil, replace the mesh filter, and the cartridge filter as well? I tried to research it everywhere and can't seem to find a proper answer. Some say about 4.1 quarts, and others are saying close to 10 quarts. Found this link stating that it takes 8.3 quarts, whereas this other link from a Nissan dealership states its about 10 quarts. Mine is a 2016 Rogue with almost 82k miles and the transmission has never been flushed or drained.

TYIA!
The 8.3 qts is the correct dry measure for the RE0F10D. That's after a complete teardown including replacement of the Torque Converter. Whoever told you 10 is spouting BS and should be locked in their room with a copy of the FSM and a muzzle.

There are two good ways to swap the fluid DIY. However, first understand that there's one, giant no-no: Don't over-fill. .Put in a pint too little and the CVT will barely notice. Put in a pint too much and you'll have a dead tranny in 2000 km. 'Nuff said.

The first good method is to simply measure what you take out and replace that exact amount. To do that error-free, get a translucent pail or drain pan and put some tape exactly at the waterline when it's done draining. Then dump it, refill to the tape with fresh fluid and add that through the fill tube.

The second method is to use the leveling plug, which is how most dealers do it. The car has to be raised and level, you can't do it with just the front wheels jacked. Drain the fluid and re-fill with about 4-1/2 quarts, then warm the trans up fully. The quick way to do that is about 2 minutes of 1500 RPM with the car in drive and your foot on the brake. That generates waste heat in the torque converter without harming the belts and pulleys. Once it's warm, remove the leveling plug with a drain pan underneath. You should get a small stream of fluid coming out. When the stream "hiccups" and reduces to a trickle, reinstall the plug and you're done. If you don't get any stream, trickle fluid down the fill tube until you do, then you're done. Here's the leveling plug location on a '13 Altima, yours will be similar:

View attachment 7692
It's usually right around 4 quarts for a routine spill-and-fill, 4.5~5 for a pan drop with new filters and a cooler flush. BUT (big but), read the earlier post above. There are only two right ways to do it, and the one thing you can never do is overfill. The tranny won't even notice half a quart low, but half a quart over will kill any CVT in a matter of months, a full quart can kill it in under 1000 miles. Don't go there, do it right.
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The 8.3 qts is the correct dry measure for the RE0F10D. That's after a complete teardown including replacement of the Torque Converter. Whoever told you 10 is spouting BS and should be locked in their room with a copy of the FSM and a muzzle.



It's usually right around 4 quarts for a routine spill-and-fill, 4.5~5 for a pan drop with new filters and a cooler flush. BUT (big but), read the earlier post above. There are only two right ways to do it, and the one thing you can never do is overfill. The tranny won't even notice half a quart low, but half a quart over will kill any CVT in a matter of months, a full quart can kill it in under 1000 miles. Don't go there, do it right.
Haha.. than you VStar. Sadly that 10 qt number came from a Nissan Dealership. I guess that way they can sell you a new CVT once it blowsup.

I will make sure to keep it at 5qt and do the proper drain. I dont want a new CVT, not at 82k. Btw, any fluid suggestions? Beside the Nissan branded one? I heard some folks using the Castrol CVT fluid, anyone tried those? Or should I stick to the Nissan/Idemitsu fluid?

TIA.
Btw, any fluid suggestions? Beside the Nissan branded one? I heard some folks using the Castrol CVT fluid, anyone tried those? Or should I stick to the Nissan/Idemitsu fluid?
My customers have done great with both Eneos and AMSoil. Personally I'd go with Eneos because it's very close in color to NS3, so if you ever need to hammer on Corporate for goodwill help, there won't be any rude questions about the fluid.
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My customers have done great with both Eneos and AMSoil. Personally I'd go with Eneos because it's very close in color to NS3, so if you ever need to hammer on Corporate for goodwill help, there won't be any rude questions about the fluid.
Thank you the recommendation. I was not aware of Eneos brand, seems like Napa carries that brand so it wont be an issue for me to grab a gallon of it.

For the pan seal, mesh and the paper filter, do you recommend any aftermarket ones or the OEM is the only way to go?
Nissan doesn't recommend any change on the paper filter and in most circumstances I agree, and the mesh filter can easily be blown clear if you have compressed air. If not, aftermarket is fine. The tranny pans have a thin gasket which will usually come off clean if you're careful. Many of the aftermarket kits have thicker rubber or cork-rubber gaskets that can actually cause leaks instead of eliminating them, so I recommend OE for that.
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Nissan doesn't recommend any change on the paper filter and in most circumstances I agree, and the mesh filter can easily be blown clear if you have compressed air. If not, aftermarket is fine. The tranny pans have a thin gasket which will usually come off clean if you're careful. Many of the aftermarket kits have thicker rubber or cork-rubber gaskets that can actually cause leaks instead of eliminating them, so I recommend OE for that.
Thank you very much for your feedbacks and suggestions. I am assuming you are a fellow Yammie rider, so ride safe, and, also, keep on wrenching!
Thank you very much for your feedbacks and suggestions. I am assuming you are a fellow Yammie rider, so ride safe, and, also, keep on wrenching!
Was. That VStar got stolen a long time ago and replaced with a Kawi Vulcan, but I kept the handle online. The joke was on the guys who stole it. The odo was past 100K but it didn't have a 6th digit, I was waiting patiently for one of those elderly air-cooled pistons to crumble so I'd have an excuse to rebuild it. They must have thought they were poaching a nice, low-miles ride. Oops!

Can't really ride anymore due to sciatica, but one of these days I think the wife and I will pick up a CanAm. At least we'll have the open air back, if not the g-forces on our butts. I do miss it.

Anyway, you're most welcome, happy motoring and ride safe. (y) ;)
Was. That VStar got stolen a long time ago and replaced with a Kawi Vulcan, but I kept the handle online. The joke was on the guys who stole it. The odo was past 100K but it didn't have a 6th digit, I was waiting patiently for one of those elderly air-cooled pistons to crumble so I'd have an excuse to rebuild it. They must have thought they were poaching a nice, low-miles ride. Oops!

Can't really ride anymore due to sciatica, but one of these days I think the wife and I will pick up a CanAm. At least we'll have the open air back, if not the g-forces on our butts. I do miss it.

Anyway, you're most welcome, happy motoring and ride safe. (y) ;)
Haha.. sucks to be that guy. My first brand new bike was a Bolt 950. Great cruiser to take it around the town, but not so much of power om Highway.

Sorry to hear about your sciatica. I am pretty sure the CanAm is going to make up for some of the fun.
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So finally got the transmission fluid change done on our 2016 Rogue. At 84k miles, it was DARK! Luckily, it did not have any burnt smell, so we are good. I am planning on doing another drain and refill at 90k miles and then one more at 100k miles. After that, perhaps after 160k miles, if we still decide to hold on to it for that long. As VStar650CL mentioned, it only took about 4 qts of oil. I ended up filling about 4.5 qts so that I could do a proper leveling through the leveling plug underneath.

I dropped the pan, cleaned it with, replaced the cooler filter (the cartridge one, and boy was it a pain in the rear to change) and the seal. I also cleaned the transmission filter, but did not replace it because it seemed perfectly fine to me.

Attached are the pictures of the fluid. Now remember the brand new NS-2/3 fluid is supposed to be light blue in color.

I am not trying to preach or convince anyone to do the transmission fluid change or anything. That is totally up to the individual. The only purpose to put these pictures up here is to show how the oil looks around 80k miles. Just a brief history of the vehicle, this is a daily driver that is driven by my sister, who babies her car to the max. I doubt if she ever went over 4k rpm, or went over 70 mph. Most of her commute is in city, with no towing ever and car in "Eco" mode. I will say about 75% of the mileage on this Rogue is city driving and at the most 25% on highway.

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So follow up to my previous post. Just did a 90k miles transmission drain and refill. The oil was slightly less dark this time around, but not by much. Hopefully the 100k miles change will be tad bit better. Sorry had to take the pictures indoors since it has been raining around here all today and will be the same tomorrow as well.

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Three things: First, when you change the fluid you're only extracting a bit more than half of the old stuff even if you drop the pan (they hold 8 and change when bone dry). So even though you fed it serviceable fluid instead of junk at 80K, it was still running on about about 45% junk for the last 10K miles. When someone has symptoms at that kind of mileage, I usually recommend doing two quick spill-and-fills in a row to get the junk down to 20~25%. Since you didn't mention any codes or symptoms, simply getting it started on a healthy regimen was what the situation demanded. The new fluid has absolutely enormous film strength, so you can be sure the junk content didn't do it any harm, and like the frog jumping halfway to the door, eventually regular changes will get it so close to clean that the 1mm left between your nose and the door won't matter. Second, all CVT fluids start to brown a bit almost as soon as you put them in. Our '13 Altima has had regular changes at 20~25K forever, and what I drain always looks midway between brown and turquoise. Lastly, a glass isn't really a fair way to evaluate the color. The same compounds in the fluid that lead to the "black gunk" which accumulates in the pan of an unserviced tranny also affect its transparency, so a glass will always make it look far more black and opaque than it really is. The white paper test is a much better indicator, if that has no hint of green or blue then the fluid is in trouble.
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Using the factory procedure requires the car being level and basically the same sorts of strictures as using the overflow plug. It's not necessary under any normal circumstances, unless you have a leak. For regular DIY maintenance, just replace exactly what you take out.
Why do you people continue to argue, when Nissan has it in print?
You want to be right so bad, you go down swinging... Amazing that
people like you are in every single forum on the planet. I am simply
talking proper procedure. Even if you do it three times, you can still
put in what you FIRST took out. There is no difference, it's just the
number of times they want you yo drain and fill it. 3 times is extreme,
but there it is.
Nice rant. The FSM procedure is fine, but for routine maintenance it isn't necessary.
^
!
Nissan Master Technician
Nissan Master Technician….mic drop. I appreciate your helpful, courteous replies. People like you make forums enjoyable. Others chase people off.

My biggest fear is warranty right now. I’m going to have the dealer do mine at 30,000 miles due to that fear, as my concern in doing it myself is they claim I screwed it up. Is that the mindset I should go with, or is DIY rarely noticed?

I do my own engine oil and keep receipts. I’ll be rebuilding my Jeep engine myself this summer, so it’s not mechanical skill that makes me concerned. It’s pencil pushers behind warranty claims.

Thanks.
My biggest fear is warranty right now. I’m going to have the dealer do mine at 30,000 miles due to that fear, as my concern in doing it myself is they claim I screwed it up. Is that the mindset I should go with, or is DIY rarely noticed?
If you want to keep cost down, use a fluid that's more or less the same color as NS3. Idemitsu is green and Eneos Eco is sort of turquoise. Neither one will cause any rude questions if there's a warranty issue, and they're both half the price of NS3.
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