[curt2199]

My in-laws gifted us their 2016 Juke with 109k miles. The transmission was flaring/slipping randomly and they know I’m pretty mechanically inclined so I figured I’d give repairing it a shot. Nissan quoted them around 5-6k to replace the CVT.

I pulled the valve body and inspected it to find scoring on the pulleys and the belt sides worn to a sharp edge. I assumed it hadn’t had regular CVT fluid changes and simply wore the belt and pulleys down. M I found a shop on eBay selling rebuilt pulley and belt setups to effectively replace the CVT side of the transmission with new parts. I bought one of those and began the swap. In the process I swapped the valve body with a remanned unit in case there were metal shavings in the original that may cause issues. Refilled with Valvoline CVT fluid per the service manual by using the CVTz50 app and an OBD connector to get it up to 104F and remove the 14mm bolt until it dripped out. I confirmed the CVT fluid level is set correctly.

Upon taking it for a drive I had zero codes on the engine or CVT and it does drive better but I am still getting random flares. For example, setting the cruise at 60mph on flat highway will hold steady rpms under 2k and then randomly it’ll jump to 2500 before settling back down to normal. Came to a stop at one point and it was slipping taking off hitting 3500 before it started to move and then take off. The next 5 stops it will act perfectly fine on take-off,

So the CVT belt, pulleys, and valve body have been replaced, zero codes, and still getting slip or erratic behavior from the CVT. Any CVT Gurus on here than can help me with next steps? I am going to swap the valve body back to the original factory after a good cleaning to see if there is an issue with the reman unit but since the symptoms are nearly the same, just not as bad as before, I’m guessing the culprit lies elsewhere in the trans.

 

[Macgyver]

I think you need Nissan Consult to see the CVT codes.

 

[Bargeld]

The CVT is very picky about fluid type as well. The Valvoline may not be correct, might want to verify that. I'm not 100% on what a 2016 CVT needs, so I don't want to steer you wrong, but that's definitely something to verify.

 

[curt2199]

I can pull CVT codes with the CVTz50 app.

According to Nissan the 2016 Juke with the JF016E CVT uses NS-2 fluid and the Valvoline CVT is recommended for NS-2 according to Valvoline.

 

[FastReligion]

2016+ jukes all use NS-3. I'm not sure what nissan dealer told you otherwise, but that is the following gen trans.

 

[curt2199]

Ok, not sure where I got the ns-2 from then. I swear I read that multiple times. Probably not an east way to get all of the fluid out.

 

[curt2199]

The Valvoline CVT says it’s good for both NS-2 and NS-3. I’m hesitant drop $100 on more fluids

 

[FastReligion]

I work on a lot of these. I only ever put in oem fluids. Never aftermarket.

Only way to get all of the fluid out is to take the torque converter out.

 

[curt2199]

Drove it some more today and it finally threw some codes.

P0776 - Pressure Control Solenoid B Perf/Off
P0965 - Pressure Control Solenoid “B” Control Circuit Range/Performance

Ordered NS3 fluid and will change out but I am doubtful it will help.

 

[pboglio]

My in-laws gifted us their 2016 Juke with 109k miles. The transmission was flaring/slipping randomly and they know I’m pretty mechanically inclined so I figured I’d give repairing it a shot. Nissan quoted them around 5-6k to replace the CVT.

I pulled the valve body and inspected it to find scoring on the pulleys and the belt sides worn to a sharp edge. I assumed it hadn’t had regular CVT fluid changes and simply wore the belt and pulleys down. M I found a shop on eBay selling rebuilt pulley and belt setups to effectively replace the CVT side of the transmission with new parts. I bought one of those and began the swap. In the process I swapped the valve body with a remanned unit in case there were metal shavings in the original that may cause issues. Refilled with Valvoline CVT fluid per the service manual by using the CVTz50 app and an OBD connector to get it up to 104F and remove the 14mm bolt until it dripped out. I confirmed the CVT fluid level is set correctly.

Upon taking it for a drive I had zero codes on the engine or CVT and it does drive better but I am still getting random flares. For example, setting the cruise at 60mph on flat highway will hold steady rpms under 2k and then randomly it’ll jump to 2500 before settling back down to normal. Came to a stop at one point and it was slipping taking off hitting 3500 before it started to move and then take off. The next 5 stops it will act perfectly fine on take-off,

So the CVT belt, pulleys, and valve body have been replaced, zero codes, and still getting slip or erratic behavior from the CVT. Any CVT Gurus on here than can help me with next steps? I am going to swap the valve body back to the original factory after a good cleaning to see if there is an issue with the reman unit but since the symptoms are nearly the same, just not as bad as before, I’m guessing the culprit lies elsewhere in the trans.

Congrats on the rebuild.

You don't mention what else you replaced inside the transmission. Did you replace the forward and reverse clutchpacks? Are you using the original oil pump or was that replaced with a refurb unit? I haven't used Valvoline but AMSOIL is a big upgrade over NS2 or NS3 anyway but can't go wrong with OEM.

The refurb valve body is concerning. That P0776 is pointing towards the valve body, so does P0965. Target pressure and actual pressures are not within 1.2 Mpa of each other, the 2nd code has me thinking it's the valvebody though. The pressure control solenoid isn't functioning properly is what the manual states. You can simply lift the old solenoid and swap them onto the refurb valvebody for starters and see what happens. Or you can attempt to rebuild/clean the original valvebody and do a vacuum test to confirm it's sealing correctly, that's another option. There are rebuild kits for that and the internal filters need to be replaced/cleaned but the JF016E valvebody are slightly different than the older JF011E.

Off the top of my head that' about all I can think of.

 

[curt2199]

These two codes are the same codes that were showing up before the rebuild/pulley swap. I followed the Nissan Service Tech flow chart for addressing these codes and they basically said if belt damage is found on inspection then replace the CVT assembly. I went ahead and replaced the valve body just in case there was metal shavings in it from the belt and pulley wear. I confirmed a grooved primary pulley and damaged belt with an inspection camera before the swap. I didn’t pull the transmission off of the engine and mess with the pump or clutch packs because swapping just the CVT side was pretty quick. In hindsight, I wish I would have at least checked out the pump and flow control valve in it. Tomorrow I’m going to try logging pressures during a drive to see if I’m seeing variation between target and actually pressures. I don’t I’ll probably pull it back out and check the pump. I should have the pull down to about 4 hours now that I’ve done it. Lol

 

[pboglio]

The 1st code is stating there is an under pressure in the Secondary of 1.2Mpa between target and actual pressure. The 2nd code is stating there is a circuit fault in that Secondary control solenoid. That is what probably killed the original CVT. You said there are no codes so I wouldn't go back to the original valvebody.

Question, did you inspect the belt replacement? The Nissan TSB will show what it should look like, it should have the ridges fully intact on both sides and all corners would be tumble/thermal deburred or rounded basicall. The pulley refurb, were the pulleys shiney and polished? Typically they would be sanded/ground to about a 320 grit is the recomendation as this balances grip vs. belt wear. With oil they will look shiney but dry they will look matte. OEM they would be turned and have the proper turn finish.

The pulley rebuild/refurb. Typically they would be air-check after re-assembly. You can do this with the valvebody dropped yourself.

Did you replace the torque converter? It would have been fouled with debri from the belt. Typically they are replaced with a reman unit for a reasonable cost.

Getting back to the clutches, these will slip if worn. If you find a wiped pushbelt and gauled/grooved pulley then the clutches are likely worn out but the solenoid failure possibly would only have killed the pushbelt. Your original transmission flared/slipped.......now the repaired transmission is also flaring/slipping. Not having replaced them you can only datalog the CVTz50 and compare slip revs for forward clutch/converter clutch wear or the pushbelt using the ratio target vs. ratio actual to know their current condition.

The JF016E pulley cases aren't even sold anymore from the dealership which says to me Nissan didn't have confidence a pulley case swap alone would fix all the issues. New old stock pulley cases are still available for about $950 which in retrospect would have been the cheaper move, they are out there still on Ebay. A full rebuild would be the longer term fix if it's done with the right parts and not a huge amount more than what you have into it now. Maybe another $300 on clutches & soft parts kit components. I'd buy the Raybestos (RCP96-256) high energy clutches if rebuilding the CVT and not the Exedy cellulose replacements. The pushbelt I got a quote from Europe for new OEM Bosch for your JF016E belt and they are about $250 euro so that is an option if the belt was used/worn, new in the states it's about $850 ea. Your transmission uses the JF011E pump which is available new from the Nissan dealership for about $87, another $20 for the Sonnax relief valve #33510-02 upgrade. Or the reman transmission option might be simpler.

Without seeing first hand I couldn't tell what you have going on but the datalogs would confirm a lot.

 

[curt2199]

There were no codes initially after the pulley swap but they just popped up last night after driving a little longer and now are the same two as before so I believe you’re correct. Whatever else is bad is what destroyed the belt and pulleys before so replacing those made the symptoms better but didn’t resolve the problem.

The reman pulley set came from a trans shop in Chicago. Found them on eBay and had good reviews. Belt appeared and felt brand new and had printed model numbers on it. The pulleys were a Matt finish with what appeared to be almost a very light hone. They weren’t a slick finish. He did not have my matching pulley case and The gear was different (30 instead of 27) so I swapped the case and gear with my old set as I couldn’t found any imperfections in those parts of mine.

Given that the same 2 codes for secondary pressure and circuit have appeared with a reman valve body, pulleys, and belt, would it be possibly that the problem is in the secondary pressure side of the pump?

I plan to pull the valve body and re-inspect the belt and pulley so I could do some air-check if you have some info on what passages to test and what to expect.

I’ve looked around for used transmissions to just swap on and say forget trying to fix it but they seem impossible to find for the FWD while there are dozens for the AWD Nismo. I will look at remans but I didn’t plan on keeping this car for a long time and my daughter was just going to use it to drive 20 mins if highway daily so if it lasted as a couple years like that I’d be happy.

thanks!

 

[pboglio]

The service manual for the 2nd code is stating a possible short or open in the harness to the Secondary solenoid. You need to conduct a continuity test and start diagnosing the harness. The first code and the second code combined confirm the problem didn't travel with the new parts, it's still there. Something is altering the feed voltage to the Secondary solenoid and it's performance is now out-of-range. The manual states the voltage sensing is detecting voltage below the 70% threshold. The Solenoid is duty pulsed but a low voltage would definitely have an effect on solenoid performance and it's telling you this. This tells me a TCM issue or the harness sending the signal is damaged or partly shorted if it's not the Solenoid. First thing I checked was the harness from TCM to the transmission when I was throwing codes. You can buy a new transmission harness for the valve-body, but also check the harness from TCM to the transmission as well.

The service manual DTC confirmation procedure says to check the Line Pressure. The Secondary pressure is tied off the line pressure. CVTz50 should tell you that easily. It'll vary but it must always be about 10-30% higher than the Secondary but most critically the actual Secondary pressure has to be very close to the Target Secondary pressure.

Also, I would stop testing the CVT at any kind of serious load. This is damaging the belt every time you do that. Let the datalogging tell you what's going on at lighter loads as it'll be the same problem anyway. You want to keep the belt/pulley intact and not damaged thru testing it. Otherwise any rebuild just get's more expensive.

About the CVT fluids. I would switch to AMSOIL like immediately in this case. It's NS2 and NS3 compatible. They don't post the viscosity but NS-3 is lower viscosity than NS-2 for fuel efficiency which is partly why you wouldn't run NS-2. Without the viscosity data on all (3) it's tough to tell but it's my guess they are running a viscosity in-between the NS-2 and NS-3 within the tolerance limits to satisfy both. This'll help prevent/reduce the belt slippage while you troubleshoot a solution The flaring, probably will stop or greatly reduce if you switchover, been there. Generally AMSOIL is considered a high torque fluid and it produces a higher coefficient of friction for improved clutch and belt slippage. This is basically to protect your transmission and I'll use nothing else in mine. Popular with the WRX CVT guys who prefer it over the Subaru High torque CVT fluid, nothing but good recommendations but your call.

The air-check I don't know for the JF016E, ask Sonnax if they can help you as they might have the technical data on the valve-body and which oil-galley port goes to which location on the transmission. I've done it at the valvebody position with it removed. There are pressure taps on the transmission case but this being dangerous and the valve-body having internal leakage by design it's not going to be useful. It's critical though as you'll never know if there isn't a physical leak going to the Secondary pulley. You did a pulley case swap which means you sort of built the transmission from the backside and possibly a gap ring is missing on the input shaft or it's damaged. The air-check tests ALL the gap rings inside the transmission basically short of air-testing the valve-body.

The JF016E now have (3) speed sensors so you can check on CVTz50 the Torque converter, Forward clutch, and the Pulley slippage individually. That's good to log and confirm in any case.

Start from there though. Don't worry about rebuilding these as honestly if you follow what I suggested you would have as good a transmission as any reman as you are using basically similar parts if not better in some cases. Generally I think you have a control problem and not mechanical per say, the codes are very specific about that.

 

[curt2199]

Thanks, I already ordered Idemitsu N3 fluids because so could get it the quickest and reading says they are the supplier for Nissan’s and-3 fluid.

I will check continuity in the harness next.

 

[curt2199]

I’m also pulling P17F0 code now along with the other two. I’m not sure if this is the results of having a different valve body or if it reinforces an electrical issue as there are some different descriptions for this code out there.

 

[pboglio]

Found it, here is the ATSG JF016E/17 service manual, see pg16 for air check procedure:

https://atsgmembers.com/memarea/bulletins/bulletins/18/18-11.pdf

JF017 but they both use similar valve body. Explains all electrical, mechanical, and hydraulic functions. You want to tap the Primary pulley hole with an air gun tip with 90 psi. The Secondary pulley might need an extended tip to get into the recess pocket, but it also should be a round hole. You can do this also on the forward clutch, reverse clutch, TCC torque converter, etc. No leakages and you can even actuate the clutches and pulleys to see if they stroke full or not. Don't use any of the "taps" but it won't hurt either, they lead back to the outside case pressure taps and are useless for an internal air-check test but useful for on-vehicle pressure testing with the correct high pressure gauge kit.

Yes, that fluid is apparantly OEM, no issues with NS-3 so go with factory approved. That P17F0 is a Judder code.

I reviewed the RE0F10D trouble codes again:

P0776 Pressure Control Solenoid B (pertains to the Secondary Pressure solenoid valve,1.2 Mpa difference than target). Check secondary solenoid valve.
P9065 Pressure Control Solenoid B (pertains to the Primary Pressure solenoid valve, 1.2 Mpa difference than target). Check harness (open or short) or primary solenoid valve.
P17F0 CVT Judder. Malfunction of chain belt and pulley

Basically everything you are having problems with is pressure related mainly in the Primary and Secondary system. The Line pressure DTC isn't coming up. The Judder code is a consequence of the prior (2) codes. You don't have any DTC codes for speed sensors.....yet, when they come up you know it's bad.

The Primary and Secondary solenoids take the line pressure and derate it, but the line pressure isn't showing a code yet and it also has a controlling solenoid & valve which shows good. They mention the Primary and Secondary hydraulic circuit(s) as a possible failure mode. This is the air-check you need to conduct with the valvebody dropped. I mentioned there are gap ring seals in the transmission that seal the Primary and Secondary pullies to the main oil gallery fed by these solenoids. When you took the pulley case off you would have seen it inside the case for the Secondary and the Primary is on the input shaft, be curious to see how well those are sealing. This is why I recommend a full teardown but the air-check will find the leak if it exists. If those are damaged or missing these are the codes I'd expect to see, not being able to maintain pressure in the system, possibly.

I'd still check the wiring harness along with the transmission grounding wire as well. A short in the wire would damage the TCM but it would throw a code for that if it did. Those would be the "U" type codes and you don't show that, this is good. I'd check the Ohm value on that individual power & ground wire from solenoid connector back to the TCM harness pinout on Primary and Secondary solenoids. Shouldn't be much more than the multi-meter wire resistance, check other pins as well while you are at it. To check for short circuit I'd measure across the pins for power/signal & ground on each connector for continuity as it should be open, also check other pins against it. Refer to the wiring diagram in the service manual. I think this wouldn't be too healthy for the solenoid but generally they are cheap to buy if you have to buy one but probably no damage happened. I've had damage from squirrels and they can wreck a harness and cause all types of issues, look for harness damage too.

 

[curt2199]

So I dropped the valve body tonight and found some bad wires on the secondary solenoid. This is on the reman valve body and I’m pissed at myself that I didn’t see them when it went in. I replaced the wires on the valve body with those of the original. I hadn’t seen your last response yet about vacuum testing and with the exposed wires I figured I had found my problem. I put it back together and filled with the NS3. Took it for a drive and it seemed ok for the first few minutes and then started acting up again not holding gear. I turned around and but the time I got back it was slipping bad enough that I had to limp it the last 1/8th mile or so at about 10-15mpg to keep it from revving high. I pulled the codes when I got back and had P0965 and P17F0. It seems the P0776 for the secondary did not return so perhaps that wire change resolved it that one but not the other two. I’ll plan on testing the entire harness for conductivity with my fluke next.

 

[curt2199]

Attached my CVTz50 datalog of the drive as well. It really messed up right around 6:50:49PM when target sec pressure went to 5.7 and line pressure went to 6.38 and held there for the most part until I got back home and shut it down.

Curtis

 

[pboglio]

Good catch.

If the valvebody is out I suggest something simple. Take the Primarey or Secondary pressure control piston out of the v-body and remove one or both. Sonnax have a JF016/17 v-body chart and it shows which they are and their location, see below. These are your problem hydraulic circuits. They should be pristine and not scratched or scored and it should move smoothly. If not that v-body is total junk. What happens is there is no simple way to refurb these valvebody as technically they have to be reamed over-size and a brand new over-size piston/valve installed, this is the correct method. You can confirm this by pulling the same piston/valve off the original and measuring the O.D. difference. If they match......you have a salvage valvebody. This would take 5 minutes with both v-body out of the car.

The proper refurb valvebody are reamed, over-size new piston/valves installed, then vacuum checked, and bench electrical checked with a tester specifically for testing the solenoids and replaced with new if needed. Some shops will even install a valvebody on a vehicle to test them, I've heard. No thanks. Refurb shop isn't going to do this and miss a shorted harness, nope. What you have looks like a salvage valve-body. The solenoids take a beating and if they are the originals it's a risk to use them and it sounds like they are even working anyway.

The damage that this is doing sounds like it might require a new belt at this point, you'd have to recheck it once you get a handle on this. These CVT require everything to be tip-top.

Pistons/valves #6 & #7 are the ones to inspect to check for the symptoms your having.