[hofsphotos]

Ok so My daughter has a 2011 Juke AWD SV Ive done a few upgrades ( AA Radio ,air horn, remote start ,lights etc ) I just now got to use the car for a day or so after adding the CVT trans cooler and filter change along with fluid drain etc even left the front bumper on LOL.... Will be doing brakes/rotors soon.

Here's my question While car does run fine i feel that there is an extra bit of throttle response/lag to the point its weird having to mash the pedal for most take offs. Now i dont expect this to be like my Super Charged Vette BUT what if any simple "low" cost upgrades would improve this if any? NOT looking for a street racer at all Just a snappier low end launch AND yes i know its a turbo etc BUT asking here cant hurt.

 

[FastReligion]

This "lag" is due to a combination of the CVT and the turbocharger. There is no way to make it better than it is.

 

[hofsphotos]

Ok then ill take your answer as the end of it and she will not know any better.....So glad i have a stick in the Vette ....My girls cant do that at all.....LOL

Thanks for the quick reply and yes i did the trans cooler as per you recommendation !!

 

[hofsphotos]

Wait 1 more question for You I did the cvt drain using the Valvoline CVT fluid BUT been reading about Castrol CVT TransMax or Idemitsu CVT Type N fluid as "better" your thoughts ??

 

[FastReligion]

We only ever use OEM Nissan fluid in the vehicles we maintain. NS2 for v1 jukes, NS3 for v2 jukes.

 

[pboglio]

Ok so My daughter has a 2011 Juke AWD SV Ive done a few upgrades ( AA Radio ,air horn, remote start ,lights etc ) I just now got to use the car for a day or so after adding the CVT trans cooler and filter change along with fluid drain etc even left the front bumper on LOL.... Will be doing brakes/rotors soon.

Here's my question While car does run fine i feel that there is an extra bit of throttle response/lag to the point its weird having to mash the pedal for most take offs. Now i dont expect this to be like my Super Charged Vette BUT what if any simple "low" cost upgrades would improve this if any? NOT looking for a street racer at all Just a snappier low end launch AND yes i know its a turbo etc BUT asking here cant hurt.

No, it's not normal to require mashing the throttle on the CVT to get it moving is my viewpoint and experience.

I had this problem of massive lag on launch and dealt with it for about 2 years and I corrected it. The factory CVT oil fill level can sometimes be under/over and this actually affects driveability. If the CVT oil level is set correctly the response from a dead stop should be decent if not pretty good and not require much throttle to get moving.

Also, the 2010-2012 Juke CVT programming (i.e. TCM) was very conservative and not well optimized. I had the dealership reflash the TCM to the latest firmware update and the difference was huge from a roll though low end was about the same I already was pretty good launching at that point. I don't remember what firmware version but they've had like 10-15 updates if not more. Cost me $200, just ask for a TCM firmware update and they'll know what to do but it's not a common procedure.

 

[FastReligion]

All CVT vehicles have a delay when you hit the pedal. The OP is obviously being sarcastic when he says he has to mash the pedal. It is completely normal.

 

[pboglio]

Maybe,

I could feather the throttle on launch and snap off the line pretty good with what fixes I described. The CVT don't like a WOT launch as there is a programmed torque reduction about midway thru 1st ratio and then it goes full tilt. The OP sounds like he's having to mash the throttle and that isn't normal but I experienced it myself and I corrected that problem with what I mentioned. Definitely a Gen1 problem though.

I now actually prefer a CVT over a 6spd oddly enough.

 

[FastReligion]

Its not a maybe. CVT's have a delay from the torque converter to the change in ratio. There's a lag. A delay. Its a constant complain by people on here. There's no magic fix. There no magic sauce. Its how an automatic transmission works, and its made worse on a CVT, made worse by it being turbocharged. Normal. There was no mention of launching the car. no mention of wide open throttle. He asked about the delay.

 

[JukeAholic]

Ok so My daughter has a 2011 Juke AWD SV Ive done a few upgrades ( AA Radio ,air horn, remote start ,lights etc ) I just now got to use the car for a day or so after adding the CVT trans cooler and filter change along with fluid drain etc even left the front bumper on LOL.... Will be doing brakes/rotors soon.

Here's my question While car does run fine i feel that there is an extra bit of throttle response/lag to the point its weird having to mash the pedal for most take offs. Now i dont expect this to be like my Super Charged Vette BUT what if any simple "low" cost upgrades would improve this if any? NOT looking for a street racer at all Just a snappier low end launch AND yes i know its a turbo etc BUT asking here cant hurt.

It's a general CVT issue. I recently had a 2021 Nissan Murano (V6, CVT Transmission)as a rental for a few weeks and even those have that same lag feeling. The CVT's are horrible in my opinion, they made the NA V6 feel like it had turbo-lag.

 

[pboglio]

We will agree to disagree as usual.

Having daily driven a Gen1 CVT/AWD for 6 years and corrected the factory issues I gave my recommendations. The torque converter is unlocked to about 30 kph or 18 mph on the Gen1. Any aggressive throttle application before that is going to feel less direct but not anywhere near having to mash the throttle to launch if it's setup correctly.

The lag that MOST people perceive is in fact induced by the CVT programming for various reasons. I'm not going to convince anyone unless they update the firmware and see for themselves. Launching problems I corrected with a fluid change and setting the CVT levels hot at the correct level, that was it. This also solved my limp mode and CVT overheat issues completely without the need for an external CVT oil cooler. The differences in oil pump cavitation, belt/clutch slippage, noise, and launching responsiveness were massive. The TCM reflash was almost like an ECM reflash tune in terms of rolling throttle response improvement. Turbocharger has zero to do with what I'm talking about as this is all offboost. The 1.6L is still there and this engine has 9.5:1 compression ratio so it can feel snappy if it's setup correctly.

The OP can PM me and I can give my recommendations but I pretty much just spelled it out.

 

[JukeAholic]

You should be the lead engineer at Nissan with all these quick and cheap fixes you have for their CVT's. Their sales would go up 200%, since their single greatest weakness (shitty CVTs) has been solved.

 

[JukeAholic]

To the OP, at the end of the day it's your car and hard earned money. Typically myself and others here listen to the experts who have worked on hundreds of jukes. I myself have driven brand new Nissans with brand new CVTs (with the most up to date firmware/software they have) and I still notice the same "lag" you spoke of, so take that info as you wish. I typically recommend against wasting your money, especially since in the previous post, that other member himself wrote the low end response was the same: "the difference was huge from a roll though low end was about the same".

 

[pboglio]

The "100's of Jukes" will go down as the best line ever. I got dibs on the t-shirts.

I've driven and rented for 5-6 months at a stretch a few late model Nissan CVTs (Versa & Altima) as they are quite the rental fleet favorites. Aside from being slow they didn't have the mental amount of throttle lag my Juke ever did by any stretch of the imagination. Never feared for my life turning in front of cross traffic or getting run over by a Prius or a Semi-truck. Experience that and get back to me. The OP sounds like maybe it's not that extreme but more annoying. I didn't have annoying, I had life threatening to the point of class action lawsuit.

The fix I stated you need to re-read. The CVT fluid correction "drastically" improved the launching characteristics of my 2012 Juke and basically corrected most of the CVT evil characteristics. The vehicle went from being massively/insanely frustrating and white knuckle scary to drive to the point of mental illness.......to: "Hey, I think I'll grab the key's to the Juke for an enjoyable little boot around the industrial park, we can leave the EVO in the garage for today". That isn't an exaggeration.

The TCM flash was done for other reasons and nothing to do with performance in mind & simply improved the rolling throttle response/tip-in and made it snappier and more lively. Both fixes complemented each other. It's literally impossible to have zero throttle lag on launch/stop with a 1.6L turbocharged automatic with a still overly conservative CVT programming. But it was down to good enough you could hit the throttle from a dig and get decently pinned then the turbo hit and you were off to the races.

I'll have to pull up my receipts. Whatever 5 qts. of CVT fluid was and the TCM reflash which I want to say was $200 if not less. That was the best $200 I ever spent. If that is wasting hard earned money then I don't have a response.

The wasting money part I'll disagree with but it takes money to fix stuff....that's how it goes.
The CVT fluid check actually costs nothing, so free.

The recommendation is do nothing and accept mediocrity. I don't agree and never will.

 

[Bargeld]

I just want to chime in with an additional experience with TCM programming/reflash. I run Visconti's stage 1 OTS tune with his transmission changes applied. At the time it was groundbreaking, since no one had been able to make any TCM or trans adjustments with any software. It is noticeably different than stock.

The way that visconti references the tunes is based on the ecu build number, the same build number used by Nissan and UpRev. When you look at his OTS tune repository, ideally, you download and apply the one made for your ECU build number. There are typically multiple ECU builds for each model year, and theoretically, you can apply tunes for different build numbers, and although they don't match, they should be ok to run... Maybe not. But you get the point. Before I had learned all this, I applied the alternate build tune for my 2012, as there are on 2 ECU builds that apply to my exact trim for that year. I will say that it is different. It is actually butt-dyno stronger than the one matching my build number and I ran it for a while with no issues. When Visconti "cracked" the trans (slightly) and was able to make some adjustments, it was about 2 months after I had bought the tune. "Generously", he applied the trans adjustments to the OTS build matching my Juke and gave it to me. He refused to apply it to ALL his OTS tunes at the time and just udpate the repo and distribute them (so I could use either one, OR move to stg 2 if desired). I think it was a cash grab, even though you are supposed to get a couple years of updates, but he hadn't decided how to monetize it yet. But I digress. Since then, I've run that one tune with trans adjustments made for my ECU build.

At some point, a few years ago, after I'd had the tune for years already, there was forum discussion leading to the general statement of "have Nissan reflash the TCM". Since I still felt that the CVT had excessive lag off the line (athough it was WAAAY better than the stock programming). I was willing to give this a shot.

So i did... Or tried. I literally went to the dealer and spent $105 or whatever, solely for the TCM update. When they were done, ended up talking to the tech for a while. It boiled down to basically the same thing as Visconti. The TCM program is applied based on the ECU/TCM build number (the same part number I described above). The tech told me there were 2 builds for my year and I already had the most updated program for the TCM (which matched and confirmed my research and knowledge of the builds for my year) . He was unable to apply any "updated" TCM program, as it didn't exist, and that there is no universally applied programming used across all jukes or any series of jukes. It was all based on your ECU/TCM build number.

tldr;
There is no generically applied universally updated TCM program. Sure, we might be able to discuss here and work out what build number program might work (or was applied to other jukes), but I doubt any dealer would apply it to a non-matching build. They might not even be able to, depending on ECU/TCM compatibility over the years.

Rom list, for reference:

UpRev ROM List

uprev.com

Edit, previous discussion:

CVT (shifting)??

So, I know they don't shift like a normal trans they just smoothly go unless in manumatic but this one seems to want to wanna go into 3rd then back down into 2nd? I not in manumatic mode just normal, my other cvt before it died went smoothly, so I was told by someone on here to possibly get it...

www.jukeforums.com

 

[hofsphotos]

All CVT vehicles have a delay when you hit the pedal. The OP is obviously being sarcastic when he says he has to mash the pedal. It is completely normal.

Yes i was being a bit over the top with the whole "mashing" comment BUT after driving to and from Yankee stadium today then 40 min on I80 I did hit 208 in the CVT temp.(91 outside temp) The lag is definitive BUT not a deal breaker I was just poking around for possible light duty improvements. The CVT fluid is in the cross hatch area on dip stick at 200 degrees this is with new fluid and beehive filter. So reply away with ideas about Temp / Fluid levels
The whole ECM tune is understandable since our Jeep Renegade had HORRIBLE low end response to the extent i was shopping for The Pedal Commander add on.... then they did a new flash etc...holly crap changed the entire feel of the Jeep ..... For the better

 

[Macgyver]

Rom list, for reference:

UpRev ROM List

uprev.com

Edit, previous discussion:

CVT (shifting)??

So, I know they don't shift like a normal trans they just smoothly go unless in manumatic but this one seems to want to wanna go into 3rd then back down into 2nd? I not in manumatic mode just normal, my other cvt before it died went smoothly, so I was told by someone on here to possibly get it...

www.jukeforums.com

I still have my old Visconti Ecutek 2012 SV awd roms if you want to look at them

 

[pboglio]

Good points, forgot about the early 2011 Juke ECM Rom.

OK, I've also run early/late 2011 Juke ECM ROM firmware (1KC8C) so basically I knew what a 2011 drove like more or less without getting into too much detail. These were used as the basis for the early Visconti ECUTek reflashes when they first came out. IMHO those early 2011 Nissan Juke ECM firmware versions were not good though I was running a 2012 TCM firmware. I have to factor-in John's horrendous ECUTek tuning skills but filtering that out once we switched to the early/late 2012 Juke ECM base maps (1TV5B) for re-tuning things got noticeably better in terms of driveability. Not to be confused with the Nissan factory TCM reflash as I did that about 2018 so it was fairly recent. Keep in mind ECUTek or UpRev do not touch every aspect of engine management so getting the latest factory ROM that supports that vehicle is the best IMHO. My Juke was cursed with all sort's of this kind of bad driveability stuff, that got corrected over time.

The TCM file does require the VIN and CVT 7-digit serial code for lookup. I looked about 2 years back and there were more than a few updates applying to my VIN number though now they require a different procedure to lookup. I just tried to download the latest TCM calibration file but my CVT serial code didn't take and required QR code scanning instead. I'll try it later when I'm bored because now I'm really curious as to just how many there are specifically. You can rent the reflash software for 1-day if you have a supported OBDII adapter.

This is academic though. A 2011 getting the latest ECM & TCM update at the dealer is going to make a difference regardless.

Link for the CVT TCM firmware calibration files:

Nissan Publications

Here is an interesting article about the CVT/TCM with some techs doing the TCM firmware update:

CVT reprogramming and recalibration?

The Consult2 will do it, but I haven't ever seen a working one out there for under $1K. Shops like ours that still have usable units guard them like gold, because the Consult3+ doesn't work right with certain stuff from '07 back. The C3+ is supposed to be backward compatible, but in practice it...

www.nissanforums.com

Yes i was being a bit over the top with the whole "mashing" comment BUT after driving to and from Yankee stadium today then 40 min on I80 I did hit 208 in the CVT temp.(91 outside temp) The lag is definitive BUT not a deal breaker I was just poking around for possible light duty improvements. The CVT fluid is in the cross hatch area on dip stick at 200 degrees this is with new fluid and beehive filter. So reply away with ideas about Temp / Fluid levels
The whole ECM tune is understandable since our Jeep Renegade had HORRIBLE low end response to the extent i was shopping for The Pedal Commander add on.... then they did a new flash etc...holly crap changed the entire feel of the Jeep ..... For the better

The later Juke ECM flash updates as well as the TCM updates would be a seriously good upgrade. You'll see a noticeable difference as you've mentioned already with the Jeep Renegade. I'll have to look at the latest Gen1 ROM versions myself when I switchover to UpRev.

Yep, in the hash marks "hot" is good. The 208* F is nominal and wouldn't push you into any kind of limp mode from my experience anyway. The beehive cartridge filter swap is also good, smart move. The Jeep Renegade has the similar JF011E transmission (RE0F10A) vs. RE0F10B for our AWD and so what you said about poor low end response doesn't actually surprise me but thanks for bringing that up. I've heard this before so it's not a new thing and the poor lag is a common complaint but shouldn't be the norm.

 

[hofsphotos]

Its not a maybe. CVT's have a delay from the torque converter to the change in ratio. There's a lag. A delay. Its a constant complain by people on here. There's no magic fix. There no magic sauce. Its how an automatic transmission works, and its made worse on a CVT, made worse by it being turbocharged. Normal. There was no mention of launching the car. no mention of wide open throttle. He asked about the delay.

my daughter doesn't "launch" the car ( sure hope not...lol) its her Daily driver to from school/work etc.....Wide open / hard driving etc all have Great response and power as i can actually attest to finally . Sport mode was weird as if it would hold RPM up rather high when messing with the gogo pedal BUT all was normal in normal mode and i dont think awd-v mode should matter here and She uses Normal mode everyday. I might try a throttle controller unit which is simple plug/play just for the why not factor.

 

[Ausjuk33]

Waste of time. Throttle control unit i was sold for my car didnt work. Kept fighting with the car. Ran like crap after 10/15mins. Was from a reputable seller. Talked with there rep, said this was correct and definitely work. But no. $300 waste. I personally wouldn't bother on a newer car. The factory nissan settings are fine. Yes sports mode does hold the revs higher in the range. But as expected. 3 levels of driveability. Slow. Good. Best.