I just purchased used 2009 Caliber 46,000 miles 3 weeks ago for son as college car. He drove to Colorado last week on camping trip with friends and following friends father. Talked briefly by cellphone before he got to camp ground and he said he had couple problems with car on the way. 1) car just died, friends dad put "penny" in battery cable connections and it started. Assuming bad battery cable end but not for sure. 2) transmission overheat light came on and it slowed down and had to let it cool off before they continued.
Since then I found this site and all the CVT threads and hopefully am getting worried over nothing, since he will not be heading back until this weekend. Not sure if it just had overheating issue once, driving conditions when it occured, proximity to battery issue, etc.
Would the battery issue precipitate the overheating issue? If not in proximity would say definitely not but don't know.
If overheating just occurred once in total trip and was under mountainous conditions may have actually overheated. He did say it wasn't handling the mountains very well.
If overheating matches some of the threads I have read multiple times overheating with the same amount of time between then the following checks should be made
1. Check wiring harness connections and wires at TCM underdash drivers side.
2. Check wiring harness connections and wires at CVT from TCM.
3. Check transmission fluid level and type, highly sensitive to correct level based on fluid temp.
4. Check coolant fluid specific gravity, some nissans tend to overheat when coolant was -75, when set to mfg recommendation of -34 overheating went away.
5. Check transmission fluid temperature sensor for proper working order. If truely overheating will throw DTC. Also if DTC there then sensor could be bad, reporting wrong temp. From my reading of service manual the sensor voltage to TCM goes down when temp goes up. So short in wiring could pull some voltage away causing TCM to report overheating. If sensor is reporting no voltage then a DTC would report bad sensor.
6. Check heat exchanger at CVT for blockage (filter) and lines.
7. Check transmission cooler in front of radiator for damage, least likely.
8. CVT needs replaced last likely problem and most expensive.
Does that cover all the items that seem to be in the forum threads relating to this issue. Also it appears that except for 1,2, and 4 the others are best performed by dealership.
Since then I found this site and all the CVT threads and hopefully am getting worried over nothing, since he will not be heading back until this weekend. Not sure if it just had overheating issue once, driving conditions when it occured, proximity to battery issue, etc.
Would the battery issue precipitate the overheating issue? If not in proximity would say definitely not but don't know.
If overheating just occurred once in total trip and was under mountainous conditions may have actually overheated. He did say it wasn't handling the mountains very well.
If overheating matches some of the threads I have read multiple times overheating with the same amount of time between then the following checks should be made
1. Check wiring harness connections and wires at TCM underdash drivers side.
2. Check wiring harness connections and wires at CVT from TCM.
3. Check transmission fluid level and type, highly sensitive to correct level based on fluid temp.
4. Check coolant fluid specific gravity, some nissans tend to overheat when coolant was -75, when set to mfg recommendation of -34 overheating went away.
5. Check transmission fluid temperature sensor for proper working order. If truely overheating will throw DTC. Also if DTC there then sensor could be bad, reporting wrong temp. From my reading of service manual the sensor voltage to TCM goes down when temp goes up. So short in wiring could pull some voltage away causing TCM to report overheating. If sensor is reporting no voltage then a DTC would report bad sensor.
6. Check heat exchanger at CVT for blockage (filter) and lines.
7. Check transmission cooler in front of radiator for damage, least likely.
8. CVT needs replaced last likely problem and most expensive.
Does that cover all the items that seem to be in the forum threads relating to this issue. Also it appears that except for 1,2, and 4 the others are best performed by dealership.