[Groggo]

126,000 miles, 8 years. New CVT and Transfer Case; $15,000.
Did all the maintenance, in fact did a CVT fluid change 3 weeks before the **** thing destroyed itself.
Love the car, hate the hybrid drivetrain now. I know I'm not alone......

 

[golfinos]

Was that through the dealer? Any warranty with them?

 

[Rooster]

I feel for you. I loved my 2014 AWD hybrid that I bought new and meticulously maintained. Never wrecked, paint looks new with no dents or scratches, and the interior has held up extremely well—no rattles after 99,300 miles. It is still as tight as it was when new. I fully intended to drive it until I put 150,000 miles on it. However, it is starting to shudder slightly at 12-15 mph when the torque convert locks up; and when I take my foot the brake to back out of my garage in the morning it usually doesn’t move…the torque converter isn’t engaging. I have to give it a little gas to get it to engage. Classic signs that the CVT valve body will need replacing soon. Phone call to my service advisor at Infiniti, and I was given an estimate of $6500 for a new CVT valve body. I just spent $2700 for a new AC evaporator.

Bottomline, nope…I just traded it in for a 2022 Honda Pilot. Loved the car, disappointed in the overall durability of the Hybrid drivetrain (no concerns with the battery or the rest of the vehicle, it has worked perfectly on only non wear and tear I had to do what A/C evaporator -- which was expensive) Got 8 years and 100,000 miles of reliable service, but it’s going to need CVT work in the next 20,000 miles.

My advise to anyone considering purchasing a used QX60 hybrid is buy an extended power train warranty that will cover the Hybrid CVT drivetrain up to 150,000 miles. I would not consider it optional, and negotiate at good price with the dealer, else you need to walk.

 

[yeller]

oh man, my 2013 at 149k and I wonder all the time when (not if) it's going harakiri itself.

 

[Rooster]

Yeller,

You experiencing any mild shuddering when the torque converter locks up at 12-15 MPH, or is it smooth like it should be? How does it do starting from a stop on a steep incline?

 

[yeller]

Yeller,

You experiencing any mild shuddering when the torque converter locks up at 12-15 MPH, or is it smooth like it should be? How does it do starting from a stop on a steep incline?

Once in a while after starting (around 5 to 15 MPH) the CVT feels like it shifts to an extremely high gear, kinda like in a manual going from 1st to 4th. The vehicle feels like it's bogged down, groans as it keeps going faster, then the noise goes away after a few seconds (and speed picks up). It's not really a shutter or a jerky feeling, more like, "why are you in such a low gear" thought. It's done this since buying the vehicle so I thought it was just unique to CVTs.

No issues starting from an incline or when backing out of the garage.

Sounds strange, right? It's not constant so I've never reported it to the dealer. Thoughts if this is what you're referring to?

 

[Rooster]

That is different than what I’ve experienced. If your CVT has done that since new, it’s the way it operates. My guess is it has more to do with it being cold. Mine is torque converter related, 80% of the time it is no longer smooth when it locks up, you can feel a slight shudder. It’s like letting a clutch out too slow, the engine rpm increases, and then the clutch bites and slows the rpm down and you feel a slight shudder. It has slowly been getting worse. You may be okay

 

[yeller]

That is different than what I’ve experienced. If your CVT has done that since new, it’s the way it operates. My guess is it has more to do with it being cold. Mine is torque converter related, 80% of the time it is no longer smooth when it locks up, you can feel a slight shudder. It’s like letting a clutch out too slow, the engine rpm increases, and then the clutch bites and slows the rpm down and you feel a slight shudder. It has slowly been getting worse. You may be okay

Do you still have another QX60 or have you moved out of the Infiniti family (trading your hybrid in for the Pilot)?

 

[Rooster]

Do you still have another QX60 or have you moved out of the Infiniti family (trading your hybrid in for the Pilot)?

Traded out of the Infiniti family. Have a 2020 GLE 350 Matic, and now a 2022 Pilot. Decided against the 2022 QX60 since it has a new 9-speed transmission. I’m thinking they will have some teething pain with the new 9-speed. Not sure who builds it for them.

 

[yeller]

Traded out of the Infiniti family. Have a 2020 GLE 350 Matic, and now a 2022 Pilot. Decided against the 2022 QX60 since it has a new 9-speed transmission. I’m thinking they will have some teething pain with the new 9-speed. Not sure who builds it for them.

It's made by ZF, widely used in the industry. It's too much money to design and build tranny's from scratch.

The ZF is more reliable than the CVT crap Nissan uses, but per your point they will have teething problems just like others did when first released (e.g. Jeep, Land Rover, Honda).

Now that I think about it, my 2013 JX35 was delivered in July 2012 using an existing CVT designed for other older Nissan vehicles. 2014 QX60 came out with a new tranny design that was 1-mpg more efficient and had a few features (e.g. an additional manual gear, you can manually shift to 7 virtual gears while I can only do 6). I remember being upset that I dropped $55k on a brand new vehicle, and one year later they started using the new tranny. I assumed it would be better all around.

Unfortunately it seems like the new CVT design had a higher failure rate than existing cvt tranny's, which already had a crappy reliability rating.

 

[Rooster]

The ZF 9HP — the same transmission that is on my 2022 Pilot. I thought it might but wasn’t sure. Anyway, here an article that explains how it works, and some of the unusual feel. It’s a good read. ZF 9HP