What are safe CVT temperatures?

[OrganicFoxes]

Have you guys had anything higher than 104c?
Attachment 26646

I have seen mine get to 107C/225F before, just holding my foot the the floor on a mountain pass. Anything over 104C/220F I would consider a dangerous place to be in. Once you get to 99C/210F I would keep the rpms below 3k and turn the ac off. If you start to get to 104C/220F I would stay at or below 100kph and turn the heater and fan on max or just pull over and wait for the temps to go down when it is safe to do so.

My cvt has been way over 107F for sure, drove across the US 3 times and would hold the rpm at 4k for hours at a time. The car would hesitate off the line and steam would come out of the dipstick and overall just drive wonky. I did not know anything about cars or temps at the time and my thinking was that since the cruise control max engine speed was 4k that it should be fine for the car. Yeah I was very wrong and somehow my cvt never overheated even driving like that in heatwaves for hours at a time. The car was very loaded and wouldn't really go over 80mph even if it was floored hahahah. Even though I was lucky and mine didn't fail, I still would not go over 104C/220F if I were you.

Sorry for the super late response, not sure why I don't get sent emails from this site anymore.

[Top_Fuel]

...drove across the US 3 times
...would hold the rpm at 4k for hours at a time

How fast are you going in a CVT Mirage at 4,000 RPMS?!?

Nissan TSB NTB13-095c describes potential high-temperature CVT fluid situations as follows:

1. High RPM and/or high speed driving (4000+ RPMs, and/or 65 MPH or more for 1.0 – 1.5 hours)
2. Driving in ambient temperatures of 96 degrees or higher
3. Climbing steep or extended hills for 6 miles or more

[7milesout]

That reminds me. One year, about 2018 or so, my sons and I flew out to Las Vegas for a vacation. While there we rented a G4, CVT. We took it to Death Valley. I didn't show it any mercy, but I didn't completely flog it either. I've told this story in here before. While there it was the middle of the summer. And none of us are horse jockeys.

I remember a smell of something burning started happening while driving along in Death Valley. My sons smelled it too. It was very noticeable. And I remember the A/C wouldn't really cool the car down. I don't remember if we gave up on the A/C and put the windows down with the heat on or what. But at some remote area I got to thinking that I'd prefer to be able to drive back out of there, versus having a busted car, so I began to take it more easy on the car. The burning smell never went away, once it had started, for the duration we were in Death Valley. I did take it easy on the car on the way back to Las Vegas too. After leaving Death Valley the smell did go away. It was coming in through the HVAC, and I was convinced it was an under-hood smell. Maybe that was the smell of the CVT cooking. It gave no CVT trouble though.

I'm glad I don't own a CVT car. I'd have CVT anxiety while cruising the interstate. Gimme a manual and no worries, no heat problems.

[Fummins]

Currently monitoring my cvt temperatures on a road trip for the first time. My temps seem to stay around 194F to 203F but i have seen up to 205F. When checking the dipstick, Mitsubishi says the "operating temperature is 122F to 176F, should I be concerned? Not sure how to add pictures from my phone so hopefully the discord file links work.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...7/IMG_3780.png

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...1/IMG_3781.jpg

What kinda obdII dingus/device are you using? I have never tried one out before and should probably get one. It'd be nice not to have to lug around the scanner, obd dingus and charger around whenever I want to look up a code or see data.

[OrganicFoxes]

How fast are you going in a CVT Mirage at 4,000 RPMS?!?

Around 70 to 80mph with 2 bikes, one on the top of the car and one on the back, 2 big boxes on top with one being my tv inside. Not to mention the amount of things in the car as well. 3400mile trip which I did 3 times in the span of 2 months. 10k miles of being absolutely abused yet seems to still hold up 50k miles after that.

I have done a few long road trips with the car being loaded like that since then, but knowing what I know now I do not drive like that anymore. My driving style now is to hold it at 3k and go whatever speed that will get me to, which most the time is barley the speed limit on most interstates. CVT still gets into hot zone but never above 210F even on the hottest of days with the aircon on.

[OrganicFoxes]

What kinda obdII dingus/device are you using? I have never tried one out before and should probably get one. It'd be nice not to have to lug around the scanner, obd dingus and charger around whenever I want to look up a code or see data.

The gizmo gadget I am using is one of the cheapest bluetooth adapters I found on amazon, seems to work well though.

https://a.co/d/demSOCF

You are also going to want this app.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...gnid=web_share

I can only get CVTz50 to download from the playstore on 16:9 aspect ratio phones for whatever reason. I got around this by downloading it on an older 16:9 phone and then using an apk extractor app to then send to another phone. It will look a little wonky on modern phones but just mess with the text scaling in the settings and you should be all good. It also supports split screen which is very helpful for my poor mans dash camera, as seen in the attachment.

[OrganicFoxes]

I remember a smell of something burning started happening while driving along in Death Valley. My sons smelled it too. It was very noticeable.

Most likely the tranny since my friend LockDot and fellow forum member both can smell it when the trans is hot. It only starts to smell above 210F at least for me, I have heard other cvt owners can smell it too. Have seen it mentioned a few times in offroad videos of Suburus and once a Nissan Rouge.

[7milesout]

Around 70 to 80mph with 2 bikes, one on the top of the car and one on the back, 2 big boxes on top with one being my tv inside. Not to mention the amount of things in the car as well. 3400mile trip which I did 3 times in the span of 2 months. 10k miles of being absolutely abused yet seems to still hold up 50k miles after that.

I have done a few long road trips with the car being loaded like that since then, but knowing what I know now I do not drive like that anymore. My driving style now is to hold it at 3k and go whatever speed that will get me to, which most the time is barley the speed limit on most interstates. CVT still gets into hot zone but never above 210F even on the hottest of days with the aircon on.

OF - This thread is chocked full of good and interesting info. Your car looks ... impressive, loaded down with all that stuff. That's not to say that to make your car look impressive you have to load it down with crap. It's just that, for such a little vehicle, these turds can work like a pack-mule. And yours looks like "the little engine that could," loaded down with all that stuff. Impressive.

And, I questioned the 4,000 rpm thing a bit myself, too. Because at 4,000 rpm in a 5-speed, it's rolling about 80 mph. CVTs generally turn less rpm on the interstate than the 5-speed. So for you to be running 4,000 rpm, you'd be going faster than 80 mph. However, with all that load and drag, I guess a CVT would rev higher than normal in order to increase the hp to overcome the drag. So, now it makes sense after seeing that picture.

We really need to get together an Atlanta area get together. Too bad Dirk is moving (or has moved).

[Fummins]

Cruise control seems to work pretty good at keeping rpms down. Might be pointless trying if you're doing 80mph when loaded down with a brick strapped to the roof though. Whenever I find the rpms won't drop quick enough for me I just set the cruise and it aggressively tries to keep a constant speed while keeping rpm less than I'm able to. Maybe my foot is just too heavy? The factory cruise works way differently than the aftermarket Rostra unit I had in my previous Mirage. I hated it so much I only used it a few times.

[OrganicFoxes]

Cruise control seems to work pretty good at keeping rpms down. Might be pointless trying if you're doing 80mph when loaded down with a brick strapped to the roof though. Whenever I find the rpms won't drop quick enough for me I just set the cruise and it aggressively tries to keep a constant speed while keeping rpm less than I'm able to. Maybe my foot is just too heavy? The factory cruise works way differently than the aftermarket Rostra unit I had in my previous Mirage. I hated it so much I only used it a few times.

Cruise works very well without roof racks or any excess drag items on the car. I never use it above 70mph otherwise it will just rev over 3k constantly. In flat places like Florida and some deserts out west you can do almost any speed you want it and wont rev out which is nice.

I remember getting 44mpg with cruise set to 75mph on a trip in Florida. If you want insane fuel economy you can set it to 55mph and get up into the 60mpg range. My friend has been doing that since day one with his mirage and I'll just let the fuel economy log speak for itself. I used to set the cruise at 55mph for most my driving and got great fuel economy but I felt like it was a safety hazard with how people drive in the Atlanta area. People would slam on the brakes last second since they did not expect me to be going 55, swerving last sec, laying on the horn, going to pass on the left and not see me then slam on the brakes, passing on the shoulder and flipping me off. Keep in mind this would happen even if the SPEED LIMIT was 55, no wonder my car insurance sky rocketed when I moved here.

https://mirageforum.com/forum/em-fue...vehicleid=7545