CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2013-2017 Nissan Sentra has an expensive CVT transmission failure defect that shows up plainly in our complaint data.

In late 2019, the CVT defect was subject to a class action settlement. However the settlement only covers transmission repairs up to 7 years after purchase or 84,000 miles (whichever occurs first).

Because many owners commonly drive 20,000 miles/year or more, Sentra owners experiencing CVT transmission problems may find they are not covered by this settlement due to the mileage limitation.

8.2

pretty bad
Typical Repair Cost:
$3,390
Average Mileage:
74,150 miles
Total Complaints:
44 complaints

Most Common Solutions:

  1. replace transmission (27 reports)
  2. not sure (17 reports)
2013 Nissan Sentra transmission problems

transmission problem

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2013 Nissan Sentra Owner Comments (Page 1 of 3)

problem #44

Apr 032023

Sentra SR 1.8L

  • CVT transmission
  • 95,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

CVT acts up or fails when under hard acceleration at highway speeds, accelerating with the cruise control is useless as car surges forward and back. Using sport mode helps, and low speeds seem to be ok for now. But I want the eco mode when highway driving...but you will have trouble with a fast pass unless you switch to sport. This will be the first and last CVT I ever own.

- Matt S., Madisonville, TX, US

problem #43

Jun 202015

Sentra ES 2.4L

  • Automatic transmission
  • 25,001 miles

I am worried that the transmission will fail at some point. There is only 62,450 miles on the car now. We cannot afford to buy a car now or in the future. I am retired with only social security and my wife is a teacher with low pay.

- Michael C., Texas City, TX, US

problem #42

Apr 232022

Sentra

  • CVT transmission
  • 95,000 miles

With all the complaints over the same issue, how much longer before a RECALL on this???? The car is stalling every time you hit the gas pedal... I was stopped in the middle of a intersection...

- kimmykim561, West Palm Beach, US

problem #41

Oct 012019

Sentra 4 cyl

  • CVT transmission
  • 53,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

As of 10/01/19, I started experiencing transmission issues and they're continually getting worse. On 11/01/19 I have an appointment for a transmission evaluation and will have to replace it. It's becoming very difficult to drive and a safety hazard without repair. It seems to be an inherent issue for the transmission of 2013 Sentras - Nissan should compensate.

- Nestor S., Hagerstown, US

problem #40

Jan 132020

Sentra

  • CVT transmission
  • 65,000 miles

I just bought this car about one month. And now I have to pay for a transmission . I cant a ford paying 9000 for the car and less then 2 months I need a trainmisson. I cant a ford it I.am a one parent in a home with 3 little kid . It's not right

- Sandra H., Clarence, US

problem #39

May 292020

Sentra SV

  • CVT transmission
  • 118,500 miles

I recently bought a 2013 Nissan Sentra preowned car from a dealer in March 2020. It ran into transmission problems. When I had it looked at the mechanic said the transmission failed and the car would need a new transmission. I read online that due to the transmission issues with the CVT model you guys are offering a CVT transmission warranty. Will i be eligible to get CVT replaced from NISSAN

- Rahul Reddy D., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, US

problem #38

Mar 092020

Sentra ES 1.8L

  • Automatic transmission
  • 106,574 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

Bought the car, 2013 Nissan Sentra, new and had it serviced at the same dealership for the last five and half years. I always take the car in for normal service on time and authorize all the service recommendations they make without question. Transmission flash was done at 92,000 miles and now at 106,000 m it has failed. The service advisor says it is nothing I did wrong; just bad luck. WTF!!!!. The last service was on February 28th and they did not see anything wrong with the transmission.

- Beth M., Hickory, US

problem #37

Jun 162017

Sentra SR V6

  • Automatic transmission
  • 38,000 miles

SO I BOUGHT MY NISSAN SENTRA USED AND IT HAD 38,000 MILES ON IT. THE ISSUE WITH THE TRANSMISSION STARTED ABOUT 2 MONTHS INTO OWNING THE VEHICLE. IT JERKS AND SHAKES WHEN I'M GOING DOWN A HILL. THE ACCELERATION IS HORRIBLE BECAUSE IT FEELS LIKE IT GETS STUCK IN HIGH GEAR AND THEN IT SLOWS DOWN. THEN WHEN I'M ABOUT TO COME TO A STOP, IT FEELS LIKE IT'S GOING TO DIE. I HAVE A TEENAGER THAT WILL BE DRIVING THIS VEHICLE SOON AND I FEEL VERY UNCOMFORTABLE LETTING HIM DRIVE THIS CAR DUE TO THE POSSIBILITY OF IT FAILING ON HIM. I WOULD LIKE THIS TO BE CORRECTED AND FEEL NISSAN IS LIABLE FOR THE THIS ISSUE. HOW MAY I GET IN ON THIS LAWSUIT?

- Tina B., Chula Vista, CA, US

problem #36

Feb 222019

Sentra SL

  • CVT transmission
  • 131,320 miles

I purchased my 2013 Nissan Sentra used in 2017 with 97000 miles.

- Brittany S., West Monroe, LA, US

problem #35

Dec 062018

Sentra 4.6L

  • Automatic transmission
  • 50,000 miles

I WAS DRIVING AND IT JUST STARTED STALLING AND JERKING. I WAS IN TRAFFIC AND IT GOT VERY DANGEROUS. WHEN I WENT TO GO UP THE HILL IN RAINY DARK TRAFFIC THE CAR STARTED ROLLING BACK WHEN I TOOK MY FOOT OFF THE BRAKE PEDAL. I HAD TO HAVE FOLKS PUSH ME OUT OF TRAFFIC AND GET A TOW. MY CAR IS STILL SITTING.

- La M., Washington, DC, US

problem #34

Jul 122018

Sentra SI 1.8L

  • CVT transmission
  • 81,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

This is a Nissan Sentra 2013 first CVT transmission was replaced at or near 28,000 miles under warranty, currently vehicle is at at or near 80,000 miles when RPM's on motor cycle up and down, transmission slipping when traveling. If they (Nissan) had this problem with CVT transmissions why would they not correct problem.

The dealership gave verbal estimate to replace transmission for $4,000.00 or offered a $1.00 on trade in for new or used vehicle. Why would they think I would want another Nissan vehicle? Why would they think I wanted a new car payment?

I hope they go bankrupt for not taking care of customers

- William D., Buford, US

problem #33

Nov 152017

Sentra 3.2L Lit

  • Automatic transmission
  • 40,000 miles

My car was taken to the dealer 3 times before the warranty was up, which was March of 2018. I was always told they couldn't identify the problem. So of course, once the warranty was up, a code finally set. This was addressed at no cost to me, but the problem was not fixed. The next time I took it in, they replaced another part and that cost me $350. Within a day and a half of that repair, the issue was worse and I mean a lot worse! I took my car back and they finally put in a new transmission for which they charged me $975. They stated that Nissan would cover 80%, I guess they did otherwise it would have been a lot more. What also irks me though is they would only give me a 12,000 mile/12 month warranty on their new part!! The final repair was completed in December 2018.

- Janice K., Fresno, US

problem #32

Oct 102018

Sentra SL 1.8L 4c

  • CVT transmission
  • 79,800 miles

Note: I am not a mechanic, any knowledge shared in here is based off of my own research and conversations with mechanics regarding CVT transmissions and Nissan cars in general.

I purchased this car in Feb. 2018 after doing some research online and seeing that there was a transmission issue with some of the Nissan's on the road. Like anything, you have to take what you read on the internet with a grain of salt.. (ironic now that I am here) so I ended up purchasing the car WITH an extended Power-Train Warranty as a safety net. At the time of purchase, the car had roughly 60k miles on it. I did not notice a shudder or anything when I test drove it. I don't actually remember the exact time that passed before I did notice it, but I didn't think anything of it for quite awhile.

It wasn't behaving like any of the cars that I read about in reviews or complaints. Honestly, I figured that most people just didn't understand how a CVT transmission works and wanted to complain due to their own negligence and/or ignorance. A lot of complaints consisted of RPMs wildly varying while the car was accelerating, this was not my issue at all. I mean, yes, the RPM's DO fluctuate but that is part of a CVT transmission.

My issue was occasionally when I would slow down for say, a red light, and that light turned green and I immediately accelerated it would do this shudder. It would immediately even out and I learned to drive it so I would barely ever get the shudder. Then, it started to progressively get worse. It was harder for me to avoid causing the car to shudder. Eventually, I just stopped trying. I should probably mention that during that time it isn't like I didn't mention this to various mechanics that are familiar with CVT transmissions. I even had a (formally) trusted mechanic try to diagnose the issue. He came up empty and told me he couldn't get it to shudder and that it was most likely nothing more than the CVT trying to gauge where it needed to be.

Fast-forward until this fall. I have had the car now for 8 months. The shudder is now so predictable that I brought it in to our Honda dealer where we purchased our other car (2013 Civic - awesome car) and asked them to do a Drain and Fill on the transmission (they call it that instead of a transmission flush for some reason) and brought up that I thought there was something wrong with the transmission's performance. I brought it in this past Friday (10/12/18) and while I was waiting they came and told me that although they could do the transmission service, they had to get the fluid and the parts from Nissan itself. The parts would cost them about $280 without labor. It would be cheaper to do the transmission service at the Nissan dealership instead.

With that information in mind, I still asked if we could do a test drive with a technician so I could show him what I thought was off about the transmission's performance. Of course we could, so a few minutes later we were off. It took a little coaching as you have to slow down and then aggressively accelerate in order to produce the shudder, but once the technician heard/felt it he asked if I had a warranty on the car. Concerned, I replied that I did and asked why. He told me he had another Nissan in a different bay that he was working on with the same exact problem. He thought it might need a software update. Software updates are of course, done only through Nissan.

Once I left the Honda dealership, I made a call to one of the local Nissan dealerships and asked them about a transmission service and software update. I tend to ramble when I am nervous, so I mentioned the shudder and the Nissan technician stopped me immediately. He explained that neither a software update nor a transmission service was going to solve the shuddering issue. He said (and he was very confident) that if there is a shudder like I described, it was the transmission and it most likely has a internal failure. The only fix? Replace the transmission. Since he has not seen the car yet, he can't be sure but he is confident that is what he will find when I do bring it in this Wednesday (10/17/18).

So.. currently, the car is up to go to Nissan this coming week to be scanned and diagnosed for a transmission failure. The Nissan technician asked me to bring in my warranty information and he will start the claims process for me. He informed me that this may take a few days to do and to set up a rental car or other arrangements.

In my personal opinion, Nissan sucks. There are thousands of complaints with these transmissions in varying years, I have seen them as new as a 2015 Altima on another site. Even knowing what I was getting into in the beginning, I didn't really expect to have to replace the transmission 10-15k miles into owning it. Like I mentioned previously, I just figured most of the complaints I read were from people that had issues - because, let's be honest, 9/10 times the only people who post reviews are the unhappy ones. In this case, I was wrong. It is a common issue with the CVT transmissions in Nissan cars and Nissan is doing nothing about it that I can see. They just keep burying the issue and hope that it goes away.

It's not going away. Did you know, I was flipping through an auto magazine, the ones with the ranks of the brands of cars for the year? And did you know where Nissan fell on the list? Below Ford. I mean, c'mon. Ford?! No offense to Ford lovers, but they don't have the best reputations. The only brands that I can remember that ranked lower than Nissan were Chrysler, Jeep (second to bottom of the barrel shockingly), and Fiat (no surprise.. bottom of the list). There were more in between that but that is what I remember.

Anyways, I will try to remember to keep this updated with how my experience goes. How much my warranty actually covers, what I pay out of pocket, etc. for those who are wondering if they are in the same boat.

Toodles!

Update from Oct 21, 2018: The car was seen by Nissan, but they didn't get any reports from the scan they did. The car had two recalls for a software update and an air bag issue so I had those taken care of and the technician wants me back for an oil change in <1000 miles to check to see if the software update is the solution for why they weren't getting any failure information on the transmission. Will update as soon as that happens.

- Ash D., Allendale, MI, US

problem #31

Oct 122018

Sentra S 2

  • Automatic transmission
  • 80,000 miles

Dont every buy a nissan. My transmission is gone at 80k miles and there is nothing that nissan can do to correct or fix.

- Monica S., Fairburn, US

problem #30

Sep 012018

Sentra

  • CVT transmission
  • 118,000 miles

My 2015 Sentra transmission is terrible- jerks, hesitates and lurches forward. It sometimes will not take off after making a complete stop, or will sometimes not shift to the next gear. I have to stop, place in park, and then back in drive for the vehicle to shift gears.

- wenesak, Fort Worth, US

problem #29

Aug 032018

Sentra SR

  • Automatic transmission
  • 95,111 miles

I really have enjoyed having a Nissan, but this Sentra is making me have second thoughts, especially if Nissan is aware of this issue. Why don't you all have this listed as a recall. STEP YOUR GAME UP NISSAN, THIS IS A PAIN IN THE ASS, REALLY.

- Jacqueline H., Lynchburg, US

problem #28

Feb 062018

Sentra SR 4 cyl

  • CVT transmission
  • 96,000 miles

I bought a Nissan thinking it would last, as they use to be reliable cars. I do a daily commute to work 100 miles a day. Starting around 98,000 miles the car began having a weird jerking like something was wrong with a tire or I drove over a bumpy road from first and second gear at times. Wouldn't happen all the time but here and there.

Then one day I went to give it gas and it wouldn't go. I was told to clean my fuel injectors which I did. I stopped having the issue of not picking up any speed but the weird jerking and bumping still occurred here and there. Now at 113,000 it has gotten worse as now when I drive and if I give it to much gas it will stick in a high gear and I have to pull over and place in park and then get back on the road. But now it is hesitating to go into gear and I am driving it until the stupid thing breaks.

I have already called three transmission places and the cost will range from $4500-3800. I really cannot believe Nissan is not stepping up the plate with these numerous complaints and class action lawsuits and us as the buyers are the ones suffering. I also have a friend who has a 2014 Nissan Sentra who hasn't had a car in 30 days due to his transmission going out at 60,000.

Update from Jul 24, 2018: Brought my car in and my transmission was shot. Had transmission replaced at 113,700. The total to fix was $4,491.00 at the dealership. Fortunately, I still had an extended mechanical warranty that I didn't realize I still had that was good up to 120,000 otherwise I don't know what I would have done.

- Erika A., Slidell, US

problem #27

Jun 072018

Sentra

  • Automatic transmission
  • 70,000 miles

I bought my vehicle brand new in December 2013 and there were only two miles on it when I drove it off the lot. I use my car mostly for city driving and seldom drive more than 100 miles in one trip. I'm shocked that I've had the car for less than five years and I'm already replacing the transmission.

- Colleen M., Durham, US

problem #26

Apr 112017

Sentra ES 1.6L

  • CVT transmission
  • 81,000 miles

2013 Nissan Sentra started having problems shifting and acting like it was missing. After changing plus I realized it was the transmission. Took to the dealer and they charged me $748 to replace as the original price was double that. Now I find out this should be a recall and cost me nothing. NOT HAPPY!! Also own a 2013 Versa with the same transmission CVT and it is now doing the same thing has 89,000 miles. These cars are a joke.

- mustang67gt1, Kingman, US

problem #25

Feb 012018

Sentra SL 4 cyl

  • CVT transmission
  • 69,000 miles

Have 2013 Nissan Sentra I bought new and is my 3rd Nissan. It has been maintained well and I was shocked to see the transmission go out after 69k miles. After researching online though I have found that the issue they extended the warranty coverage for models up to 2000 does not appear to be fixed at all. This is something that should be a recall. Shame on you Nissan for this big cover up.

- Michael M., Saint Augustine, US

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