CVT failure on the 2016 Nissan Rogue
When cvt failure gets reported
Owners of the 2016 Nissan Rogue report CVT failure at a median of 72,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles, from 25 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 90,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 40,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 135,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 94,036 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
8% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40,600 miles | 59,000 miles | 71,805 miles | 94,345 miles | 134,636 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $3,000–$8,500 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 12 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2023, at a median of 35,000 miles, and latest on the 2009 at 100,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 121; the 2016 has 48. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
A nissan dealer had preformed a service campaign pc4900 to my 2016 nissan rogue it involved the CVT transmission software and since they did it the car is not driving like before. The shifting is slower and takes longer to shift, the engine is louder and revving higher and the fuel economy got very bad. Contacted the dealer and asked if this service campaign can be reversed and their answer was "no" I will be taking the car back to them have them check it and also contacted nissan corp and opened a case. I hope they fix this problem as soon as possible.
A nissan dealer had preformed a service campaign pc4900 to my 2016 nissan rogue it involved the CVT transmission software and since they did it the car is not driving like before. The shifting is slower and takes longer to shift, the engine is louder and revving higher and the fuel economy got very bad. Contacted the dealer and asked if this service campaign can be reversed and their answer was "no" I will be taking the car back to them have them check it and also contacted nissan corp and opened a case. I hope they fix this problem as soon as possible.
When accelerating on highway or city street, I noticed vehicle began making a loud whining/purring noise. Took vehicle to dealership where I purchased vehicle from and they informed me that transmission would need to be replaced (and I do have powertrain warranty). This was a wednesday so I was given a loaner vehicle on thursday while my car would be in the shop over the weekend. Monday morning, never heard anything from dealership. Tuesday, same. Wednesday, still no word late in the afternoon so I had to call and the service coordinator informs me that they were not able to replace my transmission because nissan states the noise the transmission is making is not "loud" enough. There is a service bulletin out on my vehicle that is titled "information to prevent CVT replacement due to misdiagnosis of noise" that the dealership's shop foreman went through and their conclusion was that this is what was wrong with my vehicle. I called nissan and opened a case. My case manager spoke with the service manager at the dealership and my case was closed because according to the shop technician and nissan, there's nothing "mechanically" wrong…
Also reported on the 2016 Nissan Rogue
Other electrical problem
Other powertrain problem
Complete transmission failure
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Wiring harness or short circuit
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 48 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does cvt failure happen on the 2016 Nissan Rogue?
Across 25 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 72,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is cvt failure on the 2016 Nissan Rogue?
48 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed