Introducing my next car! 2008 Nissan Altima 2.5S CVT - Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum

19bonestock88 · 12-11-2016, 07:16 PM

Well guys, you know that I totaled the old Malibu on a deer, and was looking at replacing it... I bought another car, and here it is! My next car is a 2008 Nissan Altima 2.5S... Its a CVT car(on its second trans), with just shy of 166k miles... Runs/drives great, and looks pretty good too, plus I'll be able to Uber in it again, once I clear up a cosmetic defect near where the front plate mount was...

19bonestock88 · 12-11-2016, 07:22 PM

First thing I done today in the light(after I went to town and filled the fuel tank) was check the tire pressure... Turns out I had been driving around with the tires at 22-26psi average, and the cars trip computer had climbed to almost 32mpg(I reset it upon purchase, it showed 29.4 beforehand)... I inflated to 45psi(max was listed at 51psi), and it feels like it rolls easier...Looking forward to mounting my UltraGauge so I can get back into hypermiling...

MetroMPG · 12-11-2016, 09:49 PM

Congrats!

Take care of that CVT. Can you do uber with a manual? I think so, but not sure.

19bonestock88 · 12-11-2016, 11:02 PM

Yeah, you can uber with a manual, but the city I drive in has lots of steep hills, and there are a couple intersections in particular which involve taking off on a 15+% grade... Not impossible with a manual, but certainly not easy to do and not spin or stall(which passengers wouldn't like)... Also, most of the cars I looked at were too old to be used, hence my decision to go over budget to also keep my secondary income...

I plan to change the CVT fluid as often as other owners advise to do... Nissan doesn't say it's required to change the fluid, but other owners advise it as a 30k service... My trans doesn't whine, but occasionally has a vibration at low engine speed, and it "hiccuped" once on moderate acceleration... Not perfect by any means, but it IS a 2008... I do enjoy that it has a "manual" mode though, I can lock it into one ratio and lug the engine down to almost 1000 RPM coming out of tight turns...

Fingie · 12-12-2016, 09:20 AM

Kewl. uber is outlawed here lol.

you need a taxi licence.

19bonestock88 · 12-12-2016, 09:24 AM

It seems that as they're called a ride sharing service, it comes off as basically letting my friends ride with me and sharing the fuel cost... They do carry commercial insurance on me though...

Fingie · 12-12-2016, 09:48 AM

We don't have those here in finland.

Gas is very expensive, but we still hail to personal vehicles *cough*

roosterk0031 · 12-12-2016, 11:13 AM

While doing research on similar year Rogues, I found a software update for the 8-10 Rogues on the CVT about a vibration, might be good to see if it's been done if it applies to the Altima as well.

Glanced at a 2012 Altima to replace the Stratus higher than I am planning on spending but really nice car for $10,000 94,000 miles. The 09 $7100 AWD Rogue was gone, waited too long.

MetroMPG · 12-12-2016, 11:40 AM

Potential fuel saving tip:

The handful of CVT's I've driven that have had a manual mode, I could force earlier "shifts" under light/partial throttle than the computer would otherwise do in automatic mode.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ing-21149.html

(Sounds like that's what you already discovered.)

19bonestock88 · 12-12-2016, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Potential fuel saving tip:

The handful of CVT's I've driven that have had a manual mode, I could force earlier "shifts" under light/partial throttle than the computer would otherwise do in automatic mode.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ing-21149.html

(Sounds like that's what you already discovered.)

Basically, I mostly just let the trans do its thing as I surge up to around 35-40mph, then switch to manual mode and upshift to "6th", dropping to around 1250 RPM...

Quote:

Originally Posted by roosterk0031

While doing research on similar year Rogues, I found a software update for the 8-10 Rogues on the CVT about a vibration, might be good to see if it's been done if it applies to the Altima as well.
.

I read on nissanclub about such a vibration, basically the update just forces the engine out of the RPM range in which the vibration occurs(usually below 2k RPM)... I read about an owner taking a 5-6mpg hit after getting the vibration stopped... I'm in favor of just living with the occasional vibration(at parking lots speeds and sometimes around 40mph)

The car really needs a belly pan, even the factory front piece is gone... Averaging about 32mpg according to the cars computer, which isn't bad, but it's way down compared to the Malibu...