Coolant Additives

[fishbone]

290 is cooking ATF at that point.
Get a tranny cooler and possibly switch to a high quality CVT-approved synthetic.

[702L32]

my car actually does have its own cvt fluid cooler unlike the altima. thats why im concerned. its mounted in front the radiator on the bumper cover side so i dont see why its not working. but the monkeys at nissan cant do anything without the corporate guy's assessment and approval.

[fishbone]

What brand/size cooled do you have?

[702L32]

not sure it came with the car. ill try to take a look tomorrow when i do my springs

[fishbone]

Also worth mentioning tranny coolers obviously don't work too well in stop-go traffic, just like any other radiator.
The reason I suggested an aftermarket synthetic fluid is two-fold: synthetic holds up better and also sheds heat easier/faster.

How did you measure the ATF temp?
And I wanted to clarify, you have an aftermarket ATF cooler installed?

[702L32]

My Bullydog is a monitor gauge too. i have the engine coolant, trans temp and a few other things currently being monitored. i can pick from like a dozen different things total to monitor. even the battery voltage and MAF

and to be clear the SER comes from the factory with a trans cooler unlike the altima i had. the altimas cvt, like most traditional auto transmissions, ran a line to the bottom of the radiator

outside temp was 54degrees
this is idling at my gfs house 25 miles away from my house. it was slowly rising as i was waiting. it hit this peak by the time she got in the car


and as soon as i put it in D and was driving off.

[fishbone]

Couple points. There are at least two trans sensors. One in the pan and the other in the torque converter output. The one in the pan is usually steady temp and does not variate a lot. The one in the torque converter output will always be higher and will usually vary a lot.
I have a suspicion the BD is reporting a bad reading OR reading the converter output ... useless.
Go to the dealer and have them hook up their diagnostic tool so at least you know you are not working with faulty data.
I mean Jesus Christ 275 is simply atrocious idling in a cool evening and with a trans cooler. In fact I am inclined to say impossible. I've run my LGT hard in 90 degree weather and the ATF temp never even kissed 220*F
The SER Altima shares a fairly similar auto trans.
Also, if that intake temp reading is accurate as well ... I will never again complain about mine

[702L32]

yeah im looking at it like this. even if BD is off/inaccurate. it cant be THAT off. its pretty spot-on on everything else it monitors.

there are three things that are all related and making believe my CVT is overheating.

1. when it reaches atleast 240 and up the car runs like shit. the cvt has a fail safe mode that kicks in if it detects its temp is going too high.
2. ive smelled burning fluid several times
3.when i first start up the car its pretty close to the outside air temp and then it takes awhile to get up to these extreme temps

[fishbone]

Then it's likely monitoring the temp at converter output and not the pan. If the pan gets to those temps you are disintegrating clutches. Go with a bigger cooler and switch to synthetic fluid. 260s while not ideal, not unheard of at converter output. You'd need to know what the pan temp is. Should be close to coolant temp. Normal operating range is 160-180 degrees. It's simply impossible for the pan temps to be that high.
Everything else you mentioned (burnt smell) is cause of concern.

[702L32]

on a side note too, even though it was 50+degrees outside the coolant got up to almost 210F. does that seem high to you? it is a big engine in a little engine bay

[fishbone]

It depends how you drove before you started idling. If you drove hard its normal as the coolant would be drawing away engine heat and the car not being in motion, temps would rise a bit

[702L32]

actually on that trip out to get her i drove pretty normal. which i dont normally do haha