They quit using vacuum on trans for load detection 30 years ago. Beyond that if no one has been under the car yet then time to do so. Maybe struck something in road to damage something on both exhaust and trans itself. Check fluid level to make sure it's all there if it has a dipstick.

If the exhaust leak is placed to alter A/F ratio then computer may alter trans driveability due to faulty sensor output.

Check out the manual trans linkage, a slight bit of damage may adjust it to be partly in/out of gear and trans will then act up. Or a bent pan like my Dad once had on a roadstrike, the trans then began to act funny and pan bent to starve the trans oil pump of fluid.

 

I think it is possible for an exhaust leak to modify the engine's performance enough that the CVT controller could change its decision points on what ratio the pulleys should be in at a given rpm.

 

Update.... So I drove the car a bit today and this is what I found. When the car is in drive, the RPM stays between 1500-2000 unless I romp on the gas It goes up to 2K, then down to 1500 when it "might" be shifting. (I say "might" because I can't really tell.) There may be a slight to negligent power loss (But I'm not familiar with the car), there's no hard shift, no slippage, or bogging down. Then I switched to the manual shifting mode and the tachometer and gears worked perfectly. Went up to 3500-4K before I manually shifted it through all gears. No loss of power, no hard shift, slippage or bogging down. I put the car in park and the engine revs normally. So it's only an issue when it's in drive. Any thought?

 

Transmission fluid dipstick reads full at running temperature while running.

 

I for one cannot say that is not normal CVT action, the rpm is lower to save gas. Some of them will absolutely not 'shift' like oldschool did and never intended to.

 

I wondered if this was normal. I have rebuilt older cars and transmissions, but I have ZERO experience with this CVT stuff.....

 

They have steadily modded the trans 'shifting' traits to more closely follow what people were so used to for many years as they got lots of complaints over it. A true CVT comes up to a certain rpm then stays like stuck there while vehicle gets faster and faster. I have a '17 and that one has what appears to be true gears shifting and even a passing gear, it all is faked to give that impression.