[aKrain]

Posting this as I am trying to figure out the root cause for an issue with my recently purchased Renault Duster Turbo CVT.

On 15 May, I was travelling with my family from Noida to Uttarkhand in our 1 month old Duster. We drove for about 5 hours and made a stop at Rudrapur border to show our Covid e-pass. After doing the formalities, we started off but after driving a few kms, the car suddenly lost power and started to slow down. I quickly pulled the car to the left and brought it to a halt. The car's engine seemed to be revving fine but very little power was being transferred to the wheels in D or R modes. On engaging D, it just a moved a little bit and after that anymore revs didn't make the car budge an inch. The gear indicator was showing D and some weird characters in between.

Something seemed to be wrong with the engine/transmission and I immediately killed the engine. From the time issue had surfaced, the general warning light (orange) had come up for some time in between and then gone off. The general warning light is the one with number 5 on this webpage:
https://www.autotrader.co.za/cars/ne...nault-kwid/152
According to the manual, it means that the car is to be driven with care to the nearest service centre.

After getting out of the car, we found that there was some oil leaking from the front left very close to where the battery is located. Opened the bonnet and found that there was a dip stick in front of the battery for some kind of oil (most probably power steering oil). The oil seemed to be leaking from around that area. As it was getting dark it was hard to see where exactly the leak was. It was definitely not near the engine or the engine oil diptick which are both located towards the centre of the bay.

Fortunately, I was able to arrange a tow truck from Renault RSA as well as a cab for further travel within half an hour. Since the car was under warranty, the RSA arranged for the car to be taken to the service centre in Haldwani. This was a big relief as all showrooms/shops were otherwise closed due to the prevailing lockdown.

I have still not been able to understand what exactly happened. Since the lockdown is not going to end soon, I would like to know if any fellow bhpians have faced any such problems? Any insights into the possible root causes for the issue are welcome.

[Indian2003]

Originally Posted by aKrain

After getting out of the car, we found that there was some oil leaking from the front left very close to where the battery is located. Opened the bonnet and found that there was a dip stick in front of the battery for some kind of oil (most probably power steering oil). The oil seemed to be leaking from around that area. As it was getting dark it was hard to see where exactly the leak was. It was definitely not near the engine or the engine oil diptick which are both located towards the centre of the bay.

Are you sure that this is the dipstick for the servo? It seems more logical that it is the dipstick for the automatic transmission which is to the right when looking at the car from the front.

[aKrain]

Originally Posted by Indian2003

Are you sure that this is the dipstick for the servo? It seems more logical that it is the dipstick for the automatic transmission which is to the right when looking at the car from the front.

That is what I assumed as well but the car's manual doesn't show the location of the transmission oil dipstick. It does make sense in case the transmission oil is also located there.

In case it is the transmission oil, how bad is the issue going to be?

[Tgo]

Originally Posted by aKrain

Posting this as I am trying to figure out the root cause for an issue with my recently purchased Renault Duster Turbo CVT.

The power steering pump and reservoir unit is located below the LHS front headlamp. There is no dipstick for that. PS oil is red in colour for the Duster.

What you might have checked would be the CVT oil dipstick. I cannot be sure though. A look through the manual would explain or show and indication of where to find the transmission dipstick.

The symptoms you described suggest towards a transmission related problem. A CVT transmission relies on hydraulic pressure to shift the pulleys into the required gear ratio configuration. With low/no oil, there will be no fluid to carry the hydraulic pressure thus resulting in a malfunction. Malfunction could be due to air getting trapped in the oil galleries of the transmission leading to erratic hydraulic pressure. The oil which lubricates the gearbox also works as the hydraulic fluid. In case of low oil level, there could be damage to the gearbox components due to lack of lubrication.

It should be a simple case of
-identifying the source of the leak,
-residual oil quantity by draining it completely and tallying it against a full fill quantity,
-assessing damage to transmission by checking the remaining oil for metal particles, and if no damage is inferred,
-filling it up with the correct oil and driving off.

NOTE: In case you find out that they diagnosed low oil, do insist on oil analysis and a gearbox replacement if the internals have been damaged. You don’t want to be haunted by the ghost later.

Leak from oil filling port or dipstick port is not unheard of and that might be what happened in your case.

Could you point to the area of the leak in this picture of the engine bay?

[aKrain]

Originally Posted by Tgo

The power steering pump and reservoir unit is located below the LHS front headlamp. There is no dipstick for that. PS oil is red in colour for the Duster.

What you might have checked would be the CVT oil dipstick. I cannot be sure though. A look through the manual would explain or show and indication of where to find the transmission dipstick.

The symptoms you described suggest towards a transmission related problem. A CVT transmission relies on hydraulic pressure to shift the pulleys into the required gear ratio configuration. With low/no oil, there will be no fluid to carry the hydraulic pressure thus resulting in a malfunction. Malfunction could be due to air getting trapped in the oil galleries of the transmission leading to erratic hydraulic pressure. The oil which lubricates the gearbox also works as the hydraulic fluid. In case of low oil level, there could be damage to the gearbox components due to lack of lubrication.

It should be a simple case of
-identifying the source of the leak,
-residual oil quantity by draining it completely and tallying it against a full fill quantity,
-assessing damage to transmission by checking the remaining oil for metal particles, and if no damage is inferred,
-filling it up with the correct oil and driving off.

NOTE: In case you find out that they diagnosed low oil, do insist on oil analysis and a gearbox replacement if the internals have been damaged. You don’t want to be haunted by the ghost later.

Leak from oil filling port or dipstick port is not unheard of and that might be what happened in your case.

Thanks a lot for the detailed analysis. This does seem to be the most logical explanation.
The oil was definitely not red in colour. So that also rules out the power steering fluid. It was more like greenish gray in colour.

What would be a good way to know whether there was any damage to the gearbox internals?

[Indian2003]

Originally Posted by aKrain

That is what I assumed as well but the car's manual doesn't show the location of the transmission oil dipstick. It does make sense in case the transmission oil is also located there.

In case it is the transmission oil, how bad is the issue going to be?

I doubt that you have lost so much oil through the dipstick to loose oil pressure. I would think you have a leak in the high pressure system and too much pressure inside the gearbox, forcing fluid out of the dipstick.

The CVT adjusts the size of the pulleys with oil pressure. I think they will just replace the gearbox for you.

[Tgo]

Originally Posted by aKrain

What would be a good way to know whether there was any damage to the gearbox internals?

Lets say, if the oil fill quantity is 4.5L and your transmission has only 1 ltr left in it then there are chances of excessive wear due to lack of lubrication.

When the oil is drained and a torch light is put on the oil you will see metallic particles like liquid metallic paint. If so, there are chances that the wear is excessive.

How much or how little is subjective. Just don't leave anything to doubt.

If you doubt the service center taking care of it, just shoot a mail to Renault customer support informing them of the issue on a new car under warranty. The investigation would proceed in a much more vigilant and ethical way irrespective of the cost and who has to bear it.


On the brighter side, it could be that only 25% oil leaked and the trapped air was causing the transmission to malfunction. In this case you can be assured that the remaining 75% oil would b doing its lubrication duty and not wearing out the friction components excessively.

[aKrain]

The leak was close to this place as marked in the image below:



Surprisingly, I couldn't find anything in the manual about the transmission oil. Also, there is no dedicated warning light for low transmission oil

[SenPai_GTi]

Originally Posted by aKrain

The car's engine seemed to be revving fine but very little power was being transferred to the wheels in D or R modes. On engaging D, it just a moved a little bit and after that anymore revs didn't make the car budge an inch. The gear indicator was showing D and some weird characters in between.

This happens when your car goes into limp mode/fail safe mode. It occurs in CVT when the gearbox reaches high temperatures due to reasons unknown. Generally, there is no special sign indicating the car going to limp mode but a quick OBD scan might get you to the problem. But the transmission is definitely the culprit here. If there was transmission oil level was low, there would've been an unmistakable whining sound that you would've definitely noticed. Since your dashboard gave a flashing orange warning and you also stated that it had gone away for a while, it wasn't a case of low oil level, wherein the warning light continues to be red. So there is little chance that your transmission has worn out.

Originally Posted by aKrain

.....front left very close to where the battery is located. Opened the bonnet and found that there was a dip stick in front of the battery for some kind of oil (most probably power steering oil).

So I suspect that it might be the transmission cooling oil issue since it was situated there on the Nissan Sunny CVT last time I checked, but it does not come with a dipstick. I don't think the dipstick has any role to play in the leak. I just hope that it is a seal malfunction and nothing more.

[aKrain]

Originally Posted by SenPai_GTi

This happens when your car goes into limp mode/fail safe mode. It occurs in CVT when the gearbox reaches high temperatures due to reasons unknown. Generally, there is no special sign indicating the car going to limp mode but a quick OBD scan might get you to the problem. But the transmission is definitely the culprit here. If there was transmission oil level was low, there would've been an unmistakable whining sound that you would've definitely noticed. Since your dashboard gave a flashing orange warning and you also stated that it had gone away for a while, it wasn't a case of low oil level, wherein the warning light continues to be red. So there is little chance that your transmission has worn out.

Yes, the transmission did seem to go limp. It was like the transmission was cut off due to some malfunction. On the positive side, there was no whining/grinding sound and no smell on opening the bonnet. So I am assuming that the transmission may have gone into fail safe mode if there is something like that.

I am new to automatics and have little knowledge on how they behave when malfunctioning. Thanks for all the above posts for adding to my knowledge base.

[Tgo]

Originally Posted by aKrain

So I am assuming that the transmission may have gone into fail safe mode if there is something like that.

Any update on the car? Curious to know what was diagnosed?

[aKrain]

Originally Posted by Tgo

Any update on the car? Curious to know what was diagnosed?

The service center has been able to work on the car this week. They found that the clamp for the transmission oil pipe had come loose and resulted in the leakage. For now, they have fixed the leak, topped up the oil and tested the car for 5-60 kms. According to them, the car is OK now.

I have written an email to the service center and am waiting for their official response. Will forward the same Renault Customer Service as well.

On Saturday I will visit the service center on Saturday and then provide a detailed report.

[aKrain]

The got the car back on 29 May and it has been running fine since then. The service centre paid for my back and forth trip from Almora and also gave some goodies as a goodwill gesture.

The service team gave the following response to my mail:

Here, we would like to share that the incident occurred because of the loose clamp of transmission oil cooler hose and the same has been fixed. Further, as already discussed there is no damage is done inside Engine/Transmission due to this.

I would like to say that during the entire time the service staff communicated very well and I appreciate the way they took care of the issue.

[Ritz2010]

Glad to know issues has been resolved to your satisfaction.

I'm getting pre-owned 1.3 CVT Duster in couple of days. Would appreciate if you could share if you had any issues in short run abouts with that turbo petrol.

Also how is your over all experience with Renault. Here in Bengaluru the ASC seems to be lethergic.

What's the city mileage in B2B traffic. Bengaluru city is heavily congested with more vehicles per inch of tarmac.

I get a squeak from brake pedal while de-pressing - it's something to live with turbo CVT Duster's ?

The Duster's seats seem to be on the firmer side for me compared to my Ritz. Not sure if it's due to newness (10k on odo and under 1 year) or seat cover to blame. Does it get softer with time or I've to live with it ?

Thanks in advance.

[aKrain]

Originally Posted by Ritz2010

Glad to know issues has been resolved to your satisfaction.

I'm getting pre-owned 1.3 CVT Duster in couple of days. Would appreciate if you could share if you had any issues in short run abouts with that turbo petrol.

Also how is your over all experience with Renault. Here in Bengaluru the ASC seems to be lethergic.

What's the city mileage in B2B traffic. Bengaluru city is heavily congested with more vehicles per inch of tarmac.

I get a squeak from brake pedal while de-pressing - it's something to live with turbo CVT Duster's ?

The Duster's seats seem to be on the firmer side for me compared to my Ritz. Not sure if it's due to newness (10k on odo and under 1 year) or seat cover to blame. Does it get softer with time or I've to live with it ?

Thanks in advance.

Answering your queries below:

1. After the transmission oil leak, there was still some problem with the CVT wherein the car wouldn't move after putting it in D and the MID was show random letters instead of the mode. It seemed to be an issue with some electronic part as it was resolved on disconnecting the battery. The car was sent back to Renault Haldwani and after a couple of days of debugging, they were able to diagnose it to some part within the CVT controller. Renault didn't want to take a risk with just replacing the electronic part, so they ordered a new CVT and got it replaced in my car.
My confidence in the car had been eroded by this incident. But after driving extensively in Himachal and Uttarakhand in the last few months I am happy with the way the car has been running and confidence level is back to normal.

The turbo petrol is a joy to drive on the highway and overtaking in most cases is effortless.

2. Interaction with Renault service staff in Haldwani as well as Noida has been pleasant. On top of that, the CVT was replaced pro-actively by Renault and I was given a replacement vehicle while the car was getting repaired. I was communicating with their north indian after sales head and he was quite transparent about the steps that were taken.

3. I have been mostly living in the hills due to WFH and have driven very little in the city. In normal traffic, I get 9.5-10.5 kmpl in the city.

4. No, there is no sound while depresing the brake and I think ASS mechanics should be able to fix it.

5. Yes, the seats are on the firmer side and that is good for long drives. You can get padded seat covers if you like the seat to be softer.