I bought my fiance a Cosmic Blue 2011 Outlander Sport SE about four months ago. It was a New Orleans car so one or two of the struts make noises and the body has various dings and scrapes all over. The PO bumped someone so the front end was shifted over a little. The driver's headlight assembly was cracked and leaking, so the HID ballast got wet and corroded. All the damage was to the outer cover panels and none to any of the metal substructure. The interior was essentially mint and still had a strong presence of that "new car smell". During the test drive, it made squeaking and bumping noises only when warmed up and under acceleration. The salesman seemed a bit sheepish about it like he thought it was a major problem. I had an idea of what it was but wasn't gonna tell the salesman that it was likely an easy fix- I needed the extra negotiating leverage. We feel we got a pretty decent deal getting a 32K-mile car for $8,000.


I stopped at a grocery store parking lot a few miles from the car lot to fix that noise- it took all of 1.5 seconds. The OP must've backed over a big curb and bent one of the rear bumper cover braces so it was slightly rubbing the muffler. It wouldn't contact when everything was cool, but when warmed up, the exhaust system expanded rearward, pushing the muffler a couple millimeters rearward and onto the brace. This caused the metallic squeaking sound. When accelerating and decelerating, the engine torqued forward and aft so that made the muffler bump the bracket, causing a different sound that corresponded with the accelerator pedal. I just gave the bottom lip of the bumper cover a sharp yank to pull the thin metal brace back straight and the noise was gone.


As soon as it was home, I disassembled the front end to realign the fenders, grille, headlights and bumper cover/valance. The entire left headlight assembly was junked so I ordered a used OEM replacement and HID ballast and igniter from a salvage yard on eBay. Fixing the front edge of the left fender was the most humorous. Instead of pulling, shaping and bodyworking as one would do to a typical metal fender, I used a heat gun to soften the plastic fender to tweak it back to it's original shape. Now all the gaps are nice, tight and even and all lights work. I checked all the fluids, brake linings, air pressures, etc., changed the oil (full synthetic with WIX filter), replaced the wipers (had to make my own rear wiper), dusted off the engine air filter and replaced the NASTY cabin air filter and deemed it ready for it's daily commuting duties.


About a month ago, I had a service call at a you-pull-it salvage yard. The manager let me grab a few antennas from various vehicles to try on the OS to replace the dry-rotted and cracked OEM antenna. I believe the one I decided to use is from a Hyundai Santa Fe. It could be from a Chevy HHR, though, I don't recall exactly.


A couple weeks ago, while cruising at around 70 MPH, I pressed the pedal to pass a car. The car responded normally but also made a whining that corresponded with load and RPM. This was not what I wanted to hear from a CVT. This is my first experience with a CVT-equipped car, so I hit up Google to research. It turns out, it's fairly normal for the circumstances: old fluid at high temperature and under load. I found that the CVT fluid is supposed to be replaced at 30K miles, so I was confident that's all it was.


Last night, with the car at 40K miles and due for an oil change (I service my vehicles every 5K miles), I added a CVT flush to the agenda. I followed the service procedure someone posted from a manual (Thank you!) where you drain the fluid from the cooler's outlet. Reading it, it sounds lengthy and complicated but it all went very well and I didn't spill a drop. Attached are pics to document how I did it. First pic is of the cooler as accessed by pulling back the inner fender liner. I have the upper (return) hose removed from the cooler and a 2' piece of scrap hose pushed over the cooler's outlet nipple. I routed the hoe to my drain pan and lightly clamped locking pliers on the hose to hold it in place. Second pic is my view from the open driver's door area. Third pic is a close-up of the fluid being pumped out while the engine idles. Fourth pic is the pan draining and how I jacked up the rear of the car to level it so more of the fluid would drain from the pan. Fifth pic is the gasket I used on the drain plug. I didn't get a new OEM plug gasket, but I have a bag of aluminum crush washers left over from an Accord I used to have so I used one of those. I also used one on the engine oil drain plug for good measure. Following the remainder of the CVT service outline, I added about 5.5 quarts through the filler tube and idled the engine again until the fluid coming from the hose went from dark amber to dark red then about 15 seconds longer to ensure the old fluid was well-flushed. I put everything back together and topped off the trans fluid. I bought 10 quarts and have about 1.5 quarts left. I'll use that to replace any that may be spilled when I replace the trans fluid filter later. By the way, I used Castrol Transmax CVT. I got tired of researching if this was a suitable replacement or not and read plenty of "I've been running it with no problems" posts and Castrol's MSDS says it's compatible (for what that's worth). Plus, it was on sale for $5/quart at Advance.



I changed the engine oil and filter and replaced the spark plugs and took it for a test drive- all went well. Speaking of spark plugs, why does such a new car with fancy metal plugs require them to be changed at 30,000 miles?! I thought pretty much everything since the mid-90s had platinum or iridium plugs that were designed to last 100,000 miles or more. This car has iridium plugs and the gaps measured a hair tighter than the factory-spec'ed .044". Begrudgingly, I replaced them anyway since I already had them.


So, this is my intro and where I currently am with this little beast. See y'all around.

 

Stopped in for an update:

Right after the service at 40K miles I mentioned in that last post, we took a trip to Asheville, NC. The car performed perfectly up, down and all around the mountains. No odd actions or noises from the transmission or anything. I'd say that trip was plenty of a test for the Castrol CVT fluid. The car currently has about 53K and is just as solid as ever. I did replace all four struts a few months back cuz they were pretty much blown and two (on opposing corners at that) had leaked out all their oil. Went with some direct-replacement KYBs.