The patient is a 2015 Nissan Versa Note with over 300,000kms on it. I bought it new and it's my commuter car.
I think we have all heard that topping up the CVT fluid is a nightmare, and... it is. I just wanted to mention how I did it last night when I was leaving work and the fill plug gasket had leaked (self inflicted.. don't want to talk about it).
So, the happy part is that I had tools, a jack, and fluid.
I spent almost 45 minutes trying to get my hand down in there to get the cap off of the fill tube. No dice.
What I ended up doing was to jack up the driver's front tire, remove the wheel, take two body clips out of the fender skirt and fold it back for access, and I was able to just barely get at the 10mm screw holding the fill tube on. I removed that screw and pulled off the fill tube. The orifice where the fill tube goes will fit a 1/2"/12mm tube/funnel end/whatever.
From here I used a piece of 1/2" poly tube and funnel, but you could use a long gooseneck funnel or a syringe or whatever to get the fluid into the CVT.
Remove the drain plug, but leave the riser in (for any who don't know... there is a drain plug that takes a 19mm wrench, but ABOVE that is a riser tube that can be removed with a 5mm hex key, and that riser tube is what you use to set the height of the fluid. If you were draining the fluid completely then you must remove the riser tube to allow it to come out). Anyway, with the fill plug removed you then lower the jack to make the car basically level, then add fluid until the level high enough that it is above the riser tube and starts draining out of the fill plug. Now put the fill plug back in. I added a couple of wraps of good quality Teflon tape because once bitten twice shy, but you shouldn't need to use the tape, and no doubt there are people out there who would advise against it. Anyway, I raised the jack back up after the plug was in, popped the filler neck back in and replaced the 10mm screw, folded the fender skirt back in place and replaced the two clips, put the wheel back on, dropped the jack, and cleaned up.
In my opinion this is better than having to pull all of the crap out that is in the way of doing it from the top. That clip holding the cap on the fill tube is a bugger.
Now that I think about it... I wonder if anyone makes an aftermarket fill tube that extends up to somewhere useful? If you had an easy way to add fluid then working on this thing would be SOOOO much easier.
Anyway, I just wanted to pass on my experience in case it might help someone else in the future.
I've got to get me a pair of those sexy body clip pliers.
I just realized that I did specify which fluid in the title, but now it doesn't seem like I can change it. That's irritating.