Noise with CVT

Can anyone who owned/owns a 2013ish 1.6 petrol with CVT tell me how they are supposed to sound?

I have just purchased one secondhand and I am worried the whining is a symptom of a problem, although the salesman I bought it from tells me it's normal with a metal-belt driven transmission.

The 1.6 engine is SO quiet I cannot hear any engine noise whatsoever from within the cabin, so it's probably making the CVT noise more apparent.

Basically the noises I am hearing are
a) at low speeds, typically 10-20 mph, if I gently rev I hear a wooo wooo kind of siren noise (the classic turbo siren type of noise)
b) If I ram my foot down for a 0-60mph type takeoff, it sounds like a jet engine/dentists drill until up to about 50mph.   I don't hear any other noises so maybe this is what the engine itself sounds like rather than the CVT??

Reading a few reviews of the newer CVTs they say they are not as "whiny" and noisy as the predecessors, which implies the older version was whiny and noisy

Googling CVT whine mentions it could be a problem if you start to get an audible whine at higher speed (fluid overheating etc), but my whine is at low speeds both cold and hot.

It was only serviced at Nissan for it's 3rd service about 7 weeks ago by the previous owner and had a clean bill of health. I rang that dealer and was told they don't do CVT fluid checks till 54K miles (mines done 38K), so if it's a problem with low/bad fluid it's not an issue that will be checked for another 12 months.

I finally got around to making a video of the "noise" my CVT makes.  Can someone else with a 1.6 petrol CVT tell me if it's similar...

I wouldn't say it's an adverse noise as such, just annoying to my sensitive ears, and to me it sounds exactly like the brochure description...


It’s the sound of innovation
Because the CVT is different than a traditional automatic transmission, it sounds different than a traditional automatic transmission. It emits a distinctive, almost "high-tech" sounding single transmission tone that changes pitch as the transmission cycles up and down the gear ratios.


You gotta love those guys in marketing. CVT makes an annoying noise as it's a steel belt on a steel pulley, so lets call it the sound of innovation. I think another manufacturer using the same CVT compares it to "spaceship-like".

In fact if you whizz this video onto 2:40 when they start it up, you can see the CVT in action making quite a bit of similar noise...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c47caRqbbnE