On this page
- The one-line answer
- Why "rebuild kit" means four different things
- The tiered kit structure, side by side
- Inside the overhaul kit
- The friction and steel kits
- Filters, sealing rings and the part numbers behind them
- The hard parts that are never in a kit
- The flow control valve
- Symptom to component
- Fluid and fastener reference for the job
- The completeness checklist
- What no kit fixes
- Sources and frequently asked questions
Buy a "complete rebuild kit" for this transmission and you will receive a box that is complete for one job and empty for another. That is not a supplier problem; it is a naming problem, and it costs rebuilders more money on this family than any single failed part. This page is the contents list we keep next to the bench — what each kit level actually holds, which part numbers are industry-wide and which are catalogue-specific, and the five items you should verify before the carton is sealed.
What this page gives you
- The four products all sold as a "rebuild kit", separated so you can order the one you need.
- The tiered kit structure used across the trade, and the exact wear part each step adds.
- The item-by-item contents of the overhaul, friction and steel kits.
- A part-number reference for the filters, sealing rings, gaskets and the flow control valve.
- The hard parts no kit includes, plus the ones people forget and then blame the kit for.
- A completeness checklist to run before you confirm the part.
01The one-line answer
If you only read one line: a JF015E kit is defined by what it does not contain. The seals, gaskets and rings are the cheap part of the job and they are almost always in the box. The valve body, the pulley and belt set, the solenoids and the fluid are the expensive part of the job and they are almost never in the box — regardless of what the listing calls itself.
So the useful question is never "is this a complete kit". It is: which components am I replacing on this unit, and does the kit cover that list? Everything below is organised to answer exactly that.
02Why "rebuild kit" means four different things
The confusion is not marketing noise. The trade genuinely sells four distinct products, and they exist because rebuilders work to different scopes. A workshop chasing a leaking pan gasket needs almost none of it; a shop rebuilding a burnt unit needs all of it plus hard parts.
| Product name you will see | What it is in practice | Typical contents | Who buys it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overhaul kit (also "gasket and seal kit", "overhaul gasket kit") | The sealing layer only | Paper gaskets, O-rings, lip seals, metal-clad seals, Teflon sealing rings | Anyone opening the unit at all |
| Friction kit | Clutch plates only | The friction discs for the forward, reverse and high/low clutch packs | Burnt clutches, slipping complaints |
| Steel kit | Separator plates only | Precision-stamped steel plates matched to the friction set | Always with a friction kit |
| Master kit | All three of the above, boxed together | Overhaul + friction + steel | Full rebuild of a worn unit |
Two practical consequences. First, a master kit is a scope description, not a quality description — two master kits from different sources can contain very different sealing-ring counts. Second, if a listing says "master rebuild kit" and lists only gaskets, it is an overhaul kit under a bigger word.
03The tiered kit structure, side by side
Over the sealing, friction and steel layers sits the tiered kit — the structure most aftermarket catalogues use for this family. It is worth understanding because it maps almost exactly onto the real sequence of failure on a CVT7, and because the jump between tiers is where the money and the risk both sit.
| Kit level | Contents | What it is for | What still is not in the box |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry tier (usually named for a metal — bronze on most catalogue sheets) | Overhaul kit, internal filter, external filter, pump flow control valve | A hydraulic-focused repair: pressure loss, delayed engagement, low pump output, contaminated fluid | Friction and steel plates, pulley piston, bearing, belt, torque converter |
| Middle tier (silver) | Everything in the entry tier, plus the primary pulley piston | Adds the piston that loads the primary pulley — the one that leaks once the seals harden | Friction and steel plates, input bearing, belt, torque converter |
| Top tier (gold) | Everything above, plus input bearing, push belt and torque converter (belt and converter chosen against the transmission code) | A belt-and-cone-level rebuild following confirmed belt or cone wear | The valve body, the pulley set as a pair, the solenoids, the oil pump, the fluid |
A top-tier kit that includes "an OE belt" still leaves the cones out. The belt and the pulley cone faces wear as a matched pair, so a kit that ships a new belt but reuses a scored or glazed cone set puts a fresh belt against a worn surface. On this family that is a short path back to the same judder. If the tiers are described as belt-inclusive, ask explicitly what happens to the cone surface.
04Inside the overhaul kit — the gasket and seal pack
This is the layer every other kit is built on, and on this transmission it is where most repeat failures are born. The CVT7 runs a compact, high-pressure hydraulic circuit with a two-speed auxiliary gearbox, so there are more sealing interfaces than the small case suggests.
| Component group | What it seals | Why it fails on this unit |
|---|---|---|
| Oil pan gasket | The pan-to-case joint | Compression set and heat cycling; reuse after a pan-off job is the classic shortcut that leaks |
| Gasket and seal pack for the sub-assemblies | Case halves, cover plates and internal sub-assemblies | Paper gaskets embrittle with thermal cycles and stop sealing channels the unit cannot report |
| Rubber O-rings | Hydraulic circuit cross-joints, filter housing, sensor housings | Hardening; an O-ring that has taken a set will not reseal on reassembly |
| Lip seals and metal-clad oil seals | Input and output shaft, and rotating interfaces | Lip wear and shaft-speed heat; the seal is cheap and the leak is not |
| Lathe-cut Teflon (PTFE) sealing rings | Rotating shaft galleries under pressure | The highest-pressure seals in the pack — worn rings bleed line pressure straight into the pulley circuit |
That last row deserves emphasis. Pressure bleed-off through worn sealing rings on the pulley shaft presents exactly like a tired valve body — ratio hunting, delayed engagement, a car that feels slow off the line — and a valve body swap will not touch it. If a kit is being chosen to fix a pressure complaint, the ring count in that kit is the number to check.
05The friction and steel kits — and why they are a pair
The CVT7 is not a belt-only transmission. It carries a two-speed planetary auxiliary gearbox with its own clutch and brake elements, plus the forward and reverse clutch packs. That is where friction material actually lives on this unit, and it is why a "CVT" rebuild still involves clutch plates.
| Kit | What is in it | Paired with | Failure signature that calls for it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friction kit | The friction discs for the forward, reverse and high/low elements | The steel kit, always | Burnt or glazed friction facings; dark, varnished fluid with a burnt odour |
| Steel kit | Precision-stamped steel separator plates matched to the friction set | The friction kit, always | Heat discolouration, dishing or drag on the released plates |
| Master kit | Overhaul + friction + steel in one box | — | A complete rebuild of a high-mileage or overheated unit |
Two rules we will not bend on. The friction and steel sets are replaced together — a new friction disc against a polished or dished steel plate will not hold its designed coefficient of friction, and the pack will behave like a worn one from day one. And steel plate flatness is a real inspection, not a formality: a plate that has dished will drag after release and heat the pack it was meant to release.
06Filters, sealing rings and the part numbers behind them
Filters and small seals are the part of a kit that buyers most often treat as interchangeable. On this family they are not: there is an internal filter and an external cartridge, and the external housing carries its own O-ring that is frequently sold separately.
| Item | OE reference numbers | Industry / kit reference | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internal filter (steel) | 31728-3JX0A, 31728-3JX0B, 31728-3JX0C, 31728-3TX0A | Trade numbers 73575KA; filter kit reference 33010-JF015 | Inlet length is listed as 1.062 in on the main filter catalogues |
| Auxiliary filter | — | Trade number 73575KB | Listed as a separate line on master kits — easy to miss when buying items individually |
| External cartridge filter | — | Shared with the adjacent RE0F10D application | Housing-to-case O-ring: internal diameter 45.2 mm, thickness 2 mm, normally a separate line |
| Oil pan gasket | 31397-3JX0A | Rubber gasket grades listed as nitrile 22G784 and 05G784 | Rubber, not paper, on the better kits |
| Sealing rings | 31726-28X0A, 31726-3JX0A | — | Included in the overhaul kit; check the count against your teardown sheet |
| Pump bushing | — | Trade number 73888B | Listed as an individual line on master kits, not an overhaul-kit item |
On part numbers: the OE references above are the ones we verify against Nissan's own numbering structure and against the filter catalogues that publish cross-references. Where a catalogue quotes a trade number rather than an OE number, we list both rather than implying they are the same thing. Always let the number on the part you removed arbitrate.
07The hard parts that are never in a kit
This is the list that decides most JF015E repair scope, and it is the list buyers most often assume is included. It is not — on any kit tier, from any source.
| Hard part | Reference numbers | Why it is sold separately |
|---|---|---|
| Valve body assembly | 31705-X429B / X429C / X429D (US), 31705-3JX8A (international), 31705-3JX5D (open coil); kit 3170E-X427D / X427E | Versioned independently of the transmission; buyers must select the right stream |
| Pulley and belt set | 31214-3JX9B (29-tooth primary), 31214-X429D (30-tooth primary) | The tooth count differs by market stream — a pair cannot be generic |
| Push belt | 901072, 901068 | Matched to the cone set in the unit being rebuilt |
| Solenoids | 31941-3KX1A; kit references 31941-1XF0A, 31941-1XZ0A, 31941-30X0A to 30X0C | Sold by position and by cap type — open versus closed coil |
| Oil pump | 31340-X420B; pump kit 31340-X429E | Pump body wear is a separate judgement from seal wear |
| Oil cooler | 21606-3JX2B, 21606-3JX0A | Replaced when debris has circulated — a new unit plumbed to a contaminated cooler is a repeat failure |
| Fluid | Nissan CVT fluid NS-3 only (NS-2 for the 2012 Versa) | Never in a kit; never interchangeable between the two specifications |
Note the shape of that table. The parts in it are the ones that actually fail on a CVT7 — the belt and cones, the valve body, the pump. A kit is the consumables layer around them. Treating a top-tier kit as "everything I need" is the single most expensive misreading of this family.
08The flow control valve — the wear item the cheapest kits leave out
Of everything in the consumables layer, the pump flow control valve is the one that earns its place in a rebuild most often, and it is the easiest to leave out when you buy items separately rather than as a tiered kit.
Its job is to regulate pump output. Once the spool and its bore wear, pump volume leaks away to the low-pressure side, and the symptoms are the classic trio this transmission is known for: push-belt slippage, delayed engagement and low pump volume. Because that is also what a tired valve body looks like, the flow control valve is regularly replaced after a valve body that did not fix the complaint.
The valve is available as a drop-in replacement, and as an oversized version for units where the bore itself has worn past a drop-in fix — the oversized route requires reaming the bore to restore circularity, with the matching tooling. It is catalogued for the JF011E, JF015E, JF016E, JF017E and JF019E families, and also for the Mitsubishi F1CJA and F1CJB applications.
Decision rule we use: if a vacuum test at the pump ports fails to hold, or the bore shows visible wear, the valve is part of the job. If neither is true, it is optional — but on a unit that is already apart, it is the cheapest insurance in the build.
09Symptom to component: what to actually put in the cart
Kits are sold by contents; jobs are decided by symptoms. This is the mapping we work from when a rebuild scope has to be set before anything is opened.
| Symptom or finding | Most likely component | Kit level that covers it |
|---|---|---|
| Delayed engagement, low line pressure, no obvious mechanical wear | Sealing rings, valve body, pump flow control valve | Entry tier (plus a valve body if the code history points there) |
| Judder or shudder under light acceleration | Belt and cone faces, or valve body pressure control | Top tier if the cones are worn; valve body if the codes are pressure codes |
| Burnt-fluid smell, dark varnish, glazed plates | Friction and steel packs | Master kit |
| Metal paste or bright flakes in the drained fluid | Belt, cone faces, bearing surfaces | Stop — teardown decision first, then a top tier plus hard parts |
| Shock or wrong shift point between roughly 20 and 45 mph | Auxiliary gearbox clutch point learning, not a worn part | No kit — this is a calibration job |
| Slow leak at the pan or the filter housing | Pan gasket, external filter housing O-ring | Overhaul kit plus filters |
That third-from-last row is the reason we ask for a fluid sample photograph rather than a symptom description alone. Metal in the fluid changes the answer from "consumables layer" to "teardown and hard parts", and no kit decision should be made before that question is settled.
10Fluid and fastener reference for the job
A kit does not include fluid, and fluid is where this family is least forgiving. These are the figures we work to, with the source noted where one exists. Where a value could not be confirmed from more than one credible source, we say so and tell you to take it from the vehicle's own documentation rather than printing a number.
| Item | Value | Source basis |
|---|---|---|
| Fluid specification | Genuine Nissan CVT Fluid NS-3 only; the 2012 Versa is the documented exception that uses NS-2. NS-2 and NS-3 are not interchangeable | Nissan service documentation and multiple independent rebuild sources agree |
| Total fluid capacity | Listed as 6.9 L (7 1/4 US qt) in the CVT7 service introduction; independent references give 7.0–7.5 L | Sources differ — treat the fill as an overflow-level procedure, not a volume |
| Typical drain-and-refill quantity | Approximately 3 L (3.2 US qt) per fill cycle | Consistent across service documentation |
| Level-check fluid temperature | 35–45 °C (95–113 °F) at the overflow tube | Nissan fill procedure |
| Drain plug torque | 34.3 N·m at final tightening; overflow tube 3.5 N·m | CVT7 service introduction |
| Oil pan and strainer bolts | 7.9 N·m (70 in-lb) on the adjacent RE0F11B procedure, using a new pan gasket | Nissan bulletin for the wide-ratio sibling — confirm against your ESM for a RE0F11A unit |
| Valve body / solenoid mounting bolts | Take the figure from the vehicle's own service manual | No single published value we could verify across sources — we will not print a guess |
Two honest gaps: the total fill capacity is stated differently by different sources because it is temperature- and drain-method dependent — use the overflow procedure. And the valve body bolt torque on this family is scattered across aftermarket notes with conflicting numbers; the service manual figure is the only one we will stand behind. Anything else on this page is cross-checked across more than one source.
11The completeness checklist: five things to verify before the carton is sealed
Run this before you confirm any kit, ours included. It takes two minutes and it prevents the most common repeat job on this transmission.
| # | Check | Pass condition |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sealing ring count | The kit's ring count matches your teardown sheet, not just the listing description |
| 2 | Both filters present | Internal filter and auxiliary filter, plus the external cartridge and its housing O-ring if that is being disturbed |
| 3 | Pan gasket material | Rubber gasket rather than paper, and a new drain plug gasket in the box |
| 4 | Friction and steel are matched | If you are buying plates, both sets come from the same matched application — not mixed across suppliers |
| 5 | Version confirmed against the housing | Any hard part in the order is selected against the code stamped on the transmission, not the vehicle badge |
Where a kit fails check 1 or 2, that is not a negotiation — it is a different kit. Where it fails check 5, the whole order has to be re-confirmed against the correct version before anything ships.
12What no kit fixes
- A worn cone set. If the pulley faces are scuffed, glazed or bell-mouthed, a new belt against them will not restore ratio control.
- A contaminated cooler. Debris that is already in the cooler circuit will circulate into the fresh unit. The cooler is part of the repair, not an accessory to it.
- A calibration problem. If the complaint is a shift shock or a wrong shift point, the fix is a relearn procedure on a scan tool, not a part.
- A misidentified unit. A kit for the wide-ratio sibling will not make a wide-ratio transmission behave like a JF015E. The housing stamp decides the family.
- A wrong fluid. NS-3 only, and the 2012 Versa is the exception. Generic ATF is not a cost saving on this transmission.
Everything else — the seals, the plates, the filters, the rings, the flow control valve — is genuinely covered by a correctly chosen kit. The value in the kit comes from choosing the tier that matches your actual failure, not from buying the largest box available.
The kit composition and tier structure on this page are cross-checked against our own bench records and against the tiered rebuild-kit composition published by independent aftermarket catalogues for the JF015E / RE0F11A family, and against a master-kit breakdown that itemises the overhaul, friction and steel layers separately. Filter and sealing part numbers are cross-checked against two independent filter catalogues quoting OE references 31728-3JX0A / 31728-3JX0B / 31728-3JX0C and the 33010-JF015 kit reference, plus a valve-body catalogue listing the pan gasket and sealing-ring numbers. The flow control valve fitment and the drop-in versus oversized distinction come from the manufacturer's own valve listings. Fluid specification, capacity, drain quantity and drain plug torque are taken from the CVT7 service introduction; the pan bolt figure comes from the Nissan bulletin for the adjacent wide-ratio unit and flagged as such rather than presented as a RE0F11A figure. Where sources conflict — total capacity, and valve body bolt torque — we say so instead of choosing a number. Nothing here replaces the code stamped on your own transmission housing or the documentation for your own vehicle.
13Sources and frequently asked questions
Does a JF015E master rebuild kit include the valve body?
No. A master kit is the overhaul (gasket and seal) kit plus the friction kit plus the steel kit. The valve body, the pulley and belt set, the solenoids, the oil pump and the fluid are all separate purchases at every kit level. If a listing appears to include a valve body, check whether it is being offered as a bundle rather than a kit, and confirm the valve body version separately.
What is the difference between an overhaul kit and a rebuild kit?
An overhaul kit is the sealing layer — gaskets, O-rings, lip seals, metal-clad seals and sealing rings. A rebuild kit is a broader term that, depending on the catalogue, may add filters and the pump flow control valve, and at higher tiers the pulley piston, bearing, belt and torque converter. In the trade the tiered rebuild kits are the ones that add wear parts step by step, which is why the level matters more than the word.
Do I need to replace the friction and steel plates at the same time?
Yes. The friction discs and the steel separator plates work as a matched set. A new friction disc running against a polished, dished or heat-discoloured steel plate will not hold its designed friction coefficient, and the pack behaves like a worn one. Replace both sets or neither.
How many filters does the JF015E have?
There is an internal filter and an auxiliary filter, and separately an external cartridge filter. The internal filter is catalogued under OE references 31728-3JX0A, 31728-3JX0B, 31728-3JX0C and 31728-3TX0A, with the trade number 73575KA and kit reference 33010-JF015. The auxiliary filter is listed separately as 73575KB on master kits, which is why it is easy to omit when buying items individually. The external cartridge shares its reference with the adjacent RE0F10D application, and its housing-to-case O-ring (45.2 mm internal diameter, 2 mm thick) is normally a separate line.
Should a rebuild kit include the pump flow control valve?
The tiered kits normally include it at every level, and it is worth having. A worn flow control valve lets pump pressure leak to the low-pressure side and produces exactly the symptoms people attribute to a tired valve body — belt slippage, delayed engagement, low pump volume. Units with bore wear need the oversized version and a reaming operation rather than the drop-in part, which is a separate decision from the kit.
What fluid goes in a JF015E after a rebuild?
Genuine Nissan CVT Fluid NS-3 only, with the 2012 Versa being the documented exception that uses NS-2. The two specifications are not interchangeable, and generic ATF is not a substitute. The CVT7 service introduction states a total capacity of 6.9 L, but independent references give 7.0 to 7.5 L because the figure depends on temperature and drain method — so set the level by the overflow procedure at 35 to 45 degrees Celsius rather than by volume.
Can I buy just the gaskets and seals?
Yes — that is the overhaul kit, and it is a legitimate purchase on its own for a job that is not going deeper. Just be clear about what it excludes: no friction or steel plates, no filters on some listings, and no hard parts. If the complaint involves pressure loss or judder rather than a leak, the overhaul kit alone is unlikely to be the answer.
How do I know which kit level my job needs?
Work backwards from the failure. A leak or a general reseal needs the overhaul layer. A pressure complaint points at the sealing rings, the valve body and the flow control valve. A judder with clean fluid usually points at pressure control, while a judder with worn cones needs the belt-and-cone level. Burnt fluid and glazed plates call for a master kit. Send us the housing code, the fault codes and a photograph of the drained fluid, and we will confirm the scope and the part in writing before anything ships. Minimum order is one piece.