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As stated in my previous inquiries I been a victim of the transmission/radiator problem. My car eventually died out and was never able to recover from it. I have experienced the no crank/no start problem and had NISSAN TECHNICIANS claim that it was a ECM issue and wanted me to pay $1500+ to have this service done. THEY ARE WRONG. For those experiencing this problem it is a TCM problem because of a flooded valve body. I payed the copay of $2500 and had the radiator/transmisson and the valve body replaced (part of transmission) and sure enough the car started normally again. THIS IS NOT A ECM ISSUE. Best of luck with you all!
I had an external transmission cooler added that was designed and classed for the size of the Pathfinder transmission. All was fine after the addition until we had to hook up our horse trailer and deliver two horses. We had done this several times before, even with more horses involved and had never had a problem. The total weight being pulled was well within the limits of the Pathfinder.
It was warm spring day, not unusually warm, but a tad above average for Texas. About 30 miles down the road, at freeway speeds, there was a loud popping sound, a lunge forward, then in seconds the forward momentum began to rapidly slow. Before we could move to the right shoulder the vehicle shut off. Once to a complete stop, we tried to restart. The engine would not even turn over. We were absolutely dead in the water.
We were able to contact a tow truck which arrived within the hour or so. The vehicle was pulled onto the tow bed and taken to the transmission shop that had repaired the transmission. We got a ride home and awaited the verdict. Our thoughts were that the transmission had failed.
We were surprised when the transmission repair facility called and advised they did not find any issue and the Pathfinder had started just fine and there were no issues with the vehicle. They did run a scan of the computer system and had identified a strange but generalized code that identified that communication had been lost with the transmission control unit.
We quizzed what it meant by lost communication and was advised that there are several causes, but no definitive indication of the problem.
We picked up the vehicle and did not have the problem .until; we hooked up the trailer and carried a load of materials to the other side of Dallas. Guess what? The exact same issue occurred stranding my wife and two friends. I called the repair facility, and to my amazement was advised to let the transmission cool off. I called my wife and asked her to take an early lunch if there was a restaurant close by. They did, and one and a half hours later, the vehicle cranked and they were back on the road home.
We drove the Pathfinder back to the shop. The solution? A much larger cooler was added, one that was nearly 2X the one recommended and sized for the Pathfinder transmission class. We have not had the problem since.
Has anyone ever wondered why so many more Pathfinders fail while the Exterra and Frontier models, with the same design fail but in combined numbers, don’t even come close to the number Pathfinder failures. Even with the exact part in the design that is responsible for the cross contamination, the Pathfinders fail in a much greater number.
Here is my question . Could it be that the part that is failing is just the weakest link (or point) in the design, and in reality the problem is maybe excessive pressure in the transmission that is causing the failure of the part? Excessive pressures within the transmission can cause excessive heat, which is still inherent to the transmission if the transmission is repaired versus being replaced.
Could the Pathfinder transmission be a bad design? Would the part that is failing simply be a product of the excessive pressure and heat? Can anyone explain why Exterras and Frontiers don’t fail as much as Pathfinders? Can anyone explain why such a larger (oversized) cooler is required to keep the transmission cool?
We retained the valve body for an autopsy .?? Is the expert from Pennsylvania on this site?
Oh by the way, what we determined and Nissan service confirmed, when the transmission overheats, it shuts down (fail safe was how it was explained). The reason why the Pathfinder would not start is because the ECM attached to the transmission was telling the ignition system the vehicle was not in park; thus the vehicle would not start. It had to cool off first ..
Kinda like me I am way better after I cool off. Nissan seems to have the knack of keeping me from cooling off . In fact I find myself many times ‘UNRELENTING’.
I would love to see comments .??
Has anyone had luck getting radiator and/or transmission replaced for deductible without the milky antifreeze? From the service department at the dealer, this seems to be the only way they will move forward with the warranty extension offered by Nissan.
Also forgot to mention that I had a problem with the heat in the car in October 2011. Nissan dealer serviced the radiator (flushed, etc.) but did not really fix the problem. Didn't see too many other reports on the forum that mentinoed heat, but wondering if it could have predicted the eventual transmission problem.
Feedback and comments welcome please.
Don't give up , be relentless, follow through with everything.
Good luck
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/defect/results.cfm
I just flipped my 2 Wheel Drive 2005 Pathfinder on December 30th in Pa. It was a 2 wheel drive, rear wheel and I was not aware of how awful it was in the snow. I am not sure if the VDC worked, I was in 3rd gear on pure snow (they werent plowing) and fishtailed, hit both walls and a car....saved the car, 4 days later, hit a snow drift going about 40,mph, fishtailed, went into snow bank, flipped it. It is now totaled. After this ordeal with the transmission, the bad fuel pump, the failed CD player, the faulty paint job, the bad O2 sensor....I am not surprised that it drove like hell in the snow and tipped so easily. The frame did save me, however, I crawled out alive and not one cut. Good luck with this vehicle. It was a journey with that pathfinder. Amazing learning lesson on cars and corporate companies, how they work!!!
http://www.nissanatoilcoolersettlement.com/content.aspx?c=5246&sh=1
Now.... if..... you can get Nissan to pay for it, so much the better. But the point is to fix it so it will not happen again. Case closed, just do it already.
Reminds me of the "nails on the road" story: nails are all over the road... people can't drive...solution: pick them up... or... find the truck that had a box of nails break open and make him pick them up... problem: while you waste time tracking down the offender... your tires keep going flat... so... just pick them up... fix the problem once and for all... and go on with your day.
Look: these are veryvery good vehicles. Don't let this simple to fix problem "ruin your day". Unless that is your idea of fun.
I'm in the process of trying to sell my Pathfinder and the two people that have come to look at it both knew about the defect and low balled my price by $2500. For those of you owning one of these defective models... Good luck trying to sell them. Resale value has fallen like a rock.
Soon after that repair, the check engine light came on again. This time the code was for a cam sensor, again not covered by warranty. I am only acknowledging this repair to show the pattern with this vehicle.
Next was the catalytic converter. This was at around 80,000-85,000 miles. I started to wonder if the years of building top level vehicles was over at Nissan.
Which brings me to the problem I have now. Nissan apparently noticed a pattern of transmission cooler failures causing coolant to mix with the transmission fluid causing failure in the transmission as well. There is no external leakage, so if you don't know about the problem from another source, the only sign will be when the truck breaks down. I took my Pathfinder to a repair shop and was told $2000.00 to repair the transmission in addition to the new radiator and trans cooler.
There are numerous forums online with people having this same problem. Nissan extended the warranty for the radiator, but not the transmission. They also deny any manufacturing defect and I received no notice about a warranty extension. Consumers have to be made aware of these bad business practices because manufacturers will not change if we are ignorant of their tactics.
My wife’s Pathfinder just had the “Shudder” problem. With only 76k miles on it I was surprised that anything was wrong. My wife described the problems EVERYONE has complained about on the blogs.
I was able to recover our Pathfinder without much problems. Now I only have basic mechanics know how but enough to not pay an mechanic for SOME things—I am not a transmission technician!
However, I want to make sure everyone knows how to correctly FLUSH YOUR AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION with better then average success hopefully –this is what I did and have found:
1. After the radiator has been cooled (actually cold. You can get burned if you open the radiator cap when hot – caution!)
A. Open the radiator cap and see if there is any contamination of any kid. Big or small contamination should be noted. Flush your radiator and related items (over flow) thoroughly and add new anti-freeze (50/50). Make sure you use “green” anti-freeze to distinguish between other liquids.
B. I replaced the radiator cap. If it is defective the coolant will not have the pressure inside the radiator to circulate the water cooling properly and may run hotter than normal or over heat. Now food for thought. If the water over heats, will this cause the transmission heat exchanger’s o-ring to break giving you transmission/coolant contamination? Stant part number “10233” only cost me $8.55 with tax. Good insurance at a low cost! I have seen other people replace on a vehicle’s water pump, belts, ratidator, anti-freeze to only find out the problem was the radiator cap that they needed when the vehicle would over heat. Trust me the quality of Nissan’s original cap is at leat questionable. When you see the replacement you will see the difference.
2. Drain your Transmission fluid (screw available).
3. remove Transmission pan and oil filter replacement. There is aprox. 16 #10 screws on the filter.
4. Look inside the transmission pan for metal filing or similar –take a picture for future reference.
A. If it looks sort of silky it is ok or I should say it is normal to have real fine silk like material at the magnet area located at the bottom of the pan. You may be in good shape to continue with the process and “probably” be ok (silky). This is what I had.
B. If you have “metal” filing small and of big sizes. Ouch! Probably evidence of major problem. How can I give you a picture on the difference? Remember in high school science class with the metal filing and a magnet, if the metal filing are similar to that or bigger you may or may not benefit from the flush. I would save the used transmission fluid and I would filter it with a lint free cloth or similar for use just in case (you don’t have anything to loose).
Note: I have read and heard that if the transmission has less then 80k miles you may do a flush with NEW fluid without any “slippage” problem. However, if you have over 100k miles and never done a transmission oil change that you are better off not doing a flush. But you should remove and water out. I would save the old oil for reuse if there is slippage. How do I do this (moisture removal)? Let it sit in a transparent container (dry 1 gallon water contianiner is what I used) and the water will fall to the bottom or slowly boil the water out. Use Sea Foam may be better.
Notice even if you have just a bit trace of some mixture-- remove.
5. Carefully replace the transmission filter with a new one (save that one for future reference if you are to take it to the mechanic). Mine was NOT clogged I reused it. (Clean it first though).
6. Replace pan gasket and fasten the screws. Actually I reused my factory gasket, but recommend a new one—at least on the last flush.
7. Place an external transmission oil cooler if you are in an hot area BYPASSING factory radiator (junk) cooler or replace radiator. Note: It is a known fact that the cooler the transmission oil is the longer the transmission will generally last.
8. Now the most important part to me with THIS transmission (or contaminated xmission) is that you have other goodie that most transmission do not have—more on this later. I have read all sort of GOOD advice about the transmission/anti-freeze mixing (contamination) and their symptoms—get familiar with them! But I have not seen (or I missed it) on what to do if you have contamination OTHER than flushing or I should say IN ADDITION TO flushing for this transmission!
Well it is important to remove ALL humidity out of the transmission system, including the torque converter, valve body, etc. One important information that you should know about this transmission. The Transmission Control Module is located within the valve body. How crazy is that! A computer like device. One of the things that kills electronics is high temperature. Now electronics require connectors in order to communicate with other devices external to them. Water (anti-freeze or “contamination”) is another thing that is not good for comunications, so if water is in the transmission you need to get it out. Two ways to remove water out. 1. remove the transmission out and open it out. This is where I would pay a transmission technician for. Or 2. Chemically remove water out. I used SEA FOAM Trans Tune. Why? It is a conditioner, cleans gum and varnish, REMOVES MOISTURE, smooths rough and erratic shifting in automatic transmission, cleans and DRIES hydraulics. According to Sea Foam ”Trans Tune breaks moisture down into molecules and disperses it throughout the system to aid in faster evaporation” There are other products, but I would only use a product that will concentrate on moisture removal primarly and I would NOT use stop leak additive since may cause other problems down the road!
Now more on why moisture removal. You see this transmission has some electric contacts inside the unit and solenoid/relays in addition to TCM. This is an electrical/mechanical item may not work properly if contaminated. You may get intermittent shudder problems. Now if the relay activates, but may not move entirely mechanically speaking you may get intermittent shuddering symptoms. Maybe, just maybe this was partially what I had. No codes, just shudder at 5th with low load at about 40 MPH. If I accelerated, it would stop, same as other wrote on blogs
In my case I did have slight oil contamination in the RADIATOR (barely caught it) I did NOT SEE any in the bottom of the trans oil pan. Though it does not mean there wasn’t any inside the system! At approximately $4.50, good insurance not expensive.
9. I added Sea Foam Trans Tune, and 5-6 quarts of transfluid with the addition of the oil cooler.
10. After slow driving as low as 10 miles I noticed reduced shuddering and after 25-30 miles the shuddering problems had go away! I wanted to make sure I went some distance to evaporate any humidity in th
Sorry, rant is now over.
You'd have to go back in these replys to find the actual Law Firm but I know it's in New York. What I'm getting from it is that Nissan admits that "customers are unhappy" but do not admit to the faulty parts so they may just settle anyway because they are about customer satisfaction and happiness...sickening. but corporate lawyers for ya.
Currently they said they will only replace the radiator and hose but not the transmission which is unacceptable. The transmission has been compromised with running without fluid. I no longer feel safe driving the vehicle. Currently have a case open with Nissan.
Add insult to injury, the dealer have damaged my NEW Pathfinder with a nasty dent on the rear tailgate. Apparently the car was rolling backward and they had to stop it immediately and when the push on the rear it dented it. And it's not just a small dent where you can repair with paintless dent removal, it actually cracked the paint with ripples on the body which require major body work and repaint. Who moves a nearly 5000lb vehicle without someone in the vehicle to apply the breaks if necessary.
This car have less than 3500 miles, not even first oil service and already have a major failure and now body damaged by careless dealer.
First Nissan and likely last.
When it came time to go back down we shifted into low to have the engine help maintain speed and to keep from overheating the brakes. The transmission never downshifted, we tried tow mode, everything we could think of to get the transmission to downshift. In the end on a 7 mile long road we had to stop 4 times to let the brakes cool.
We called in to report our problem with Nissan, and they had us take it to the closest service center to have it checked out. The technician was very careful with his wording, and told me that it is "working as designed" which was true.
Aside from the technician I can't seem to get anyone else with Nissan to understand the issue as none of them live anywhere near mountains.
It is a serious safety issue, and I hope they fix it because I have always had good luck with Nissans in the past and I would hate to take it back over this because we really like the vehicle but as it stands we can not safely do what we purchased it for.
They will only reimburse pass $2500 according to the settlement. I'm almost positive the lawyers got paid off because they agreed to this so-called "settlement". I'm going to every news station I can about the story and I'm not stopping until I get some satisfaction, which is a new transmission & radiator without a dime out of my pocket. They are still selling these vehicles too!
what happens is these screws were forgotten to be locktited with a thread locking compound and eventually they loosen and get sucked into the pistons of the engine and destroy the engine for peace of mind- you can take it to a dealer have it done for about $200.oo to prevent it , or just chance it that yours were done or let it cost you a new engine $4,000 if it does happen to these swirl valve screws loosening . 2- one other problem with these VQ35 V6 engines , the timing chain ,after 2002 they are all timing chain not timing belts any more , the chain tentioners wear out and cause the chain to cut into metal then snap , a big expense to fix. 3- the transmission fluid goes into the radiator and ruins the transmission , this is because Nissan changed radiator venders for this to happen ,how ever the newer Nissans dont have this problem any more ,perhaps the 4 cylinders could be perfect I don't own one and I do not know how ever the V6Q35 ??? :surprise:
Nissan did note the word 'defective' in one of their formal court pleas...if you read the agreement that is being played out, you will see the word.
As for your Xterra, the best thing to do is to bypass the lines from the radiator to the transmission, cap them and add a radiator cooler. Not a big deal at all. We added one, it sits right in front of the radiator. Total cost approx $400.00 or less. Once bypassed, it is impossible to have the transmission fail as a result of intermixing the fluids.
We had a problem with our 2006 Pathfinder. When we added the cooler (sized for the transmission), it failed when pulling a trailer. What we discovered is that we needed a bigger cooler. We had a bigger one (2X) installed. Even now I think the problem is not the seal that Nissan notes as 'defective', but rather the design of the tranmission itself. I strongly feel the OEM design builds up far too much pressure and heat...thus failing at the weakest point in the design, the seal.
And yes...the same cooling transmission design is on the Xterra and Frontier, but all of those combined (Xterra and Frontiers) pale to the amount of failed Pathfinders. The Pathfinder failures are nearly 10X the combined Xterras and Frontiers (as reported) that have failed. That in itself is crazy. That is also why I think the those vehicles were included, simply not to draw attention to the poor overall design of the Pathfinder transmission.
Based upon data I have seen, the Pathfinders are failing at an average mileage of 93K. But, an average is an average...ie: many below 93K and many over 93K to create an average.
What is really needed, (unfortunately) is a safety problem. And a safety problem has to be based pretty much upon someone having an injury. I have seen scores of responses on this forum regarding what could have happened', but to date....I have not seen a verified injury related to the cross contamination. Without an instance of that, hard to get a recall, and I hope there is not an injury, but you can really lay money that Nissan North America hopes there is not an injury. That would cost them far more than this lawsuit to recall all of the vehicles and make the fix at no cost.
For us, we won't have an injury in a Pathfinder....we traded ours in. The dealer advised the vehicle would be in Europe or the Middle-East within a could of weeks. Makes one wonder.....Hmmm.
I await the final approval by the judge. I surely understand the complaints by the vehicle owners... I complained quite heavily to Nissan North America, but to no avail....as many have. So, we sued Nissan.
I am one of the named lead plaintiffs and have been at this for longer than 2 years. I applaud the Judge, and accepted the agreement....simply from a legal point of view (and it is all about the legalities), that is best one can hope short of a recall. And believe me, the auto manufactures and their legal teams are all about avoiding a recalls. And yes, I agree that Nissan was and is wrong about not admitting and informing specifically the problem. And, they are not about customer satisfaction and making things right.....after having 5 Nissan products in our garage over the last 15 years....we now have a Toyota....at least they tend to recall when they have an issue, unlike Nissan. All we can do is hope for the best and remember, we are just a sales number, not really a customer.
Peace!
I agree with this person get the external cooler
Recall ID # 10V517000 - ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING
Read more: http://www.automobilemag.com/am/2005/nissan/pathfinder/recalls.html#ixzz2Ucqogcl- v