CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2005-2007 Pathfinder appears to have a widespread defect where coolant leaks into the transmission, causing transmission failure around 90,000 miles. Repair costs are typically upwards of $3,500.
According to the New York Times & a class action lawsuit, the defect actually extends through 2010 model year. More info here.
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
4 / 1
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
103,399 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Transmission failed due to faulty radiator in our 2007 Nissan Pathfinder. Our 17 year old son was driving on a very busy interstate late Sunday June 16th, 2013. The car's transmission failed suddenly with no known notice. Luckily he was able to steer of the side of the road until assistance could come. This is an issue that Nissan is definitely aware of. They will not recall these radiators while fully knowing that the transmission of all 2005 through 2010 Pathfinders will eventually fail leaving their consumers at a safety risk. The replacement of all radiators and transmissions are only covered up to 80,000 miles or 8 years, whichever comes first. After that, the consumer is on the hook for repairs. Please help to have these radiators recalled!
My Nissan Pathfinder radiator coolant leaked into the transmission, I got an extend warranty and now the extended warranty is not covering it due to radiator coolant leaked to the transmission and it not a cover benefit now I'm screw.
At about 50 to 60 mph the transmission downshifts constantly to a lower gear and the RPM shoots up to 4000 or so, I have to accelerate to 75 for it to give me a higher gear. These happens to me constantly.
The contact owns a 2007 Nissan Pathfinder. The contact stated that when driving over 45 mph, the vehicle would hesitant upon acceleration. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for diagnosis. The technician stated that the radiator was leaking fluid into the transmission. The technician stated that the radiator and the transmission would have to be replaced. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 150,000.
The radiator and transmission has appeared to fail in my Nissan the radiator started to leak several months ago and I finally had to replace the radiator and now the transmission has started fail. The car has been well cared for and both the radiator and the transmission appear to be failing well before a normal radiator and transmission should.
- Naperville, IL, USA
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Vehicle's transmission started slipping at certain speeds. Got a trans flush hoping it would improve. Problem returned. Service engine light came on. Took to garage and had a new wiring harness put on. Problem returned. Got stranded and had vehicle towed. Determined that coolant was in the transmission fluid. Huge repair bill. Part of the class action suit now but am still out $2500. Probably started occurring before 80,000 miles and had I been more investigative at that time, bill would have been covered because it was under 80,000. Now it's over that amount and I am out of luck. Huge disappointment in Nissan!
Transmission starting slipping then started jerking while driving then it started overheating. Took it to a Nissan dealership because I bought the extended warranty that was supposed to cover the powertrain. They told me that the cooler cracked which caused the radiator fluid to leak into the tranmission and messed up the radiator, which is not covered by the powertrain warranty because the radiator cooler was not part of it. The dealership wants to charge over $6000 to fix it.
My wife was driving our 2007 Nissan Pathfinder and as she pulled away from a stop sign she felt the transmission slipping. A month earlier we took the vehicle to a shop for a transmission flush and the mechanic told me that it looked like chocolate milk and the engine coolant had mixed with the transmission fluid. He performed the flush and now we were having trouble with the vehicle again. I called the local Nissan dealer and they told me that it was a common problem with this model and could be fixed and all I would have to pay was a deductible which was cheaper than replacing the transmission. I asked how much was the deductible, foolishly thinking that it would be around $500, and they said it would be $3000. I asked why wasn't this treated as a recall and was not given a straight answer. Just the typical bs that Nissan extended the warranty because they "stand behind their product". ultimately I took it to my mechanic who replaced the radiator and flushed it out. It's working now but I'm sure I will have trouble once again. I don't know how I will get rid of this vehicle and I still owe. I will never buy a Nissan and will bad mouth this company to everyone.
Transmission failure while driving in traffic. Caused by ruptured coolant line, coolant mixed with atf. Replaced radiator and flushed transmission, but damage was already done.
We noticed the Nissan starting to jerk on the frwy and service engine light came on. Took it immediately to the mechanic they gave me bad news appearantly the transmission had radiator fluid in it. He said he had seen this problem before many times his exact word were the way Nissan designed this particular vehicle causes this. My mechanic had to replace radiator flush the whole system put new fluids in total cost $976.oo he advised me to take it to a transmission shop because he said it needed to be looked at by a specialist since he could not guarantee it would not happen again or if even the transmssion would work. Well it worked but the service engine light came on on the way to the transmission shop once they got done with it and replaced everythin that needed to be fixed on the inside of the transmission I paid $3227.49. According to everything I read this can hapen to the Pathfinder without any prior problems. We took pretty good care of ours was a great vehicle till we had to dish out almost 5K after we had just paid it off. I will never buy Nissan again!
After a 90K mile check-up and full service in spring 2012, I understood that my Pathfinder was running well. Never was there a mention of issues with the radiator / transmission, nor was the connection between these elements replaced to prevent an issue (to my knowledge.) at 101K miles, the heat went out in the rear section of the car (I did not realize this until two months had gone by and I was arguing with my freezing child in the back seat that I had his heat as hot as it would go - he was clearly correct and the rear blowers were blasting him with icy air.) there was a "clunk" upon shifting the car into reverse, and between 40 and 60 mph the transmission lagged and sounded like it was grinding and working hard. At 106K I brought the Pathfinder to the Nissan dealer where I had originally purchased the car. This was the same dealer who had done the 90K service, as well. They determined that the radiator fluid had mixed with the transmission fluid and that my car needed both a new radiator and transmission for $9,000. (my truck is maybe worth $15,000 at this point - really?) after deliberating with the service supervisor, he offered an alternate option of only changing the radiator and flushing the transmission several times to eliminate the contaminated fluid. I gave the ok for this service option at $600. Since the service, my transmission is still lagging between 40 and 60 mph and the "clunk" still happens during a slow reverse. I am now investigating my options for a new transmission as the vehicle is still in beautiful shape, other than its engine issues. It is my belief that this issue is wide-spread enough that the transmissions and radiator should be recalled and replaced by Nissan - or paid for by Nissan since it's their faulty parts that cause the problem.
While driving on street around 2 pm, the car just lost its power and I end up stuck in the middle of the street with my 2 kids at the back seats, the car wont moved and I need to call for help so the other driver helped me push the car on the side of the street. Tow truck arrived and towed my car to the nearest shop and found out that it was the transmission mixed with water coming from the radiator. It cost 2800 for everything. The current miles when this incidents happened is 111200.
2007 Nissan Pathfinder...we started experiencing transmission issues(slipping) while on highways at speeds of 65 to 70 causing vehicle to loose gear/power. In most of the incidents our vehicle was loaded with my kids and wife and were forced to immediately pulled off the freeway to avoid being rear-ended(causing accident). We experienced 4 incidents in 2012 when vehicle had over 75000 miles. Latest costly incident took place 3 weeks ago..my wife lost power again as driving off freeway, pulled into a shopping center, turned car off....allowed a few minutes and tried starting it again but it was completely dead, no cranking at all. Local shop diagnosed issues with electrical computer unit and transmission....got alarmed, searched online for possible recalls/defects.sure enough I found many links to complaints and class lawsuit in 2012. I contacted dealer...two dealer diagnostics reflected a bad body control module(computer unit) and bad transmission due to radiator fluid into transmission....I already new this. Reading complaints online it appears that these two issues are associated with the recall/defects but dealer is treating the two separately costing me over $3400. I will challenge them on treating these two as separate issues. Why Nissan has failed to notified customers about these issues/defects" these failures could have caused us an accident! proper notification from Nissan could have save us these $3400+ in repairs. Why is Nissan waiting until vehicles are completely out of service? why do us, consumers have to cover part of their mis-engineering" I highly recommend an investigation against Nissan and make them accountable....my family cannot afford to pay for their mistakes and negligence!
The contact owns a 2007 Nissan Pathfinder. The contact stated that the vehicle stalled without warning. The vehicle was towed to a transmission mechanic where a diagnostic was performed. The technician stated that the failure was located at the radiator which had cracked and allowed coolant to enter the transmission. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure and current mileage was 149,000.
There is a known defect in the radiator/radiator coolers in the '05, '06 and '07 Nissan Pathfinders which causes the radiator and the transmission to fail. Please help with a recall on this problem, several of the folks still have a payment on the vehicles. You can see all of the problems that folks are having. Thanks, terry please try to do all you can for all of us, I can't see that Nissan can get by with this. They are just to replace the defect parts.
When slowing down or speeding up between about 30-50 mph, the vehicle transmission felt like it was slipping. After much research and several hundred dollars of work come to find out that the radiator is faulty causing cross-contamination between engine coolant and transmission fluid. I am aware there is an ongoing investigation into this matter as well as a class action law suit pending. I have spent significant money to troubleshoot and replace what was needed (radiator and multiple transmission flushes) and feel I should be reimbursed as well as have a more thorough inspection and additional repair/replacement if needed. I am concerned that the engine is now damaged due to transmission fluid being in there and possibly the transmission. Both of which may be future problems that materialize down the road. Something should be done to make this right for the many Nissan customers.
Basically there is a manufacturer defect with the radiator/cooling system. We bought our Nissan from BMW of reading (pa) in Aug of 2012 and shortly after it started to slip. Long story short the mechanic at aamco said the coolant fluid mixed with the trans fluid which ruined the trans. You know the story as this has happened to everyone I know with a 2005-2010 Pathfinder that has 70-100K miles on it. Please come down on these idiots from Nissan and make them do a recall, this is a safety issue in contrary to Nissan bogus extension of warranty from 60 to 80K miles. This seizes up in a busy high speed intersection and someone dies what then?
I bought a 2007 Pathfinder from a very reputable used car business, carmax almost 3 years ago. They are very well known in the area for thoroughly checking their vehicles before reselling. It had approx 59K miles on it and I've loved it until recently. I started experiencing heating problems awhile ago but my mechanic couldn't find anything wrong - he even checked the radiator. A few months ago, the transmission would shudder occasionally when I reached about 40 mph. At first it was very minor, I actually thought it was maybe grooves in the road, etc but the issue got worse. I brought it to the dealer and was told I need a new radiator and transmission - this is a widespread problem. I was also told flushing the transmission probably wouldn't help. The radiator is going to cost me $913 and because this is such a widespread problem, a new transmission was the only thing they could find at $7400! I still owe on this vehicle and am wondering how will I ever trade this in or even afford to fix it. Nissan won't help in any way, even by discounting the labor and parts and the class action settlement won't help either because my Pathfinder has 109K miles on it - 9K over the extended warranty Nissan issued. What a disaster. I'm a single mom with a young daughter and a mother I care for. I recently took my family to visit my sister in West Virginia, you know - mountains. Imagine if something would've happened then. I had no idea all of this was going on and am now terrified to drive it. I've never received notification from Nissan that there was a potential issue - I would've brought it to the dealer immediately and been covered for repairs!!! this is a nightmare and Nissan should be held responsible in some way. Why aren't they standing behind their product at all!! do a couple of hundred people have to get hurt before something is done?
I took my 2007 Nissan Pathfinder to the dealer to have the brakes worked on and while there they performed a multi point vehicle inspection. From this inspection they informed me that there was cross contamination of the coolant and transmission fluid due to a failed transmission cooler. They indicated that damage had already started and it would only be a short time before the transmission failed completely so I needed to replace the radiator and transmission under the extended warranty and there would be a $3,000 deductible cost. In talking with the dealership service personnel and researching online it is clear that this is a common problem and obviously a design failure which could be a safety issue if the transmission fails while driving due to this known problem. My family and I are thankful that just by chance the brakes needed work otherwise my wife and kids could have been driving and been at risk of potential injury if the transmission failed unexpectedly as has been reported by other Nissan Pathfinder vehicle owners. Due to the number of failures that has occurred it is irresponsible for Nissan to just extend the warranty instead of taking a proactive approach and actually notifying their customers of the problem and fixing the known problem under a voluntary recall. I urge the NHTSA to initiate an investigation and hold Nissan responsible for their design failure and protect the public from the potential safety risk by forcing a mandatory recall to fix the problem instead of just waiting for failure which puts the consumer at risk.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Hockessin, DE, USA