The Not So Shining Path wrote:U P D A T E:

100% warranty coverage. I'll stay with these forums, there is a ton of great info in here.

that's terrific news!
and welcome to the forum!

Excellent news, glad to see Nissan Canada stepped up. Enjoy the road trip, haven't been down the Oregon coast since I was a kid.

Well I purchased a used 2005 Pathfinder in June 2012. One of the selling points is that the transmission was rebuilt and had a 12,000 mile warranty (yeah). Did the By Pass as soon as I got it home. It had a vibration between 40-60 mph and I thought it was the drive shaft but the company that did the rebuild said it is the motor mounts (that was an issue but I will have this replaced come spring time when I will use the truck to haul) I was out late last week and went to start the car and it did not start????? Key in...no turn over..starter would not activate... well I went through thinking I had an alarm issue but with no luck I had to have it towed home. The next morning I went through the steps. Power, Battery, starter and alarm reset. No luck! Now Key on bypass and give starter power.....it started up. I turned the key off and attemped to start with the key.. No luck.(Starter is good now it is alarm/electrical?) Well this is beyond my tool box at this time so I sent it to the dealer for them to diagnos the problem. YES it has failed and the reason is the ECU is not reading a transmission and not allowing the starter to engage. WOW never heard that before. The dealership said I will need a new radiator and transmission. (Remeber BY Pass done already) I have 7,000 miles after the rebuild. I am now going to take it back to see if they will honor the warranty. OK back to the issue mentioned about the vibration. I was told that this was an indication of the transmission not working properly. Meaning that it was attempting to go into gear but was slipping therefore vibration feeling like the drive shaft is out of balance but it went away under power (not drive shaft then). So hear are some key points to indicate failor (drive vibration, no start, check engine JL coeds)

I voted A-ok, no by-pass, then again I only have 1,500 miles on the PF.

Calicajun wrote:I voted A-ok, no by-pass, then again I only have 1,500 miles on the PF.

The radiator failure doesn't apply to 2011-and-later Pathfinders.

Just completed my bypass at 85600 miles. Had good clean/clear pink fluid. Whew...not that I was having any symptoms though.

For those hesitating to do the bypass (post warranty expiration), it's super easy. I was afraid of having to take things apart, like the front skid plate. But no, used 2 vice grips (to pinch off the hoses to minimize fluid loss) and a long pair of needle-nose (90 deg tips) to remove the clips. The hoses came right off and their curves were almost look like they were meant to be in that new configuration. Took all of 30 minutes including cleanup and putting tools away. I'm not gonna add a secondary radiator at this point since I live in the Pacific North Wet where temps rarely get above 80 in summer, and I don't tow anything larger than an occasional 8' flat bed trailer.

We bought a 2005 le 4x4 pathfinder about 8 weeks ago. We drove it for 3 weeks. It ended up in the shop at the dealership for the last 4 weeks. The tranny was shot as well as the radiator. Both were changed. The radiator is supossedly updated. I hope it is. We love the truck and dont want to get rid of it. It drives great since we got it back.

I just bought a 2006 SE 4x4 with 76.5k miles this week. I got to take it on an extended test drive before I bought it. It was fine for the first 5 miles or so. Then I started getting some slipping and jarring into gear. I already knew about the transmission failure issue. One of my friends has a 2007 and his went out twice. Evidently they only replaced the transmission the first time, so it died a few thousand miles later.

So I talked to another friend who is a service writer at the dealership and he confirmed that it is under the factory warranty extended to 80k for this particular issue. The technician who serviced it before they put it up for sale said it didn't have any issues when he drove it, but I'm thinking it never got warmed up enough when he took it out, since it drove fine for me for the first few miles.

I am taking it in on Tuesday to have the tech drive it and experience how bad it is. I feel a little crazy for buying it, but the service writer assures me that it is all covered. He even told me not to bother buying the extended warranty, since it looks like everything will be fixed before I'm out of factory warranty.

So, can I trust it if the transmission and radiator are replaced? From what I have been reading, it sounds like the same issue could come up again down the line. Should I go back for the extended warranty that will cover me up to about 100k? Should I do the bypass once it is out of warranty?

Very nice truck otherwise. I was so happy I sold my wife on the Pathfinder. She really wanted an Acadia or a Pilot.

The Machinist wrote:I just bought a 2006 SE 4x4 with 76.5k miles this week. I got to take it on an extended test drive before I bought it. It was fine for the first 5 miles or so. Then I started getting some slipping and jarring into gear. I already knew about the transmission failure issue. One of my friends has a 2007 and his went out twice. Evidently they only replaced the transmission the first time, so it died a few thousand miles later.

So I talked to another friend who is a service writer at the dealership and he confirmed that it is under the factory warranty extended to 80k for this particular issue. The technician who serviced it before they put it up for sale said it didn't have any issues when he drove it, but I'm thinking it never got warmed up enough when he took it out, since it drove fine for me for the first few miles.

I am taking it in on Tuesday to have the tech drive it and experience how bad it is. I feel a little crazy for buying it, but the service writer assures me that it is all covered. He even told me not to bother buying the extended warranty, since it looks like everything will be fixed before I'm out of factory warranty.

So, can I trust it if the transmission and radiator are replaced? From what I have been reading, it sounds like the same issue could come up again down the line. Should I go back for the extended warranty that will cover me up to about 100k? Should I do the bypass once it is out of warranty?

Very nice truck otherwise. I was so happy I sold my wife on the Pathfinder. She really wanted an Acadia or a Pilot.

welcome to the forum
as long as the symptoms are a result of the internal transmission cooler/transmission failure issue, it should be covered under the extended warranty
if that is the case, it should get a new (updated) radiator, and they will probably install a remanufactured transmission
more info here:
http://www.nissanassist.com/web/Radiato ... hp?menu=20

2005 with 106k miles, tranny failed on 12/6

05seOffRoad wrote:2005 with 106k miles, tranny failed on 12/6

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Was the failure due to a failed transmission cooler?

Disallow, yup

05seOffRoad wrote:2005 with 106k miles, tranny failed on 12/6

That really is too bad. Keep all your paper work and receipts, just in case Nissan is forced to settle.

Hello guys.

I am new on forum and thank you all for this information i read here. i buy 2005 Pathfinder in USA and vehicle is exported to Republic Of Georgia. i will receive car around Feb, so i am planning to make ByPass as my vehicle do not have any warranty anymore but i need to know if i should install extra radiator for it or not? in Republic Of Georgia we have winter around minus -25 Celsius and in summer around 45 Celsius. i do not have a caravan or anything to carry but need to be shore if i will do only bypass will be ok or do i need extra oil cooler radiator installed behind of my grill? and one more question, do any of you have aftermarket proper radiator with no chance of his happened and if you have one please can you give me the name of this radiator and i can buy it from ebay. Thank you and sorry for my bad english

First, you should not a need an additional auxilary trans cooler; the auxilary cooler installed from the factory should be just fine at cooling the ATF.

Second, radiators with integral oil cooler have been used reliably for decades, but any integral oil cooler "could" fail...just like any mechanical part "could" potentially fail. So, to say what radiator will not fail is impossible to say. What we do know is that the radiators Calsonic supplied to Nissan Pathfinders/Frontiers/Xterras made in North American have had a high rate of failure for 2005-2007 models and may include 2008 through 2010 models, if we go by the radiator warranty extension issued by Nissan. The current radiators sold by Nissan have a new part number and we assume the problem has been addressed that caused the original radiators to fail; they are expensive, though, in the $450-$550 range. Griffin Radiators makes...or was making...an all-aluminum replacement radiator for around $550, I've heard. Personally, I went with a China-made replacement radiator that I got from Parts Express on Ebay for $92. It has a lifetime warranty and appears to be well-constructed (time will tell). If fit as good as the original part. Trans fluid should operate in the 175-200 degree F. range. Personally, I feel radiator replacement and using the radiator's integral cooler as it was originally designed is the best way to go, especially in colder climates, but there are many others who don't feel the same way and prefer to just bypass the integral cooler. It's really your choice which way you want to go.