allisojh,

Budr is the only one I've heard of having issues, whereas I have heard literally dozens of people on this website alone, not to mention ClubFrontier, x.nissan, etc, etc, complain about contaminated trans fluid.

Also keep in mind that Budr also installed his tranny temp gauge at the same time, something most of us have not done (yet). From my interpretation of the posts and pics Budr has put up, this was the reason he had an issue. However it was moot because his trans was contaminated before he did the bypass.

Budr, correct me if I am wrong...

t

Well I did a lil lookin today and found that my trans did go through the rad......so I bypassed it . It was easy as pie and didnt require any extra parts . Just had to take off the short hose on the pass side ( it has a barbed conector half way up the side of the rad ).and cut the long one in half , run it to the barbed fitting and replaced the factory clamp.

Thats exactly what I was going to do tomorrow morning, then put 2 vacuum caps on the radiator.

I guess what I am worried about now is having tranny oil run out all over the place but I hear there isn't much.

i plan on doing the bypass in the morning when the car has sat all night. i am hoping any tranny oil will be in the tank.

Correct?

What was the order by which you removed the hoses?

This is how I kind of planned it out following what the Freak just posted. For those that have completed the bypass, does this look right? From everything I have read and seen on here, this looks to be correct. If not, say it now before I F it up!!

I attached a pic below. its obviosly not to scale but it shows the loop and which hose I plan to eliminate.

This is how I did it...........First off im a big guy so getting under my pathy is a tight fit. I jacked up the truck so I had more room to work.
Once you have the skid plate removed you can lay there and get a good look at things. You will see 2 lines on the bottom of the rad.....the one on the pass side will go about 1/2 way up the side of the rad and you will see a clip that holds the line from floping around.....right above that point you will see 2 clamps ( this is where I made my connection).

Once you have seperaited the line on the pass side of the rad you can remove it from the bottom of the rad and put it to the side.

Next you will see the long line that goes to the bottom drivers of the rad.....this is the one you will cut to shorten.

Take it loose from the rad and run it up to the barbed fitting so you can see where you need to cut it.....be careful to NOT put any hard bends or kinks in the line.

Once it has been cut to the desired length slide a clamp back on the line and reconnect it at the barb fitting.

You can slip the line back into the retaining clip on the side and it looks factory.

Now just cap the nipples in the rad and put everything back together.

TIP.......if you jack the truck up under the frame on the pass side just under the front door it will give you room in the fener well to reach in and pull the splash gaurd back enough to see the line on the side of the rad easier......this was how I got to the clamp to remove and replace it.

Thanks Freak!!!

I will make a go of it tomorrow as long as its not too damned cold.

I will post my report when I am finished.

disallow wrote:allisojh,

Budr is the only one I've heard of having issues, whereas I have heard literally dozens of people on this website alone, not to mention ClubFrontier, x.nissan, etc, etc, complain about contaminated trans fluid.

Also keep in mind that Budr also installed his tranny temp gauge at the same time, something most of us have not done (yet). From my interpretation of the posts and pics Budr has put up, this was the reason he had an issue. However it was moot because his trans was contaminated before he did the bypass.

Budr, correct me if I am wrong...

t

Not sure what you mean by the trans temp gauge being the problem?

My fluid was not contaminated before the bypass but I did do a fluid change just before the bypass. It had 60,000 miles and I have no idea the service history. So the fluid change may have been the issue. Its hard to say what caused it, but it had nothing to do with the bypass. So no, I have not had problems since the bypass.

allisojh wrote:
I attached a pic below. its obviosly not to scale but it shows the loop and which hose I plan to eliminate.

I did the bypass, and I used the "removed" hose in your picture on the radiator instead of caps. It created a continuous loop between the inlet and outlet of the radiator.

Tony

Good call all. Did my bypass on my 2005 Pathy two weeks ago.

Richard

Completed the bypass. It was a piece of cake.

Hardest part of the job was looking for the screw holding the ATF dipstick. When I was unscrewing it, I dropped it and it didn't go all the way through. Spent an hour looking for it before I just got a screw from the toolbag.

I only had to put back about 3/4 ounces of fluid. It was what was laying in the hoses.

Fluid was still a nice dark red/maroon and not cloudy like it was contaminated.

Very easy job and now have some piece of mind knowing if the tranny blows someday it won't be because of the radiator leaking.

Hardest part of the job was looking for the screw holding the ATF dipstick. When I was unscrewing it, I dropped it and it didn't go all the way through. Spent an hour looking for it before I just got a screw from the toolbag.

Why did you have to remove a screw from the trans dipstick? I never had to touch any screws/bolts.

freak2180 wrote:

Why did you have to remove a screw from the trans dipstick? I never had to touch any screws/bolts.

then yours is missing
there should be a tab with a hole in it on the upper end of your dipstick, that corresponds with a tab with a threaded hole in it at the top of the dipstick tube
see: Service Manual>Maintenance>Page MA-22

ah.....I see. I will find a screw to put in it then

I have a 2005 Nissan Pathfinder SE 4X4 with 92,000 miles on her. I first learned of its transmission cooler design flaw last week while doing a Google search for what type of automatic transmission fluid a Pathfinder used. Fortunately, I have not had any transmission issues. It turns out that my particular Pathfinder already has an external transmission cooler mounted up front by the factory. I am assuming it is part of a towing package (I bought the vehicle used at CarMax) and do not have the original window sticker to know what all equipment with which the vehicle came. I wasted no time in having a local transmission shop disconnect the external transmission cooler from the radiator thus bypassing the design flaw. I am happy to report it only cost me $75. As I live in central Alabama, I am not worried about transmission performance in extreme cold I guess I will rely on the so called "global warming" to help me out. I am going to have the transmission fluid flushed and filled tomorrow and am going to flush and fill the radiator myself this weekend. Hopefully, I heard about this design flaw in time to save my transmission.

BAMAGRAD1995 wrote:I have a 2005 Nissan Pathfinder SE 4X4 with 92,000 miles on her. It turns out that my particular Pathfinder already has an external transmission cooler mounted up front by the factory.

all North American R51s came with the external transmission cooler/tow package
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