The Nissan Path

On Feb 20th, my husband and I traded in our Kia Soul for a Pathfinder 2006 LE, had a 142,000 miles. Normally I don't look at something with high mileage like that but I figured it was a Nissan that it would last a while. I already knew it had an active ECM recall and they had set up a service for me the next morning and also was checking why the tire light was on.

I felt we got a pretty good deal and drove it off the lot, shortly before leaving the car broke down a few blocks from the dealership. They were wonderful towed it over to the local Nissan place, turned out the ECM that I had service scheduled for went bad and the tire sensor issue they had to replace all the tire sensors. It stayed in the shop from Thursday evening until Tuesday afternoon being fixed, 699 bill that the dealer where I bought it covered. Tuesday evening I dropped off the van they let us use and drove my pathfinder off the lot, got a bit farther this time and check engine light came on. My husband advised me to stop at an auto zone along the way back to the dealership to get the codes. Turns out it had code 420, 430 catalytic converter codes. Get back to dealership and they had it towed over to Nissan the next morning, turns out two catalytic converters were bad and it was an almost 1700 dollar repair done by the dealer where I purchased it from. 8 days after my purchase I finally get to take the pathfinder home. During my 8 day window I spent a lot of time researching and read a ton of horror stories about the car and the trans/radiator leaking. I expressed my concerns to the dealer and before I received my vehicle back, he informed me that as a precaution they put in a new radiator.

I was very pleased and knew that they have spent close to 3,000 post my signing the papers on an As Is vehicle. Well I was busy with my daughter and her girl scouts all weekend,so my husband got to drive the car most of the weekend. So Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday all was well. Monday morning I am driving my kids to school and when I hit about 55-60 MPH I noticed a shake, not in the wheel but kinda under my seat and if I punch the gas or let off the gas it stops. It seems like its been the RPM is between 1.5-2 that this happens. Merging onto a highway does. From looking up on this site I seen someone mention that when it happens to push the OD button on the shifter and it stops. Well when we drove it yesterday to try to duplicate it and took it on a longer drive, we did this and when it was shaking, we pushed the OD button off and it didn't happen at all. We even got it up to speeds of 80.. Once the OD was re-enabled it would happen again. I called the dealer where we got it from and to kinda just pick his brain, my husband is a store manager of a NAPA store so being able to obtain parts isn't a huge concern, I just don't want to spend tons and tons of money on a car that I haven't had very long.

The dealer where I bought it from offered to have Nissan perform a transmission flush, I have my service scheduled this Friday, I am hoping that all of the fluids will be clear and that its not the dreaded Trans issue, so far the fluids have checked and looked very clear on both trans and radiator. My biggest concern is I hope we didn't get a lemon and that its going to be a non stop money sink. The dealer where I purchased it from has offered if all else fails after transmission flush that we can trade the car out for something else. Unfortunately we didn't like anything else they had on the lot, and we don't want to get too expensive, but after reading a lot of horror stories and not being quite sure what this "shake" is I am torn. We love the pathfinder, the kids love it , we are avid kayakers and outdoor people so this has everything that we could possibly want in a car. I purchased it thinking that this would be my last car purchase, finally! So I was just looking for some advice, if the flush doesn't solve the issue should i entertain their idea of trading it out ? Or is this shake something that can be taken care of for minimal costs ??

Seems like it may be some type of drivetrain. We live in a rural area of TN so I am prone to drive higher speeds and also we do occasional travel up north to visit my family.

It's a pretty risky move buying a vehicle with high miles. Sometimes when people have no interest in spending money on repairs, they will run the car until it has too many problems and then trade it in. This is why dealers give low-ball $$ on trades!

It sounds like your dealer has really done you right at this point. It's certainly possible the radiator was already bad and the transmission had damage done. Or the transmission could just be worn at this point and needing repair.

Personally with all the new parts the dealer has put on it, I would try to get this fixed one way or another. Given your budget and what you want to drive, it's going to be hard to find anything low mileage so you may just end up with another money pit.

Skinny that is my way of thinking as well. They have been great, we got the car for 11k. Everything else is in beautiful shape. Everyone seems to think its in great mechanical shape for the years/miles it has. I just hope that this transmission flush does the truck. Reading on another forum it seems to fix it in most cases. I don't really feel that its a transmission issue but in that sense when it comes to cars, I am a girl all the way lol… I am ok having to replace the trans a bit down the ways, just not in the first month that I buy it… I guess its more of a wait and see and see what the flush will show. The previous dealer has offered to cover that cost as well, but i know they are on their wits end too as they have lost on this car.

Make sure the lug nuts are tight... I had vibrations after having work done, turns out they failed to tighten the lug nuts on one of the tires... Probably not the issue but...

I had a bad vibration recently and it seemed to be coming from under the vehicle. When I let off the gas it was bad. Under acceleration it went away or became less obvious. It was a bad u-joint. Good luck

The u-joint is a real possibility. When you shut the OD off, you're basically forcing the vehicle to stay out of a higher gear which would change the rpm and perhaps reduce/eliminate the vibration. Cheap/easy fix to look at first.

A driveshaft is going to turn at the same RPM at a given speed regardless of what gear the transmission is in; only the engine will change in RPM depending on the gear at a given speed. It sounds like an issue with the torque converter lock-up. I would wait to hear the dealer's diagnosis and what they offer to do to correct the issue before making your decision. If they offer to install a Nissan reman transmission at their expense, I would be feeling pretty good about my "new" used Pathfinder given what they've put into it so far. Granted, the 05-07 models have had a lot of issues. One hopes that when you purchase one with a lot of miles on it, that the previous owner had taken care of most of the "common problems" with these vehicles, which was the case when I purchased my 06 LE at 84000 miles. So far my only issues have been the TPMS sensor batteries going bad and a bolt broke on the primary timing chain tensioner. I replaced the radiator as of preventative maintenance and installed Airlift 1000 airbags to better the ride. Knock on wood!

I realize the driveshaft is turning the same speed, but it will be hit with totally different vibrations based on the rpms. I only mentioned it because I had a similar problem in another vehicle that only happened when lugging along. I thought it was a transmission or rear-end issue but ended up there was a zirk fitting I had missed and it was needing lube.

My pathfinder would get an awful vibration around 55-65 MPH, turns out the U-joints were junk on my front drive shaft. A case of beer and 25 bucks for new u-joints and vibration gone.

Thanks everyone. I don't have 4WD its just a 2WD and I was wondering too if it could be a Ujoint issue, that would be great and something we plan to check. My husband had it all weekend with no issues and then on Sunday he went and got this wood chipper from his work with my path and then the next morning i was having issues. Could him hauling the wood chipper w/its trailer messed up the u joints if they were already bad or not in the best of shape??

I don't think the dealer would cover the new transmission, but they would cover the charge of the transmission flush. I really love this truck, but I don't want to be a victim of blind love and want to make the most of this truck.

yes it could still be u joints, however It sounds more transmission-ish with the wood chipper incident.

Yeah, sounds transmissionish to me, too. And I agree that you should feel very good about what they've fixed so far.

I love the Pathfinder but it's not known for its trouble-free ownership experience. It's not as bad as, say, a Jeep, but you should definitely make friends with a local mechanic. One of those old guys who used to work at a dealership who throws in little freebies because you bring him brownies and ask about his kids.

Jaycen wrote:yes it could still be u joints, however It sounds more transmission-ish with the wood chipper incident.

What do you mean wood chipper incident? It's a pretty light carry load, do you mean that it could have loosened something up? I can't wait until tomorrow, I wonder if they will actually be honest with me after the flush or just say its all fine? Since this is another dealership.

If I were in a Sherlock Holmes movie and you asked me for my opinion, I'd say (with a British accent) it's odd that the dealership replaced the radiator for you for sheer peace-of-mind. A Pathfinder radiator is $600 in parts. Nobody is that nice.

I would guess they discovered cross contamination, replaced the radiator, flushed the fluids and crossed their fingers in hopes that no damage had been done to the transmission. Now you're experiencing the slow demise of your valve body from residual damage.

Or you have a bad U-joint.

Let us know what you find out.

Well they did my flush yesterday, still have the rumbling issue. So they had suggested i drive 500 miles on it and try to avoid the sweet spot that causes the rumble, and see if it lessens then if it does drive 500 more miles..

so last night before we drove my son to baseball practice and the car was cooled down, we checked under the radiator cap and it had the creamy conditioner stuff all over the cap and on the rim of the opening. Called the Nissan guy of course they were closed, and he called me back this morning. He wants me to drive it up there and that they will flush out the radiator. He believes that the old radiator may have gotten contaminated and the flush they did in the trans yesterday pushed that stuff out.. but wouldn't my new radiator be contaminated now ??

Plus my car still has that shudder so isn't that a sign my trans is going to poop anyway?