The Nissan Path

Picked up my '06 a couple weeks ago knowing the history of radiator leaks causing transmission failure. I was poking around under the hood today, and found what appeared to be an aftermarket trans cooler bolted to the front passenger side of the rad. Did the original owner do me a solid, or have I been smoking too much? I'm owner #3, the guys I bought it from are not mechanically inclined, and they didn't own it long enough to have done the work. Photo: https://www.dropbox.com/s/4uljbb8a8gazz ... 6.jpg?dl=0

That's s factory part. Standard equipment in North America.

So the bypass is just a factory fix for us north americans? That's pretty cool...

Superdave (2006 4x4) wrote:So the bypass is just a factory fix for us north americans? That's pretty cool...

No.
The "bypass" is a post factory (and non factory) fix to eliminate potential transmission damage should the internal transmission cooler inside of the main radiator fail.

http://www.thenissanpath.com/viewtopic. ... ght=bypass

So you're saying that there is still the potential for this failure in my vehicle, or is this something I should not be concerned about?

Superdave (2006 4x4) wrote:So you're saying that there is still the potential for this failure in my vehicle, or is this something I should not be concerned about?

As long as the internal transmission cooler is by-passed, utilizing only the external cooler in front of the radiator, there is no possibility of cross contamination.
Alternately, you can replace the main radiator (along with it's internal transmission cooler), to avoid the possibility.
The link that I provided above, though long, pretty much sums up all aspects of this issue.

Thanks, I'll trace some lines this weekend and see if anything has been done.

Dave,

did you ever get on this?
Replacing the radiator is not difficult and many inexpensive radiators can be quite good.
This fixes the issues completely and you get too keep 100% of the factory cooling capacity for your transmission.

Also many older trucks, this issue non withstanding can benefit from a new radiator anyhow... : )

Replacing a radiator in an R51 is not really an "easy" job, especially the 05-07 model years. Labor guide pays 3 hours.

smj999smj wrote:Replacing a radiator in an R51 is not really an "easy" job, especially the 05-07 model years. Labor guide pays 3 hours.

I apologize.
I did it on an Infiniti w/ a buddy a few years back and it was within our abilities (which were low)
But it did take us all of a long afternoon.

My standard for "easy" is anything a DIYer can do...

Older Nissan trucks, like that Infiniti, were pretty easy. Basically, it was just drain the coolant, remove the lower shroud, disconnect the hoses and the upper radiator brackets and the radiator would pull straight up. In 2005, they changed the radiator mounting on the Pathfinder/Frontier/Xterra, installing side brackets on the radiator and having the A/C condenser mount into the radiator's lower mounting. So, on these new models, you have to pull the condenser out of the bracket and tie it up because there's no way to support it, otherwise. Then, you have to try and maneuver the radiator out with these side bracket extensions that stick out and make it difficult to get the radiator out past the metal A/C lines that go to the condenser and without damaging the core on the fan blade. The 2008 and later are a little better because they have a rubber section in the metal line to the condenser so there's a little bit of flex to the lines. Leave it to the engineers to take an easily serviceable part and screw it up!