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#181
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The 2002 Altima was the beginning of the end of Nissan's descent product run, IMO. Build quality when in the toilet and Americanized designing began with that model. I understand they had to do what they had to do to get out of bankruptcy, but the quality control suffers and the use of subpar parts makes what are mostly well-designed vehicles suffer from reliability issues. These days, they are hit and miss; all you need to do is check out Consumer Reports ratings. The current Maxima, Frontier, and Quest (which was originally designed in Japan) are doing pretty well. The Versa sedan, Sentra, Altima (especially the V6) and Pathfinder are all rated poorly and have reliability problems. It's sad because there's no reason why they can't put out a quality product like Toyota and Honda do almost consistently every year.
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#182
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__________________
Nissan Master certified Technician
Hybrid and GTR certified EV certified ASE Master Certified. |
#183
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Korea? Great... Well, it can't be any worse than what they were putting out of the Canton, MS, plant when that first opened!
I understand what you mean about seeing the same thing over and over. I was working for Nissan during the great Nissan Van recall, or should I say "recalls" as there was five of them! I also endured the 300ZX/200SX-V6/Maxima voluntary fuel injection campaign; it was a never ending schedule of heaps, most of which looked like they were hauled directly out of the junkyard! Then I got hit with the Sentra/Altima QR25DE campaign, replacing short blocks every other week until I left at the end of 2003. I went into corrections in 2007 and every day I'm happy not to be doing auto mechanics full-time, anymore! |
#184
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Well 5 straight days of usual daily driving it since the repair and no issues. :-)
Decided to change the spark plugs, diff oil and transfer case fluid as well. Drives nice too bad it has this poor design issue. Cheers, Gord. |
#185
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Looking to purchase as 2011 or a 2012 Pathfinder. I currently have a 2003 LE that has been a good vehicle, but now has 265,000 Kim's (165,000 mi) on it and need to spend a few thousand in repairs...a couple sensors, emission issue brakes, tires and A/C fan.
Have not been able to find any information on if the radiator was redesigned for the 2011 and 2012 model years? Really don't want to risk a major repair like many have had to deal with. How very unfortunate and am very sorry so many have had run into this problem. Anyone have any information on this? Thanks very much. Cheers, Rob Last edited by 03pathfinder; 02-28-2015 at 05:37 PM. |
#186
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SO FAR, the concern is the 2005-2010 year models
those are the years covered by Nissans' extended warranty on the radiators info link here: NissanAssist.com the radiators have not been re-designed, but the manufacturing has been altered in an attempt to eliminate the problem many of us have by-passed the radiators' internal transmission cooler to completely eliminate the possibility of this failure the external transmission cooler (OEM on all models) is plenty sufficient for most people and most circumstances others have replaced their radiators with aftermarket |
#187
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#188
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The problem does not affect the 2011-12 models. The actual problem was a seal in the integral cooler that would fail and start leaking. 2005-2010 models are affected, especially the first three years.
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#189
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I have seen failures in vehicles that we have replaced radiators and transmissions in. I still don't trust the radiators.
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#190
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I don't blame you! Being a moderator at thenissanpath.com, it seems that that when Nissan changed the radiator part number from 21460-EA215 (some are numbered 21460-EA265 but there is no listing in the part catalog for this number) to 21460-9CA2E, it didn't necessarily mean the cooler problem was fixed as some of these -9CA2E numbered units were failing, as well. Of course, and I assume for liability issues, Nissan never specified which radiators and their part numbers were prone to failure, other than that the issue exists in the 2005-2010 models. By far most of those who reported failures are within the 2005-2007 range. We've had a few 2008s, one 2009 and two 2010s to my knowledge with failed radiators...or, at least that's what I remember reading about on that forum (of course that's just a limited sample of R51 owners and also doesn't include owners of Frontiers and Xterras). I've yet to hear of anyone who has had a problem with an aftermarket replacement, which is the way I went; three years and so far, so good, knock on wood! I paid $92 for that. If I were replacing one today, I would pay the $350 and get the all-aluminum radiator just made available from Stillen Motorsports.
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#191
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Thanks very much for the information guys. Appreciate you for taking the time and sharing your knowledge.
It seems like the 2011-12 model years have the issue sorted out. Cheers, Rob |
#192
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#193
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it does cool the transmission fluid, especially as the fluid gets hotter than usual such as towing heavy loads, particularly at low speeds, when the external cooler is at a disadvantage due to lower air flow through it the internal cooler also allows the trans fluid to heat up to operating temperature faster (by warming the fluid as it flows through it), which is probably only important in very cold climates I don't like the additional external cooler idea too much plumbing to go wrong, and further reduction of air flow through the existing external cooler and the radiator if there's any question or concern about insufficient cooling with the by-pass, I'd opt for a new radiator |
#194
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For about the same cost as a quality aftermarket trans cooler, you can get another radiator. Rockauto.com was selling "Denso" radiators (Denso is a company owned by Toyota) for $99 last time I checked. If you don't mind made in China generics, you can get them for around $70 on Ebay (I went that route and it's been over 4 years without any problems). Liquid to liquid coolers are far more efficient than air to liquid coolers, anyway. I would just replace the radiator and be done with it.
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Tags |
2005, issue, pathfinder, radiator, transmission |
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