Login  |  Register
Nissanhelp.com - All About Nissan
Do-It-Yourself Maintenance Owners Manuals Recalls/Campaigns Service Bulletins Service Manuals Nissan OBDII Codes Glossary & Acronyms More...
Member's Ride Photos Stock Photo Gallery
Classifieds - For Sale Classifieds - Wanted To Buy Classifieds - Mechanic Wanted Classifieds - Auto Services Search Auto Parts
Register FAQ Social Groups Mark Forums Read
2005 pathfinder transmission radiator issue Forums > > 2005 pathfinder transmission radiator issue 2005 pathfinder transmission radiator issue
Forgot Password? Join Us!


Pathfinder Nissan Pathfinder Discussion Forum

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #181  
Old 01-09-2015, 01:08 PM
smj999smj's Avatar
smj999smj smj999smj is offline
Master Enthusiast
2006 Pathfinder
2003 Frontier King Cab
2003 Frontier KC SVE 4x4
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Prospect, VA
Posts: 1,866
Default

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.
Reply With Quote
  #182  
Old 01-11-2015, 08:15 AM
mpe235's Avatar
mpe235 mpe235 is offline
Moderator
2015 Rogue
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: New York
Posts: 5,530
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by smj999smj View Post
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.
Right now the only model that we don't have any issues with is the Rogue. However that may change since they started to build some of them in Korea. Nissan has been on a downward spiral in quality for years. Currently the transmission problems are the worst I have ever seen. We went from replacing maybe 5-8 per year to about 6 per month, sometimes more. In the past 2 months i have replaced 5 on 3 cars. Two replacements failed, one after 6 weeks and one after 20 days. We are sending cores back a dozen at a time. I used to be pretty active on this site but have been too busy to check it due to the amount of work at the shop. We have been extremely busy trying to keep the new models on the road. It has been pretty good for the wallet but you get tired of seeing the same problems on every car that comes in the door.
__________________
Nissan Master certified Technician
Hybrid and GTR certified
EV certified
ASE Master Certified.
Reply With Quote
  #183  
Old 01-11-2015, 09:00 AM
smj999smj's Avatar
smj999smj smj999smj is offline
Master Enthusiast
2006 Pathfinder
2003 Frontier King Cab
2003 Frontier KC SVE 4x4
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Prospect, VA
Posts: 1,866
Default

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!
Reply With Quote
  #184  
Old 01-11-2015, 01:34 PM
gwong gwong is offline
Registered User
2005 Pathfinder
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 18
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by G47 View Post
I would sell the car or trade it into a small dealer
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.
Reply With Quote
  #185  
Old 02-28-2015, 05:04 PM
03pathfinder 03pathfinder is offline
Registered User
2003 Pathfinder
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 23
Default

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.
Reply With Quote
  #186  
Old 03-01-2015, 09:58 AM
dryart's Avatar
dryart dryart is offline
Tech Enthusiast
2005 Pathfinder
2005 Pathfinder
2005 R51 SE-OR & SE
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 259
Default

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
Reply With Quote
  #187  
Old 03-01-2015, 05:45 PM
mpe235's Avatar
mpe235 mpe235 is offline
Moderator
2015 Rogue
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: New York
Posts: 5,530
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by 03pathfinder View Post
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
If I was going to buy one the first thing I would do would be to replace the radiator with an aftermarket one. They are not that expensive and the piece of mind would be worth the investment.
Reply With Quote
  #188  
Old 03-01-2015, 08:20 PM
smj999smj's Avatar
smj999smj smj999smj is offline
Master Enthusiast
2006 Pathfinder
2003 Frontier King Cab
2003 Frontier KC SVE 4x4
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Prospect, VA
Posts: 1,866
Default

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.
Reply With Quote
  #189  
Old 03-02-2015, 04:31 PM
mpe235's Avatar
mpe235 mpe235 is offline
Moderator
2015 Rogue
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: New York
Posts: 5,530
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by smj999smj View Post
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.
I have seen failures in vehicles that we have replaced radiators and transmissions in. I still don't trust the radiators.
Reply With Quote
  #190  
Old 03-02-2015, 05:18 PM
smj999smj's Avatar
smj999smj smj999smj is offline
Master Enthusiast
2006 Pathfinder
2003 Frontier King Cab
2003 Frontier KC SVE 4x4
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Prospect, VA
Posts: 1,866
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by mpe235 View Post
I have seen failures in vehicles that we have replaced radiators and transmissions in. I still don't trust the radiators.
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.
Reply With Quote
  #191  
Old 03-04-2015, 05:51 AM
03pathfinder 03pathfinder is offline
Registered User
2003 Pathfinder
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Posts: 23
Default

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
Reply With Quote
  #192  
Old 08-30-2015, 08:29 AM
jboy's Avatar
jboy jboy is offline
Enthusiast
2006 Pathfinder
1993 Truck
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Posts: 28
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by dryart View Post
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
I certainly hate to second guess one of my favorite's here on the forum, but I was wanting to double check what you said about the external transmission cooler being sufficient for most situations. I was in the local auto parts store the other day and got to talking about this issue with the guys behind the counter. They were of the opinion that bypassing the internal cooler is ok as long as you don't do any hauling with the vehicle. I pull my boat quite a bit. It's not much of a load and the lakes not far, but I'd sure hate to find out the hard way that those boys are right! they recommended putting in an aftermarket cooler of course. I was trying to decide if there was room to install one and discovered the external tranny cooler. I basically forgot that the external cooler was even there. So now I'm wondering all over again what the internal cooler is even there for. Long story short, I decided to get back on the help forum and see what everybody thought?
Reply With Quote
  #193  
Old 08-30-2015, 08:42 AM
dryart's Avatar
dryart dryart is offline
Tech Enthusiast
2005 Pathfinder
2005 Pathfinder
2005 R51 SE-OR & SE
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 259
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by jboy View Post
I certainly hate to second guess one of my favorite's here on the forum, but I was wanting to double check what you said about the external transmission cooler being sufficient for most situations. I was in the local auto parts store the other day and got to talking about this issue with the guys behind the counter. They were of the opinion that bypassing the internal cooler is ok as long as you don't do any hauling with the vehicle. I pull my boat quite a bit. It's not much of a load and the lakes not far, but I'd sure hate to find out the hard way that those boys are right! they recommended putting in an aftermarket cooler of course. I was trying to decide if there was room to install one and discovered the external tranny cooler. I basically forgot that the external cooler was even there. So now I'm wondering all over again what the internal cooler is even there for. Long story short, I decided to get back on the help forum and see what everybody thought?
the internal cooler does two things:
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
Reply With Quote
  #194  
Old 09-02-2015, 05:17 PM
smj999smj's Avatar
smj999smj smj999smj is offline
Master Enthusiast
2006 Pathfinder
2003 Frontier King Cab
2003 Frontier KC SVE 4x4
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Prospect, VA
Posts: 1,866
Default

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.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
2005, issue, pathfinder, radiator, transmission

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -8. The time now is 03:08 AM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Search Engine Optimisation provided by DragonByte SEO v2.0.42 (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.