CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2005-2007 Xterra appears to have a widespread defect where coolant leaks into the transmission, causing transmission failure around 90,000 miles. Repair costs are typically upwards of $3,500.
The same defect exists in the Pathfinder & Frontier as well. And according to the New York Times & a class action lawsuit, the defect actually extends through 2010 model year. More info here.
1.6
hardly worth mentioning
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
107,341 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
The accelerator started not switching gears as I was merging onto the freeway. Then, the transmission gave out. The fluid from the transmission leaked into the radiator and both need to be replaced. It is estimated to cost $4,000 to get fixed.
The first incident was a couple months ago when my car just decided to stop in traffic all the sudden. Just shut down. Then yesterday I was driving to work and a car in front of me decided to slow down. When I hit the breaks to slow down the car would not accelerate back up it decreased. I could not get it to go. I restarted the car and it turned on and went again. I looked at this website and saw all the complaints.I have had all the same issues with stalling, not starting, and no acceleration. I took it to a transmission shop and they could not detect anything wrong as no codes and of course it did not do it for them when they test drove it. I took my car to the Nissan dealership showed them the print out from this site and told them I am having all those problems within the last couple months. They told me since my VIN was not included in the recall they basically could not help without charging me $900 for a radiator plus the engine control module $78. I had to pay $100 just for them to look at it. They told me a whole new transmission would be $9000. This is a horrible problem this vehicle is having and is very dangerous for your car to just turn off while driving. I have a small child in the car with me. Very scary would could happen. I do not care what the mileage is on the vehicle. Nissan needs to include all Xterra's no matter what the VIN is for the time frame! all these complaints need action. I little to quinky dink they are all happening now! Nissan dealership told me they would recommend: ECM relay $78, radiator $740, plus some other maintenance stuff. When I went to leave after having them replace the. ECM I had a lovely letter stating they did a complimentary appraisal of my vehicle. They did everything to confirm it is the problem, but offered no help unless I fork out the $$$$$.
I was driving to a local city pool and the car appeared to lose power. I restarted the car and reached the pool. When I went to start the car, it wouldnt start. Thinking it might be the battery, I had someone try to jump start it but nothing happened. Had my car towed to a local mechanic the following morning and learned that the transmission would need to be replaced as the radiator fluid had mixed with the transmission fluid due to a faulty sensor. Now I have a perfectly nice vehicle that wont run unless I pay to have the transmission and radiator replaced. I just bought it in February 2014. It is not covered under the class action suit because it has 144,000 miles on it.
Cracked radiator hose caused coolant to mix with transmission fluid thereby ruining the transmission. Cost included radiator and transmission (used) replacement. This issue would have been proactively repaired / replaced the radiator prior to the issue occurring had Nissan notified me of it. Instead, it cost an extra $3500 to replace both radiator and transmission. A totally preventable situation, never mind the potentially hazardous situation had the transmission failed at highway speeds. No excuse for Nissan.
While driving and trying to enter a major highway at about 40 mph and trying to accelerate, I had to pull out to the shoulder because the truck wouldn't shift to a higher gear...I had to get out of the highway because the truck wasn't able to accelerate and remained on 1st shift struggling to get to 2nd and then 3rd....I got home and heard the engine or radiator make bubbling noise....after 3 or 4 hours I opened the radiator and saw all sorts of gunk like bubblegum...it was still warm and it oozed out falling all over my driveway...I payed a mechanic $300 to change the radiator thinking it was the problem...only to find out it was much more and more money also....I looked for another mechanic and he said it would cost $4000 to fix everything... I've wasted more than $3000 trying to figure out what the problem is.. now the mechanic says that a new transmission module valve is needed....how many more trucks breaking down or complaints until this issue is resolved.... I was lucky that when I was on the highway no cars were coming full speed...because without being able to accelerate I would of caused an accident and gotten killed...I loved my truck and miss riding it...please look into this... thank you..
- Del Valle , TX, USA
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As I came up to stop at a red light, the Xterra began to shudder and the tachometer started rising and falling until I finally stopped, then the tachometer dropped below 500 RPM and the truck turned off. Restarted it fine, but it stalled again. I quickly figured out that although it is an automatic, I needed to drive it like a manual. So I put it in neutral, started it again, it did not stall, then I revved the engine to 2,000 RPM and put it into drive. Off I went, and it did not do it again that day. However, over the next month it became a growing problem, until it finally was occurring every single time I stopped unless I put it in neutral. I took it to the mechanic who spent 4 hours diagnosing it to be certain of the problem. Which they said was a failing torque convertor and plate. It failed due to coolant leaking into the transmission from a broken housing coming off of the radiator (apparently a very common problem for which Nissan refuses to take responsibility). Not hard to verify their findings due to the presence of pink milkshake looking liquid in the radiator. Final verdict, at best it needs a new torque convertor and plate, but with the amount of effort to install those and unknown further damage from the coolant leak, a new transmission was recommended.
Radiator, which was recalled and I was never notified about, cracked leaking coolant into the transmission ultimately causing the transmission to fail.
The car suddenly stalled without any warning. Total loss of ability regarding steering and braking was encountered. The ignition key lock switch functions become unresponsive following the stalling engine. Meaning that when the key was turned the engine would turn over but, the engine would not remain on.
Driver was heading at approximately 45 mph, and engine died. Had towed to Nissan mechanic. The issue was diagnosed as a timing chain failure, which led to catastrophic/un-repairable engine failure. Needed complete engine replacement.
The contact owns a 2006 Nissan Xterra. The contact stated that the fuel gauge was not giving a proper reading level and that the vehicle stalled from low fuel more than once. The contact was not included in NHTSA campaign id number: 10V075000 (fuel system, gasoline). The vehicle was included in NHTSA campaign id number: 10V517000 (engine and engine cooling) and was waiting for the part to become available and schedule the recall repair. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 150,000.
1. engine light on - remains on, need to reset - at 77000+ miles fuel gauge is off chart when full tank is filled up fuel gauge is unreliable, need to use the speedometer to gauge gas tank VIN# is not on the recall list under fuel tank recall campaign 10V075000 VIN# id for recall=engine only=campaign# 10V517000; total recall listed = 5 for 2006 Xterra models 2. tire pressure light is on continuously=TPMS = not on recall list/campaign, can this be added"? all tires are have correct recommended psi; yet light is on continuously, reset works only temporarily TPMS - as of Oct 2014; at 75000 miles need dealer to fix all recalls, can this be done?" plse advise asap. Bought the car used/pre-owned.... thank you for your attention & time.
The contact owns a 2006 Nissan Xterra. The contact stated that the service engine warning lamp illuminated. Also, the contact mentioned that the fuel gauge was not reading properly and was providing an incorrect which caused the vehicle to run out of fuel with no warning. The contact was not included in NHTSA campaign id number: 10V517000 (engine and engine cooling). The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer for further inspection, diagnosis and repair. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 70,000.
When it turned cold Jan/Feb 2105 our daughter told us the heat was not working. But she knew we did not have the money to repair so we did not worry about it. We own a 2000 Chevy truck & the heat has not worked for years & we just live with it.so we never thought about the radiator/coolant being the problem. Then something major happened-our daughter was driving home from auburn al to our home in opelika al & she called us saying the car would not go over 25-30 mph. We were out of town, it was 10 pm at night so we told her to keep driving and get home to a safe place (her life was more important than stopping on the side of the road--a young lady all by herself) she got home, parked it & when we returned home we took it to a local repair shop that we trust. He called us the next day & said I have devastating news. He told us about the service report put out on Nissan Xterras in regard to the major, well known to Nissan problem of when the coolant/radiator cracks because of a faulty when in manufacturing radiator is put in it is a known by Nissan bad one. It cracks & leaks into the transmission in which the coolant mixes with the transmission fluid & creates a toxic hell stew that destroys the transmission. He said your car is worth $5,000 but the cost to repair is $7,000. I called Nissan they told me I had to take it to a Nissan dealer for their diagnosis and the diagnosis is the same. My husband is very, very sick and we have huge medical, pharmacy, hospital bills and I have had breast cancer with chemo that has caused an autoimmune disorder (almost lost my left eye) and our 15 year-old daughter goes to children's hospital in birmingham al for rheumatoid arthritis. We thought we were buying a very dependable car for $14,000 only 3 1/2 years ago and now it is 4500 pounds of junk metal. If Nissan had told us about the problem, we could have been proactive.
Defective radiator leaked engine coolant into automatic transmission fluid (atf), causing cross-contamination of fluids that will ruin the re5R05A transmission. The engine coolant water contamination can short-circuit the low current electronic computer located on the valve body. This transmission was used in Xterra; frontier; pathfinder and armada vehicles manufactured between 2005 and 2010. Fixing the radiator and replacing the contaminated fluid with fresh fluid does not alleviate the problem, as the transmission computer has been permanently damaged. The only way to fix a damaged transmission computer is to replace it with a new one, and they are only available from Nissan as part of a new valve body assembly. (www.toptransmissions.com/Nissan-pathfinder-Xterra-armada) numerous consumer reports online show that the vehicle can suddenly lose power, or even lock up the driving wheels while driving the vehicle in traffic; therefore, this is a serious safety defect issue. Suburban transmissions of gaithersburg, md 20878 (ph. 301-362-4040 or 800-353-3477) reports that: "for most trucks and SUVS, fixing the radiator problem and replacing the transmission fluid might correct this problem. However, on the Nissan pathfinder and Xterra and other models that use the re5R05A transmission?(w)E also recommend (along with radiator & transmission replacement) bypassing the radiator with an external transmission cooler to prevent this from happening again as replacing the radiator issue is likely to happen again." [web source: Link shown above.]
The initial incident was failed timing chain tensioner guides. As indicated earlier Nissan knowingly redesigned the parts since the originals were found to wear through, causing the timing chain to rub directly on the metal post of the tensioner and contact the housing cover. During the repair the Nissan service department confirmed the failed radiator coolant contamination addressed in ODI NHTSA action number: DP12004. The timing chain and guides were replaced; the radiator was replaced; coolant was flushed; transmission was drained, flushed, and filled. The service department also confirmed Nissan, N.a. would not offer any amount of repair assistance. Total cost was $2200. The day after the vehicle was repaired it suddenly decelerated from 55mph to 30mph and the RPM's increased to 4K+ while traveling on a multi lane dark country highway at 11pm. The section of highway did not have an emergency lane or shoulder. A vehicle was in the left lane and a semi-truck was quickly approaching from the rear in the right lane. Once crossing the bridge the vehicle was jerked to the shoulder, avoiding a rear collision from the approaching semi-truck. The vehicle was turned off and restarted. The RPM's returned to 1K, the transmission was in neutral, and the check engine was illuminated. The following day Nissan service confirmed it was a failing valve body as a result of the coolant contamination. The wholesale repair cost was quoted at $1400. Again, Nissan, N.a. would not address the failure. At this time the repair has not, and will not, be completed.
Engine coolant is leaking into transmission. I am experiencing the same exact situation as the current investigation that is happening over the last two years.
Check engine light came on, took to mechanic for a check and found that we were leaking radiator coolant into the transmission fluid. Had to replace parts and flush transmission at a pricey cost.
Began hearing a whining noise from engine, increasing with RPM. Took to dealership, who indicated it was bad timing chain tensioner shoes/guides. Service advisor indicated this is a very common issue, and Nissan redesigned the parts since the originals were found to wear through, allowing the timing chain to rub directly on the metal post of the tensioner. The timing chain system should last for the life of the engine, not require a $1700 repair only about halfway through the engine life. This is also a very unsafe situation, since a timing chain failure could quickly destroy the engine, leaving the car without engine power out on the road. This should be a recall.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Moorpark, CA, USA