Please give some adive for a newbie about TRANS failure

Discussion topics related to the radiator and transmission failures in all Nissan trucks, education of the public on this issue, and attempts to force Nissan to start a recall.

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qek585
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Joined: Thu Sep 19, 2013 10:40 pm

Please give some adive for a newbie about TRANS failure

Postby qek585 » Thu Sep 19, 2013 11:11 pm

Hi everyone, I just bought a used 2008 pathfinder a few weeks ago because I'm moving to Minnesota soon, where I have plenty of family and places to camp and boat (when I get one, which I intend to, very soon.) I needed an SUV with power, room and reliability, and the pathfinded fits the bill.

I am, however, afraid of the transmission failure issue and have been reading up on how to avoid it. It seems my options are to 1) Bypass the radiator, or 2) replace the radiator with an aftermarket radiator.

Since Minnesota is known for its blistering cold, I guess option 2 is the better option for me, since the rad can warm up the fluid as well. However, I just have some questions that are bugging me

1) First off, what exactly was so unique or wrong with Nissan's OEM radiators that it failed so frequently? How would an aftermarket radiator or any other radiator be different?

2) Will getting an aftermarket radiator guarantee this won't happen? I'm worried this won't completely solve the issue, because aren't all aftermarket radiators for the pathfinder configured the same way as the original? What makes you so sure an aftermarket radiator won't leak?

3) If getting an aftermarket radiator won't completely solve the issue, than a total bypass of the radiator is the only guaranteed solution,right? So, what do you suggest in regards to Minnesota's winters, which are the one of the coldest in the US?

Thank you everyone in advance for all the help.


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RacerZX
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Postby RacerZX » Sat Sep 21, 2013 11:41 am

My understanding is that it's a design flaw of some sort, not sure if it's mechanical or a metal/corrosion compatibility problem, but it sure shouldn't happen.

There appears to be a new replacement part number, so instead of aftermarket another option is get the new OEM part.

We've all speculated that half the use of the combined water/oil radiator is that the coolant water warms up the AT oil faster, but I don't think anybody has actually hooked up a temp probe to see, nor has anybody reported any transmission issues after doing the bypass.

While I'm sure your Minnesota winters are far more interesting than mine here in California, we have lots of forum members from around the world, quite a few from Canada in particular, so maybe somebody can speak up about their experiences...


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