I by-passed my in radiator tranny cooler

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CRK
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Postby CRK » Thu Nov 19, 2009 5:16 pm

kev1n wrote:I just did this, with out a coupler or vacuum caps. Took the shorter hose from the pass side of the radiator and connected to where the longer hose connects from the tranny line. Then I jumper the longer hose to the other side of the radiator. Didn't have to buy anything and didn't spill anything.

Credit goes to Ryan B from club frontier who did the same thing. I can rest easier now.
Yep I did the same thing today on my 06 with 65k miles on it. Trany fluid was a nice chery red.....Thank goodness!! I also talked to my SRVC guy at nissan and he told me they have seen it and recommend I by pass the the radiator too.


slavabon
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Postby slavabon » Sun Nov 22, 2009 2:25 pm

When it comes to tranny fluid, mine is bright red on the measuring stick and on the paper towel, but when doing this mod I looked at the stuff that drained in the cup and its dark red. No funny smells or any other contamination. Is normal or is it a sign that it is getting dirty?

airborneranger
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Postby airborneranger » Mon Dec 28, 2009 6:45 pm

The radiator is at the top of the picture. So I remove the tubing with blue tape at the top which is attached to the radiator and attach in place of the other tube with blue tape by the oil filter?

Image

Then either remove the tubing at the bottom of the radiator and put plugs or put the hose back on the radiator and making a closed loop?

cruzstyle
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Postby cruzstyle » Fri Jan 01, 2010 5:19 pm

i just did this mod while i was draining my oil. to the poster above you are not going to remove the end that is near the oil filter you are going to remove the other end that is coming out of the radiator and connecting that to the hose with the blue tape in the top of our image.

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Fofiddy
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Postby Fofiddy » Sat Jan 02, 2010 1:01 pm

OK so let me get this straight. You guys all just preformed this bypass based on good faith from a post left from a member with only 2 posts on the site?
Has anyone else here had an issue with their Coolant and ATF mixing?

Cooper993
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Postby Cooper993 » Sat Jan 02, 2010 1:11 pm

Fofiddy wrote:OK so let me get this straight. You guys all just preformed this bypass based on good faith from a post left from a member with only 2 posts on the site?
Has anyone else here had an issue with their Coolant and ATF mixing?
Maybe you haven't read all the posts in this thread, but there has been more than one person with this issue, including myself.

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Fofiddy
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Postby Fofiddy » Sat Jan 02, 2010 2:19 pm

Cooper993 wrote:[ there has been more than one person with this issue, including myself.
Which bings the grand total to two people who were unfortunate enough to have had issues. Seeing as I have near 80k of Towing and faux-hoonin
with my 10/04 build date R51 and somefolks are using superchargers, the countless that tow...
I'm figuring the few people who will experince this sort of failure will do so before their 60k is up. Do you know how many revisions of R51 tranny there are? I would like to hear someone likeTech weigh-in before I start re-routing hoses.

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disallow
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Postby disallow » Sat Jan 02, 2010 2:26 pm

Fofiddy wrote:
Cooper993 wrote:[ there has been more than one person with this issue, including myself.
Which bings the grand total to two people who were unfortunate enough to have had issues. Seeing as I have near 80k of Towing and faux-hoonin
with my 10/04 build date R51 and somefolks are using superchargers, the countless that tow...
I'm figuring the few people who will experince this sort of failure will do so before their 60k is up. Do you know how many revisions of R51 tranny there are? I would like to hear someone likeTech weigh-in before I start re-routing hoses.
google it.

Cooper993
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Postby Cooper993 » Sat Jan 02, 2010 2:26 pm

...Do you know how many revisions of R51 tranny there are? I would like to hear someone likeTech weigh-in before I start re-routing hoses.
It's not the trans that fails, it's the radiator (which then causes the fluids to mix).

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mar1
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Postby mar1 » Sat Jan 02, 2010 5:16 pm

disallow wrote:Image
sorry for the hijack guys.

Terry, thats an 05 Path in ur pic? is it a 4.0 ?

i got the 08 and its all just one belt wrapped round everything.

cruzstyle
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Postby cruzstyle » Sat Jan 02, 2010 5:30 pm

this is also a problem that is known in the frontier world not just the path world. this is just like any other car problem some people have bad luck and get teh short end of the stick and others dont. some people buy cars that crap right off the lot while others dont. those that have done this are just taking preventive measures. i just did it because one of my buddies in a frontier had his fluids mix from the radiator failing.

slavabon
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Postby slavabon » Sat Jan 02, 2010 8:12 pm

Well, known issue. My local Nissan service advisor has also admitted that they have worked on several Pathfinders with busted rads and mixed fluids in the tranny. The funny thing is that even if it happens before 60K, they will replace the failed part (radiator), the rest of the parts that get damaged as the result of this failed part are "in the grey area" and may or may not be covered. Usually they do it, but our local dealer said its is based on individual case, etc. I would hate to get my tranny ripped out because of some stupid fluid mixing in the rad and think its much easier to avoid it altogether.

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Fofiddy
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Postby Fofiddy » Sun Jan 03, 2010 6:39 am

Firstly, I stand corrected. I knew Nissan's customer service was sub par but this seems like a really stupid design since the system already utilizes an external ATF cooler(21305Y):
Image

Seeing that it's currently 10F and we are getting 40mph gusts at the moment I'll be checking this myself tomorrowish when we hit the 30s.

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disallow
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Postby disallow » Sun Jan 03, 2010 10:16 am

mar1nasr wrote:
disallow wrote:Image
sorry for the hijack guys.

Terry, thats an 05 Path in ur pic? is it a 4.0 ?

i got the 08 and its all just one belt wrapped round everything.
No I got that pic from Clubfrontier. I guess Frontiers have a different belt drive setup. Nothing like that on my 05.

No worries, I asked the same questions you did when this first came up. However, since its people across all platforms that use this rad, X, Frontier, and Pathy, and it seemed like a fairly common occurence with a really bad consequential damage (rad fails and takes out the transmission), and the risk of removing it from the circuit is quite low due to the additional air/oil cooler in the front, I did the bypass.

I may at some point add some additional cooling capacity. Or a temp gauge. But for now its just bypassed.

The original thread on this forum was:

http://www.thenissanpath.com/viewtopic. ... ansmission

t

G35TR
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Postby G35TR » Mon Jan 04, 2010 2:43 am

How much tranny fluid should one expect to loose when performing this? Was it enough so you guys had to buy some more and top it off once completed?


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