Overall opinion of VQ40DE V6

[Kestral]

Ok so I'm board can't sleep I like posting fun topics on this forum so here goes.

What is your general opinion of the V6 in our R51 Pathfinders? The good the bad and the ugly?

Here is mine.. I think for A 4.0 V6 it has real good power both down low and up top. I really did not realize it until I towed my 5,000lb camper this year my 2012 V6 had no problem towing it and I found I could have pushed it much more if I had wanted too. Just to note it pulls much stronger then the 4.0 V6 I had in my 2006 Toyota 4Runner my 4Runner even having lower geared axles seemed to make no difference the Pathy seemed stronger towing.

Other then not liking the oil filter location what a pain in the "A" I really don't have any complaints. It's a little noisy but hay it's a truck! And I have owned louder trucks. I have never had a motor use so little oil during an oil change interval. Even running the oil to 7,250 miles with some hard towing thrown in my V6 used no make up oil I could not even tell any movement on the dip stick! Yes I only have 30+ thousand on it but still.

Overall I like this V6 it must be decent if you figure between Pathfinders, XTeras and Frontier trucks since 2005 to now there has to North of a Million VQ40DE motors sold since then other then some timing chain issues you rearly ever hear of a VQ40DE failing even when abused yes I know it happens but it seems rare.... Just my take.

[skinny2]

VQ seems to be a great line of engines. I'm around 140k miles and the oil samples at 10k mile intervals are so clean it's almost comical. Still pulls like a freight train and sees (and has seen) red-line several times a day for the last 6 years. I'm not the least bit concerned with the engine, and the transmissions seem to be quite strong as well.

[smj999smj]

The VQ-series made its North American debut in the 95 Maxima and for a long time it was consistently listed as one of Ward's ten best engines. It's seen several displacement changes, variable displacement added, forced induction in the GT-R, among other updates and has proved to be a very reliable engine in a series of different applications. I have no complaints with it.

[kingfisher73]

not a fan of this fly by wire..rather have a throttle cable..
powers there and can't even spin the tires..

[car_bore]

not a fan of this fly by wire..rather have a throttle cable..
powers there and can't even spin the tires..

Are you sure? If I had one complain, its that the throttle seems to be a bit sensitive that I am able to spin the tires during fast U-turn maneuvers.

[skinny2]

not a fan of this fly by wire..rather have a throttle cable..
powers there and can't even spin the tires..

You might try disconnecting your battery for awhile to reset the ECM. I changed my battery the other day and it's extremely touchy at the moment. Traction control and VSC will keep you from spinning tires too though if that's your goal.