Cross contamination story

[Kestral]

I mentioned on here some time ago that I have a friend with a 2009 Pathfinder that he purchased used with 60K on the clock about two years ago. I told him when he purchased it he really should do the radiator fix to avoid the cross contamination issue. He said no I am sure it will be just fine I am not doing that!

Guess what!?? .. With 150,000 miles on his truck last week and it just stopped dead on the road ...yup "Milkshake!" Trans is finished!

I told him he should have listened but some guys you just cant tell things too!

[skinny2]

For sure. I'm curious what kind of life is typical for these transmissions excluding the radiator issue. I don't recall seeing many (any?) replaced that weren't associated with the milkshake. I'm at 140k miles and still shifts like new.

[smj999smj]

It's actually a very good transmission, but there isn't any automatic transmission that does well when you pump engine coolant into it!

[twinblown]

I can vouch for the tranny being very good; I am at 225,000 and have only done two drain and fills at 100,000 intervals. Runs and shifts like the day I bought it. The bypass I did at 70,000, never had a problem ans still have the original radiator

[smj999smj]

I'm just over 150,000 on mine. I replaced the radiator at 92,000 miles, IIRC. Just did my third drain and fill service using Valvoline Maxlife ATF and it shifts great.

[dawgn86]

wow, for about $3 in parts and 30 minutes, he could have probably saved his transmission...

same story with my brother in law..bought his daughter a Nissan Frontier with the 4.0 v6...told him while everything was good to either have the radiator replaced or let me do the bypass.....nooooo...its good

stopped in road the other day...trans shot.....

[irikumi]

I just bought a 2008 PF a couple weeks ago, first thing I did was read up on these trucks and learned about the potential problems they have. I bought a new Denso radiator for 100 plus 20 bucks shipped, and installed it a couple days ago. $120 is very cheap insurance... I also have a Titan truck, but never heard of this happening to them on Titan talk forums that I can recall. Titans seem to have problems with rear axle seals blowing out due to a crap axle vent... but that's easy to keep an eye out for just looking under the truck once in a while.

[smj999smj]

The Titans have a different radiator problem: the lower tanks tend to crack and leak...but at least that doesn't take out the tranny.

[Kestral]

Personally if you do a fair amount of distance travel or towing a camper I think it's a good idea to just get a new radiator around 100,000 miles it's cheep insurance and I have had two of them fail on other SUV's between 120-150K