# 2005 Pathfinder transmission problems



## xtreme87 (Aug 31, 2009)

Ok, So I have been reading around online lately. It seems that a lot of people have been getting coolant leaking into the transmission and basically having to replace the whole tranny. I still have been fortunate enough to not have this problem occur yet. However, it seems like up until this point I have had every possible problem and rattle that everybody has been talking about, so I've been fearing this coming now. I really don't want to shell out over 5 grand for a new transmission. 

I have a few questions to the 05 owners... First, how many people actually have had this problem and at what mileage did it occur? I have heard there is ways of preventing this from happening. The people that had this problem, this sounds like a defective radiator. Would replacing the radiator with a different one prevent this leak from happening?

I have also heard the other option was getting an external cooler to bypass the radiator completely, however this option seems like there would be a lot of extra mod work involved.

Any info on this problem would be greatly appreciated...thanks.


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## 08Datsun (Aug 15, 2008)

I've been seeing a lot of posts about this recently. thenissanpath.com has a couple of posts on this, including a bypass of the tranny cooler in the radiator. All 2005+ Pathfinders have an auxiliary external cooler. A couple of people have simply re-routed the lines to bypass the one in the radiator and just use the external one. It's a couple of bucks in parts.


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## jcb0806 (Apr 7, 2006)

Happened to me, at about 98k. Fortunately I had the extended warranty to 100k and the tranny was replaced on Nissan






xtreme87 said:


> Ok, So I have been reading around online lately. It seems that a lot of people have been getting coolant leaking into the transmission and basically having to replace the whole tranny. I still have been fortunate enough to not have this problem occur yet. However, it seems like up until this point I have had every possible problem and rattle that everybody has been talking about, so I've been fearing this coming now. I really don't want to shell out over 5 grand for a new transmission.
> 
> I have a few questions to the 05 owners... First, how many people actually have had this problem and at what mileage did it occur? I have heard there is ways of preventing this from happening. The people that had this problem, this sounds like a defective radiator. Would replacing the radiator with a different one prevent this leak from happening?
> 
> ...


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## dan_showers (Sep 22, 2009)

Happened to me right around 100k miles. I now have a fully rebuilt transmission (almost $4,000), and the shop also installed an additional external cooler (it already has one) to bypass the radiator completely. That was about 10k miles ago. So far, so good.

If I were you, I'd look into bypassing the radiator and saving yourself a potential $4,000 repair bill in the future.


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## ncpathfinder (Mar 28, 2008)

Is this typical of pathfinders driven in the snow belt states or is it common to all pathfinders?


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## snoopdogie187 (Feb 12, 2007)

I would think this more common in the snow belt states (all that salt isn't good for any car as it is), but I think in time it is ever pathfinder. I would no matter what get an external trans cooler for the piece of mind. 
Not even that, when the radiator does good, it will be easier to fix also. You don't have to deal with the trans fuild at all, and its only the anti-freeze that you deal with.


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