Cracked radiator causing coolant to leak into the transmission. Once mixed with the transmission fluid this lethal combination kills the valves, seals and torque converter -- rendering your entire transmission useless. My xterra is not able to drive. Got quoted over three thousand to repair and my car is not even paid off yet.
2005 Nissan Xterra transmission complaints
Page 5 of 15: complaints 101 to 130 of 412, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 nissan xterra. While driving 40 MPH, the vehicle shook and failed to shift gears. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 73,000.
Nissan's defective transmission / transmission cooling system design has ruined another transmission. Nissan knows the issue will occur after their warranty (even an extended warranty) expires. So their defective design costs them nothing. And they know that regulators can't touch them. And nissan dealers are useless. They could care less about their "customers" after they make a sale.
A few days prior to this vehicle's shut down, I had noticed when driving at either 40 MPH or 60 MPH, the vehicle would start to 'vibrate'; the feel was as if driving on the highway and the tires are driving over the meridian entering the brake down lane. The alignment wasn't the issue. The day of incident, I was driving on a 50 MPH main street, when approaching 40 MPH, the vehicle shut down. After about 10 minutes, the vehicle started back up, enough time to drive 5 minutes back home. Once towed to the garage & after inspection I was told there was a crack in the atf line which caused coolant to mix with transmission fluid in result causing my transmission to fail. Of course I just went over my 100,000 ml warranty, my vehicle is just at 126,000 ml! I am the only owner of this vehicle & have done well maintaining it. After doing research on this issue, I am disgusted with nissan not taking ownership to this situation! This model alone has the most complaints with this specific issue, and to only do an extended recall up to 80,000 ml is ridiculous when this issue appears to happen from 90,000 ml +!!!!!!! I bought this vehicle brand new, with the hopes to have it live for almost 300,000 ml, which I was told by the dealership prior to me buying. This company used to have a great reputation.....let's pray they try to get it back. I hope nissan owns up to this situation & is just not sitting around until a death happens to recall it!
This is a complaint towards nissan and there failure to be and act as a professional car company. There should be a recall on there radiators leaking into the transmission, it has costs numerous amounts of people thousands of dollars to replace transmissions and radiators and even when done the problem still occurs. The class action lawsuit that they were so "nice" enough to agree on does not help anyone what so ever especially when hitting the 100k mark. These vehicles were built to last a long time, not crap out after 50,000 miles. It's a problem that needs to be resolved.
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 nissan xterra. The contact stated that while driving at an unknown speed, an abnormal noise emitted from the engine. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic. The technician diagnosed that there was water in the transmission and oil in the radiator. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 71,000.
2005 nissan xterra. Consumer writes in regards to transmission and radiator issues. *smd the consumer stated after he dropped the vehicle off at the dealer, he received a call from the service advisor, stating transmission fluid was leaking into the radiator and nissan was aware of the defect and should cover the cost in replacing the radiator and transmission, because they extended the warranty. When the consumer contacted nissan to confirm, he was informed the vehicle had over 80,000 miles and he would have to pay $3,000 if he wanted the repairs done.
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 nissan xterra. The contact stated that while driving 55 MPH, the vehicle started shaking and stalled without warning. The vehicle was towed to the dealer. The technician stated a crack in the atf caused a cross contamination of the engine coolant into the transmission. As a result of the failure, the transmission would need to be replaced. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 93,000.
My truck felt sluggish. Upon diagnosis, there was transmission fluid in the radiator and the radiator was replaced on 5/7/14. Several weeks later, my truck stalled, and I had the intelligent power distribution module replaced. Several weeks later, the service engine light came on. This time, there were three transmission codes. The transmission had coolant in it, and was starting to fail. Nissan corporate only offers an extension over 100,000 on their powertrain warranty with a $3,500 deductible. With the transmission (rebuilt) being $3,500 and the radiator being $500. It was not worth it to go to the dealership to get a new transmission. Nissan failed to notify their customers in 2007 when they became aware of the problem. It would have been a lot less costly for nissan truck owners to buy a new radiator before it failed, then to have also lost their transmissions. It looks like nissan wanted to avoid a costly recall, which will cost them more in lost new car sales in the future. One ceo looks good, the next one will not.
Coolant enters into the transmission system from a defective radiator system and destroys transmission. Nissan manufacturer is aware of this, even lost a class action lawsuit, but has not recalled the vehicle. As a result, owners are not aware of the defect until transmission is ruined. Nissan only agreed to help repair vehicles, after the fact and only up to 100,000 miles - with the owner still having to pay $3,000 toward repair. Since we were not aware of the defect, we didn't do anything preemptive so we had to wait until our transmission was ruined. Since we are beyond the 100,000 mile mark, nissan will not accept any responsibility for repair.
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 nissan xterra. While driving approximately 40 MPH, the vehicle shook. The failure occurred multiple times. The dealer stated that the transmission and radiator needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired and the manufacturer was not notified. The approximate failure mileage was 142,000.
Purchased my '05 nissan xterra in the spring of 2012 with about 160,000 miles. For the past 2 months I had minor issues like shuddering/vibrations randomly when I accelerated and the heat not working when I was at a complete stop. It was not until the other day when I was at a complete stop and my car would not accelerate properly that I knew I had a problem with the transmission. I took my xterra to 3 different mechanics and each one explained to me that I would need a completely new transmission and from there they would see if I in fact needed to change the radiator (which they were positive was the original issue due to similar issues with other nissan SUV owners). The repairs will cost me well over $4,000 and unfortunately as a college student, there is no way I can afford to repair the transmission and radiator. What was appalling to me was when I researched the issue online. There are hundreds upon hundreds of complaints online on various websites about this issue and nissan has yet to issue a recall. The extended warranty excluded many people and put many more at an unfair disadvantage. I personally bought my nissan, because of their reputation, but the fact that they will not come to the aid of their consumers speaks volumes of this company.
While driving vehicle vibrated as if it didn't know whether to shift or not. Found out later that I had water in my trans and trans fluid in my radiator.
2nd owner of 2005 nissan xterra. First had issues with heat not working when at a complete stop, then car would begin to vibrate on the hwy, and now car is having issues up shifting. 2 mechanics have told me the same thing, stating defective radiator was leaking fluid into transmission. Now I must replace both at about $4000. After doing some research online, I have found this is a common issue with this model and nissan has not issued a recall. Jeopardizing the safety of many and being very costly to those who can not afford a major issue like this.
The radiator leaked into the transmission causing the transmission to stop working. I had to have the transmission rebuilt and a whole new radiator system put in my truck. 5300.00 .this is a common problem with this model. Tried to send in a claim but was told they are no longer excepting claims because of the problem. If they are aware of the problem then they should help those of us it happened to!!!!!!
I noticed the transmission 'slipping' when I pulled into work, especially in traffic on my commute. When I got back in my car 2 hours later, I could barely make it up a 2% grade in the parking lot. I immediately went to a reputable transmission shop who said I was lucky to make it there and not pay the towing charges (he pointed to another xterra that came in the day before). My vehicle was past the (wimpy) extended warranty (mileage) for the class action lawsuit and the age was well past it. It cost me $3750 out of pocket with no hope of financial relief from nissan. The transmission repair store owner said this whole situation (design and lawsuit) was terrible and could have been avoided. Lucky I wasn't on the interstate!
Complete catastrophic engine failure during rush hour traffic. Luckily I was approaching a red light and there were cars slowing ahead of me I was able to brake slowly to a stop while I was not able to be steer. I had to be pushed to the side of the road by the help of others. The vehicle was towed to the pinnacle nissan dealership where they informed me that the transmission and the radiator has to be fully replaced due to a faulty valve . Nissan said the valve that connects the radiator and transmission broke allowing coolant and anti freeze to mix together and immediately catastrophically destroying both components. I was informed that their was a classaction suit for this very reason that was settled but this is very dangerous if I had been in a freeway situation. Nissan has had numerous complaints for this vehicle for this reason. I have had every recall part for this vehicle needed to be replaced due to faulty manufacturing, this is a very expensive repair and it has been known due to the # of complaints on this particular part being faulty but a recall needs to happen not at the expense of nissan. I am expected to cover this with a deductible of $2500.00 at no fault of my own . I am lucky to be alive. I have maintained all necessary/reccomended service outlined by nissan up till l this failure. Thank you
Luckily I was waiting in a drive thru when the known defect occurred. The radiator is known to crack and leak in to the transmission mixing both the coolant and transmission fluid requiring the replacement of both the radiator and transmission. The failure of the radiator also requires that the engine be flushed multiple times. I received a letter from nissan a few years ago that this is a rare occurrence. It doesn't appear that they were telling the truth. Nissan settled a class action suit so I will have to pay $2560 to get the problem fixed. Because the parts have to be ordered it takes a week or longer to get the car fixed. This is a known problem that affects multiple nissan models from 2005 through 2010. Nissan should be required to recall and fix everyone of the affected models.
Because of a failed radiator, coolant became mixed with automatic transmission fluid and the transmission stopped working in rush hour traffic.
The cooling system failed and mixed coolant with transmission fluid, transmission subsequently failed.
Transmission failure because of coolant fluid leaking into it. A design flaw which brought a class action suit against nissan. Nissan lost the suit, but did not recall these vehicles for repair. I was forced to pay $3000.00 deductible for the repair, but I may be lucky since many with this problem will not be covered at all. Very unfair of nissan.
Radiator defect causes leakage into transmission. Transmission fails and vehicle abruptly stops unpredictably on the freeway.
Monday june 2 my husband told me something was wrong with his 05 xterra. He said it sounded like it was driving on rumble strips in the road. We went online to find that there have been several complaints brought against nissan for folks experiencing the same issue. We contacted our local nissan dealer. I spoke with [xxx] and he informed me that there is a known issue with 05 xterra's where the radiator fluid leaks into the transmission which will in turn cause the engine to cease. He then indicated to me that there was a class action law suit that settled back in jan 2013 that if the vehicle was under 100,000 miles all would be covered all but $3,000. That's what we would have to pay to have this fixed knowing that this is a defect on the vehicle that nissan has known about as it effects 2005-2010 xterra's, pathfinders and frontiers. Yet its us that has to pay out of pocket this astronomical amount of money. Anyone over 100,000 miles would have to pay in full which ranges $7000 - $10,000 depending on the state you live in. You can't tell me that this is how a company stands by their name. This was literally almost a total loss on this vehicle but luckily enough we were 300 miles under the 100,000 mark. How is this ok to charge folks these prices for something that is a defect on the company. To date, we were never notified nor was a recall ever put into place. There are thousands of folks filing complaints on this matter. We should not have to have this worry how we will come up with this amount of money and by all means we should not have to borrow from 401k's to afford what we rightfully did not damage ourselves. I will never, we will never purchase another nissan again because they did not stand by their name. All we are asking is that something be done to return our money that we so rightfully shouldn't have had to put out. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 nissan xterra. The contact stated while driving 35 MPH, the check engine warning lamp illuminated. The contact mentioned that the vehicle was making a loud knocking sound and was hesitating. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where the technician diagnosed that the transmission was defective and needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The VIN was not available. The failure and current mileage were 168,000.
Driving on highway and transmission failed. Nearly had accident getting car off of road. Problem exists do to factory defect of radiator leakage into transmission fluid. Requires new radiator and other repairs and new transmission. Estimated repair cost = $6,800.
I was driving one morning and at the front of my neighborhood is a hill. I had to stop and wait for traffic so that I could go. Once I put my foot on the gas I couldn't go anywhere, the engine just revved. So I had to back all the back to my house. My husband is a mechanic and told me it was the transmission. We have now found out what the problem was being that the coolant is getting into the transmission and ruined it. Now, at the time I find that there was a settlement, my vehicle has over the 100,000 mile limit. From what I read, the majority of the vehicles are over the 100,000 mile limit when the problem occurs. Something needs to be done about this because it could cause a fatality if you are driving and suddenly can't go anywhere fast enough and get hit!
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 nissan xterra. The contact stated there was a loud noise heard from the front of the vehicle intermittently. The authorized dealer was unable to replicate or diagnose the failure on several occasions. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer where the timing belt was repaired however, the failure recurred. The contact was also advised that there was a leak in the engine. Additionally, when the hood was opened the cap to the transmission overflow was missing and was replaced by the dealer. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer for further inspection and diagnosis. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 44,000. The current mileage was 65,000.
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 nissan xterra. The contact stated there was a loud noise in the front of the vehicle intermittently. An authorized dealer was unable to replicate nor diagnose the failure on several occasions. The vehicle was taken back to an authorized dealer again who diagnosed that the timing needed to be reset. The timing was reset and the failure recurred. The vehicle was also leaking fluid; the hood was opened and the cap to the transmission overflow fluid was missing however, the dealer replaced the cap. The contact continued to hear a loud noise intermittently. The vehicle was taken back to an authorized dealer for further inspection and diagnostic testing. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 44,000. The current mileage was 65,000.
Manufacturing defect in radiator caused transmission failure that could have been quite dangerous under some circumstances. This has been widely reported by huge numbers of nissan owners of various year models and styles. Nissan refuses to be accountable for the failure and denies acceptable service to their customers on this issue.
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 nissan xterra. The contact stated that while traveling various speeds, the vehicle suddenly lost acceleration power and would not exceed 25 MPH. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was found that the transmission had failed due to being contaminated by coolant. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contacted about the failure. The failure mileage was 102,000.
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