2009 Nissan Armada shifting problem

Post by **terminator6868** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 6:51 am

I am new to this forum and I would first like to say Hi.I just bought a 2009 nissan Armada Le about 3 weeks ago , the car ran fine right until friday.I was in about a foot and a half of slushy snow and the driving conditions were horrible, so I decided to put the vehicle into 4-lo until I got to to the main street where they were plowed.I put my foot on the brake, and went into 4-Lo for about 75 - 100 feet, it didn't feel right to me so I put it into 4-hi. When I put it into 4-hi the car went about 10 feet and then seemed to go into neutral.I looked at the display panel and it showed that I was still in 4-lo even though I shifted to 4-hi.From that point the transmission would not engage at all. The display panel continued to show 4-lo no matter what gear I shifted into and no power to the wheels when I gave it gas. it felt like I was just revving the car in neutral.I shifted into park and a grinding sound occured, so I turned off the motor. when I re-started no grinding sound in park, no power to the wheels in any gear, so I went back to park and the sound came back again.Needless to say I called my local dealer and the gal in service tried to walk me through re-starting the car and we went through every possible combination to get the transmission to engage. She said I would have to have the car towed to the dealership to have someone take a look at .I was stuck there in the middle of the street for the night because we have had record snow here in Washington state, and the tow-truck could not get to my truck without getting stuck.Anyway, the truck made it in the following morning and towed it to the dealer, but the mechanic doesn't know what wrong with it yet.They said wait until monday when they have a more "seasoned" tech available.The gal then said they think its the transfer case. Is there ANY possible way that a transfer case could have occured damage in about the length of 150 feet doing under 5mph?Has anyone heard of this problem? Any adivise or comments would be helpfull.Thanks, Pete.

Post by **Timmbo** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 3:24 pm

terminator6868 wrote: I am new to this forum and I would first like to say Hi.I just bought a 2009 nissan Armada Le about 3 weeks ago , the car ran fine right until friday.I was in about a foot and a half of slushy snow and the driving conditions were horrible, so I decided to put the vehicle into 4-lo until I got to to the main street where they were plowed.I put my foot on the brake, and went into 4-Lo for about 75 - 100 feet, it didn't feel right to me so I put it into 4-hi. When I put it into 4-hi the car went about 10 feet and then seemed to go into neutral.I looked at the display panel and it showed that I was still in 4-lo even though I shifted to 4-hi.From that point the transmission would not engage at all. The display panel continued to show 4-lo no matter what gear I shifted into and no power to the wheels when I gave it gas. it felt like I was just revving the car in neutral.I shifted into park and a grinding sound occured, so I turned off the motor. when I re-started no grinding sound in park, no power to the wheels in any gear, so I went back to park and the sound came back again.Needless to say I called my local dealer and the gal in service tried to walk me through re-starting the car and we went through every possible combination to get the transmission to engage. She said I would have to have the car towed to the dealership to have someone take a look at .I was stuck there in the middle of the street for the night because we have had record snow here in Washington state, and the tow-truck could not get to my truck without getting stuck.Anyway, the truck made it in the following morning and towed it to the dealer, but the mechanic doesn't know what wrong with it yet.They said wait until monday when they have a more "seasoned" tech available.The gal then said they think its the transfer case. Is there ANY possible way that a transfer case could have occured damage in about the length of 150 feet doing under 5mph?Has anyone heard of this problem? Any adivise or comments would be helpfull.Thanks, Pete.

Happy Holidays and welcome to NICOclub! Thanks for joining us here in the Armada/QX56 Forum.

Sorry to hear about the problem with your Armada! That is definately not a normal problem, expecially with the Nissan's. I have endured some pretty wicked snow and off road conditions with both my Armada LE and my '04 Infiniti QX56, never with any problems. Chances are, you probably had a bad transfer case from day 1, but please be sure to keep us posted as to what you find out on Monday. Good luck to you!

Post by **terminator6868** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 5:19 pm

Thanks for getting back to me - I spoke with the dealership today and they said that the transfer control unit needed to be replaced. She said that the part would be overnighted and I should be able to pick it up tomorrow afternoon.Naturally this is covered under the warranty.Does anyone know what that is??? I'm assuming its a small electrical part that failed because if they meant a transfer CASE - I'm pretty sure that isnt a one day deal. I dont know if I should be relieved, or more worried at this point being that the truck is so new and this happened. I will be sure to post the outcome (hopefully with some good news!!).

If anyone knows exactly what a transfer control unit is, feel free to fill me in.Thanks guys, happy holidays!!!!!!

Post by **terminator6868** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 5:41 pm

Bye the way, how do you like the Murano? My wife wants me to trade in my Maxima to get one. Maxima only has 6800 miles and I like it way too much to trade, but she may get the Murano anyhow.....Fine by me.

Post by **terminator6868** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 4:31 pm

Well, I just wanted to let everyone know the FINAL outcome before I posted.It turns out the Transfer case was faulty and naturally they replaced it for free.It turns out there were 6 that were diagnosed with the same problem across the country (all 2009's). I was still pretty pissed that it happened in the first place, so I dealt with Nissan Corporate, and they made it right.Other than that I'm back on the happy track and it will be trouble free like EVERY otherNissan I ever owned.I will post pics!!!

Post by **Timmbo** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 6:11 pm

Thanks for the follow up on your Armada! That is strange that the '09s are having the transfer case problems, wierd that it isn't an '08 problem as well, they must have changed something with the components from '08 to '09.

Sorry I missed your post asking me about my Murano. The Murano is my wife's primary vehicle and we both love it! Cool thing is it is an LE so it has pretty much all the same features as our Armada (Nav, Music Box, etc). It is an awesome vehicle, and we checked out a lot of different options and the Murano was by far our number one choice!

Hey, I notice you have an '09 LE model, do you have the Nav Pkg. with the chrome rims? If you do, we would love it if you would post some pictures in the "Picture/Photo Thread" of your Armada, we do not have any pictures of '09s with the chrome rims, it would be nice to see!

Post by **terminator6868** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 10:53 pm

Yes, on the NAV package and chrome rims.I'll take some pics (when it stops raining out) and put them up.Talk to you soon.

2009 Nissan Armada shifting problem

2009 Nissan Armada shifting problem

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