It's now a week since I was told by the local Nissan dealer that Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc. has decided that my Pathfinder is definitely unrepairable and I handed over the registration paperwork.

Still waiting on a call from Crawford with an offer. A call I was assured by the Nissan dealer that I would get either Thursday or Friday of last week.

Hey Folks -

I have a 2001 Pathfinder SE 5-Speed with about 122k on it. I live in RI, and the vehicle was originally purchased in CT (I'm the 2nd owner) -- According to Nissan, there's no recall on my truck....

Does that seem right?

Incorrect. All 1996-2004 Pathfinders are affected. Print out the recall TSB linked on the front page and give that to your service adviser at your local dealership. If they still claim there's no recall applicable to your vehicle, give 1-800-NISSAN1 a call.

Thank you - Interesting since I emailed NissanUSA - and they were the ones who old me there were no recalls....

I will do that... Thanks again!

How recently did you purchase this Pathfinder? Perhaps the previous owner had the recall done.

I bought it about a year ago.... never thought of that.... how can I tell?

This specific recall started in May 2011. The service adviser can pull up your VIN and see if there are any outstanding recalls for your vehicle. Ask for a complete service history; the service adviser should be able to print one out for you. If an inspection for the recall was performed, it will be listed in that history.

That would be cool - at least I can see the full history on the truck. I know it was a one owner... and I can see what she did/did not do to it.

Naturally the service history applies only to work done at any Nissan dealership. Even if no service was performed at a dealer, it's still nice to have a history of any warranty work performed, if any.

My car smells like gas today, notice a wet spot near the rear driver side wheel well on the ground... Gas is leaking from a hose connection... I notice there is a clip with a screw, but since any screw I touch on the underside of the QX4 is rusted and pops off, leaving me a screw thats not removable unless it's drilled out, I decide to run the car up the street to the mechanic to take a look. He looks underneath and says the fuel neck filler is probably leaking, that it's a problem with these cars (Pathys and QX4s) and there is a recall on them, call the dealer. Images here, but read on there is more:





I call Infiniti - tell them of the problem and they ask for the VIN - guy comes back after running the VIN and says it's not a recall problem. He then tells me there is a recall on the strut housing - says before I spend money on the fuel neck filler, get the strut housing checked out because they're buying them back if it's a problem. I'm thinking to myself there is no way I'm letting go of this QX4 - I love it - so I order the fuel neck filler by phone and scheduled them to fix it this weekend, at which time I'll have them look at the strut housing. But, I'm looking at the strut housing tonight, and freaking out - does this look like it's damaged beyone repair? The top looks okay - but there is serious metal gone from this area on the passenger side... nothing gone on drivers side.

gcjazz12 wrote:My car smells like gas today, notice a wet spot near the rear driver side wheel well on the ground... Gas is leaking from a hose connection... I notice there is a clip with a screw, but since any screw I touch on the underside of the QX4 is rusted and pops off, leaving me a screw thats not removable unless it's drilled out, I decide to run the car up the street to the mechanic to take a look. He looks underneath and says the fuel neck filler is probably leaking, that it's a problem with these cars (Pathys and QX4s) and there is a recall on them, call the dealer. Images here, but read on there is more:

Follow this link, you are outside the range by a year but the model didn't change significantly into the next year. I'd argue for some money off the repair at a minimum since your systems are spot on with the recall. Also follow by manufacture date on the inside of your passenger door, not the model year when making the argument, might help you get some traction on the argument.

filler-neck-recall-t448132.html

Hate to double post, but I arrived here also since my 2001 Pathfinder just got the choppy chop. I brought it in for the fuel leak problem and got a call later that morning that the car was 'Condemned'. That was monday of this week (in Maryland) and Morley called me on Wednesday to open up the case .. very very friendly, made sure I was in a rental (a friggin Chevy Impala) and told me what the process was and if I could get the documentation to her to speed up the process once the third party inspector goes out to take a look.

Well, Nissan dealership called me this afternoon (Thu) to let me know that Morley confirmed its unrepairable and that I should be expecting a call from them sometime in the next week, likely Monday or Tuesday. So based on my experience so far this process has definitely sped up. I have my notes and arguments ready for when the call comes so my target is KBB Excellent +$1k and a vpp discount code. That seems to be what everyone seems to be able to get without too much trouble and that would be 2-3x what I am going to get on a trade, and I would never sell this thing private party. Maryland inspection is just awful for older cars and this had issues (below).

And I ~was~ lookign at new cars this weekend. Carmax offered me $2k and Ford said maybe $2-3K so I should double up on that with this outcome... I consider this a small lottery ticket. I understand why people are mad .. I love my truck and was hoping to keep it another 5000 to a total of 160k miles but if I'm gonna die driving it, I'll take a new car payment any day. I got talking to the head mechanic and he told me that the driver side can shear free and rip the master cylinder free.... for those that don't know what that means, it means no brakes. The prospect of all that happening on a highway at 75 miles an hour and I am just fine with all of this. ]

Oh and plus I was having the P0505 idle air control valve issue, oil leaking from the rear main seal (again) and the fuel leak. Not counting three body rust spots and the nerf bards which I had to finally just accept the shame and pull off, I can't say that this really was all the car I was expecting it to be (in retrospect). I sympathize with the people that loved their trucks since I loved mine, but seriously it was time.

Sorry to depart the land of nissan owners. Good luck to everyone that has one on the road and hopefully mine gets parted out and lives on!

Glad to hear you're being handled well by the dealer and Morley and getting some good payout. Out of curiosity, how many times have you replaced your rear main seal? Mine has been replaced three times (the third time was not necessary, but done as the result of some other work being done).

I really am curious to know what will happen with all of these condemned Pathfinders and QX4s. There's no doubt many of us could use them for parts.

How bad is the rust on the strut housing in my picture... It's the passenger side and not the drivers side so maybe there is hope....

I'll be sick if it's a gone-er --- just drove 1600 miles to get replacement running boards.... Love this Qx4.

Had my rear main seal done a couple of times also... I posted on this forum with pictures of the leak. Nissan had to do it twice because the first repair failed. It took some talking to the service manager to get them to do the labor twice for the price of one fix. Not a cheap repair...

On the main seal, just once @ 99,800 .. extended warranty ran out at 100k .. I was a lucky dog. After that it was point out at about 115,000. Just past Nissan's warranty period. However, my mechanic basically said its a drip, don't worry about it. Never even saw stains on my driveway from it, so wasn't stressed. To be honest, it burned more oil then I ever leaked.

As far as your pics, yeah I'm not feeling confident for you based on what I've read and seen. See, there is the engine compartment shield which is where your hole is, but under that is two horizontal ridges which is your frame... if the rust is there, that's the bad part. However, it depends on how bad the rust is. Like mine is way way way worse than that and they said it was still, technically, repairable. If you want it repaired they will do it no matter what and give it back to you, but you sign a liability waiver. Too me that's way too much risk.

Pic of driver side:


Pic of passenger side:

That looks pretty bad, but might be repairable. Compare your pictures to the pictures in the TSB on the first page, they look pretty similar to the "repairable" photos from what I recall.

My rear main seal was replaced by Nissan at only 1,720 miles, then it started leaking again around 100k miles. I had the rear main seal replaced at 129k, but my oil pan was also leaking so the same shop redid the RMS and did the oil pan gaskets for another $400ish. The leak wasn't a sieve, but it was slowly getting worse and since my Pathfinder is in perfect mechanical condition, a high cost repair like this wasn't out of the question, especially after 11 years of service.

Thank you Infiniti of Columbus!

Just got the QX4 back after having Level 2 repair on both front strut towers. Pics of the repair:

My 97 Pathfinder has been owned in Georgia for the entirety of its life. I took it to a Nissan dealership last year to get check, and there was not a single spot of rust around the strut housing. There was no repair done or any form of protection applied, I just got the OK and was on my way.

That was my experience as well. The non-salt states have a different recall/TSB number and only receive a protective coating if a repair was done.

I had my car inspected for this recall about a year ago when i first heard about it. The dealer I took it to said that my car was fine.

I took the tires off and looked for myself and it did appear fine.

However, i've been doing a lot of beach driving since, and i now see that rust is starting to appear in the wheel wells.


My question is, If i already had my car taken in for this recall and it was deemed OK, would it be possible to have it inspected a second time when the rust is clearly visible and out of control?

I think you should give 1-800-NISSAN1 a call, they should be able to give you a definitive answer.

2001 pathfinder SE 235 194 km, I am in Canada and if I didn't visit this site regularly I would never have known about this recall. My pathfinder was condemned Aug.13 2012 . I emailed the dealership about this last year and was told someone from the service department would get back to me, no one ever did. I checked it out and everything looked good so I forgot about it(which is unfortunate because it could have been fixed then). The service manager wasn't going to get me a rental either, I had ask for one and he didn't know it was covered by nissan. So now I wait for an offer.

I have browsed this entire thread, it seems as if the offers are all over the board.
This late in the recall should I expect less for my 1999.5 LE 4X4 Pathy? My truck has 257186K miles. I have always loved the Nissan product. I'm dissappointed that my local Nissan dealership said that the girl must be retired. I, like many others on this site, was not in the market to purchase a new car at this time. PLEASE, fellow Pathy fans, pray for all of us.

I'm happy that Nissan is doing something for us at this point. Does the settlement with Marley Co. include a "gag order" once you settle? I don't plan to bad mouth anyone at this point but if I'm offered less than what the average Joe has received, I may want to discuss the figure with everyone on this site. Although my Pathfinder has a few miles on it the truck is in great shape.

JamesB4500 wrote:It's now a week since I was told by the local Nissan dealer that Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc. has decided that my Pathfinder is definitely unrepairable and I handed over the registration paperwork.

Still waiting on a call from Crawford with an offer. A call I was assured by the Nissan dealer that I would get either Thursday or Friday of last week.

Since the above post (that I made on June 6), every time I inquired about the progress (or the lack of it), all I'd get from the Warranty Administrator at the Nissan Dealership was either "Crawford will call you soon" or "The delay is at Crawford". I was also informed that after the initial set of photographs were taken back in May, Crawford had contacted the dealership on two more occasions requesting a complete reshoot of all the photographs (including the critical ones that require the strut to be removed).

2 weeks ago the information I received was that there was no record of my Pathfinder in Crawford's system. The data appears to be lost, and the whole process (including taking another set of photographs) had to be restarted.

Last week, I received a call from Crawford letting me know that after the 4th set of photographs had been taken and sent to them, my vehicle had been declared un-repairable, and they offered me $4000 plus another $600 in GST tax refunds for the vehicle. As I paid just $3100 for the vehicle 4 years ago, I was quite happy to accept their offer.

I signed all the paperwork on Tuesday, and I'm currently waiting for notification that the cheque from Crawford has arrived at the Nissan dealer.

That's quite a runaround there. At least you're finally getting the check. Shame you had to part with your Pathfinder.

Towncivilian wrote:That's quite a runaround there. At least you're finally getting the check. Shame you had to part with your Pathfinder.

Got the cheque on Friday.

While I loved my Pathfinder when I first bought it for $3100 4 years ago, I got to drive it for only a year before the strut tower let go and I took it off the road. In the year that it was on the road, the brake lines failed twice due to being rusted out (rear first, then a few months later the front lines failed in the long run to the load proportioning valve). The transmission was also failing.

I had 2+ years of seeing it daily, sitting on the driveway as an unusable waste of money. In that 2 years, the frustration festered a pretty strong distrust of anything made by Nissan. Last December I was starting to consider having it towed away for scrap, but news of the recall gave me hope. I had never owned anything from Nissan before, and the administrative bungling during the recall process certainly didn't generate any form of good feelings towards the Nissan brand.

From the dealership taking the 4th set of photographs to getting the cheque was just a week and a half ... and my travels out of town and the labour day weekend slowed the process. If that had been the speed of operation when I took the vehicle in the first time, then my attitude towards the Nissan brand would certainly be very different.

My 01 PF is at the dealer now getting state inspection. Service writer told me "there is an open campaign" on your vehicle. I knew about the strut issue and inspected it myself to see zero rust. So, they said even if it's OK they still will do a preventitive repair on the area. I thought that was odd, as if it's ok why not leave it alone? I'm proud to say the service writer commented my 01 PD 4x4 still looks show room new, as I'm a hobby detailer. Anyway, if there are any interesting developments I'll keep you posted.

Recalled Pathfinder Resolved and the common complaints against Morley and Nissan Corp regarding the buyback program...

1st Everyone should know Pathfinders/QX4 from 1996-2004 anywhere in the US or Canada are part of Nissan's Buyback program even in California because you’re SUV can still have strut tower rust issues.

2nd If you're car has rust issues in the wheel well on your Pathfinder you're entitle to take in to any Nissan Dealership for inspection free of charge.(The inspection process can take up to 1 day or 1 month in some cases depending on the dealership in your area.)

IF YOU suspect your car will be consider “un-repairable” because of the rusty strut tower issue, be prepared for a long battle. Morley will not compensation for any upgrades such as Premiums Stereo, Bigger Tires, Rims, Alarm, Low Jack, or Car Maintenance done in the last few years, such as new shocks, engine, tranny replacement or upgrades, these will be negotiated by Morley. Morley doesn’t handle any claims if you have repaired the strut tower and Nissan will only address this matter if you have an accident cause by strut tower failure. Nissan has full liability for the strut tower rust problem. They will only refund with receipt of new tires in the last years, battery replacement last year and few other wearable items with only receipt with in the last year. Example I took out my stereo, new tires, jacks, jumper cables, floor mats, trunk cover, car tools and trailer hitch parts before turning in my vehicle. All my personal items were taken out before turned in my car. I had the old tires and I put those on before I turned in the SUV.

VERY IMPORTANT: MAKE SURE YOUR SUV LOOKS THE BEST POSSIBLE, SINCE MORLEYS WILL TAKE PICTURES WHEN NEGOTIATING THE VALUE OF YOUR CAR. THEY WILL USE KELLEY BLUE BOOK PRIVATE PARTY VALUES ONLY!!!! NO NADA, NO Dealership values, Nothing but
KKB Private Party: Excellent, GOOD and FAIR.

Nissan Corp will only issue a free car rental after inspection and the dealership must determine the car is unsafe or deemed repairable.
During this time you are entitled to a car or SUV of same value as part of your rental. So if you need 4x4 SUV as rental then dealership must provide an equivalent rental only people who turned in 4x4 of course. They usually will give you a compact car to save money but you can demand a SUV rental. Also you must contact Nissan Corp to help with the car rental if the dealership is refusing or delaying compensation. Nissan Corp (800-647-7261). If your SUV has been chosen for repair this process can usually take up to a few weeks but should only take about 1 week depending on the dealership workload of course.

3rd Once they have determine your vehicle is part of the buyback program a 3rd party company (Morley's) will contact you. At this point this company will send auditor to inspect your car. They will take pictures and send them back to Morley’s representative who will determine the value of your car. It’s best to make sure your SUV looks the best possible way since this will be your argument on the value. I left the factory hitch on my car but you might pull any of your aftermarket parts that have more value such as wench hitch or plows, expensive Mud tires. They will give you bottom rock for these parts and most case nothing for any add on's. So make sure to take everything out of the car. Once they determine the value of your car, it’s up to you to negotiate a better rate. (I’ve been reading about people needing their car’s and wasn’t in the position to give up their daily drive because of financial circumstance. With that said it’s up to you to make sure you get the most money to offset the headaches. My SUV was really important to me and finding another car was a huge undertaking. I wasted over a month finding the right replacement and it cost more money than I could afford.)

So make sure you negotiate the most money possible! I know for a fact the first offer from Morley’s was there lowest offer. My car was $6000 high blue book and not accepting the first offer I was able negotiate another $2000 in haggling. Once I told them the hardships in finding another car and all the work done in the last two years totaled over $3000 in repairs they came back with additional $1000. The last $1000 was total in receipts on new tires, a new battery and it included labor cost too. So I settle with $8000 for my Pathfinder on the buyback. The negotiating process from the time I dropped my car to the payoff was close to 4 months. I had a new rental car for 4 months paid by Nissan Corp on the dealership's car rental account and $8000 check from Morley’s.(Do not rent a car and expect Nissan to pay you back for the rental, I've read on this forum it was headache getting your money back from Nissan Corp, so make sure it's the dealership's car or car rental account.) I knew months before turning my car that I will have a problem regarding the strut tower so I made all the arrangements beforehand. I had small rust holes on both sides of the wheel well which could easily been repaired according to Nissan Recall notice and I decided to wait until the holes became un-repairable thinking it would take 2+ years. Interesting enough the penny size holes became a huge 18” crack and basketball size rust spot in 12 months. The car was unsafe and I knew then it was the right decision to take this car off the street. It was the right move me to hold on to the car so it couldn't be repaired. Unfortunately that isn't the case for all Pathfinder/QX4 owners. Here is story title under TamiW (http://news.consumerreports.org/cars/20 ... anger.html) she had MA DMV state inspected and failed inspection and took it Nissan dealership for the recall which they did a crappy repaired job only to have it fail state inspection the second time. According to her headache she can't sell it back to Nissan for the buyback because it's been repaired and she can't drive her car because DMV won't aloud it on the streets because it's unsafe. Hopefully you can learn from these stories and be prepare when setting up your next move on the Nissan Rust Recall. I hope my experience will help the next Pathfinder/QX4 owner.
Good luck!

gcjazz12 wrote:Thank you Infiniti of Columbus!

Just got the QX4 back after having Level 2 repair on both front strut towers. Pics of the repair:

After your repairs it seems you still have a large crack on the last 4 pictures.. That doesn't seem right!

If it were the drivers side I'd be more concerned about the steering column or master cylinder issues associatrd with the strut tower corrosion.