Feds reject request for transmission recall

[ChristopherJensen]

I wrote a story on the feds rejecting a request to recall 2005 - 10 Pathfinders, Xterra and Frontier models due to the transmission failures.

You can find it at forbes.com.

Regards,

Chris Jensen

[Hawairish]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jensen/2016 ... n-problem/

[centralcoaster33]

Interesting article. Fine writing. I was gonna ad a link, but Hawairish beat me to it. Please pick one location for your new threads in the future and Welcome to NICO Club!

[Buzzman]

Sad part is, Nissan is not the only one that has this problem.
Any vehicle that has transmission fluid running through the radiator can have the same problem.
A friend of mine had her 2009 Acura RDX transmission destroyed due to this exact same problem.
When I started Googling this problem, Honda/Acura have this problem on other vehicles as well.
It goes beyond those two companies too. I guess the Nissan issue is just better documented.

There is a fix for this though: a separate transmission cooler.
Car manufacturers won't do this though, as it's more expensive.

[centralcoaster33]

The 240sx automatic had the transmission cooler built into the bottom of the coolant radiator. I have one at home and don't see it leaking between the two without me getting into a significant front end collision. I guess new cars are either going cheap on material or assembly. Seems like an easy enough fix for a car engineer.

[Hawairish]

I think that's how the R50 cooler is...it's just a tube/bar underneath the radiator. Not sure how efficient it is, though, as simple as it is.

[yeldogt]

The intank coolers also work to bring the fluid temp up faster -- it's a way to stabilize the fluid temp regardless of outside temp. Adding a cooler can actually lower the fluid temp too low.

MB had a problem with Valeo radiators -- they had a service action to fix damaged transmissions. Nissan has not matched Toyota in the way they treat customers.

Getting a recall is actually not that easy -- it has to be something unexpected .. unusual ... inherently dangerous. Most times people get ample warning something is not working correctly when the fluid is compromised.