Transmission problems with my 2005 Nissan Murano

[dsusanf]

I purchased my Nissan Murano in February 2006 used with about 28,000 miles on it. On the whole I've been pretty pleased with the car. I had a few minor things that have needed to be replaced until recently. My car has 130,000 miles on it. I noticed about three months ago that the car sounded really loud. I mentioned it to my mechanic because I thought it might be the tires. He checked the tires and determined that it was probably the hub assembly in the wheels and told me he'd switch those out on our next oil change. I just brought the car in. He switched out one hub assembly, still heard the noise on the other side so he switched out the other hub assembly. Still heard the noise and can feel the vibration in the transmission. Apparently the noise is from the transfer case in the transmission. All of the bearings in this case are all rusted and nasty. He spoke to someone at Nissan that said they've had this come up a few times recently. In some rare cases they can open the transmission and switch out the transfer case but it's a tricky process. The only person that can work on this transmission is a dealer because it's a special transmission. I can expect to spend $3,000 to get this transmission replaced. I'm so frustrated!! Has anyone else had this problem? I've owned a number of cars that I've driven with 250,000 miles and I've NEVER had to replace a transmission! Has anyone else had this problem?

[audtatious]

250k on a stock automatic is quite high. The last long-term car I had was on it's 3rd transmission at 285k miles.

You could try finding one in a junk yard (low miles) and have it swapped out. Not sure if the overall cost would be lower than 3k or not.

[Q45tech]

No one rebuilds them so new or used is alternative. Used may not be better after sitting and new costs $4500 swapped.

Why one purchases a 7 year 100k Factory warranty extension.

CVT improves MPG but suffers in longevity so things pretty much wash over 7 years or 100k as to incremental cost.