Other powertrain problem on the 2005 Nissan Pathfinder
2 crashes 1 fire 3 of the 113 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Nissan Pathfinder report other powertrain problem at a median of 104,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 90,000 miles and a quarter after 135,000 miles, from 102 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 71,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 155,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 83,755 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
4% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 70,810 miles | 90,000 miles | 103,500 miles | 134,553 miles | 154,565 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 2 a crash and 1 a fire are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $400–$4,500 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 22 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 4,000 miles, and latest on the 2000 at 130,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 212; the 2005 has 113. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
2005 nissan pathfinder has problems with antifreeze leaking into the transmission because of some design flaw. After researching this problem I see that there are many complaints of this occurring with this same particular model. The transmission starts to make a grinding noise and then will start slipping. Nissan is aware of the problem because they are the one that has diagnosed it over and over again, but have refused to issue a tsb or recall. This is a very serious defect and is costing people 5 to 10 thousand dollars to fix. My 2005 nissan pathfinder has just begun the tell tale symptoms of this costly problem. Nissan should consider the problems that toyota is having right now and issue a recall for this defect. *tr
Coolant leaking into transmission. On multiple occasions my family of 4 and I start from a stop and our 2005 nissan pathfinder will begin to move into the intersection and the transmission will disengage or slip due to contamination while other vehicles are heading for us. I have been trying to get nissan of middletown ny to replace it since I put my children in the vehicle and feel it is a safety issue but instead they keep replacing the transmission fluid and sending me on my way. It was not until I was on a test drive with the mechanic (I got to know them being there all the time) that he told me in confidence that it was a known issue with the nissans that the transmission has a flaw and it will cost about $7,000 to replace. I feel if it is a flaw and it proves to be a safety issue it should be replaced by nissan at no cost to the consumer since families cannot afford to replace them forcing us to drive unsafe vehicles. Please help us pathfinder owners hold nissan accountable for flaw in the transmissions. *tr
Tl*the contact owns a 2005 nissan pathfinder. While the contact was driving 40 MPH, the transmission shifted from 5th gear to overdrive without assistance. There were no prior warnings. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer for inspection. The technician recommended that the transmission be replaced. The vehicle has not been repaired at this time. The current and failure mileages were 79,000.
Also reported on the 2005 Nissan Pathfinder
Radiator or coolant leak
Fuel gauge or level sensor failure
Other fuel system problem
Other engine problem
Complete transmission failure
No-start or intermittent start failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 113 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other powertrain problem happen on the 2005 Nissan Pathfinder?
Across 102 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 104,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 90,000 miles and a quarter after 135,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2005 Nissan Pathfinder?
113 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 2.3 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed