Other powertrain problem on the 2008 Nissan Pathfinder
When other powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Nissan Pathfinder report other powertrain problem at a median of 105,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 100,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles, from 15 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 80,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 145,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 67,111 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 77,689 miles | 97,500 miles | 106,000 miles | 131,500 miles | 144,800 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
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 2008 has 17. 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.
My car started making a jutter type sound when I would be going approximately 40 MPH and would cause my car to rumble like I was going over a rumble strip. The car would lose acceleration when this would happen. *tr
Vehicle trying to lunge forward while stopped at redlight, stopsign, or in traffic. Transmission vibration at low speeds when going into overdrive. Engine revs during travel, without accelerator being pressed. As well as apparent malfunction, there are too many instances of safety issue with no control over when it happens, and we now understand the complexity of the problem with nissan and the "recall that should have been." we dont remember being notified of an extended warranty. We wish to complain, that a company we had faith in, and trusted, exposed our family to safety issues that could have been terrible, had circumstances been worse, as some have experienced. Nissan should fix them all. *tr
Vehicle starts to jerk, vibrate, and has power interruption during acceleration, on inclines and while towing. Transmission shop told me it was due to bad coolant lines in transmission and transmission needs to be replaced at a cost of $7000 by nissan dealership. *tr
Also reported on the 2008 Nissan Pathfinder
Radiator or coolant leak
Fuel gauge or level sensor failure
Other fuel system problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
No-start or intermittent start failure
Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 17 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 2008 Nissan Pathfinder?
Across 15 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 105,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 100,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 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 2008 Nissan Pathfinder?
17 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.9 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