Transmission will not engage a gear on the 2013 Nissan Pathfinder
When transmission will not engage a gear gets reported
Owners of the 2013 Nissan Pathfinder report transmission will not engage a gear at a median of 15,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 40,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 20th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 50,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 43,510 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
63% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4,490 miles | 13,250 miles | 16,000 miles | 42,000 miles | 48,000 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 $1,500–$6,000 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure, every year of the Nissan Pathfinder
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.
Several times and noticed that the transmission does not engage and the car loses speed. I took the car to the dealer and they told me that because is a CVT transmission was normal. But the car is still doing the same. *tr
The vehicle would shudder and shake violently at low speeds - 17 to 25 MPH. I was concerned that it would damage the vehicle and cause motor mounts and other parts to shake loose. I took the vehicle to a dealership in salisbury, md while I was on vacation and they said they could not duplicate the condition. They sent me on my way with no corrective measures. (yet it did it all the way home) upon returning home I took it back to the dealership where I purchased the car. They were much more supportive and stated they were aware of the problem with 2013 pathfinders and it would need a new torque converter and be reprogrammed. I left the car with them for over a week and they made the repairs. They stated they did not know if it would correct the problem. Upon getting the car back it no longer shook and vibrated at low speeds but instead it then shook and vibrated violently at mid speeds (40 to 50 MPH). I returned it to the dealership and they determined it needed a whole new transmission. They kept it 10 days...replaced the transmission. I picked it up 9/20/13. When I drove it home it would not go into gear. I had to shift it…
On an intermittent basis, the gas pedal does not engage when depressed ? The driver has to release and press the gas pedal multiple times or hold down gas pedal and then the engine revs hard and the car suddenly lurches forward. It happens both when beginning to accelerate from a stop as well as when the car is driving and in motion and the driver presses the gas pedal to accelerate (such as when passing another car on the highway). By early april 2014, this had happened at least 20 times in a four-week period and sometimes happened daily. I took the vehicle to our local dealer, who consulted with a regional nissan warranty rep. He said he had seen the problem before, and they replaced the the brake lamp switch and relay. I have had one incident where it happened again after this work was done on april 9. *tr
Also reported on the 2013 Nissan Pathfinder
Other powertrain problem
CVT failure
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other engine problem
Other body or interior problem
Complete transmission failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 9 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 transmission will not engage a gear happen on the 2013 Nissan Pathfinder?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 15,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 40,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is transmission will not engage a gear on the 2013 Nissan Pathfinder?
9 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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