Other powertrain problem on the 2015 Nissan Pathfinder
When other powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2015 Nissan Pathfinder report other powertrain problem at a median of 40,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 22,500 miles and a quarter after 67,500 miles, from 25 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 2,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 82,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 81,722 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.
48% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,755 miles | 22,000 miles | 40,000 miles | 68,000 miles | 83,477 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 2015 has 33. 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.
Vehicle was taken into shop because of shudder in transmission and hesitation from stop when applying accelerator. The nissan dealer installed a new valve body in the transmission which seemed to stop the shudder until today when it has returned. The hesitation from stop problem was not fixed and I returned the pathfinder a second time to fix this problem but since it did not throw a code and could not be duplicated it was not fixed. The hesitation problem is an itermittent problem but when it happens the vehicle does not move forward when the gas is first applied for a second or two. I have almost had two accident because of this problem when pulling into traffic and the car will not move when gas applied. The shudder problem as returned and can be felt at around 40mph.
Judder is found between 20-25 miles for more than 5 second when accelerating smoothly. The mechanic recorded the judder and sent it to the engineer. The engineer at corporate nissan told us that it is a normal thing but any car shouldn't have a judder(especially 2015 newest model). A judder also shows in the high speed, but not as much as slow sleep. A judder also appears when the car slows down to a stop. I have to wait until check engine light it up for them to fix the issue. It does not make sense when there is a record of judder but wait until something happens to the car.
While driving our pathfinder in stop and go traffic, I've started to notice and feel a juddering & jerking motion coming from the transmission/powertrain every time I depress or press on the gas pedal at between speeds of 15 to 40 MPH. I plan to report this to nissan along with a couple more issues like the crackling sound coming from the front suspension usually after reversing back out of a driveway then moving forward while slightly turning the wheel back to a straight position. Could be a bearing issue, racking pinion or possibly the brake issues that have been recalled. I will also report the constant announce of a crackling sound coming from the wood paneling around stereo and air condition controls. Last but not least the scary & visible shaking of the front hood while driving at speeds of over 80mph. This violently shaking from the hood will certainly let you know that if you go any faster chances are the hood will fly off or cause serious damage to the vehicle or possibly cause an accident. There is no doubt in my mind that this is issue is clearly an aero dynamic flaw. How can they not have been aware of this possible…
Also reported on the 2015 Nissan Pathfinder
Radiator or coolant leak
Other engine problem
Cooling fan failure
CVT failure
Other body or interior problem
Other speed control problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 33 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 2015 Nissan Pathfinder?
Across 25 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 40,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 22,500 miles and a quarter after 67,500 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 2015 Nissan Pathfinder?
33 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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