43 problems related to transfer case have been reported for the 2003 Nissan Murano. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2003 Nissan Murano based on all problems reported for the 2003 Murano.
Nissan Murano 2003- 71,000 miles- awd transfer case defect $3500- acute onset- loud clunking noise which increases in volume when speed increases- inoperable at this time- contacted Nissan consumer affairs with no financial assistance granted- dealer attributed that wear was caused by driving on dry pavement while in awd which never occurred. Situation was similar in nature when my alternator failed suddenly with no cause which resulted in a recall one year later.
On Monday, 11/13/06 I took my 2003 Nissan Murano in for winterizing & to have them check out a humming noise to the Nissan dealer. Later that day I was called and told the noise was related to the transfer case which needed to be replaced at my cost, over $4000 to repair. This vehicle has only 89,000 miles. Decided to get a second opinion and had the vehicle moved to another Nissan dealer. This Nissan dealer has repaired another Murano with the same situation and so was able to diagnose that it is not the transfer case, but it is the transmission. Unfortunately the cost is even more - over $6000. Being I did not purchase an extended warranty, I'm responsible for the costs. What I don't understand is the "why" for the failure. There was no indication that either the transfer case or transmission were failing when the car was being driven. I called my salesperson about the situation and he informed me he had a friend that had his transfer case fail at approximately the same miles. In my opinion, major components - transmissions or transfer cases should not be failing at this mileage and would like for someone to pursue to determine if there is a recall situation.
My vehicle is all wheel drive. When I took it in for normal maintenance I was advised the transfer case was locked in all wheel drive. There is no warning light to advise that this has happened. I don't know how many miles the car was driven in this condition. It so happens that I had recently passed my warranty period and had to pay a very large amount to repair it. If a warning light had gone on I would have been able to repair this sooner under warranty. Plus, I had recently returned from a long two week drive in hot desert country. I would imagine it was not wise or safe to be in all wheel drive under hot road driving conditions. I asked the manufacturer to inform me how often their vehicles have this problem but I had no response from them. I did ask my dealership and they told me at least one other vehicle had the same problem locally.
Transfer case for awd failure at 66,000 miles (awd function used less than 10 times in vehicles history). Observered gringing poping niose and locked up viechele. The transfer case has been back-ordered for seven weeks. There was no indication of a problem prior to failure. Concerned regarding failure in highway driving.
Transfer case for awd failure at 66,000 miles (awd option used less than approximately 12 times in vehicle's history). Gringing poping niose and locked up viechele. Transfer case has been back-ordered for seven weeks! there was no indication of a problem prior to failure.
Transfer case for awd failure 2nd time in 26,000 miles (1st 8,000 miles, 2nd 26,000 miles). In both cases gringing poping niose and locked up viechele had to be towed in to dealership. There was no indication of a problem prior to failure.
Cracked transfer case occurred twice on 2003 Nissan Murano; Aug 27, 2004 & Sep 24 2003. Concern is future incidents may occur while driving on interstate highways causing accidents. Other internet site forums indicated failures but did not submit complaints to NHTSA.
The transfer case and driveshft had to be replaced due to a horrible noise that started occuring at 10200 miles on the vehicle.