general problems of the 2008 Nissan Xterra

While driving, the vehicle surges and sputters and rpms skyrocket and the vehicle loses power and shuts down. This happens at various speeds on interstate highway, town streets and county roads. The vehicle will also lose power and shut down while idling at a stop sign or traffic light. There is no way to steer or restart when this happens and I have depended on hazard flashers to warn other drivers of disabled vehicle until I can get assistance to get vehicle off of highway. After 20 minutes of being dead, vehicle will sometimes restart and go a few more miles before same thing happens again. After 3 weeks at a dealership and a cost so far of $3,000, the problem has not been pinpointed and fixed. Dealership has contacted Nissan customer service who has two open cases of the same issue with the same model vehicle. I have found numerous other complaints in online forums of the same issue same model and still no fix found for the issue. I have now opened my own case with Nissan north America customer care and am awaiting further investigation from them. Major safety hazard.

Timing chain noise upon starting engine getting vibrations and noise--similar to speed bumps on roadway-- in vehicle drive train around 40 to 50 mph (transmission?).

Was driving Xterra 4x4 on the street when all of a sudden the vehicle shut itself off. Was able to luckily turn the vehicle back on but when we arrived home the vehicle would no longer start. Had it towed to Nissan who discovered the car has a defective ecm unit. This could have been very very dangerous and I believe many other Nissan Xterra/frontiers/pathfinders have been affected as evident by searching google regarding this issue. Nissan would not repair the vehicle free of charge and wanted 1400 dollars to replace ecm. This day and age an ecm should last much much longer and should not shut down the vehicle nor, impair its ability to drive.