general problems of the 2008 Nissan Xterra

A leak developed in the radiator that allowed engine coolant into the automatic transmission and visa versa. Engine coolant in the automatic transmission can cause sudden failure of the transmission which could cause an accident. This is a known design flaw of Nissan transmissions. Nissan has refused to issue a recall and class actions have been successful, but are not extensive enough to cover all Nissan buyers. I have filed a complaint with Nissan and they offered zero help in covering repairs. They just say that it is out of warranty. I had my Xterra worked on at the dealer 18 months ago and they could have recommended a new part be installed to keep the transmission failure from occuring, but said nothing. The result is that now I have to replace the transmission and radiator at a $9,000. 00 price tag out of my pocket because they refused to recall the parts (<$1000. 00) involved and will not give owners any warning or guidance on how to prevent this totally preventable catastrophic transmission failure. Nissan case # 46218952.

The radiator has taken in fluids from the transmission or? the radiator fluid appears milky and lotion like consistency from the radiator and overflow tank it has been shifting very loud and hard. .

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.

Less than 45,000 miles on the vehicle, no engine lights were on and no other issues prior to the incident. Traveling on i75 at about 65mph when the vehicle suddenly and rapidly slows down and almost caused an accident. Got to the side of the road and tried to accelerate, the vehicle would only go about 25-30mph so I had it towed home. I later had it towed to the dealer and paid for a diagnosis, the service tech said an aftermarket mass airflow sensor caused the all the catalytic converters to go bad and they wanted $3,500 to replace the catalytic converters and exhaust manifolds before they would continue diagnosing the vehicle. I called my sae certified mechanic and had it towed to him. He said the mass airflow sensor was the factory sensor that came on the car, and shouldn't have caused a failure in the catalytic converters especially without a check engine light. He said that Nissan has had problems with catalytic converters going bad and causing engine failure, so upon further inspection the engine has damage to the cylinders and valves and will need replaced or at least overhauled. I don't believe I should have to pay for an engine and catalytic converters that could have been replaced with a recall and prevented the entire issue. Nissan has an internal bulletin about the catalytic converter failures and engine damage proving they had prior knowledge of the issues including issues with the timing chains that fail which is another issue with this engine that I haven't come across yet.

I purchased my 2008 Nissan Xterra about 3 years ago and did not know about all the defects the transmission and radiator had. I am highly disappointed with this Nissan. It left me stalled in the middle of the road just suddenly with no warning. Worst part was that it was in the middle of the night with a party of 5. The conditions were unsafe and had to wait for daylight to be able to be towed. Its is very unfortunate that I can not do anything about this bad vehicle and it will cost me close to 4k to have my vehicle repaired. At this point im just still in debt since I have not finished paying this off and car less. Its very unfortunate that Nissan will not take any responsibility for the horrible and unstable vehicle they created.

I'm having transmission problems due to the known design flaw in the 2008 Xterra radiators that causes coolant to mix with transmission fluid. Nissan admitted the flaw and yet the NHTSA, who is supposed to help protect us, has concluded that Nissan isn't liable for these problems. What protection does a consumer have besides trying to take a multi-national company to court if the government body who looks into this won't act? please revisit this "radiator intermix" problem!.

The air bag light blinks and horn does not work. I contacts Nissan America case # 21920897. Because vehicle out of warranty Nissan does not ant to cover any cost including the diagonist test that is a minimum charge of 300 dollars. The repair can only be made by nisan.