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 price tag out of my pocket because they refused to recall the parts (<$1000) involved and will not give owners any warning or guidance on how to prevent this totally preventable catastrophic transmission failure. Nissan Case # 46218952.

- Folsom, CA, USA

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..

- Nampa, ID, USA

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.

- Coeburn, VA, USA

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.

- Burlington, KY, USA

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!

- Ellwood City, PA, USA

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.

- Elk Grove, CA, USA

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.

- Palmetto, FL, USA

I currently have a 2008 Nissan Xterra with 146K miles. I took my car into sutherlin Nissan at the mall of Georgia as the service engine soon light was on and was told that the radiator was cracked and leaking fluid into the transmission that both would need to be replaced. The dealer informed me that the cost would be over $4K to replace both. I took it somewhere else and had the radiator replaced. However, im still experiencing problems with the transmission. I took it to a Korean shop votech where the owner vo is very familiar with all types of cards. I explained to vo what the issue was and he said that over 90% of the Nissan rear wheel drive trucks that come in have the same problem and that Nissan should be in a lawsuit or issuing a recall real soon on these vehicles. Im a single mother of two and im unemployed, so of course I cant afford to pay $4K to replace a transmission. I have paid Nissan all of this money to purchase the vehicle and they are aware of this issue, then they should be held accountable for faulty parts in their vehicles regardless of how many miles are on the vehicle. Im voicing my concern as a customer and I want people to know not to buy Nissan if they are not going to treat their customers unfairly

- Duluth, GA, USA