Nissan Disaster - AWD Transfer Case

The AWD Murrano transfer case is a known disaster, Nissan has refused to participate. They DO NOT care about their reputation for quality, they will cite the warranty and milage.

We had enough and refuse to own a Nissan product.

You could trade the car in on a FWD model, or drive your 2004 for about 40,000 more miles and sell it.

We did not have our 2003 fixed, sold it to a dealer for $11,000. The used car value was $15,000.

Good luck!

 

Thank you

I have joined you in purchasing our last Nissan product. Our experience with my wife's Infinity isn't much better.
FYI, when I brought the car in yesterday, I was told the transfer case should have been checked at 60,000 miles. I asked why it wasn't. They had no answer.

 

Nissan Disaster - AWD Transfer Case

The dealer has the flexability to discount the 11+ hours of labor required to remove and replace the transfer case. If you played the guilt game, they may reduce the price. What kind of warranty did they provide you on the new $5,000 case?

Jessie James did it with a gun, Nissan North America is no better.

We've had great luck with Toyota and Lexus.

Good luck!

 

I have been reading the post here regarding the transfer case issues. I would like to to say I had a 03 SL purchased used at 42K in 05 and at 89K the transfer case and transmission went bad. Luckily I had the extended warrenty and it was going to be replaced. This was last month the beginning of March. I asked what would the dealer give on a trade. The dealer offered 9k. I accepted and got an 04 SL with 44K. Less than 4 weeks and 3k later the transfer case, brakes are bad and possibly the trans maybe bad. I have to ask,,, How many members that have had major work on thier MO have had recurring problems. I love my SL that is why I bought another, but the same thing goes bad on two different MOs from two different years...:3: I need to know as the parts will be in at the end of the week. Should I bail out and get a Maxima?

 

I have been reading the post here regarding the transfer case issues. I would like to to say I had a 03 SL purchased used at 42K in 05 and at 89K the transfer case and transmission went bad. Luckily I had the extended warrenty and it was going to be replaced. This was last month the beginning of March. I asked what would the dealer give on a trade. The dealer offered 9k. I accepted and got an 04 SL with 44K. Less than 4 weeks and 3k later the transfer case, brakes are bad and possibly the trans maybe bad. I have to ask,,, How many members that have had major work on thier MO have had recurring problems. I love my SL that is why I bought another, but the same thing goes bad on two different MOs from two different years...:3: I need to know as the parts will be in at the end of the week. Should I bail out and get a Maxima?

ANytime you purchase a used car, you are gambling that the previous owner maintained and cared for the car according to the manufacturers recommendations. For instance, if you happen to purchase your Mo from someone that was towing well over the rated capacity, you cannot blame the car.

I'm not saying that is what happen to your Mo, but there may have been some abuse to the car that you will never know. I feel that this has increased because of leased cars. Some owners do not care or maintain the car - period - because it is leased. This is why I only buy new cars - to me - its just not worth it.

Not sure if answers your question, but I feel better after my rant. :4:

 

Transfer case failure

Murano was making clunking noise. My wife took to dealer. Just got the car as CERTIFIED USED. from Nissan dealer a year and a half ago. Car has a little over 70k miles. Has a factory extended warantee until 90k miles.

Dealer says its not covered. Want 4000 plus labor. to fix.

Had the car in there a few months ago because was sluggish and had an oil burning smell. Dealer could not find problem. fixed other problems like the ecm had an error which caused the car to accelerate sluggish.

I'm so %^%^%$$$$ mad right now.

Bought that car because my wife had a POS VW Jetta.

That car is gold compared with m y Murano experience so far.

I will take legal action if I have to. Was on phone with Nissan USA for 40 minutes.

Waiting for call from them

 

If you have factory extended warranty dealer must cover it. Even if you did not the miles are close enough for "good will" coverage. Talk to another dealer and don't give in to their BS.

 

Nissan USA said its not covered. I hope they do the smart thing and fix it. I would hate to see this escalate. I just finished my spring semester, so I'll have time on my hands to fight this.

I had complained some months ago about a burning oil smell we would experience after driving for over ten minutes. We would notice it when stopped in traffic.

Dealer said they could not find the problem.

 

Unethical Activity of Nissan North America

Go get'em, Nissan North America is taking a rediculous position on this obvious design flaw in ther AWD Murano. Consider Small Claims court, in our part of the country you can puruse claims under $5,000 and the judge is usually a common sense type. It ususally is $18 to file the claim.

When you win the judgement, collecting can be done by placing leans on property or in some cases attaching their checking account. This is a little time consuming, you need to watch EVERY deadline and contact the court as it progresses, this will speed up the process. The company I pursues this way mailed us a check to avoid futher activities.

Good luck, we just took the $3000 hit and sold the vehicle to a dealer. We are driving a Toyota now.

 

Nissan USA said its not covered.

Did they say why?

 

Transfer case failure

I think Nissan USA is hiring learning challenged people. My extended service agreement clearly states this is covered. The regional rep finally got back to me. They kept on insisting it wasn't covered. Every point she made was met with a counter point which I read from the agreement. She said she took long to get back to me because she was doing "research".

What was she researching? A crack pipe? Maybe she was learning to read, I don't know.

They are finally agreeing to cover it.

I am still going to write them a letter about this whole thing. Very unprofessional.

 

I think Nissan USA is hiring learning challenged people.

You don't say......

I am glad it is finally getting resolved to your favor.

 

Re: Transfer case failure

What was she researching? A crack pipe? Maybe she was learning to read, I don't know.

HA! I love it! :2:

That really would explain Nissan customer dis-service...

 

Dealer spotted a slow leak 2 months ago during a routine oil change at 12K. They attempted to repair it under warranty but during the repair visit, they found that one of the bolts was loose. They tightened the bolt and said it was repaired. Took the Mo in yesterday for 15K service and asked them to double-check the leak. It's still leaking. Dealer has ordered a new transfer case and should be installed next week. I asked why they were replacing the whole transfer case for a slow leak and the Service Advisor said that replacing the seal would probably be just a band-aid to the problem. Since I'm going on a 3000 mile road trip in 2 weeks up to Oregon, Washington and BC, they wanted to repair the problem before the trip.

 

friday may 16, 2008 - transfer case failure

no signs....truck drove fine to work
went to run an errand, took a turn and bang....horrific noises
gotta wait 3 days for parts =(

 

friday may 16, 2008 - transfer case failure

no signs....truck drove fine to work
went to run an errand, took a turn and bang....horrific noises
gotta wait 3 days for parts =(

Sorry to hear that. How many miles on your MO?

 

little over 47k
ive owned it from 21k in 2005...truck has been babied all its life (with me)

 

Lost mine when I first got it in '05 (<5000 miles on it); if you want to break it intentionally, try accelerating hard in reverse on a cold day (*crack*).

 

This is my first post and unfortunately it took me registering because my transfer case kicked it. No sign at all. The dealership gave me some bs about it being driven in AWD on the pavement and thats what causes it to break. What really sucks is I'm out of warranty.

I can't believe how many they have had to fix and they still haven't posted a TSB or recalled any parts.

 

This is my first post and unfortunately it took me registering because my transfer case kicked it. No sign at all. The dealership gave me some bs about it being driven in AWD on the pavement and thats what causes it to break. What really sucks is I'm out of warranty.

I can't believe how many they have had to fix and they still haven't posted a TSB or recalled any parts.

Best thing to do at this point is to file a report at NHTSA regarding this transfer case problem. If they have enough complaints, they will begin an investigation. This is what led to the alternator recall years ago - but it has to start with filing complaints at NHTSA first.

 

Guys, I must say...

This thread got me a bit rattled given that I'm a newcomer to MO scene and the fact that I just spent over 20k for one.

However, as damning as some of these reports are I must conclude that they represent but a small fraction of MO owners with a vastly larger number having never experienced any leaks in their TC's or any other catastrophic CVT problems.

In doing some further research I came across this article that specifically mentions this board (and this thread).

http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/cc/03-07murano.htm

Although, I feel bad for anyone impacted by costly auto repair I also feel that some of us more impressionable new owners should be encouraged to seek out additional info in order to get a better understanding of the big picture. After going through this thread, I actually caught myself thinking that my MO was handicapped in some way and that I would have to spend the next 3-5 years babying it in constant anticipation of something big breaking. When in reality, if I were to go out and compare the cost of similar repairs on my other top choices which I've considered before settling on MO I doubt I would be that far off.

Now this is just my opinion... But, the sad truth is that today’s cars are very complex machines. In order to mitigate the damage one of these costly breakdowns could have on your short term cash flow, it seems prudent to plan on having a bumper to bumper warranty in effect for the durations of your planed ownership of the said vehicle.

 

Resale Value of 2003

Nissan dealer offered $12,000 to buy an 82,000 mile 2003 Murano All Wheel drive with a known transfer case problem, since that meant I would still be drivining a Nissan, I sold it to another dealer and now drive a Toyota.

The Murano problem is Nissan not backing up its experimental transfer case, the problem is NOT the transmission, we thoroughly enjoyed the Murano and if you have a front wheel drive version, please do not be alarmed. If you have the all wheel drive, buy the extended warranty.

 

DeepBlue-

Interesting article from canadiandriver.com. The author, Chris Chase, quoted quite a bit from our forum.

The author offered the following praise:

NissanMurano.org is hands-down the best Murano site I came across; it's busy and even better, it's Murano-centric, so no having to sift through loads of posts to find the ones that pertain to the car you're interested in.

Nice! :29:

-njjoe

 

Another interesting source I came accross are actual vehicle complaint reports posted on :

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/complaints/complaintsearch.cfm

I did a search on 2005 Nissan Murano Transfer Case and Auto Transmission.

1 and 6 reports respectively

My next search was my last ride 2005 Jeep GC

2 and 57 reports respectively

First one read like this...

Make: JEEP
Model: GRAND CHEROKEE

Year: 2005
Complaint Number: 10233317
Summary:
WIFE WAS DRIVING OUR 2005 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE, 5.7L, QUANDRA DRIVE II TRANSMISSION. WHILE DRIVING YESTERDAY A POLICEMAN ON PATROL NOTICED A SUDDEN FIRE UNDER HER CAR. OFFICER SAID TRANSMISSION FLUID WAS LEAKING ONTO THE EXHAUST SYSTEM AND CAUSED IGNITION OF FIRE. OCCUPANTS EXTRACTED THEMSELVES WITHOUT PROBLEM. ENTIRE CAR ENGULFED IN FLAMES AND EXTINGUISHED BY LOCAL FIRE DEPARTMENT. CAR AN ENTIRE LOSS. VERY LENGTHY SERVICE HISTORY WITH THE TRANSMISSION IN THIS VEHICLE PRIOR TO FIRE.


Yikes!

 

Transfer Assembly replaced

I have a 2006 Murano AWD and this is my second Murano. I previously had the 2003 AWD. Never had any problems with the 2003. The 2006 failed with 18K miles. The dealer has been nice by giving me a loaner but its over a week and still have not gotten it back. The car was being driven on a summer day on dry roads and never touched the AWD switch. The car started thumping like a CV joint or wheel bearing. I drove it into the dealer and they test drove it and then got me a loaner.