2023 Nissan Pathfinder Power Train

Heard a high pitch whistle sound coming from front right of vehicle when accelerating. Mechanic confirmed it’s a vacuum leak in the intake manifold runner. Nissan says this is not part of powertrain warranty will not cover. Last I checked the intake is part of powertrain. Vehicle has 40,000 miles on it. Have seen multiple other complaints about this issue online. Part is on a national back order at the moment. The fact that their demand is that high for this part should speak volumes. I believe this should be looked into as a possible recall. If an intake runner vacuum leak is not repaired, it will lead to a lean air-fuel mixture causing engine misfires, a rough idle, poor acceleration, and potential stalling which could all contribute to a possible accident.

The second issue that I have with my 2023 Nissan Pathfinder Platinum edition involves the ten-speed transmission, which desperately needs a software update. I pulled out at an intersection and gave the Pathfinder some gas. I did not come to a complete stop prior. Nothing happened because the transmission was busy searching for a gear. Thankfully no driver came up on me from behind, but if they had I would have been in trouble. I did not know what was going on, so I gave it a lot of gas, which forced the transmission into a gear and allowed me to move forward rapidly. When coming to a stop and giving it gas, the transmission always has difficulty quickly finding and selecting a gear.

When the start/stop auto function is engaged (idling stop system), about 1 out of 10 times it kicks the transmission into neutral when the break is released and the driver attempts to start driving again. The driver then has to put the transmission back into drive. The safety concern is that I am stuck in neutral with moving traffic. On rare occasion, I cannot put the vehicle back into drive without shutting the whole vehicle off and restarting it. This was reported to my local Nissan dealer who was unable to resolve and stated it had not been reported as an issue, although if you check the internet, there are plenty of reports of this issue. No safety alerts or warning lamps are triggered with this happens.

I am reporting a serious safety issue with my new 2023 Nissan Pathfinder SL 4WD purchased in February 2023 from the Nissan dealership. I was happy with the vehicle, and it ran fine until June 2023. The issue first began in 2023, when I had the vehicle in economy mode and was driving with family. The car was stopped in Drive with my foot on the break when the car went from Drive to Neutral by itself. When this happened, I was entering from a parking lot onto a busy road. I almost got hit by oncoming traffic, as the front of the car was in the road while merging onto the roadway. I had both hands on the wheel when this happened. Passengers in the car were shocked and I was apprehensive about driving it on the highway home. No warning lights appeared on the vehicle. I brought the vehicle to the dealership, and they said there were problems in recent years, which I was unaware of, with the Pathfinder when the vehicle was redesigned. They said they had a patch to correct the issue I reported. The patch did not correct the issue and the problem got worse. Examples include, one day when the car was stopped at traffic lights, it went from Drive to Neutral four separate times. Three of those times the car stalled as well. Each time it happened I was stopped in traffic with my foot on the break in economy mode. It is alarming when you are looking at the dashboard and you can see it go from Drive to Neutral while both hands are on the wheel. The dealer was able to duplicate the problem and the Pathfinder has remained at the dealership since July 25, 2023 - more than four weeks from the date of this report. I am still waiting for a resolution. This is a very significant defect in the vehicle, and it is scary and dangerous. I have significant concerns that this defect, which could result in the loss of life or at a minimum serious harm.

Vehicle suddenly vibrates when driving between 38 and 40 Miles per hour.