thedude419

I am new to the board and I have been scouring the boards for the last couple of hours.

My '04 Pathfinder has 63,500miles. I have not flushed the tranny fluid yet. (I know, I know, I need to have it done!). I change the oil every 3-4k miles. I drive anywhere from 500 to 1000 miles a week for work.

Background: I took a roadtrip recently through the hills of Maryland. My Pathy was having trouble downshifting into O/D(last gear) when traveling at roughly 70-80mph uphill. I was at 4k RPM going uphill and the engine was making and irregular groan due to the improper/lack of downshifting. I was getting passed by Geo Metro's, etc. uphill. (No violent downshifts, just feels as if it's skipping). When accelerating around 30-45mph I get a slight kickback when letting off the accelerator.

I need to have the truck checked for stored trouble codes. I had an '02 Ford Taurus as a company car a couple years ago and had some similar issues. I had violent downshifts and the car occaisonally shut down. I had to have the camshaft synchronizer and camshaft sensor replaced. A year afterwards, I had drastic loss of power, etc. and had the catalytic converter replaced.

Sorry for the novel. I realize I need to take my vehicle in to the dealer. Just hoping some of you could throw in your .02 Thanks!

thedude419

Update...

I am flushing the trans fluid tomorrow as well as the engine coolant. I went to AutoZone yesterday and had them hook up the scanner. No trouble codes.

OE812

After going through 3 transmissions on 3 makes of vehicles: 98 Dodge Caravan, 99 Nissan Pathfinder, and 02 Acura MDX, someone needs to convince me that frequent transmission filter and oil changes did not cause the failures. I change the transmission oil and filters every 20k and had the failures. Some of my family and friends do not change the fluid and get more miles out of the tranny before a failure. What gives here?