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Hey guys,
I bought this 2003 Pathfinder September 2014 with high miles – 224K at the time – and since I’ve owned it I haven’t figured out the clunk I get sometimes in the area of the transmission or u-joints/driveline. I experience two things: a vibration at highway speed, 55-65mph, that I feel in my butt not in the steering wheel, so that rules out front end alignment issues, I think; and a clunk sometimes when shifting between gears, particularly noticeable if accelerating but the let off the gas before the transmission shifts to the next gear; basically, when the transmission/driveline are not under load.
When I first bought the truck I took it to my shop guy, described the problem and told him I thought it was u-joints. He looked at it and told me u-joints were fine but that the rear suspension had trailing links that needed bushings replaced. Well that’s fine, but no way could the suspension be causing the clunking between shifts I’m talking about (maybe it will help the vibration).
Has anyone experienced similar symptoms? I just need some help to know if I need to focus on the tail of the transmission or if I should take it back to the shop and tell them to put u-joints in there anyway…
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Here are a couple of things to look at from the FSM:
http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/Pathfinder/2003_Pathfinder/pd.pdf
Page 8 seems to be describing the vibration you are feeling. Also specs for the ujoints are in there.
http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/Pathfinder/2003_Pathfinder/su.pdf
This is the suspension section. Is the clunk happening when you begin the gear change or when you are accelerating out of the change?
I’m assuming you have a manual transmission. Remember noises can travel and completely mislead you as to where the issue is. Clunks from my experience are usually from bushings or joints. So it could be the ujoints, but if the tests show they are OK, It definitely could be the bushings.
If you have access to a chassis ear, it would help isolate the noise location.
Good luck, let us know what you find.
No, this is a automatic transmission. I apologize if I didn’t state that clearly. The clunk happens when the transmission shifts when the car is not accelerating (coasting, basically).
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