The engine cooling fan is the problem nobody warns you about — budget for it, verify the hood-latch recall, and this is a cheap three-row.

Recall 22V420 covers 2013–2016 Pathfinders in which the secondary hood latch may malfunction and remain in the unlatched, unsecured position when the hood is closed. If the primary latch is not engaged, the hood can open while driving and block the driver's view. NHTSA reached this through a preliminary evaluation (PE21022), and this year's complaint file contains the worst case: an owner driving 70 mph on a turnpike whose hood came up, shattered the windshield and bent the hood and roof. Dealers replace the bell crank assembly free of charge. Note the timeline — the campaign was filed in June 2022 but owner letters were not mailed until March 2025, so plenty of cars are still unrepaired. Nissan's internal codes are R22A2, R22A3 and R24B7. Also check the hood for a loose or shaky fit, which several owners report even after inspection.

Recall 16V244 covers a fleet-wide Nissan and Infiniti defect in which the Occupant Classification System — the OCS, the set of sensors in the front passenger seat that decides whether the airbag should arm — may classify an adult as a child, or read the seat as empty when someone is sitting in it. The result is that the passenger front airbag is turned off and does not deploy in a crash. On the Pathfinder the remedy is a full replacement of the OCS control unit rather than the software reprogram other models get, so it is a parts job; it is free. Interim notices went out in May 2016 with a second notice when parts became available. Several 2016 filings describe the passenger airbag warning light behaving erratically. Verify by VIN that this one shows completed.

The 2016 Pathfinder uses a Jatco Xtronic CVT — a continuously variable transmission, which uses a belt running between variable-width pulleys instead of a set of fixed gears. It judders, hesitates and in the worst cases fails outright. It is a smaller share of this year's complaints than of the 2017's, but the filings are there: one transmission gave out at 62,000 miles with the car shaking and trying to stall, another at about 160,000 miles with no warning light at all. Nissan's service bulletins for this family look for a shudder or repeated bumps together with fault codes P17F0 or P17F1 stored in the transmission control module. A class-action settlement approved in March 2022 extended CVT coverage on 2015–2018 Pathfinders from 60 months/60,000 miles to 84 months/84,000 miles — but on a 2016 car that window has expired on both counts, so treat any symptom as an owner-pays repair running to several thousand dollars. Independent mechanics are consistent that fluid changes every 30,000 miles extend the life of these units substantially, and that there is no dipstick to check the level with — it needs a levelled car, a scan tool reading fluid temperature, and a check plug.

A handful of 2016 owners report the panoramic sunroof breaking on its own at speed, with no impact — one describes it as sounding like a shotgun. There is no recall and glass is typically an insurance claim. Beyond that the 2016 collects the ordinary annoyances of the fourth-generation car: sun visors that will not stay up, inner door handles breaking, assorted interior trim coming loose, and wheel bearings that hum and get louder with speed. A community channel puts wheel bearing parts at $80–$180 with $200–$350 in labour. None of these should change a buying decision on their own.