The loudest Pathfinder year in our whole set — two fire-risk brake recalls stacked on a failing transmission and a failing cooling fan. Skip it.

The 2017 carries the heaviest transmission complaint volume of any Pathfinder year in our data. The Jatco Xtronic CVT — a continuously variable transmission, which uses a belt running between variable-width pulleys rather than a set of fixed gears — shows the whole failure chain here. One owner's car developed a grinding noise and then would not engage drive or reverse at 51,000 miles; another began slipping just under 80,000; another logged fault code P17F0, the code Nissan's own bulletins tie to CVT judder, before 90,000 despite a full dealer service history; another lost it at 117,000. Several report the transmission overheating or the vehicle failing to accelerate in traffic, and one filing describes losing motive power at 60 mph and being rear-ended. 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 2017 that has expired on both the clock and the odometer, so a failure now is entirely owner-paid and runs to several thousand dollars. A mechanic who stripped a same-generation unit with the identical symptom put in a full solenoid set, fresh fluid and a new filter and reported the judder unchanged: 'that's got internal damage — fluids and solenoids won't fix that.'

The cooling-fan bearing failure that defines the 2016 carries straight into the 2017, and this year's filings give the clearest picture of what it costs. Owners report the fan going at 37,000, 40,000, 63,000 and 65,000 miles, with the noise appearing when the air conditioning or heater is running. Quoted repairs in the file: $922, $1,096, $1,268.49, a dealer estimate of $1,000–$1,400, and one of $1,800 — against roughly $600 to fit an aftermarket assembly, which is what several owners did once they discovered dealer parts were on backorder. One owner notes bluntly that dealers charge '$400 to $600 just in labor.' Nissan published a replacement procedure covering the 2013–2017 Pathfinder, but there is no recall and no coverage; one owner writes that a warranty extension 'ended last year but did not include my vehicle.' The scope of Nissan's own bulletin ends at 2017, and so does the complaint cluster.

The 3.5-litre V6 uses a timing chain rather than a belt, which is normally a good thing: it is designed to last the life of the engine. But the chains ride on plastic guides, and mechanics are clear that when oil changes are stretched the metal chain chews the guides away. A 2017 owner in this file was diagnosed with timing chain, guide and tensioner problems and quoted $3,100 — and then waited two weeks while the dealer failed to source parts. Another was told the transmission needed replacing and a timing chain repair kit at the same visit. The symptom is a metallic rattle from the front of the engine, worst on a cold start. On a gen-5 Pathfinder a similar clicking is usually the high-pressure fuel pump and normal; on this generation it is not. Separately, one owner reports every fuel injector replaced for $2,132 on a three-year-old car.

Worth knowing precisely because it is so often confused with something much worse. Nissan ran a Voluntary Service Campaign — a free customer-satisfaction repair, not a safety recall, which is why it does not appear in the recall database — on specific 2017 Pathfinder and Rogue vehicles under the code PC652. In Nissan's own words, a plant issue since corrected meant the radiator's glycol-to-water coolant mix ratio could be out of specification, and customers may notice poor heating performance. The fix is to drain and refill the radiator, free. That is a heating complaint, not a mechanical defect, and it is not the coolant-into-the-transmission story that circulates about older Pathfinders. Nothing in this year's complaint file describes coolant contaminating the transmission.

A distinct problem from the transmission itself, and one to check separately. One 2017 owner had the transmission cooler diagnosed as leaking transmission fluid and replaced, only for the original fault to persist. Nissan's bulletins for this generation warn that metal debris and friction material from a worn CVT can lodge in the radiator, cooling hoses, bypass valve and external transmission fluid cooler, and that this debris will then contaminate a newly serviced transmission — which is exactly why Nissan publishes a dedicated procedure for cleaning the CVT fluid coolers. The practical consequence for a buyer: if you are looking at a 2017 whose transmission has already been replaced, ask whether the cooler circuit was cleaned at the same time. If it was not, the replacement is on borrowed time.