im looking to buy a used car and saw the carfax report which reported that the automatic transmission and transaxle were replaced 1 yr after it was initially sold. Is this a redflag or should I consider buying this car?
It isn’t particularly likely that it would get two bad transmissions in a row. So in that sense, no, it’s not a red flag.
OTOH, was the original transmission defective, or was it destroyed by the owner? Did the car change hands shortly before or after the repair? If not, I might be a little more worried.
On the other other hand, if there has been a lot of time since the transmission was replaced, and a lot of miles put on it, then it’s probably fine, even if the original owner destroyed the first one.
Oh, and you don’t generally have both a transmission and a transaxle. A transaxle is the transmission and differential built as an inseparable unit.
Thanks for your reply. So I’m guessing that the original transmission was defective since it was bought in '03 and the transmission was replaced in '04. There afterwards, the car was driven by the same owner (corporate lease) another 35,000 miles with no further history until it was sold to the used car dealer in '09.
Oh and thanks for the correction. I have no idea when it comes to these things!
Offhand, it sounds like a warranty replacement unit and the vehicle should be fine.
From memory, I think this model uses the CVT transmission and some of the earlier models were prone to premature failures. A warranty replacement unit should have any existing factory hiccups fixed.
CVT’s and transfer cases (on AWD Muranos) - especially the early ones - aren’t particularly robust. That’s why Nissan just doubled the warranty from 60K/5 years to 120K/10 years for all Nissans with CVT’s. Many 2003s’, however, might be past or close to the 120K mark.
That said, having the CVT and transfer case replaced on only a one-year-old, early Mo is not unheard of, but is not super common. To me, it’s a sign that the car was driven hard or possibly abused and I’d keep looking if I were you.