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NHTSA Opens Investigation Into the Nissan Pathfinder’s Hood Latch Failure Issue

At the beginning of December, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a recall over stress fractures on the hood latch striker of various Honda vehicles. The federal watchdog currently investigates older Nissan Pathfinders for an unlatching hood that may open while driving, an investigation that may conclude in a safety recall.
2014 Nissan Pathfinder Hybrid 15 photos
Photo: Nissan
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Thus far, the Office of Defects Investigation has identified no fewer than 14 vehicle owner questionnaires alleging hood latch failures while the subject vehicles were being driven. An opened hood obstructs the driver’s vision, which is a safety risk that nobody would like to experience at high speed.

The ODI has also received early warning reports on this problem, which is why Nissan doesn’t have a choice but to collect field parts to assess the failing latch. A root cause hasn’t been identified at the moment of writing.

The owner of a 2014 Nissan Pathfinder wrote to the NHTSA that the hood came unlatched without warning at 50 miles per hour (80 kilometers per hour), hitting the windshield and breaking the fenders. Worse still for the Japanese automaker, Nissan called back the previous-gen Pathfinder back in January 2015 over an incorrectly installed hood release cable assembly.

Campaign number 15V033000 involves 170,665 units of the mid-size utility vehicle, Infiniti JX35 for the 2013 model year, as well as the Infiniti Q60 from the 2014 model year. Dealers were instructed to modify the angle of the hood release mechanism to provide additional length to the release cable, which can only be described as cost cutting rather than a proper fix.

Adding insult to the proverbial injury, even the brand-new-for-2022 Pathfinder has had issues with the hood. Back in September 2021, Nissan recalled more than 3,300 examples of the breed over a bad weld that allowed the secondary hood latch retainer bracket to detach from the front bumper.

If the aforementioned investigation into the 2013 to 2016 Pathfinder leads to a nationwide recall, Nissan should prepare to pony up lots of money to repair an estimated 325,512 examples of the mid-size sport utility vehicle.
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 Download: Nissan Pathfinder hood latch investigation (PDF)

About the author: Mircea Panait
Mircea Panait profile photo

After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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