AutoUtility currently tracks 52 official NHTSA owner defect complaints for the 2020 Nissan Pathfinder. Engine & Cooling issues are the most frequently reported category, appearing in 14 complaints (26.9% of submitted records). Among these NHTSA complaint records, 1 filing cites a crash.

Key Problem Findings
  • Total NHTSA Complaints: 52 reports
  • #1 Reported Problem Area: Engine & Cooling (14 reports • 26.9% of submitted complaints)
  • Secondary Problem Areas: Electrical System (12), Powertrain & Transmission (9)
  • Crash-Citing Complaints: 1 filings
  • Fire-Citing Complaints: 0 filings
  • Complaints Reporting Injuries / Fatalities: 0 injury filings • 0 fatality filings
Reporting Methodology: Statistics describe unverified consumer submissions voluntarily filed with NHTSA. Complaint volume is not normalized for vehicle sales volume or miles driven. Multiple components can be cited within a single owner complaint submission.
Total Complaints
52
Submitted to NHTSA ODI
Crash-Citing Complaints
1
Filings citing a collision
Fire-Citing Complaints
0
Filings citing smoke or fire
Complaints Reporting Injuries
0
Filings citing one or more injuries
Complaints Reporting Fatalities
0
Consumer filings citing fatalities

Most Reported Problems for 2020 Nissan Pathfinder

Top automotive subsystem defect categories ranked by unique owner complaint volume in federal records

#1 Problem Area 26.9% of complaints

Engine & Cooling

14 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#2 Problem Area 23.1% of complaints

Electrical System

12 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#3 Problem Area 17.3% of complaints

Powertrain & Transmission

9 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
#4 Problem Area 17.3% of complaints

Driver Assistance & Safety Tech

9 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
⚠️ 1 crash report
#5 Problem Area 15.4% of complaints

Brakes & Traction Control

8 owner complaints submitted to NHTSA ODI
✓ 0 crashes or fires cited
Domain Share Note: Share percentage represents the proportion of unique complaint filings referencing each vehicle system. Because single complaints may cite multiple systems (such as engine and electrical simultaneously), domain percentages represent individual category incidence and may sum to over 100%.

Recent NHTSA Owner Reports for 2020 Nissan Pathfinder

Representative defect filings submitted by owners to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation

Powertrain & Transmission NHTSA ODI ID: #11752952
Filed: 07/26/2026

"The car stalled three times and died in active traffic. The breakdown was so hazardous that the police department had to intervene and push the car out of the road and had to tow the car more than 3 times and was at the Nissan Dealership for over one week. I paid Nissan dealership $5,000 to repair..."

Incident Date: 04/24/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE
Engine & Cooling NHTSA ODI ID: #11751136
Filed: 07/17/2026

"After only 110,000 miles, my local Nissan service center (Advantage Nissan, 5101 Auto Center Blvd, Bremerton, WA 98312) states that the timing chain is loose. The repair estimate is in excess of $6000. The expense is because it requires removal of the engine to effect repairs. Research reveals that..."

Incident Date: 07/17/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: ENGINE
Powertrain & Transmission NHTSA ODI ID: #11747857
Filed: 07/01/2026

"A few months after purchase, the power cut off on me. Then it happened again the following year. Then the screen for backing up started going on and off. Then I started feeling like the car was loosing power. In the last 2 years the power cutting off has occurred 3 more times and the rear screen..."

Incident Date: 09/03/2020 • Raw NHTSA Component: POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Engine & Cooling NHTSA ODI ID: #11740716
Filed: 05/28/2026

"The vehicle has developed a persistent and progressively worsening rattling noise from the engine during cold starts, along with intermittent rough operation. The symptoms are consistent with a malfunction or defect in the engine timing chain system, including possible timing chain stretch, timing..."

Incident Date: 05/18/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: ENGINE
Driver Assistance & Safety Tech NHTSA ODI ID: #11735464
Filed: 05/04/2026

"The back-up camera and display settings image is no longer visible and the dashboard indicates that it is off. The camera is black and does not display anything nor does it provides information that you are backing up. The safety of drivers and others are at risk. As such, the vehicle fails to..."

Incident Date: 04/15/2026 • Raw NHTSA Component: BACK OVER PREVENTION
Consumer Narrative Notice: Excerpts are sanitized text descriptions submitted by vehicle owners to the federal ODI database. They reflect the reporting consumer's observations at the time of filing and have not been independently confirmed by vehicle manufacturers or government investigators.

Complaint History for Nissan Pathfinder

Reported defect complaint volume across sibling model years (2015–2026)

Model Year NHTSA Complaints Crash Reports Safety Recalls Detailed Report
2015 Nissan Pathfinder 320 11 5 View 2015 Problems →
2016 Nissan Pathfinder 107 10 2 View 2016 Problems →
2017 Nissan Pathfinder 185 7 2 View 2017 Problems →
2018 Nissan Pathfinder 77 3 3 View 2018 Problems →
2019 Nissan Pathfinder 75 4 2 View 2019 Problems →
2020 Nissan Pathfinder Current Page 52 1 0 Current
2022 Nissan Pathfinder 133 3 5 View 2022 Problems →
2023 Nissan Pathfinder 102 4 1 View 2023 Problems →
2024 Nissan Pathfinder 73 1 2 View 2024 Problems →
2025 Nissan Pathfinder 48 2 1 View 2025 Problems →
2026 Nissan Pathfinder 0 0 0 View 2026 Problems →
Comparative Disclaimer: Complaint totals are unadjusted historical counts and are not normalized for vehicles sold, active fleet size, or total road mileage. Newer model years naturally have had less calendar exposure time to accumulate owner filings.

Detailed NHTSA Component Breakdown for 2020 Nissan Pathfinder

Complete distribution of consumer defect reports across all 31 granular NHTSA system and subsystem classifications

Vehicle Component / System Total Complaints Crash Reports Fire Reports Reported Injury Entries Reported Fatality Entries
Engine NHTSA category: ENGINE 9 0 0 0 0
Electrical System NHTSA category: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 4 0 0 0 0
Powertrain NHTSA category: POWER TRAIN 4 0 0 0 0
Other / Uncategorized NHTSA category: UNKNOWN OR OTHER 4 0 0 0 0
Service Brakes NHTSA category: SERVICE BRAKES 3 0 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,BACK OVER PREVENTION 2 0 0 0 0
ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 2 0 0 0 0
Air Bags NHTSA category: AIR BAGS 1 0 0 0 0
Back Over Prevention / Camera NHTSA category: BACK OVER PREVENTION 1 0 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE 1 0 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,EXTERIOR LIGHTING 1 0 0 0 0
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,STRUCTURE 1 0 0 0 0
EXTERIOR LIGHTING 1 0 0 0 0
Forward Collision Avoidance NHTSA category: FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 1 1 0 0 0
Fuel & Propulsion System NHTSA category: FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 1 0 0 0 0
LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 1 0 0 0 0
POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE 1 0 0 0 0
POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 1 0 0 0 0
POWER TRAIN,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL 1 0 0 0 0
POWER TRAIN,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,ENGINE 1 0 0 0 0
SERVICE BRAKES, AIR,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 1 0 0 0 0
SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC,TRACTION CONTROL SYSTEM,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 1 0 0 0 0
SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 1 0 0 0 0
SERVICE BRAKES,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 1 0 0 0 0
Structure & Body NHTSA category: STRUCTURE 1 0 0 0 0
Suspension NHTSA category: SUSPENSION 1 0 0 0 0
SUSPENSION,POWER TRAIN,ENGINE 1 0 0 0 0
SUSPENSION,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,SERVICE BRAKES 1 0 0 0 0
Tires NHTSA category: TIRES 1 0 0 0 0
UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE 1 0 0 0 0
Visibility & Wipers NHTSA category: VISIBILITY/WIPER 1 0 0 0 0
Data Attribution & Reporting Methodology: Complaints are unverified voluntary submissions to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI). Because multiple vehicle components can be cited within a single owner complaint submission, component-level rollups may sum to more than the unique complaint count (52). Injury and fatality entries in the detailed table reflect raw values entered by reporting consumers across individual submissions; they are not deduplicated casualty statistics and may include duplicate or unverified entries. Complaint volume is not normalized for sales volume or vehicle mileage and does not represent an audited component failure rate.
Official US Government Data Provenance

The complaint records on this page are retrieved directly from the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) public database.

Local Production Store Compiled: August 2026 • Deterministic Audited Dataset • Zero Dynamic External API Runtime Latency.