What does the Hive think of the 03-15 Nissan Titan?

So I’ve been watching full size 4x4’s with enough backseat for kiddos.  In general this a chore vehicle, winter beast, and light tow duty vehicle.  While I’d prefer something LS powered the target 15k range leaves me looking at older stuff than desired.  I had been focusing on the earlier Tundras and newer Rams but noticed the Titan.  

Aside from being an older and thirstier platform I see some 70k mile 2015’s in the 15k range.  It would take more like 28k for the same thing with a bow tie...

I’ve read a few threads on the Frontiers but not much on the Titan...

I like them.  The front differentials are a bit soft, as in the local dealer keeps the assemblies in stock, and they are only about $1100.  

I'm not sure about the later ones, but I looked at these when they were new and believe that the brakes were highly inadequate for the first couple of years.

The engines, while thirsty, are really tough.

Great trucks. Im still convincing myself not to upgrade my 2012 frontier to a 2015 titan. 

The current body stile titan had some major teething issues. 

A purely anecdotal observation, but here in the rust belt most trucks rot the rear wheel wells, cab corners and rear bumpers, but I see Titans that seem to be the exception to that. I've been looking at full sized pickups and the Titans are normally noticably less rusty.

I have no experience with the 4wds but im a pretty big fan of all the Titans i've worked on. 

Armadas (titan's twin) isn't looked too favorably on reliability wise. Thus I would stay away from Titan, just get a Tundra.  Current Armada (Nissan Patrol twin) is much better. 

As noted, the front diffs aren't that stout. Front diff pinion and LF axle seal leaks are somewhat common, when the diff goes boom it normally shears the LF axle stub at the circlip groove.

Rear diffs also a bit leaky, half of that is the really poor diff vent used on all Nissan trucks. Run a proper hose or give the factory setup a spin at every oil change to keep it from seizing up.

As they get higher mileage the exhaust manifolds will crack. Not bad, they just sound like ass on startup and heavy load.

The Rancho front shocks on Pro4X models are pure garbage. They destroy themselves frequently (bad, like remove the spring and you can hold the shock body firmly and move the rod around like a stirring stick, turn it upside down and oil pours out)

Pretty tough otherwise. Thirsty. I'm not a huge fan of how they drive, but they work well. The 2008+ updates are nice.

I've heard the rear diffs aren't quite up to snuff for a full-size. They've got a Dana 44 back there, instead of a Dana 60 (or equivalent) like other big trucks. 

I have an '07 crew cab 4x4 with 230,000 kms,its been decently reliable.Bought 3 yrs ago.

 Replaced the cracked manifolds with JBA shorty headers with aftermarket cats welded on,new mid pipes and jba catback last yr as the factory exhaust had finally had enough.

Built a 1/4 wave frequency tube to remove the nasty drone these engines can produce....truck sounds fantastic and I get complimented all the time actually.

Haven't had any major failures,front diff has a slight leak I'm keeping an eye on.

I replaced the aging rad as a preventive measure to avoid coolant in the transmission.

I've had a trans cooler line pop off leaving me on the side of the road waiting for a flatbed,they have an upgraded line I think.....I just double clamped it and so far so good.

 I'm in the good 'ol Canadian rust belt and my truck looks 1000% better underneath than any other brand of the same vintage and 100% better then the rest of say 2012'ish and up domestics.....I pay close attention and work construction so lots of trucks around daily to compare.

 I think it still drives decently,quiet and comfy on the highway.....a little jarring on rough back roads now but it is an old truck.

 I wanted a tundra but the same truck as the titan was 10k more,I don't regret buying the titan over the tundra or any other brand actually. 

I'm loving my 08 Titan powered Pathfinder.?

I've put just about 10k on it so far, 129k and going very strong.  Averaging about 15 mpg 19-20 @ 75-80 cruising.

From my research in the past, the 5.6 is good for 400k+ miles, pretty solid suspension, I just do not like the interior, at all. but, I would look at them if I was in the market!

Vigo said:

I have no experience with the 4wds but im a pretty big fan of all the Titans i've worked on. 

Thanks Vigo and others here.  They don't seem to sell many which means I haven't heard much, good or bad, on their mechanical longevity.  Guess I need to get out and test drive one...

akylekoz said:

I'm loving my 08 Titan powered Pathfinder.?

I've put just about 10k on it so far, 129k and going very strong.  Averaging about 15 mpg 19-20 @ 75-80 cruising.

I bet that thing hauls butt.  I had an Armada rental a few weeks back and it really moved with that motor in a much bigger truck.

Friend bought an 05 new, has over 150k never had a problem with it. Just uses it for commuting   

In reply to 84FSP :

It kind of does, needs a limited slip rear real bad.  On dry pavement it will just smoke a tire until the traction control kicks in then it just roasts the other one.  

We had some icy parking lots on x-mas eve so I tested all modes of propulsion, with DTC on and off, it will do donuts or drift with it off.  It is only annoying in a straight line, if the back is stepped out a little the DTC kicks in at about 20 mph and abruptly corrects the attitude even with it disabled.  Not fun or safe in my book, but in reality probably safer for most drivers.

Awesome!  This truck is intended to be an enabling device for the household.  The V and El Rabbitto are manual and only Mrs84FSP's 4Runner is automatic. 

Ideally it lets me park the V when it's snowing, wow it wants to hurt you in the snow.  

It also gives MRS84FSP  an altrnate family vehicle that will tow so I can get her into something smaller unibody than the 4Runner.

The Pathfinder has a full frame and tows 7000lbs.  It has the Armada drivetrain including rear end and 4WD system.  I'm not sure what the trucks have except for solid a axle.

They're a great value for a full size truck.

I work for a LARGE used car dealer and have worked on many (and all other makes and models to compare to).

Notable things I've seen repeatedly:

Rear diff pinion bearing failure.  It's a Dana 44, but IIRC has several differences from the standard 44s found in Jeeps, etc. For starters it uses a crush sleeve. I'd be curious to see if putting a solid spacer and shimming the pinion might make them live longer. Currie sells a bolt in D60 to ensure it's never a problem... For $4k+.

Exhaust manifolds cracking, and bolts breaking off in the head. This sucks when it happens.

HVAC actuators... I forget which one specifically, but one of them is fairly common, and it's right up against the dash structure so it requires complete removal of the dash and crossmember behind it. Sucks to do, but mainly just time consuming.

Rust. Everything on the underside rusts like crazy. Not perforating rust, but every threaded fastener seizes in place. I'm not in the rust belt. Start out with a clean one, use anti seize everywhere and you'll be fine.

I like them overall. As stated above it's hard to ignore a $10k+ difference vs a Tundra of similar year/mileage. Id never consider regularly towing near their full capacity because of the rear diff.

I own a 13 Armada platinum reserve.  I love it. My whole family does. Rated to pull 9k lbs.   Bought it 20k miles ago,(with about 86k on it) and I've done a couple repairs. Mostly maintenance. New brakes, new tires all around and a new left rear wheel bearing. The latter cost 150 bucks for Timkin beqring/hub, and a hour or so install in my garage. Easy pezy. I run about 80 on the highway, and romp on it every now and again. Average 15-16 mpg. Not bad for the size it is. 

 The Titan of course uses a solid axle, which is prone to leaky axle seals. The internets will tell you is super hard scary repair. It's not.  I believe people have pinion bearing issues because the axle seals leak enough oil out to run the pinion bearing dry.  Avoid the most common offending years 04-06. 07+ have revised drivelines. Keep em full, clean and dont do stupid E36 M3 like burnouts and tug of war and you'll probably be fine. 

My front diff has a very slow leak at the pinion seal currently. Common problem. Same as titan. Not a big deal to replace either. Will likely take....oh...a half hour or so labor 50 dollar deal. 

My manifolds are also cracked. Happened right around 95k. Makes a ticking noise. My wife can barely hear it. Irks me, but it's been like that for 5k+ already with no issues.  Very common, and because the cats are built into them, expensive. Aftermarket headers/b-pipes, and a tune add lots of power and a permanent fix for 2k.  I was aware of this issue prior to buying and, even factoring this cost of repair in, a Toyota wasn't worth it. Comparable sequoia or Tundra as others have noted was 10k more.  

Buy a clean one and fluid film the hell out of it. As with any car in the rust belt. My frame looks great and I'm in Michigan. 

Btw: Toyotas trucks have big dollar issues too....look into secondary air injection pump and valve failures. 

I used to think the tundras were sweet. My employer had a titan and a tundra as shop trucks(as well as chevys and fords). After putting miles on both, id take the titan 1000000% of the time. The nanny controls on the tundra made it undrivable. Especially the POS traction control which you cant fully turn off. On a “TuRD off road” model, the traction control could not be shut off so when actually off-road, the anti-lock system was constantly slamming and banging as it modulated the wheels to not slip. This sounds like someone jack hammering on the firewall. Also, put it in 4lo and you are greeted with a constant BEEPING loud and obnoxious the whole time. 

On my frontier pro4x, 1 button turns off the traction control. If i want to spin the tires into smoke, i can with no BS. I can use 4 lo and not have a single stupid beeping noise. Rant done. 

Avoid the first few years of titan. Took them a while to figure out how to put gear lube in the rear. And yeah the rear is some odd dana 44-ish thing. This let down most of us nissan truck fans because nissans normal truck rear end that they have been using for many years is bigger and stronger than the “dana”. The H233b rear was in the v6 trucks. Even the c200 rear was good. But no lets throw a oddball dana thing in, and strangely enough, it had probs. 

As far as the Tundra thing goes I have the somewhat unique position of having a customer with an 04 Tundra with 185k and two customers with 04 and 05 Titans at 150k and 200k and I've driven them all pretty much back to back within the last few weeks.  IF you're comparing the Titan to the earlier 4.7L Tundra the Titan feels much bigger (its is) and truckier (take that as you will) but the main thing you'll notice is it feels like it has 100 more hp (technically it doesn't, although i think the Titan rating is very conservative). The Tundra just feels pleasant and the Titan feels like a hot rod. If you find a Titan with the 3.9 gears it will struggle for traction at 55 mph (open diff). For another frame of reference, any old standard issue 5.6 Titan is as quick as the Silverado SS 6.0 they sold at the time. Once you get up to the era of 5.7L Tundras there is a  pretty big price difference between the cheap end of those and the cheap end of Titans. 

I like the 4.7 Toyota motor a lot but I don't actually think it's more reliable than the Titan engine. I would consider them both to be very good!!

Yes an LSD would be a good thing, in the right conditions I've had mine break both free at 50+ mph and its a good time.

 Btw mine has the tow pkg and steeper gears,pulls a 6k loaded enclosed trailer down the hwy just fine.

I've got an '04 Titan that I bought new. No major issues in the 130k I've put on it, it's done everything I've asked of it and then some. 

The issues that l've had, that sound pretty typical for the truck...

Replaced the radiator due to a cracked plastic tank

Exhaust manifolds replaced under CA emissions warranty. I believe These were updated and less prone to cracking in later years. 

Clearcoat did not hold up well (dark grey color), and the paint is very thin.

Fabric seats not very durable.

HVAC actuators wear and get noisy.

The brakes had an issue when the truck was brand new. The pads were replaced under warranty at around 5,000 miles, no problems since. I was told that the original pads had a problem with the compound. Nissan fixed this early, but "bad brakes" seems to have stuck.

No problems with the rear diff. Nissan replaced the metal diff cover with a finned aluminum cover and the newer spec heavier weight synthetic gear lube in '05. I've done a good deal of towing. 

The good-

The drivetrain is bullet proof. And makes plenty of power, actually makes the big truck fun to drive. 

Huge amount of room inside the crew cab . Can fit lots of cargo inside with the seats folded against the wall. Very comfortable for long distances. Drives terrific for a large truck, much better than the Ram and GM trucks of the period IMO. 

That sound! Even with the stock exhaust, it sounds terrific. 

If I ever replace it, I would really miss the adjustable cleat and rail system in the bed. Why doesn't every truck have this? Makes securing the load a snap, and makes transporting big awkward items possible. 

This was the first truck with stability control available, with towing stability in mind. It saved my rear when I was towing a car on a rented trailer that turned out to have defective brakes- on one side. 

I get all of the LS love when it comes to swaps and mods. But in a truck of this era, that vintage LS couldn't hold a candle to the Nissan 5.6. Some of the credit also goes to the transmission, which was also much better than the ones in the other trucks at the time. 

I realize you aren’t talking about this generation but I think the engine might be the same or very similar.  I rented this one a few months back.  395 hp if I remember correctly.  It seemed really peaky though and not well suited to a truck.  It seemed to always hunt gears.  I floored it in anger a few times (Houston traffic) and while it will move with aplomb, it only does so in the absolute upper ranges of the tach.  This engine/trans/ecu calibration belongs in a sports car and not a truck.

Edit:  I also rented a 5.6 Armada a few years back (‘14 I think) and even loaded to the hilt with heavy pelican cases, luggage, and my not skinny coworker, that thing was bat $hit fast.  So I dunno what games they’re playing.  Gearing maybe.

Edit 2:

i also had this one.  

400+ hp.  Like the truck it just didn’t feel like it was calibrated right.  Drove like a turd too.  Not nearly as satisfying as the previous generation Armada.