I have been trying to find details on the 2022 pathfinder V6 engine. Generally, folks say the V6 engines on Nissans are pretty reliable. However, I believe very recently they switched to Direct Injection on some of their V6. I am wondering if anyone knows if the 2022 pathfinder uses the newer gasoline direct injection engines and could suffer from carbon deposit issues?
So far, I haven't seen any issues with carbon build-up on a lot of the Nissan V6 engines with GDI. I have a friend who drives an Infiniti Qx60 with a direct injection VQ V6 and it has had zero issues with carbon build-up and he keeps up with the maintenance.
Personally, I have seen carbon build up a few times on the VW/Audi vehicles with those NA VR6 engines because of all that GDI and the insane complexity they put in those engines.
What mileage is on your friend’s Infinity, and how do you know it does not have carbon buildup on the back of the intake valves? You would need a boroscope to visually see if there’s any carbon buildup on intake valves.
it has 80 000 km and its a 2017, the first model year they added direct injection to the Qx60.
For 2017 model year Pathfinder, Nissan switched to the direct injection-only 3.5L V6 (engine VQ35DD). I would still put a catch can on the engine to mitigate carbon buildup and periodically use a boroscope to see how much carbon buildup there is on the back of the valves and clean it, as needed (either you if you are mechanically inclined and comfortable, or have a mechanic do it). It’s just a matter of time, but some engines (like older Audis/VWs) are worse than others when it comes to carbon buildup in their engines. I don’t buy the fact that there’s some GDI engines out there that are not susceptible to carbon buildup: they all are, it’s just a matter of when (and how much it impacts vehicle’s engine performance), not if.
I would be more concerned about the ZF 9-speed automatic transmission and it’s reliability/durability: it has had issues in the FCA and Honda products, and jury is out on how it will hold up in the Nissan.
Great information folks, thank you, it really helps!