Bret01

Anyone?

My wife drives an '01 Pathfinder SE 2WD that has an automatic transmission. I changed the transmission fluid and filter at 45k miles, 75k miles, and 105k miles. At about 104k miles, my wife told me that the engine was reving real high before it would shift when it was cold. She also said that it would sometimes make a rumbling noise when she was stopped at an intersection. I drove it and sure enough, while the engine/transmission was cold, the transmission would stay in first gear too long. It would then shift which felt kind of hard but was probably just because the rpms were so high. I also heard the rumbling noise that she described. Since I was just short of 105k, I decided to change the transmission fluid and replace the filter. The fluid that came out looked good. It was a little dirty, but you could still see through it. I dropped the pan and found that the magnet had a bunch of metal around it, significantly more than I remember it having previously. I also found some other metal in the pan which wouldn't stick to the magnet. I assume this is aluminum. In the filter strainer I could also see some metal shavings. I put everything back together and replaced the fluid with the same amount that was drained out. Unfortunately, the problems didn't go away. Fast forward about another 1k miles and it's still doing the same things. In addition, I drove it once from cold and it kept stalling out at an intersection. Once it got warm, the problem went away. I've checked the fluid level with the vehicle running and it is just above the full mark. I drove it to a local transmission shop. The owner drove it once and said he didn't have any problems. He then drove it a couple of days later and said that it kept stalling out on him. He said that based on that and the aluminum in the pan I need to have the transmission rebuilt. He quoted me $2350 to to do it. His warranty is 18 months or 18k miles. That seems like a very short warranty for such a big chunk of money, so I've started doing research on places that rebuild transmission which offer longer warranties. I've found a couple, but my confidence level isn't high that I definitely need a rebuilt transmission. Could something else simpler be going on? 105k seems early for a Nissan Pathfinder transmission to go out, especially one that's been properly maintained.