2019 Nissan Titan 5.6L - good truck?

ccracer85

OP

Jul 29, 2025 at 5:52 PM

#1

Hey everyone. I find myself back in the truck market after just over a year of driving a sedan. Had an F-150 in the past that completely $#!t the bed at 200K miles.

I need something that will pull about a 10K lb trailer about 10 times per year plus I'll use the bed regularly. Looks like a diesel or V8 gasser could do the job. I don't want a Ford again. The RAMs are a little scary because of their electrical gremlins and how that a small repair turns into complete interior disassembly. The Chevrolets are appealing but the only trucks in my budget are the notorious 8 speed trannies. The other concern is budget which makes the Tundras a bit out of reach.

I'm looking at a 2019 Nissan Titan SV for sale out of state. 60K miles, 4x4, 5.6L V8, and the 7 speed. It's priced really well and should do the job I'm looking for. The other benefit is it's a midnight edition and the truck looks beautiful.

Are these good trucks? My budget is no more than 27K and I don't want a truck that's already over the 100k miles mark. I'd be willing to make a concession for a diesel truck but considering I don't want to dump 4 grand into a delete kit, that's a no thank you.

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TheCarGuy

Aug 4, 2025 at 4:52 PM

#2

The Titans with the newer Direct Injection were hit or miss, most have been pretty reliable but there seemed to be a run of them in 2017/2018 that had issues with the engine, maybe cylinder #7 in most cases.

Checkout the homepage here and search for the Titans, then select the years and you'll see what I mean.

Overall, the 5.6L has always been extremely reliable, that was an issue I've heard of and they generally don't have some of the other weird reliability issues that Ford/GM/Ram has.

If buying used, maybe look at an extended warranty and see if they might throw one in cheap for the powertrain. Additionally, for piece of mind you can have someone scope the cylinders before purchase if you really want to know if the one you are buying is exhibiting that behavior.

There were more issues with the 2017/2018 models

The best "used" truck outside of warranty is a well maintained Toyota 2nd Gen or 2.5 Gen Tundra, but I hear you on the price, they tend to be very expensive. I will say though, having owned multiple 2nd Gen Toyota platforms, if reliability is your #1 concern, they are the best in that regard. I am still pushing my 2008 at 236k miles, still runs strong. I've replaced the starter and that's the only issue I've had.

-TCG

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ccracer85

Aug 7, 2025 at 4:55 PM

#3

@thecarguy Hey TCG, thanks so much for getting back to me. Just yesterday, I closed on a 2021 Titan with 65k miles. The truck still retains the 100k bumper to bumper warranty from Nissan until the end of 2026. 1 owner truck from Arizona and clean title.

The truck is FLAWLESS except for 1 thing. It has a light humming noise in the front end around 40-50 mph. I'm having it looked at by Nissan for a full complete inspection. I'm telling them to find anything they can on this truck that could be wrong to fix under warranty.

The 2021s wouldn't have that cylinder #7 issue, would they? Or is it too early to tell being it's only a few years old?

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TheCarGuy

Aug 7, 2025 at 9:49 PM

#4

@ccracer85 I think it's unlikely to have the issue and it was a very small number of affected vehicles, but anything is possible. I don't see a lot of those issues in forums or in complaints. I think a bore scope in that cylinder would be the easiest way to identify if a problem is coming before it happens.

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