Dead Navara

Hi all,

Just signed up to the forum and thought I'd share my story and ask advice.

I've owned my D40 for about 9 months. 2007 Turbo Diesel, manual and mechanically unmodified apart from a long range fuel tank and snorkel. I live in Walgett NSW (north west) and have loved the Navara until recently.

A few months after purchase I started having the engine problems where the power started cutting out for no apparent reason. Restarting the engine seemed to fix it in the short term.

After getting a service in Sydney at my usual mechanic the problem seemed to disappear. He put it down to some possible dodgy fuel and it was running like a dream until about two months later. Fuel filter was replaced as it was looking nasty.

About 4 weeks ago on my trip back to Sydney the orange engine light came on and the power was dropping randomly. After reading the service book it suggested and instructed me to drain possible water from the fuel filter. After a short time on the side of the highway in a small town on a Sunday afternoon I did my best to manually extract supposed 'water' in the fuel pump.

Long story short the truck started going again for a few km's until the red engine light came on and it went into safety mode? (Couldn't get it passed 2.5k revs)

I restarted the engine and couldn't get it passed idle. After a few more goes the engine didn't even turn on. After waiting 4 hours some 40km's out of Gunnedah in the middle of the highway The NRMA man showed up and used courful language to show his thoughts about Navaras. After a good hour still couldn't get it going.

My Navara was towed to a Nissan/Mazda dealer & service place in Gunnedah where it has sat for now 4 weeks. The mechanic sounds very confused and Nissan has instructed him it may be a problem with the SCV (Suction control valve) priced at $320. He then states if it isn't this then he will need to replace the fuel pump, and worse case the injectors at about $1000 each part..

There are apparently no SCV's currently in Australia and it may take up to 6 weeks for one to be shipped in. I have been stuck in a town with no car, no idea what's wrong with it and how much it will cost to replace. It's apparently a 'bad fuel' problem which warranty doesn't cover. For the price I paid for the truck and the regular servicing and only 80,000km on the clock I am shocked and appalled!

If anyone has any suggestions of how/what/why this has happened to my truck I would love to hear something.

Very disappointed in this truck..

Gday and to to forum.

My old boss had a new D40, 07 and it had similar probs, cant remember exactly only that it went in for repair several times like yours.
In the end after several failed attempts they replaced the fuel rail and some ancillaries cause they found it was loosing pressure. Thats as much as i can recall.
Went fine after that.




Enjoy the forum..... maybe get a D22

ouch, that is some bad luck that you have had there. Unfortunatly for you if it is bad fuel it is very hard to take action against the place if you got fuel as you need to be able to prove who you purchased the fuel of and that it was them that caused the contamination. That said service stations are required by law to test there fuel on a weekly basis.

This is the reason that I only get fuel from the same brand of station and only pay by credit card so if I do get bad fuel I can get them to pay for the repairs.

NickT

Carnie,

I had this same problem in my work patrol with the 3L in it. At first I tried to drain the water from the fuel filter myself and it kept doing it after a few kms, so being a lease vehicle I didnt bother looking further into it and just took it back to Nissan, they found 70% water in the filter and a further 30% water in each fuel tanks, unfortunetly the water drain couldnt keep up and gave it the same symptons you were discribing. Nissan had to remove both tanks and all the fuel lines to get the water out but wasnt anymore than a days job. Hopefully this helps

Boosted said:

Carnie,

I had this same problem in my work patrol with the 3L in it. At first I tried to drain the water from the fuel filter myself and it kept doing it after a few kms, so being a lease vehicle I didnt bother looking further into it and just took it back to Nissan, they found 70% water in the filter and a further 30% water in each fuel tanks, unfortunetly the water drain couldnt keep up and gave it the same symptons you were discribing. Nissan had to remove both tanks and all the fuel lines to get the water out but wasnt anymore than a days job. Hopefully this helps

Click to expand...

I don't think this is a water in the fuel problem but rather an issue that had arisen on a number of occasions. It hasn't happened to me (yet!) but it did happen to a work colleague....Lennock Motors in Canberra had a couple of goes at fixing the problem and eventually replaced the rail, harness and a bunch of other components in the fuel system. That was about 6-8 months ago and the car has been running well since. The problem was frequent shutting down to 'limp home mode' and would clear if he turned the ignition off and restarted. In the end he drove from the north side of Canberra to Lennock (on the south side about 25km) will the thing still in limp mode and they were able to diagnose better.
I'm betting that the dealer you have your car at probably doesn't have the Consult software either....may be too small to warrant the cost so you might need to start agitating with Nissan Tech Services to get the thing sorted.

No good mate,I hope you get itsorted without to much pain but welcome to the forum.
Maybe Tweake has the answers.

i think the suction control valve issue was raise on the other navara forum, known defect and nissan have an upgraded part for it.

nissan dealer should be able to see what causing limp mode.

Ah thanks for the welcomes and advice so far. Sorry I joined on such a negative note.

Sounds like this SCV might not be the solution by what you guys are suggesting.

Just spoke to the Nissan mechanic again and still waiting on this part before anything happens. Five weeks for him to order a part (SCV) that's not in Australia or known when it's going to get here..

Looks like I've learnt my lesson of buying a diesel in Australia. The price it costs to fix them scares me.

PS.. anyone wanna buy a near working Navara?? lol

Carnie let me know what the final result is. My 06 just got these early symptoms the other day for the first time. I've only done 400km in the car since buying. I did a 250km trip then on the way home put the wife in the driver seat. First time for her to drive it and she put her foot to the floor at the lights. It changed to second gear then seconds later felt like it went straight to 5th gear where it was driving at low revs and would not get any power. I turned the motor off and restarted 30seconds later and she ran smooth again. Unfortunately I don't have a warranty so I can't afford to trial 3 or 4 different fixes to find the problem.

My problem turned out to be the turbo slowly dying. There were leaks out of it everywhere when the mechanic removed it. $2550 for a new turbo + labour. Running like a dream now.

same thing happened to me and this is what nissan said they done. found dtc for egr present.checked egr,power supply and all ok. cleaned egr. cleaned ecu grounds and refitted. if dtc returns egr pipe and manifold requires removing and cleaning. hope that can help kev then block your egr

Similar to my auto 2007 D40

Dealer was convinced it was the suction control valve, no discussion of any other causes.

One week and $650 later...same problem.

This time they say the whole fue lrail and other minor parts need replacing because of the sensores in the fuel rail Approx $1800. Which is non refundable if it doesnt fix the problem (This is surely a case for consumer affairs)

Then if that doesnt work its a new fuel pump, as the sensors on it play up. So it may cost $2450 to find out I need a new pump.

I questioned their methods of just replacing parts unitil something worked as I dont like paying for their R&D. They reckon they have no choice as they cant get the parts seperately

Spoke to nissan customer care who simply said its the dealers problem and they cant be expected to supply ALL the components seperately.

Anyway, taking the vehicle off them tommorrow and to a diesel specialist, which I must add, the guy in the service department recommended.

I dunno about you guys, But this starting to scare the sh@t out of me. Im hoping that nothing like this ever happens to me... 80,000kms on the clock and still (touch wood) not a problem. Hope you get it sorted mate, im sure we are all thinking of ya...

The peoblem with Nissan Dealer Mechanics is they charge $120 per hour just to look at your car. My Mechanic charges $77 an hour and starts his investigations off with the cheapest parts. On top of that Nissan will charge exorbitant prices for parts that are available aftermarket

For example, Nissan wanted $4000 just to supply a new turbo for the D40. It's a 5hr job to take off the old one and put on a new one mainly due to position. So for Nissan to replace my turbo it would have cost me $4600.

My mechanic http://tinyurl.com/EnZosMechanical-Exhaust purchased the exact same turbo for $2550 and with his labour cost me $3000.

My mechanic offers the exact same warranty on his work that Nissan do and the parts supplier offers the exact same warranty on the Turbo that Nissan do. A local independant mechanic is likely to try and get you back on the road as cheap as possible so he can keep your buisness and as quick as possible to make room for his next customer, where Nissan couldn't give a dead rat's ass as they have all the new car owners coming in for overpriced servicing to keep them busy and massive car parks and yards to store vehicles waiting for parts. So the question is, why go to a Nissan dealer mechanic, when there are plenty of mechanics out there who are honest, reliable, knowledgeable and affordable?

Escapee said:

The peoblem with Nissan Dealer Mechanics is they charge $120 per hour just to look at your car. My Mechanic charges $77 an hour and starts his investigations off with the cheapest parts. On top of that Nissan will charge exorbitant prices for parts that are available aftermarket

For example, Nissan wanted $4000 just to supply a new turbo for the D40. It's a 5hr job to take off the old one and put on a new one mainly due to position. So for Nissan to replace my turbo it would have cost me $4600.

My mechanic http://tinyurl.com/EnZosMechanical-Exhaust purchased the exact same turbo for $2550 and with his labour cost me $3000.

My mechanic offers the exact same warranty on his work that Nissan do and the parts supplier offers the exact same warranty on the Turbo that Nissan do. A local independant mechanic is likely to try and get you back on the road as cheap as possible so he can keep your buisness and as quick as possible to make room for his next customer, where Nissan couldn't give a dead rat's ass as they have all the new car owners coming in for overpriced servicing to keep them busy and massive car parks and yards to store vehicles waiting for parts. So the question is, why go to a Nissan dealer mechanic, when there are plenty of mechanics out there who are honest, reliable, knowledgeable and affordable?

Click to expand...

all car dealers are assholes .. when ur buying a car there all over u soon as u have the car in driveway they could not careless about there customers ..
my mate bought a ve 2010 brand new the steering wheel started to fall apart all the leather came off he is now having to chase holden they wont call him back u calls says whats going on and they says the bloke is not in or busy and they never call him i hate the dealerships Nissan ford Holden Toyota don't matter who it is are all crap want your money then leave bad service i think something should be done about it its not 500 bucks we are playing around with it 30,000 -50,000 witch can make or brake someones lifestyle .

Jazz said:

Similar to my auto 2007 D40

Dealer was convinced it was the suction control valve, no discussion of any other causes.

One week and $650 later...same problem.

This time they say the whole fue lrail and other minor parts need replacing because of the sensores in the fuel rail Approx $1800. Which is non refundable if it doesnt fix the problem (This is surely a case for consumer affairs)

Then if that doesnt work its a new fuel pump, as the sensors on it play up. So it may cost $2450 to find out I need a new pump.

I questioned their methods of just replacing parts unitil something worked as I dont like paying for their R&D. They reckon they have no choice as they cant get the parts seperately

Spoke to nissan customer care who simply said its the dealers problem and they cant be expected to supply ALL the components seperately.

Anyway, taking the vehicle off them tommorrow and to a diesel specialist, which I must add, the guy in the service department recommended.

Click to expand...

Well I have my vehicle back!

Diesel bloke found inconsistent pressure at the rail. So he did a re-learn/reset on the pump. Fuel pressure reading now more consistent.
Then drove the thing himself for a few days, clocked up close to 200k's, no problems. So he said I may as well come and get it.

It has been fine for a week now. All up $150 for his time.

He reckons Nissan simply forgot to reset the pump. This is a simple mistake but how bad is their diagnosis when all it took was a reading of the fuel pressure? When they wanted to replace parts which could have cost me over $3000.

Feel sorry for the guys that just pay up and get bullshitted to.

Escapee said:

The peoblem with Nissan Dealer Mechanics is they charge $120 per hour just to look at your car. My Mechanic charges $77 an hour and starts his investigations off with the cheapest parts. On top of that Nissan will charge exorbitant prices for parts that are available aftermarket

For example, Nissan wanted $4000 just to supply a new turbo for the D40. It's a 5hr job to take off the old one and put on a new one mainly due to position. So for Nissan to replace my turbo it would have cost me $4600.

My mechanic http://tinyurl.com/EnZosMechanical-Exhaust purchased the exact same turbo for $2550 and with his labour cost me $3000.

My mechanic offers the exact same warranty on his work that Nissan do and the parts supplier offers the exact same warranty on the Turbo that Nissan do. A local independant mechanic is likely to try and get you back on the road as cheap as possible so he can keep your buisness and as quick as possible to make room for his next customer, where Nissan couldn't give a dead rat's ass as they have all the new car owners coming in for overpriced servicing to keep them busy and massive car parks and yards to store vehicles waiting for parts. So the question is, why go to a Nissan dealer mechanic, when there are plenty of mechanics out there who are honest, reliable, knowledgeable and affordable?

Click to expand...

A lot of this is true. Your local mechanic has to earn business and relies on good word of mouth. A dealer sells new cars that guarantee a percentage of workshop business. Most new car buyers have dealer services performed in the early stages.

regards
Greg.