Timing chain issues

I have a 2008 D40 TD and have recently had problems from the front end. Nissan couldn't find the problem and continued to tell me to 'monitor' it over 1.5yrs and countless services. Sooooooo, warrant runs out and i take it to my mate down the road for a 70K service. He starts it up, turns if off and gets out. He tells me he refuses to touch it cos it has a major problem at the front end (took all of 10sec).

Anyway, he gets his stethoscope out and probes around until he localises the problem - TIMING CHAIN and or gears he says.

I take it back to Nissan and have an almighty whinge about reporting the problem for 1.5 yrs and no body did anything about it and a local garage mechanic finds the issue in 10secs. I was well pissed.

Nissan keeps it for a few days and then rings to inform me that a tooth had broken off the timing gear which had damaged the timing chain, tensioners, guides and internal and external timing covers and the bill will be in the vicinity of $10K. Naturally I spat it and called Nissan every name under the sun. I go over the story again about how it's been doing it for 1.5 yrs and no-one could find the problem (reported at every service). I hang up on the service agent who, to his credit, rings back an hour later and tells me Nissan will now be covering it under warranty. Bless em.

2 weeks (motor came out) and $5000 worth of parts (4 pages) later I get the car back sounding sweet. No clicking on start up. No rubbing from the front end.

Thanks Nissan.

All your service agents are crap though. This should have been fixed 1.5yrs ago.

Very good news.
Glad you pushed it for your sake and those that follow.

Congrats on the fix, good on Nissan for wearing it too. Timing chains are one of my biggest fears with this motor and if I get a sniff that mine's heading west, I'll be getting a better one from yd25.com.au.

Does anbody know if all D 40s suffer the timing chain problem, as i am a bit paranoid after recently buying one with 180,000 ks onboard, runs sweet at the moment, may have been done i dont know. I supose if it has reached 180ks the teething problems are over. he he.

It seems not many compared to production levels. You can listen for early warning sounds ( which they seem to give) or replace for prevention.

If the apprentice couldn't pick it you'd think he ask everyone else to have a listen. There would have to be one old hand who could tell what it was.
Their not mechanics anymore they're technicans, if the computer can't tell them what's wrong their stumped.

My timing chain has started slapping around, services every 5000kms, it's a 2008 now done 74k, although its out of new car warranty and has an impeccable alservice record Nissan have said they will pay for it, let's hope they stick to there word.

Is the chain noise easy to detect, will you definately know if you have a noisy chain

I am also curious what kind of signs to listen our for. I have an 07 ST-X with 180,000Km on the clock so i want to keep an eye out for it.

It would be good if someone who has the problem could upload a sound recording.....might help the rest of us understanding the 'rattle' vice all the other noises coming from the donk.

I find sound recordings of engines somewhat disorientating, as the noise is amplified and distorted. But if you have and issue with your timing chain it will be noticably different to any other YD25 you hear.

If the timing chain is rattling in one of these engines, it IS quite noticable. The noise comes from the lower drivers side front of the engine, and on the only one that I've personally heard, it was twice as loud as the normal engine operating noise before complete failure.

I sent the owner back to the dealer as it'd just passed 100,000km with all their prior services having been completed by a franchise and hoping it would be a warrantable issue. I haven't seen nor heard from the customer again, so I either frightened the crap out of them with the possible repair cost or Nissan have done the right thing and looked after them.

Nissan just did mine at 108k and 1year out of warranty. Thai built. Actually the first dealer that had serviced it from new for previous owner, kept it overnight to listen to the chain cold when I took it to them for 100k service (at 60 months/108k). Quoted $1500. Took it to my usual dealer for a second opinion/quote and they said they'd try Nissan and bingo. Very happy. However, now they want to discuss a knocking injector that they tried Nissan for and this they wouldn't pay for - $6k job I hear. I hope Injectors are a little less catostrophic when they fail than the timing chain would have been...

This is the first 4x4 diesel i have owned and there is a ticking sound i guess you could call it under acceleration to about 2500rpm through all the gears. I thought oh crap i just got a car with issues but apparently this is the sound the common rail diesel has and its normal. Does that sound correct to you guys?

At this stage I would say mine was'nt excessive or anything, been a developing issue the last month or so, just a light noise evident from engine, is noisy at cold starts & whilst running u can hear a very light noise from engine, checked with a stethoscope and checked various spots on the front of the engine, then removed belts to confirm it was none of the accessories being driven off the drive belts.

Lol just a follow up regarding the replacement of my timing chain, Nissan went back on there word, can't say I wasn't expecting that. Plus side is my extended new car warranty covered it, they want the car for a futher 4 days to do the job took them 2days to diagnose & get an answer regarding the warranty, not happy considering it took me less than 30mins to diagnose the issue. Love the car but really hate Nissans service been to 3 different Nissan dealers over the years & every time they let me down.

For those curious about timing chain replacement cost etc, just under 5k from Nissan, fortunately mine was replaced under my extended warranty. dead quiet now.

thrlskr said:

For those curious about timing chain replacement cost etc, just under 5k from Nissan, fortunately mine was replaced under my extended warranty. dead quiet now.

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The service adviser at my local dealer showed me the parts list for mine and it stretched to 4 full A4 pages. He said it was going to be about $4K in parts alone + labour. He estimated the final coast would be around the $6K mark.

Lucky i had the noise and issue logged at previous services where the same dealer said they could locate the problem.

My 2008 STX goes in on Monday for a new timing chain and injectors under the extended warranty I very luckily purchased. I have been complaining for the last three services (30,000 K) that the vehicle lacked power and used a lot more fuel. Hopefully the new injectors and chain will fix things

Old.Tony said:

Congrats on the fix, good on Nissan for wearing it too. Timing chains are one of my biggest fears with this motor and if I get a sniff that mine's heading west, I'll be getting a better one from yd25.com.au.

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Same here!!

Yeh I believe im due for a new double row timing chain im only getting 550k from 70liters of diesel. No warranty for me which sucks