2013 D40 4x4 2.5 DCI Double Cab Automatic - Tough initiation into Navara life - Injector failure

[Dave Mason]

Thanks for including me in the forum.

My name is Dave Mason from Durban in South Africa.

Bought my vehicle in July in the Western Cape, drove it back and it was a dream drive. Powerful, silky smooth but I started to notice a vibration at around 120 kph that comes and goes. I haven't done any more open road trips where I could get to those speeds so I still need to experience it again.

4 weeks ago however I took a run to Pinetown that is about 35kms away from where I live and I was driving up a long incline and I wanted to test and see if i could get that vibration again but before I could check that, truck lost power, loads of white smoke and extremely lumpy idling. Pulled to shoulder and switched off immediately.

Had Turbo checked, all good some play (Had it rebuilt anyway as precaution), but on further investigation it was that I had an injector fail on me. Blew hole in piston. The diesel specialist I took the vehicle to has said to me that it was just a chance case.

I'm no mechanic and new to the forum so I am not sure if I should be asking this elsewhere in the forum but is their anyway of having a warning device or something fitted to warn of possible injector failure soon?

This exercise is costing me in the region of + 50 000 ZAR (South African Rand) - ( or 2700 USD/ 2200 GBP/ 4200 AUD) Bit of an initiation by fire i thought!!

Still, I love the vehicle. Mine is a very clean specimen and previous (one owner since new) owner was pretty pedantic.

Thanks again for welcoming me to the forum, looking forward to your views on my predicament and what you think of my baby "Blanche".

 

[Old.Tony]

Welcome aboard.

Very sad to hear this sort of thing happen - it's really not very common at all! In fact the injectors on these cars have been quite reliable. I don't know of any system that could warn you of impending injector failure.

 

[Dave Mason]

Welcome aboard.

Very sad to hear this sort of thing happen - it's really not very common at all! In fact the injectors on these cars have been quite reliable. I don't know of any system that could warn you of impending injector failure.

Hi Tony

I see you have a lot of experience with Navara's and I am at my wits end and my wallet is drained, so i need your help please.

I got the Navara back around a month ago from the rebuild and all was good for about a week. Then the vehicle started to shudder/ hop when I put her in drive or reverse. Also what increasingly started happening is that she would seem to go into a limp mode ie lose power and seem to stick in a higher gear. I would have to put her into manual mode to get the gears to drop or bring her to a stop. No warning lights at all.

I took her back to the mechanic, and diagnosis brought up up fault P1815 - something to do with a electronic module in the gearbox. He suggested I take it to a gearbox specialist. So I did.

The specialist had the car for around 2 days before responding that he first though we had a turbo leak that was causing the loss of power and that he had found a leak. However the issue persisted, and he said its not the module and its the torque convertor, so at a cost of R 25 000 (ZAR) or 2100 AUD/ 1400 USD/ 1100 GBP they serviced exchanged the torque convertor.

Problem is still persisting however.... I have had the vehicle since early August and it has been in the workshop fopr more days than I have driven it.

Please assist if possible!!

 

[Old.Tony]

According to my searches, P1815 is an issue with manual mode in the auto gearbox. There's an excellent chance that it is a communications issue - this sort of thing happens all the time in lots of different car brands - all you need is a loose electrical connection and things can go crazy.

Unfortunately many mechanics will attach their scanning tool to the car and just ask it what the problem is, look at some of the info provided by the running car (eg torque convert slip percentage) and diagnose an issue as some specific item (which could very well be the cause) but they don't look at anything else (like loose or dirty connectors) because "they've solved the problem". In a great many cases, they are right - but there'll be some like yours where they aren't. So let's try a couple of things - providing you can get underneath your car safely (hoist, car stands, pit, that sort of thing).

One at a time - unplug a connector from the gearbox, blow it with compressed air, perhaps even spray some "electrical contact cleaner" in it, then reinstall it and move on to the next one. There's no need to test the vehicle between each one, just do them all.

Also do the battery terminals (remove them, clean them, reinstall them). Check over on the vehicle's right hand guard inside the engine bay, looking for a wire attached to a bolt that goes into the bodywork (this is the ECU earth). Remove this, clean it well, reinstall it. If you want this to last a while, spray the ECU earth and both battery terminals with battery terminal sealer (it's usually a bluish clear paint).

Up in the top of the engine bay there are several (should be 3) boxes with relays and fuses in them. You want to pay attention to the one over near the battery and the one near the ABS unit. Open them, pull the relays out and reinsert them (again, one at a time so you don't mix them up). Do the same with the fuses.

All of this is just in case it's an electrical gremlin that's snuck in. It's also free, just a little bit of your time.

We'll look at the power loss issue if it's still happening after you've gone over the electrical connections, but electrical gremlins can affect engine control.

You might consider buying a bluetooth OBD2 ELM327 adapter and getting an app on your phone like Torque (Android). This will allow you to monitor things like boost levels and coolant temps (and a whole bunch of other stuff too). It could come in handy in later testing.

 

[Dave Mason]

Thanks so much. A happy new year to you and everyone on the forum.

I had a crazy December at work, and I fortunately had loan vehicle for the month, so only tackling the Navara again now.

Going on leave this coming week, going to do as you suggest and I will revert ASAP.

 

[Dave Mason]

According to my searches, P1815 is an issue with manual mode in the auto gearbox. There's an excellent chance that it is a communications issue - this sort of thing happens all the time in lots of different car brands - all you need is a loose electrical connection and things can go crazy.

Unfortunately many mechanics will attach their scanning tool to the car and just ask it what the problem is, look at some of the info provided by the running car (eg torque convert slip percentage) and diagnose an issue as some specific item (which could very well be the cause) but they don't look at anything else (like loose or dirty connectors) because "they've solved the problem". In a great many cases, they are right - but there'll be some like yours where they aren't. So let's try a couple of things - providing you can get underneath your car safely (hoist, car stands, pit, that sort of thing).

One at a time - unplug a connector from the gearbox, blow it with compressed air, perhaps even spray some "electrical contact cleaner" in it, then reinstall it and move on to the next one. There's no need to test the vehicle between each one, just do them all.

Also do the battery terminals (remove them, clean them, reinstall them). Check over on the vehicle's right hand guard inside the engine bay, looking for a wire attached to a bolt that goes into the bodywork (this is the ECU earth). Remove this, clean it well, reinstall it. If you want this to last a while, spray the ECU earth and both battery terminals with battery terminal sealer (it's usually a bluish clear paint).

Up in the top of the engine bay there are several (should be 3) boxes with relays and fuses in them. You want to pay attention to the one over near the battery and the one near the ABS unit. Open them, pull the relays out and reinsert them (again, one at a time so you don't mix them up). Do the same with the fuses.

All of this is just in case it's an electrical gremlin that's snuck in. It's also free, just a little bit of your time.

We'll look at the power loss issue if it's still happening after you've gone over the electrical connections, but electrical gremlins can affect engine control.

You might consider buying a bluetooth OBD2 ELM327 adapter and getting an app on your phone like Torque (Android). This will allow you to monitor things like boost levels and coolant temps (and a whole bunch of other stuff too). It could come in handy in later testing.

Hi Tony. Please could you advise what standard boost levels for my vehicle would be, also what the temp level should be for normal operations?

 

[Old.Tony]

Hi Tony. Please could you advise what standard boost levels for my vehicle would be, also what the temp level should be for normal operations?

Sure.

Boost at idle should be zero (or even a slight vacuum). There's not enough exhaust flow to spin the turbine, and Nissan (Renault) knew this, so if your car won't start it's almost never the turbo.

Boost when the load is high (and engine is doing 1600rpm or more) should be in the 20-24psi range. The ECU varies the boost at all other times.

Coolant temp should be above 85 when operating normally (the thermostat should be fully open at 85C and that's the point where the glow plugs turn off), and under light load (normal driving, not towing) should sit below 95C. Climbing hills raises it a little, climbing hills while towing a large rig like we do will raise it a lot. I solve that by slowing down (changing gears too).