D22 YD25 engine malfunction URGENT HELP PLEASE

[klr265]

Hi all,
I went to start my car(2010 D22 STR) this morning and the engine malfunction light came on. The car idles fine but will not allow me accelarate and drive(safe mode).
The car is a year old with 20k on the clock. I tried the fuel filter clean process incase of water as says in the book but no change.
I then rang the local nissan dealership and they said it needed to be put on the computer to find the fault codes and so i had it towed there.
4 hours later the service guy rang me and said it was showing an injector or injector pump issue and the problem was caused by bad fuel.I filled up 4 days ago and have gone through half a tank with no issues all week.He then said that this will not be covered under warranty.
Thats the bit i dont believe and feel they are trying to get away from an expensive fix
any thoughts or steps i should take to resolve the issue would be greatly appreciated.
Also, they are first trying to dump the fuel and clean the fuel system to see if that fixes it
cheers

 

[Krankin]

Get them to show you the fault code/s displaying and post them up here
and i reckon you need to get a sample of the fuel from your tank before they clean it out so you can have it analyzed yourself.
If it were so easy for dealers to blame bad fuel, no one would ever get any repairs done under warranty.

I think if were bad fuel, the engine prolly wouldnt start at all and especially wouldnt idle fine as you say.

 

[klr265]

Ill do that first thing mate, lets hope they havent drained it yet cause i wont have a leg to stand on

 

[Krankin]

youll get some more advice on here today once the masses awake from their beauty sleep.

Is your power chip still installed?

 

[klr265]

ive had the power chip off the car for a little while now and only use it when im off the tarmac

 

[Old.Tony]

I hope you still have the receipt for the fuel.

Nissan can - and should - supply you with enough of the fuel from the tank so that you can have it independently tested and have the service station compensate you for the damage. They are the ones that sold the dirty fuel (if it is dirty fuel) and so they should be approached about it. It's happened before and service stations have paid for repairs.

Just a note: you should try to be VERY sure that the fuel sample you have is actually from that service station. It would be terrible if they sent a sample of yours to a lab, together with a sample from the service station, only to find that the servo's fuel is contaminated with substance X and yours - doctored up by Nissan so it looks good - is contaminated with substance Y with the thow-away line "mate, they'll never know the difference". It wouldn't take a competent chemist long to determine that a bodgy fuel sample could NOT have come from that servo's tanks.

Nissan are right - so is the dealer - dirty fuel is not a warranty item, it's not a factory fault or defect in materials or workmanship. It's not YOUR fault either - you didn't put the crap in the fuel - the service station may not have deliberately done so either, but they have a duty of care to ensure that their tanks do not cause too many impurities to mix in the fuel. That's why - when you can prove it came from their tanks - they will pay for the repairs.

The key things are:

* You need the receipt for the fuel
* Nissan - or you - need to have and retain a sample of the contaminated fuel
* You need to pay Nissan for the repairs
* You need to approach the service station owner with part of the sample and discuss payment of your repairs
* Never let anyone have the entire sample - try to get a couple of litres if you can.

Good luck!

 

[jastormont]

Keep us all posted on how you get on.

I was talking to a guy that was saying Common Rail Diesels are very susceptible to bad fuel and that good fuel filtration is a must and they some guys run 2 filters due to this. Is this true what can one do to help prevent this such as putting in the extra filter?

 

[RustyNav09]

Hey jastor.

You mentioned that commonrail motors are prone to bad fuel and thus leading to expensive repairs. I have 2 filters installed for this reason. They are inline with each other and the filtration microns are different. It goes aftermarket 150prefilter into 60 Micron filter with glass bowl, then inline to genuine filter which is 12-20micron then into motor. So I have 3 forms of filtration in 2filters. Cars only done 38000kms and never had dramas. The full install including filter and assembly cost me $200. The filter and assembly was $190 of that.

Goodluck
Rusty

If you want to see it instaled check my build thread. RustyNav Slow Build

 

[klr265]

thanks guys for all your responses.
My biggest issue is that i paid cash for the fuel and threw the reciept but i will talk to the station owner and see if i can recover a copy of the reciept as i remember the day and times i was there.I will be seeing nissan on monday morning to recover a sample of the fuel.
I will keep you all posted

 

[d22dave]

Perry not good mate. Could you let me know which servo it was so i can stay away. Dont know if it should be on forum or pm, Your,e choice

 

[klr265]

hey mate
ill wait to see what response i get from nissan in the morning and if it really is a contaminated fuel issue then ill post the station i purchased from
cheers

 

[klr265]

Ok Guys
I got the car back today along with a sample of the contaminated fuel. The fuel contained particles of grit that blocked the injector pump and fuel filter. Nissan flushed the complete fuel system and replaced the fuel filter and cleaned injectors and injector pump then reset the computer and all is good. All i need to do now is put in a claim to Shell and see how far i can go to reclaim the costs of repairs. Total cost was $580

 

[d22dave]

. Total cost was $580

Suppose that,s good news. At least you didn,t need to up the mortgage to pay the bill

 

[Old.Tony]

Good luck with the claim from Shell. They may not quibble too much about that bill, so you may not have to fight too hard.

 

[Dicko11]

oh gee so my diagnosis was correct then wasnt it. maybe it isnt so hard to change you fuel filter every 10k like i do on my nav

 

[BradM]

I think if were bad fuel, the engine prolly wouldnt start at all and especially wouldnt idle fine as you say

Don't you believe it. My Patrol started and idled AOK but you could not accelerate. I used over half a tank before it died and I saw the sample of the fuel which was mud/water and some diesel. I had the receipt and Nissan wrote a report on the substance that came out of the fuel line. Lucky for me my insurance company covered damage to the vehicle by bad fuel and footed the $7,800 workshop bill. You should have seen the stuff the the patrol ran 450 klms on before it stuffed the pump, injectors and Common rail.

To my knowledge the insurance company lawyers have still not been successful in recovering the money. The Nissan mechanics at the dealership where it was repaired were telling me they see a dozen a week nissan diesels affected by contaminated fuel and most just need tank/lines drained, chemically cleand and fresh fuel. They also told me have one customer had mistakenly filled the diesel with unleaded and that vehicle drove 500 klms before it stopped. They did the above and off the CRD patrol drove.

The CRD is actually quite tough in regard to bad fuel unless you get a really bad dose like I did.

 

[Krankin]

Don't you believe it. My Patrol started and idled AOK but you could not accelerate. I used over half a tank before it died and I saw the sample of the fuel which was mud/water and some diesel. I had the receipt and Nissan wrote a report on the substance that came out of the fuel line. Lucky for me my insurance company covered damage to the vehicle by bad fuel and footed the $7,800 workshop bill. You should have seen the stuff the the patrol ran 450 klms on before it stuffed the pump, injectors and Common rail.

To my knowledge the insurance company lawyers have still not been successful in recovering the money. The Nissan mechanics at the dealership where it was repaired were telling me they see a dozen a week nissan diesels affected by contaminated fuel and most just need tank/lines drained, chemically cleand and fresh fuel. They also told me have one customer had mistakenly filled the diesel with unleaded and that vehicle drove 500 klms before it stopped. They did the above and off the CRD patrol drove.

The CRD is actually quite tough in regard to bad fuel unless you get a really bad dose like I did.

so what does the filter do??????

 

[BradM]

Not a lot if you get a really bad dose. The sensor will tell the ECU that there is water in the filter.

 

[sparra04]

thanks guys for all your responses.
My biggest issue is that i paid cash for the fuel and threw the reciept
I will keep you all posted

ime interesred in the servo's response
was it a major servo or an indipendant ?
i ALWAYS pay with plastic when i fuel up
that way i have a record of purchase if i ever need it
good luck

 

[scooba_285]

i think there should be a thread that everyone who has had dirty fuel can post where they got it