Nissan Problems

The last decade of dual-cab four-wheel-drive utes have emerged as the tow-vehicles of choice, and you see them everywhere filling roles exactly like the one you have planned. Popular models include the Ford Ranger you’ve nominated, Toyota HiLux, Mazda BT-50, VW Amarok, Mitsubishi Triton, Nissan Navara and Isuzu D-Max. But there are also cheaper alternatives including makes like the South-Korean made Ssangyong and various Chinese brands like LDV and Great Wall.

Just make sure you know exactly how much you need to tow before making a decision as some of the cheaper models don’t have the same outright towing capacity and even if they do, some of them don’t have the engine performance to make towing as easy as it should be. For parts availability, the Toyota would be king in really remote areas, but any of the major brands are pretty well covered in Australia.

Meantime, don’t rule out ute-based wagons such as the Ford Everest, Isuzu MU-X, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport and Toyota Fortuna. These offer better ride comfort when unladen thanks to more sophisticated rear suspensions and most have as much or almost as much towing capacity as their ute brethren.

You could be dealing with a broken or worn clutch that is not disengaging as it should. This would explain the notchy shifting. But the whining noise makes me think you could have a worn or dry throw-out bearing. This is part of the clutch that allows the clutch actuator to disengage the clutch while the engine is running. If it’s worn or it runs out of grease over time, it can start to make a shrill noise and can cause iffy shifting.

This is a very contentious question and depending on who you talk to, you’ll get a bunch of different answers. Overall, it seems that Navara D22s from about 2007 to 2010 did, in fact, have a DPF fitted as standard. But only if they had an automatic transmission; manual versions don’t seem to have been fitted with a DPF. Why? Who knows.

In any case, the definitive answer can be obtained by looking under your vehicle. The DPF will appear as a large cannister, mounted next to the chassis rail, just behind the transmission and is part of the exhaust system.

I’d be interested to know what makes you think the dealer who delivered your brand-new car has changed the tyres. Were they showing signs of wear? Did they make the car handle or ride strangely? Did they just not look 'right’?

I can’t imagine any dealership would be stupid enough to fit partly worn tyres on a brand-new car. You bought a new car, it should come with new tyres. Simple as that, and anything else is pretty shifty to say the least. The dealer might have switched to another set of brand-new tyres if one or more of the originals was damaged, but that’s not what you’ve suggested here. I’d definitely be taking it up with Nissan Australia’s customer service division as selling a brand-new car with second-hand tyres just seems crazy. Not to mention legally questionable.

If it’s simply the case that the tyres’ tread didn’t look brand-new, then the 26km it’s already covered could explain that by taking the shine off the tread. That, and the fact that the sidewalls were probably still very shiny (dealerships love tyre-shine products) could make the treads look worn when they really weren’t.

The faulty tyre-pressure monitoring system is a separate issue and can be fixed by replacing the dud parts. This is a simple warranty claim, and even though tyres are generally not covered in a new-car warranty, selling a brand-new car without brand-new tyres is a new one for me. If it really did happen, you’d be well within your rights to demand brand-new tyres.

The check-engine light on any modern, fuel-injected car is there to let you know there’s something amiss with how something within the driveline is working. However, precisely what that thing is could be one (or more) of about a thousand things. The absolute best advice is to take the car to a workshop and have it electronically scanned. The onboard computer (which is what triggers the check-engine light) should have recorded what was at fault and should then be able to tell the workshop’s computer where to start looking.

Until you have this scan performed, you won’t have a clue what the problem is, and the causes could be anything from a dud oxygen sensor, to a stretched timing chain, and a dead spark plug wire to a blocked fuel-injector.

The bottom line here is that even if the vehicle was incredibly cheap, you might find it’s a false economy once you have to start making repairs. Regardless of what make or model four-wheel-drive you’re looking at, the first thing to do is determine how it’s been used and how it’s been serviced. Check the service handbook for signs that correct maintenance has been performed, and try to gauge how much off-road work it’s done. Any example with mud tyres and a winch can be assumed to have led a hard life.

On a model-specific basis, this was not Nissan’s finest hour in turbo-diesel engines. The 2.5-litre four-cylinder diesel is notorious for suffering stretched and failed timing chains. And repairing that could easily be more than the value of a 300,000km example. EGR (exhaust gas recirculation, part of the emissions-control equipment) coolers can also fail expensively. There are better choices, to be honest.

If this was an older car, the explanation would be simple: Cars always have at least a driver on board, but sometimes only a driver. Which means that the driver’s seat gets worn out faster than any other seat in the car. But you car is quite new, so that shouldn’t be the case.

Assuming there’s no manufacturing flaw in the seat or the way it’s mounted, the cause of this could be as simple as a driver’s seat that has more adjustments available (manual or electrically-operated) than the front passenger’s seat. If that’s the case, you might find that the mechanics of those adjustments gobble up some space that is used for foam or other padding in the not-so-adjustable passenger’s chair.

The high cost of complex replacement parts for relatively new vehicles is a trend that has been thriving lately. Once some cars are more than a handful of years old, a replacement engine or transmission can easily exceed the value of the whole car. At which point, owners have a tough decision to make; replace the car or pay up for the fix.

Aside from the financial aspects, you also have to decide how comfortable you are unloading a ticking time bomb on to a potentially unsuspecting buyer

A modern engine like the one in your Nissan uses electronics to control the ratio of fuel and air, rather than a physical choke like older engines use. However, in order to control this ratio, the modern engine relies on a range of sensors dotted around the car to tell it what’s going on. Examples include a throttle-position sensor, ambient temperature sensor, coolant temperature sensor and many more. If just one of these sensors fails or starts relaying false information, all aspects of the car’s running (including its throttle action) can be compromised.

But before you start scanning the car and spending money to fix the engine flaring during gear changes, take a hard, critical look at what you’re doing with the pedals when shifting gears. If you don’t completely release the accelerator pedal during a gear change, or get your hand-foot co-ordination wrong, the engine will naturally flare during the shift. And because modern cars have a throttle-by-wire system, there’s not the same degree of feel and feedback through the accelerator pedal as some of us are used to. It sounds a bit obvious, but checking your driving style is the first step.

This is a pretty common problem with older cars: Often the owner’s manual goes missing from the glove-box and the tyre inflation sticker that would once have been attached to the car has either peeled off, become too crazed or faded to read, or painted over after an accident.

Meantime, the answer for your Nissan depends a bit on what type of tyres you’re using. If they’re light truck tyres and using the van as intended, then between 40 and 50psi might be a good starting point. But if you’re using normal car tyres, then between about 32 and 38psi might be better. The other deciding factor is how much load you’re carrying. If you’re loaded heavily or towing, then definitely go up a few psi.