Nissan Commercial Range

Surprisingly, yes it is a fairly common observation. The idea is that having the gauge tell you that the tank is nearly empty even though it has a few litres still sloshing around in it, is a great way to convince you to find a service station before you run out of fuel. In the old days, many cars had a reserve tank which had to be switched on when the main tank ran out of fuel. This reserve tank was your insurance against being stranded. The modern fuel gauge acts in the same way by ensuring you have a supply remaining even when the gauge is telling you you’re just about empty.

Normally, a car has around 50 to 80km of fuel left when the gauge reads zero (although don’t be tempted to find out the hard way). So the 20 litres remaining in your tank when the gauge is on empty is on the high side, but far from abnormal.

It depends on which engine your Navara has. If it’s a D22 with the 2.5-litre engine, the oil-change capacity is 5.6 litres. If your car has the three-litre engine, it will need 6.7 litres to complete an oil change. If your car is the later model D40 version, the 2.5-litre engine will require 6.9 litres. Those amounts should allow for an oil-filter change as well.

In each case, the recommended oil is a 5W40 semi-synthetic.

This could be caused by any number of things, and an electronic scan of the vehicle will surely reveal some of its secrets and may point you towards the fix. It almost sounds as though the car is going into limp-home mode when you first start driving it, but then reverts to proper operation once the engine has warmed up a little. But this could also suggest a turbo-boost leak somewhere in the system that is closing up and disappearing once there’s some heat built up.

If there’s oil around the intercooler hose, you may have oil in the intercooler itself. This can cause all sorts of problems and is often caused by a worn turbocharger. I’d definitely be having a close look at the turbo unit, checking for wear and damage as this could be the root cause.