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Post by lauriesandra on May 19, 2008 20:47:36 GMT 6
I'm still in shock from the news! Navara D40 auto, owned since new, only 18 months old and less than 29,000 miles. Never driven off road but it has towed a caravan, albeit for only around 3,000 miles. My engine has failed! I'm told that the camshaft snapped which in turn damaged the valves and pistons. Con rod issues are as yet unknown. This happened at idling so damage was limited. If at speed then the engine would have totally destroyed itself. Luckier still, it happened whilst in the care of my Nissan dealer so they cannot blame me, at all. Now awaiting Nissan UK to approved the new engine warranty claim. I'll chase them up tomorrow and make sure they do NOT drag their feet, this time around. ......I'll keep you all posted.
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Post by lauriesandra on May 20, 2008 17:10:06 GMT 6
Just this minute got back from the dealers. Had a long chat with the service manager, who was extremely helpful (thanks for all your help David, if you are reading this) and he showed me the engine damage in quite some detail.
Two of the camshaft timing gear teeth are almost completely worn away. The others are badly worn.
The camshaft has fractured in two places and is now in three bits. Looking at the fractures, it seems like there was a casting fault as the crystaline fault lines looked old. It appears that this was always going to happen, it was just a matter of time, just lucky it did whilst it was at the dealers' workshops and not 500 miles away in France!
The valves have made some nasty looking marks on the piston heads which throws some heavy doubts and concerns regarding the integrity of the pistons, con rods, crankshaft, etc..
Ironically, the deisel injector pump and rails might not be faulty at all as it seems the "sudden power loss" problem may have been a slipped timing issue all along. No wonder then that I was getting very poor mpg!
Still, this is all hard to take in considering the vehicle / engine is a mere 18 months old with only 29,000 miles on the clock. For a deisel engine this is barely run in!
The Nissan Warranty Administrator is visiting the vehicle tomorrow. Hopefully, he will authorise a brand new engine replacement and not a re-build. I would not be happy with a re-build and I have told both the Dealer and Nissan UK, in the strongest of terms. It's a good thing that the dealer is pushing Nissan UK hard on this front, also.
Since logging a complaint with Nissan UK, at least now we seem to be getting somewhere and this has woken up Nissan UK. Hopefully and at last, they will now spring into action and we shall start to see some progress.
Nissan UK assure me that the vehicle will be back on the road in 7 - 10 days time, but I'm not holding my breath. In the meantime........
......the saga continues...............
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Post by Niall Scott on May 21, 2008 13:38:23 GMT 6
Great news Lauriesandra Thanks for your comments and support.I dont think you,ll have any problem getting your D40 fixed. Nissan are aware of us now ,and It,s just ridiculous that a car of this supposed quality and build should be doing this.This site is becoming well known and Nissan can,t afford the bad publicity and experiences we are suffering Keep us posted on progress we all love a success story!!
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Post by lauriesandra on May 27, 2008 18:12:20 GMT 6
The wheels at Nissan Warranty turn very slowly indeed.
A week has passed since the Warranty Administrator visited my vehicle. The status on my vehicle has unchanged. It is still "awaiting authorisation".
Nissan Complaints Dept., otherwise laughably known as Nissan Customer Care, simply are unable to answer the many pertinent questions I have put to them, regarding the time taken by Nissan to resolve this matter. As far as progressing this matter is concerned, Nissan Customer Care are of no use to me whatsoever.
In the meantime, after 3 weeks, I am STILL "off the road" and seemingly no closer to getting my vehicle back in a re-usable condition. It is still "in bits" in the dealer's workshop.
I am now totally and utterly fed up with the way I have personally been treated by EVERYONE at Nissan UK.
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Post by lauriesandra on May 28, 2008 15:55:03 GMT 6
Finally, yes finally, I have the news I have been waiting for and about time too, but what a fight I've had with this Nissan UK over this debacle of a warranty claim!
Just had a phone call from my dealer and Nissan Warranty has authorised a brand new D40 engine replacement for my knackered Navara.
The dealer tells me that the parts have been ordered and my vehicle should be ready by Monday or Tuesday of next week, subject to them getting the parts, of course.
Even if it all goes to this latest plan, this will mean that my vehicle has been off the road for 5 weeks! This is certainly NOT an impressive response time from Nissan UK, for a such a seemingly cut and dried warranty case, such as mine.
In the meantime, I eagerly await the return of my vehicle.
........I'll keep you posted, hopefully on the progress.
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Post by it still runs on May 29, 2008 3:25:08 GMT 6
well done so far, lets hope you get it back swiftly
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Post by lauriesandra on Jun 3, 2008 18:14:11 GMT 6
The saga continues and today, we move into week 6. My vehicle status being "V.O.R." since Tuesday May 6, 2008. Update: Just now phoned the dealer and he tells me that my new replacement engine has only just arrived, this morning. As the workshops are fully booked solid, they now expect it will only be ready for me to drive away either Thursday or Friday. I'm happy that the vehicle will eventually be repaired BUT, I am certainly not happy with Nissan UK that it has taken so long to get through the whole warranty repair process AND still is.
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Post by Niall Scott on Jun 3, 2008 22:40:35 GMT 6
Hi LS We,re on a media campaign now Will you contact all the caravan type mags and make their readers aware of our site The more publicity we have for our problem the better Thanks Regards Niall
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Post by lauriesandra on Jun 4, 2008 5:35:38 GMT 6
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Post by lauriesandra on Jun 5, 2008 21:44:27 GMT 6
UPDATE on my engine replacement.
Just had a call from the dealer. They started to work on my vehicle yesterday and reported that all the work should be completed, fully tested and ready to drive away on Monday or Tuesday.
I expressed my concerns to the dealer regarding their original diagnosis of fuel pump and rails requiring a refurb. I just hope that the old fuel pump and fuel rails are OK and originally it was mis-diagnosed. If not, then i reckon they will take another 2 - 3 weeks to sort that lot out. Still, one thing at a time - cross that bridge if we come to it.
In the meantime...... this saga continues into week 7 of my vehicle being Off The Road.
To say I am disappointed with this is the understatement of the century.
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Post by lauriesandra on Jun 9, 2008 20:22:59 GMT 6
UPDATE:
Start of week 7 - vehicle status remains: "V.O.R."
Common sense at last prevails and between Nissan and the dealer, it has been decided that my fuel pump and fuel rails should go away to be overhauled / recalibrated. This makes a lot of sense as this was the original suspected fault in the first place (causing the sudden power loss) BEFORE the engine broke!
Trouble is, this will mean my vehicle will be V.O.R., for yet another week.
What annoys me is that Nissan could well have made this decision weeks ago, but failed yet again to react in good time.
In the meantime, we are continuing into Week 7 of this saga, but at least there appears to be a conclusion, not that far away now, hopefully.
.....we'll soon see.
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Post by lauriesandra on Jun 13, 2008 19:21:51 GMT 6
UPDATE:
Vehicle Status is still "V.O.R." - Week 7.
.............Week 8 starts on Tuesday!
Just got off the phone to the dealer and at last, progress is being made.
They have ALL the bits back they need to put on the new replacement engine: Refurbed fuel pump, refurbed fuel rails and new timing chain.
The replacement engine is nearly ready to be put back in the vehicle, later today hopefully.
Then, they are going to thoroughly test it (which in reality probably means some mechanic will be jollying up in it, over the weekend - Me, cynical?).
If all's well, then I should be reunited back with my vehicle either Monday or Tuesday.
........we'll see.
In the meantime, would you believe it? The courtesy vehicle they loaned me, an '07 reg., D40 Navara SE manual with merely 13,500 miles on the clock, is suffering with the same symptoms as mine! Sudden power loss under acceleration (another fuel pump bites the dust! .......broken engine to follow?).
On top of that, I am experiencing clutch judder in 1st and 2nd gear (dual mass flywheel starting to fail?).
I just hope that the darned thing lasts until Tuesday. If not, I'll need a courtesy vehicle, for the courtesy vehicle!
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Post by lauriesandra on Jun 17, 2008 18:34:51 GMT 6
UPDATE:
Vehicle Status is still "V.O.R." - Week 8!
I was expecting my vehicle back today but further problems have arisen. The timing chain tensioner was found worn and they had to order in another.
Dealer finally admitted to me today, in amongst a whole host of other excuses as to why this has taken so long to resolve, that they didn't have the spare workshop time to work on my engine.
They reckon they should be ready to test it by tomorrow.
........we'll see.
I am absolutely and totally disgusted with Nissan UK Customer Care, Nissan UK Warranty, Renault engineering and the dealer. Between them all, they have made this into an extremely long drawn out and stressful saga for me. They are ALL equally to blame for their totally inconsiderate and lathargic approach to customer care and resolving warranty claims. There has been no sense of urgency by ANY of them, to resolve this matter whatsoever. It's utterly disgraceful.
As a small fleet operator, I can assure EVERYONE reading this that I will NEVER consider Nissan or Renault vehicles as a part of my fleet, in the future.
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Post by lauriesandra on Jun 21, 2008 0:32:50 GMT 6
After nearly 8 weeks, I picked up the car this evening and it runs really sweet with the new engine and refurbed fuel system.
On a positive note, on the way home it returned 32.4 mpg! The best mpg previously achieved was never more than 26 with the mean average, a poorly 21 mpg.
One could argue that the motor has never been right since new, 20 months ago. Guess we'll never know, but i cannot stop thinking about how much extra money I have wasted on fuel, over this period, on the poorly performance of this motor. I did actually complain to the dealer when the car was merely a month old but they wouldn't look at it and told me my low mpg was "normal" and it might improve when the engine loosens up a bit. I was fobbed off and the engine loosened off so much, it went pop!
On another negative note, the vehicle will have to go back in, but after our holidays. Upon my thorough inspection on collection today, I found there were scratches on the bonnet and rear end that were obviously done whilst in the dealer's care. It was late but the garage has preliminarily agreed to sort it. I'll phone them Monday to get this confirmed.
Now the discussions with Nissan can really begin for a goodwill payment for the 8 weeks loss of use, my time and money wasted dealing with these people, and all the stress I have endured over this saga and debacle, amongst others.
The saga continues, on and on and on. Will it ever end?
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Post by lauriesandra on Jun 22, 2008 1:00:37 GMT 6
Oooops! We had more problems this afternoon. Out and about shopping, the motor suddenly sounded like a bag of bones, we could smell a funny burning smell and the emissions warning light came on. Pulled over immediately, stopped and called Nissan Assist. The RAC arrived 30 mins later and found this: The turbo manifold must not have been bolted on properly, came loose and fell off. Luckily enough, the RAC man had a couple of the right sized bolts and managed to do a temporary repair. We tested it and it drove fine again. The RAC man was gobsmacked and was not impressed by the dealer's workmanship, specially as the vehicle had only covered around 70 miles since having the new engine fitted. He advised me to drive straight back to the dealer on Monday morning annd have words. I will and believe me when I say that the words I have for the workshop / service manager WILL be very strong indeed. .........I am NOT amused!
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