Nissan Reviews

You might be dealing with a broken engine or transmission mount that is allowing the driveline to `flop about’ when it’s running. The looseness is allowing the small vibrations from the engine to turn into big vibrations that are causing the exhaust to hit something it shouldn’t be. Perhaps the engine is running rougher than usual, at which point you need to look into its tuning.

But, equally, you could be looking at a simple rubber exhaust mount that has either broken or jumped ship, allowing the exhaust to flail around under the car. You really need to get the car on a hoist and look underneath to see what’s loose and what’s not where it should be. A good mechanic should be able to pin point the noise (and its cause) pretty quickly.

The simple answer? There are probably better alternatives. While the Nissan Navara of this era was very popular when brand-new, these days, many of them are getting pretty long in the tooth and are beyond economical repair. Throw in the fact that they weren’t the longest-living ute in the world, and you can see how you might wind up with a donkey if you’re not lucky.

Some of the Navara’s problems come from the way it was typically used, combined with its design. The radiator, for instance, hung under the bottom of the chassis, so it was pretty vulnerable off-road. But even the basic design of the engine and transmission mean that problems like clutch failures and rattling, worn out turbo-diesel engines at 160,000km are a reality.

Better options? Things like the Isuzu D-Max, Mitsubishi Triton and, of course, the Toyota HiLux all have been reputations in the trade.

This type of thing first surfaced during Covid-19 when supplies of semi-conductor chips computer dried up, forcing some manufacturers to either halt production or sell cars without certain functions enabled. And now, it seems as though a semiconductor shortage has occurred again, once again taking some major functions off the menu.

The Chinese-government-owned (but Dutch headquartered) Nexperia company has been embroiled in a major corporate dispute as the Dutch government seized control fearing security concerns and causing China to halt all exports of Nexperia semiconductors. It is believed Nissan is one of the companies that has been using Nexperia chips in models including the X-Trail. Some carmakers have been able to find alternative chip suppliers, others have not.

This situation could well be why Nissan can’t fix your car as quickly as you would like it to. In the meantime, Nissan and many other carmakers are faced with the choice of selling cars with functions disabled or not selling them at all.

Australian consumer law says you need to be patient and give Nissan the opportunity to make things right when it can. And that seems like pretty sound advice.