Nissan Navara 2006 Problems

Our Nissan specialist, Jerry Newman, says the only timing chain failures he has had to repair on the Navara are because of poor maintenance, mostly because the oil hasn’t been changed, and the tensioner has failed leading to the failure of the guide and the chain. It’s vital to keep up the maintenance.

The DPF requires a certain drive cycle to do the automatic burn it must do to rid itself of the accumulated carbon. Your driving cycle obviously doesn't meet the criteria so the automatic burn hasn't been done and the dealer has attempted a forced burn in an attempt to save the DPF. In one sense you're lucky that it only cost $3200 as many people find they also have to replace the catalytic converters and the cost can climb as high as $6000 or more when that happens. You might have a case against Nissan, consult the consumer affairs people in your state and get their advice.

Clutches are becoming a problem with modern cars, many of which are wearing out or failing at quite low kays. The D40 Nissan is one that we often get complaints about, and 38,000 km is way too few for a clutch under normal driving conditions. Nissan’s reaction that it is a wear and tear issue, but I would say that it is not ‘fair’ wear and tear. You have two options, seek the advice of a four-wheel-drive specialist and have a heavy-duty clutch fitted that will last longer, or consider taking Nissan to court. If you choose the latter get the advice of your state consumer advice people.

NO CARMAKER I know covers the clutch under warranty. It's regarded as a consumable item, so I'm not surprised Nissan has refused. But at only 40,000km I would have thought it would have come to the party with at least part of the cost of replacement. It would be a tough battle, but if you feel aggrieved, pursue it further with Nissan. You could go to VCAT and get a ruling, but again, it's unlikely to be worth your while.

Fitting an extra leaf to the rear springs could help, but if you’re a tradie who runs a load in his ute pretty much all the time, even leaves it loaded overnight, the rear springs would eventually sag even with an extra leaf. Depending on what you’re doing loadwise airbags are probably the best solution. They are readily available and will set you back about $1100 from one of the suspension specialists.

INDEPENDENT Nissan service specialist Jerry Newman isn't aware of a widespread problem with the Nissan timing chain. Chains rarely break by themselves, he says, unless they've done a lot of kilometres without being serviced. The usual cause is a problem with the tensioner that leads to the failure of the chain. Get the people who pulled the engine apart to give you a report on the failure; they are best placed to determine the cause.

IT DEPENDS what you regard as incredibly thirsty. Four-wheel-drives tend to be thirsty. They're heavy and have to drag all that extra four-wheel-drive gear around, and the Rodeo's petrol V6 is a 3.5-litre unit. If fuel consumption is a key consideration for you, try a diesel. Fuel consumption will be much lower, and you won't lose too much performance.

The manual will give you about 10 per cent better fuel consumption than the auto. I would expect you would get about 9 litres/100km on the highway without a caravan, but that would probably increase to 14-15 litres/100km when the caravan is on the back. The Hilux and Navara have similar fuel consumption. But I have concerns about the reliability of Nissan's 3.0-litre turbo-diesel engine so can't recommend the Navara.