Nissan Problems

Changing the fuel filter may affect fuel economy indirectly, but not to the extent of dropping consumption 3.5 litres per 100km. The indirect effect we’re talking about here is having an engine with a clean filter that is making all the power it possibly can, and that, in turn, allowing you to drive it with less throttle input and, therefore, lower fuel consumption. But the end result would be fractions of a litre per 100km.

A camshaft-angle sensor, I think, would be in much the same boat. By having the camshaft timing perfectly spot on, you’ll have an engine that’s making the most of each litre of fuel. But, unless the current cam-angle sensor is faulty, changing it for a new one won’t make a scrap of difference to your fuel economy.

The best way to reduce your fuel usage is by driving the vehicle smoothly and gently and with a light right foot. My suspicion is that that’s exactly what you’ve been (sub-consciously) doing since changing the fuel filter and chasing better fuel mileage.

There’s no simple answer to this as the final cost will depend on how much performance and battery range you wish to engineer into the car. That said, the basic cost of a kit to convert a conventional car to run on electricity is somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000, but that includes only the very basics. Neither does that figure include the cost of the battery-packs that you’ll also need, so the cost will only go up from that figure. All engineering sign-offs would add dollars to the final tally, too.

Converting petrol cars to run as EVs is a real trend right now, but if you look at the types of cars being converted, there’s a common theme running through them: The majority of conversion candidates are older, simpler cars with none of the safety systems that a 2003 Nissan X-Trail has as standard. It’s much easier, for instance, to convert a car with no air-bags, no anti-lock brakes and no stability control. If the car in question lacks power-assisted brakes and power-steering, even better. 

This is not to say that the conversion can’t be done, but it’s much simpler – and cheaper – to convert something old-school (like an air-cooled Volkswagen) than converting your relatively modern Nissan. You’d need to ensure that the car’s anti-lock brakes and air-bags (and everything else) still worked and then be able to prove that to an engineer before the car could be legally registered and driven on public roads.

What you’d end up with would be a Nissan X-Trail that represented maybe $50,000 and still only had 150km of range between recharges. Those numbers simply don’t add up when you can buy a second-hand EV – a Nissan Leaf, for instance – for comfortably less than $20,000; a car that is already legal to register and drive. 

The only thing more unreliable than a low-fuel warning light is the on-board computer that gives you a distance-to-empty kilometre figure. The problem with the latter is that the figure will differ enormously depending on your driving style at the time. For instance, the computer, a highway trip might, suggest you have 100km left in the tank. But once you hit the outer suburbs and switch to stop-start driving, that number could be as little as half the figure flashing on the dashboard.

As a rule of thumb, car-makers tend to calibrate the fuel-warning light to come on somewhere between 100 and 50km before you actually run dry. But it’s still a stab in the dark, and really not worth pushing your luck.

To get the most accurate feel for what the fuel-warning light is really telling you, here’s our advice: Fill the car to and absolute brim. A 2014 Navara holds either 75 or 80 litres of fuel, depending on specification. Then, the next time the fuel light flashes on, pull into the first service station and fill it to the brim again. That will give you a pretty accurate idea of the umber of litres you’ve used from filling up to the point where the light switches on. Then, you can subtract those litres from the tank’s capacity to arrive at how much was left in the tank.

While turbo-diesels aren’t perfect for everybody, when it comes to towing trailers, they do a pretty impressive job. The combination of a torquey diesel engine with an automatic transmission is a pretty handy one when you have a decent sized trailer hooked up. The caveat with a modern diesel, however, is that if most of your driving is urban running about, then the diesel is probably not for you. That’s because the emissions system on a modern diesel (the particulate filter) needs regular longer runs at freeway speeds to avoid giving trouble. But if, as you say, you tow a trailer often, then that should provide the load on the engine the diesel requires to remain trouble-free.

The good news is that the dominance of the SUV right now means that just about every car-maker has a mid-sized SUV in its showrooms right now. So really, you’re spoiled for choice. I’m not surprised the X-Trail is found a bit wanting at times; even brand-new, that version of the petrol-engined X-Trail could feel a bit underdone. You’ll be amazed at how good newer vehicles have become.

If you’re going to tackle a home service on a vehicle like your Nissan, the first piece of advice is to buy a workshop manual and then find out exactly what a 150,000km service on that car demands. A service is not as simple as an oil and filter change, and if you don’t know what else is involved, you’ll almost certainly miss things. And don’t forget, the service list for the 120,000km service will almost certainly be different to the 150,000km job. Check the car’s glovebox for the service handbook which – if you’re lucky – will list the things you need to check and change for this service. The workshop manual, meanwhile, will let you in on the little secrets that make your car tick and how to get at the various bits and pieces.

As a guide, though, the petrol-engined T31 X-Trail’s 150,000km service requires replacement of the oil, oil filter, air filter, brake fluid and air-conditioner filter. You also need to inspect (and rectify if necessary) the drive belts, cooling system, fuel lines, EVAP vapour lines, brake and clutch fluid, brake and clutch system, brake booster hoses, transmission oil/fluid level, steering and suspension, differential oil, wheel alignment, seat-belts, and the park brake. This service also calls for lubrication of the vehicle’s locks and latches.

And people complain about the cost of a simple service!

It concerns me somewhat that any metal shavings were found in the oil when the gearbox was serviced. That said, some metallic `dust’ is part of the process of a transmission wearing, so it’s not necessarily the end of the world. In fact, this tiny debris is common enough that manufacturers actually often fit magnetic drain plugs to trap the particles and stop them being pumped through the transmission time and time again where they can do more damage.

I guess it all comes down to the size of the particles and whether a specialist transmission shop (which is your first port of call) thinks they are worth worrying about. But as rule of thumb (quite literally) if the particles are big enough to be picked up in your fingers or they feel sharp, then there’s something wrong inside that gearbox.

Metallic dust on its own is also less of a problem if there are no other symptoms. But you seem to think the behaviour and shift patterns of your transmission have changed recently (prompting you to have the unit serviced) and that really begins to sound like there’s something going on inside the transmission. Mind you, at the mileage you’ve quoted, that’s not really a surprise and plenty of CVTs have given up the ghost longer before 250,000km have been covered.

It sounds as though something is loose in the transmission and is vibrating (the noise you hear) when the brakes are applied and the load is taken off the transmission. Then, when the brakes are released, the load reapplies to the transmission (as the car begins to creep forward) and whatever is rattling is suddenly under load again and stops making the noise.

This could be down to something in the transmission itself, and if that’s the case, could be a worn torque converter. This is the component that actually turns the engine’s power into a force that drives the transmission and, eventually, the wheels. Inside the torque converter is a series of vanes. If one of these is loose or damaged, a rattle can be the result.

However, before you rush to that conclusion, have a good look under the car. There’s every chance the noise is a simple case of a heat shield, bash-plate or even part of the exhaust system rattling at a particular engine frequency. When you take your foot off the brake and the car starts to move, the engine revs change, the vibration frequency changes at the same time, and whatever it is stops rattling. An internally broken catalytic converter is also a prime suspect for producing a rattle at certain vibration frequencies.

This is a more common problem than you might imagine and applies to a lot of cars besides Nissan Navaras. It’s not always caused by people with constantly wet hands or those who work with chemicals, either; a lot of pampered vehicles have seen this type of problem.

As well as being pretty ordinary to look at day after day, this sort of damage also devalues a car when you go to sell it. The warranty on your Navara would have been for the first three years (Nissan shifted to a five-year warranty mid-2019) but because it was a demonstrator, the warranty period would have started from the date it was first registered or reported as sold, not the day you bought it.

Most new-car warranties also state that `normal wear and tear’ is not covered, but there’s an argument that normal wear and tear shouldn’t be visible on a steering wheel after just four years and 60,000km of use.

If it really bothers you, there are motor trimmers who can stitch on a new leather covering which I would expect to last a lot longer than four years. You would, of course, have to remove the wheel from the car which requires somebody who knows their air-bag safety drills and procedures.

A: Transmissions are a wearing part of any car, In the case of the X-Trail, the vehicle used a CVT transmission rather than a conventional automatic. The CVT uses variable pulleys and a steel belt to vary the gearing and allow the engine to accelerate the car efficiently. In decades past, the CVT was not as durable as other types of transmission, although recent advances have made it a more robust unit

The specific servicing required by a specific vehicle varies from model to model, and there’s also a recent trend towards transmissions that don’t – according to the manufacturer – require much maintenance at all, including regular changes of the transmission fluid. Old school mechanics don’t always agree with this sealed-for-life strategy on the basis that clean fluid never harmed a transmission, while worn out or contaminated fluid certainly can. Heat is the natural enemy of transmission fluid, and if you live in a hot climate and do regular highway driving, chances are the transmission has been pretty hot at times.

In any case, the experts reckon that 100,000km is the maximum distance you should drive between fluid changes in your Nissan with its CVT. Was this done during your ownership or according to the service records? Nissan’s own servicing notes on this car indicate that the CVT fluid only needs to be checked every 15,000km (and then only for leaks and level) but not replaced. There’s a clause that says if the vehicle is used for towing or in harsh conditions, the fluid should be checked for condition at 90,000km and replaced if necessary.

Either way, you’re way beyond the factory warranty period. Brand-new, your car would have had a three-year/100,000km warranty (Nissan extended the warranty to five years in 2019) so you’re well beyond both those limits.

Your vehicle has an official braked-trailer towing limit of 1500kg, so with the caravan at its maximum weight (the Aggregate Trailer Mass of 1478kg you’ve quoted) the answer is a technical yes. However, being so close to the maximum allowed towing mass means you’ll really be right on the limit of what’s safe and legal.

That, of course, is if you run the caravan at or near that ATM, which is the mass of the total towed load including water tanks and luggage. If you tow the van with empty water tanks and nothing inside it, it’s weight should be well shy of that ATM number. At which point, you’re looking a whole lot better.