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.

My experience has generally been that Ssangyong is a brand with decent reliability. Many people think it’s a Chinese brand, but it’s actually a South Korean company. And when you look at the other South Korean car-makers we see here – Hyundai and Kia – you can see that the country makes some fine vehicles with great reliability and durability.

You’re right about that warranty, too; at seven years of factory cover, it’s one of the best (if not the best) in the business. You’re also right about the relative value-for-money equation. The Ssangyong seems like a lot of vehicle for the money.

Perhaps the only thing that might make you think twice would be the supply of spare and service parts. That said, in 2022, that problem is afflicting a lot of mainstream companies and volume sellers as well as the smaller brands. And from what I can gather, this problem is a bigger one for the Chinese brands than some of the others.

A Musso has a towing capacity of 3500kg (with a braked trailer) so a 1200kg caravan should not trouble it one bit. Take the Musso for a test drive and decide for yourself, but we reckon, after a D22 Navara, you’ll be amazed at how good a modern dual-cab ute can be at this price-point.

In a nutshell, these were pretty reliable cars mechanically speaking. Simple and fairly rugged, they were not known to have any major, endemic problems.

The caveat is that they’re now nearly 25 years old, so the reliability of one today has a lot more to do with how it’s been serviced and maintained than its reputation back in the day. And because they were always a pretty cheap car, they were also a very cheap second-hand car and were bought by a lot of people who couldn’t afford to maintain them properly. So a lot of them are totally worn out now.

But if you can find one with some kind of service history and one that hasn’t had too many previous owners or has operated as a company fleet car, then you might be looking at a reliable little car that will cost peanuts to own and run.

Keep in mind, though, that the one area that budget cars of this era consistently fall down is in safety. This car lacks every modern driver aid we’ve come to rely upon, including ABS brakes and ESP. Even the driver’s air-bag was optional back in 1998. So if the car being bought for a young or inexperienced driver, you might want to think again.

If you still want to drive a proper off-road four-wheel-drive, then maybe fixing what you already have is the wise way to go. Supply crunches and high demand have seen the prices of second-hand four-wheel-drives skyrocket. You might be in for a shock when you check the prices of second-hand replacements.

Beyond that, it comes down to the overall condition of the rest of the vehicle. Off-roaders are big, heavy and sometimes complex machines and if the rest of the mechanical package isn’t in good condition, fitting a new engine will only attend to one of the vehicle’s ongoing cost-centres.

Four-wheel-drives like the Patrol tend to do big mileages, so you often see them advertised with overhauled or reconditioned engines. That’s not a problem provided the work has been done properly and quality parts used.

But you also need to talk to the seller and determine exactly what they mean by `overhauled’. A true overhaul will have included reconditioning the cylinder head, boring the cylinders, new pistons, new bearings, rings and even things like a new water pump and fuel pump. The receipts form the rebuild will tell the full story.

Our bet would be on the car you’re looking at having had a piston failure (number three or four piston) which was too common on the ZD30 engine. At which point you need to find out whether the engine was completely rebuilt, or simply had a new set of pistons and a new turbocharger fitted.

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.

I’ll assume you’re talking about what Nissan calls the Pulsar’s `Accent Lights’ which are fundamentally LED daylight running lamps. I have heard of these failing, and the cause was a poorly soldered connection which should be pretty easy for an auto electrician to put right.

Finding the fault will involve checking for power at the lights and then working backwards to the switch to see which component is not playing. Even though they’re LEDs, trouble-shotting is no different to any other electrical component that appears to have lost power. Again, a good auto sparkie should be able to figure it out.

The CVT transmission has haunted many a car-maker over the years and just when another car-makers thinks they’ve got the tech nailed, along comes another series of failures that makes consumers think again.

Late last year in the USA, Nissan paid out a US$277 million settlement for a class action brought by owners of its CVT-equipped cars, so there’s certainly a precedent for this. However, don’t assume that US and Australian consumer law are the same – they’re not. The lawsuit, meantime, accused Nissan of knowing about the fault for years and doing nothing. Nissan, while admitting no wrongdoing, agreed to pay the claims.

The viability or otherwise of a class action legal case is not the sort of advice Carsguide dispenses. You would need to talk with a law firm specialising in this type of litigation and then weigh up the costs and potential benefits, bearing in mind a win is no certainty in these cases.

The CVT transmission in the X-Trail has caused plenty of owners problems over the years. Jerking or shuddering is usually down to one of two things: Either the metal belt inside the transmission which provides the drive is worn and is slipping, or; the transmissions valve body is faulty and needs replacement. Either way, it’s a fairly major repair.

But what you haven’t told me for certain is that your car is, indeed, a CVT-equipped example. In the off-chance that your car has the much rarer conventional manual transmission, then the problem is more likely to be something wrong with the engine that is causing the problem at a particular engine speed (2000rpm in your case). Changing the plugs is a decent first step, but in the longer term, you’ll have more success by having the vehicle scanned and seeing what fault codes are thrown up by the car’s computer.