Nissan X-TRAIL 2007 Problems

The X-Trail of that era has an unbraked towing limit of 750kg and a braked limit of 2000kg. On that basis, the short answer is yes, you need to have brakes on your caravan.

But the detail is a little more involved. While you do need a braked trailer (caravan in your case) for the Nissan to handle 960kg safely, those brakes don't necessarily need to be the electric variety. A simpler mechanical braking system would also be acceptable and should work fine on a relatively light van such as the one you've described.

Mechanical brakes are preferred by some users who like the fact that the trailer in question can be used on any car with the required towing limit. In the case of electric brakes, a control unit has to be fitted to the tow-vehicle. That gets a bit complicated and is an extra cost. Larger caravan (over 2000kg GTM) need electric brakes, but mechanical brakes are fine for smaller, lighter vans.

Engines and transmissions need to operate across a wide range of temperatures, from zero (or lower) on a cold morning, to extremely hot (when towing a trailer across the Nullarbor in mid-summer). Sometimes these differing operating temperatures bring out different behaviours.

The problem of selecting gears is often caused by wear or a fault in the transmission’s valve body, or it could be something else within the gearbox such as a worn clutch-pack or band. On a simpler level, you could be looking at something as easy to fix as a mis-aligned or mal-adjusted selector cable. Another possibility is a low transmission fluid level. If this is the case, you need to find the source of the leak, not just top up the level, as a transmission is a sealed unit that shouldn’t need topping up.

The fan only comes on when the temperature reaches a certain point under normal running, but always runs when the AC is turned on. It could be the thermostat sticking, but I would be getting a mechanic to pressure test the system first.

CARMAKERS publish fuel-economy figures based on a standard test; they're intended to be used for comparison purposes so buyers can determine which car is more fuel-efficient. Because they're taken from a dynamometer test, they don't necessarily relate to real-world fuel economy. The best thing you can do is to review all of the things that can affect fuel economy, such as driving style, speed, hilly terrain, tyre pressure and roof racks -- and make adjustments to minimise their effect. That said, the Nissan X-Trail is one that is often complained about by Carsguide readers and some have resorted to LPG to fix the problem.