Nissan X-TRAIL 2016 Problems

I'd question their diagnosis of the engine coating burning off; I think it could be deeper than that.

The vibration could be coming from a variety of sources on the engine and in the transmission.

The dealer is doing the correct thing in getting the car in for a proper investigation that will hopefully reveal the cause of the problems.

At this stage, as the car is new you should co-operate with the dealer while they are trying to resolve the issues, but at the same time maintain a watching brief to make sure there is a genuine attempt to fix your car.

It will handle it with ease, there's nothing that should concern about such a trip in the X-Trail, but before you leave check the oil, coolant, and tyres.

This issue will always come down to the documented service history that each car comes with. A switched-on previous owner will not only have serviced the vehicle by the book, but will also have kept the relevant receipts as proof of this crucial work being done. We'd always choose the vehicle with a big wad of service receipts over a similar car with no (or less) evidence of scheduled maintenance.

Beyond that, the Nissan clearly has almost 50,000 fewer kilometres on its odometer, so all things being equal it probably nudges ahead at that point. In either case, the CVT transmission fitted to these cars is likely to be the major source of mechanical grief down the track. Both brands' CVT transmissions have been known to give trouble. If that bothers you, then perhaps the one to buy is the Outlander AWD with the turbo-diesel engine option. In that guise, the vehicle has a conventional automatic transmission rather than a CVT.

From what I can see in the owners’ manual, the X-Trail has the ability to display the vehicle’s current speed as part of the trip computer’s read-out. By scrolling through the various pages offered by the computer, you should be able to find one that gives a readout of current and average speed.

Later model X-Trails had a proper digital speedometer, but the trip computer version is the best you’ll get in this model.

This sounds more like a control problem that one with the actual compressor. The body computer is often at fault in cases like this. Part of the body computer’s job is to control things like central locking, power windows and the climate control gear. The fact that the system is cycling between fresh air and recycled air makes us suspect the computer as the culprit. Has this been checked?

Hopefully, you first raised this issue with Nissan all those years ago when the vehicle was still under warranty. If so, then you have what is called a pre-existing condition and even though the car is now out of warranty, Nissan is still obliged to fix it as if the warranty still applied.

It’s impossible to know if it will get worse, all you can do is closely monitor it and keep a record of what you observe. I’m tempted to believe that there’s nothing wrong with it, that it’s just the CVT transmission doing its thing.

It would be helpful to know the trim level of your car, Piri, as the trade-in price range from the ST 4X4 to the top-of-the-range Ti could be from around $15,000 up to $22,000. Also, without seeing the car in the flesh, it’s very difficult to make such a call on a car’s trade-in value. That said, at 140,000km, your car has pretty high kilometres for its age and that would play against it as a trade-in.

In the end, it might simply be the smart thing to do and just drive it till it falls apart, but you should know that these X-Trails are not the cheapest vehicles to maintain and keep running in perfect condition. The way Nissan laid out the driveline, in particular, sometimes means that what should be a little job is actually quite a big one. Bigger jobs mean more hours and, in a mechanical workshop, time is definitely money.

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.

Many workshops would start with a simple tune-up and service to tackle this problem. Cars lose performance over the years and it’s often as simple as a good tune-up including a change of spark plugs, filters (air and fuel), spark plug leads and a check of the ignition coils (in petrol models).

If you have the diesel-engined version of the X-Trail, it would also be worth checking to see if the intake manifold has become partially blocked with black gunk that is a by-product of the car’s emissions-control system.

A good service and tune might bring performance back to how you remember it, but don’t ignore the simply things like a faulty accelerator pedal calibration, or slack transmission that is making the car feel lazy. Even low tyre pressures can make a car feel lethargic in terms of both steering and how it accelerates.

I would expect the local speed limit to be shown.

The over-speed warning appears to be set with a margin so it doesn't go off when you're driving on the limit when it would probably annoy you.