Nissan X-TRAIL Engine Problems

You've certainly gone to some extremes to check this out, but your investigations should give you a good clue that the problem is with front axle. So, it could either be the differential that is clattering and making the car judder or, perhaps more likely, the front CV joints which allow the car to drive its front axle while also steering the vehicle. Once you take the load off the front driveshafts (by disconnecting them) the noise stops because the worn CV joints aren't taking the strain of trying to move the car, so they don't make the horrible noise.

In some cases, you can simply replace the worn out CV joints, but there's also the option of complete driveshafts (with new CV joints already fitted) that are a simpler fix if a bit more costly. You can also buy driveshafts new or reconditioned. Its sounds like you're more than skilled enough to tackle this at home.

This is probably because who ever serviced the car failed to manually switch off the service-engine reminder light. This is often done via a scan-tool through the diagnostic port.

But in the case of your car, you should be able to do it yourself. Turn on the ignition and you’ll see that the service light is illuminated. With the ignition still on (but the motor not running) press the small button that you’d normally twist to control the brightness of the dashboard lights. After a few seconds, the service light should start to flash. Release the button and then give it a single push (but don’t hold it). Now turn the ignition off. If you’ve got the sequence correct, the next time you turn on the ignition, the service reminder light should have disappeared.

Let’s start with the black exhaust pipe. All cars that run on unleaded petrol have a sooty black exhaust. The soot will be thicker if the car isn’t tuned properly, but really, the blackness is just a by-product of burning ULP.

Your oil use of about a litre every 1500km is getting towards the top of what is acceptable. Even then, it’s more than this engine should consume. The fact is that all engines use some oil, but it’s usually not enough to require topping up between oil changes. But with your usage rate, you’d need to keep a close eye on the dipstick.

The oil is clearly going somewhere, so check on the ground under where the car is parked each night and look for a pool of oil that suggests the problem is an external leak rather than internal engine wear. From there, have a workshop conduct a compression and leak-down test. The results of this will tell you if the engine’s internal parts are worn and leading to the oil being consumed.

While the Mitsubishi Outlander is spacious, reliable and easy to drive, our experience testing it against rival medium SUVs have found it to be noisy and a little too firm riding to be truly comfortable and relaxing. At your price point, there are better alternatives out there. 

Have you considered a Mazda CX-5? In petrol or diesel, we have found it to be a superior and more economical proposition, and is definitely quieter and more refined. Plus, the Mazda's all-wheel-drive system is more sophisticated and better at dealing with loose surfaces like sand.

A late-model (post 2014) S5-series Subaru Forester 2.5i petrol is far more economical than the earlier iterations, since it switched to a more efficient CVT continuously variable transmission. And there's also the 2.0D turbo-diesel which is economical. This, too, is a fine SUV on-road or for light off-road driving.

Finally, the Nissan X-Trail diesel is a roomy and capable choice, especially from 2017, when it received a 2.0-litre turbo-diesel to replace the older 1.6L unit.

I’m afraid to say, David, that it sounds like you’ve prematurely ended the engine’s life. I’d say a blown head gasket is just the beginning of your woes here, and it’s likely you’ve `cooked’ the engine; a mechanic’s description for getting the engine so hot inside that the piston rings have lost tension (hence no compression) or parts of the engine have even melted internally, with obvious results. It’s also common for this type of thing to have the engine more or less weld itself together, at which point it won’t even turn over on the starter motor.

You might be lucky and simply have to replace the head gasket, but even then, you’d be wise to have the cylinder head checked for straightness. If the cylinder head is warped (as a result of the heat) then you might need a new one, at which point you might find the cost of repairs suddenly goes beyond the actual value of a 2006 X-Trail. The moral of the story is to keep an eye on the temperature gauge and not to ignore the first signs of the engine beginning to run hot. Pulling up to add water after the thing has overheated is a classic case of shutting the gate after the horse has bolted.

If you do wish to keep the car, my advice would be - once you’ve established the extent of the carnage - to find a good second-hand engine from a wrecked X-Trail and have that fitted. It would almost certainly be the cheaper option in the long run.

It sounds like you've tackled the obvious causes of this type of vibration. The dual-mass clutch is a prime candidate and any car with worn engine mounts can vibrate when it's running.

Digging deeper will involve ruling things out in a process of elimination. So, to start that process, does the vibration go away when the vehicle is stationary or only when it's moving? If it's the latter, you could have some kind of transmission or tail-shaft problem. Ot perhaps even a warped brake rotor or seized brake caliper.

But if the vibration is there whenever the engine is running, then you need to start to look at things like the harmonic balancer on the front of the crankshaft and whether the engine itself is actually running smoothly (regardless of where the idle is set). The stepper-motor (which controls the idle) could be faulty leading to the engine flaring between gear changes, and an engine that has a blocked exhaust, dirty air-filter or even worn spark plugs can run roughly. It could even be something like camshaft timing that has jumped a tooth, leading the engine to run poorly and contribute the bad vibrations you're feeling. Also, check the rubber drive belt that powers the alternator and power-steering pump. A worn belt or worn out tensioners and pulleys can also create problems like this. Check the power steering pump itself for signs of its seizing or jamming as it turns.

You can tell a lot about exhaust smoke by its colour. If it's a blue-grey colour, the smoke is probably from burnt oil. If it's black, excess fuel is probably the cause. Make sure, too, that what you're seeing is not just water vapour that is a normal part of the combustion process and will disappear as the exhaust system heats up and turns that vapour into steam (which is invisible).

But if it really is blue smoke you're seeing, it could be a case of worn out piston rings, or worn valve guides or seals. If it's black smoke, you could have a problem with injectors, the fuel pump, intake system, spark plugs, any number of sensors that control the engine's fuel:air mixture, or about a thousand other things. That fact that the smoke disappears after a while suggests that the engine is happier when it has some heat in it, but really, it shouldn't blow any smoke of any colour at all.

The correct way to proceed here is to have the car scanned to see if it will offer up what ails it. The on-board computer is designed to recognise a problem or fault, record it and then hand over that information to a mechanic during the scanning process.

You can try to diagnose the problem yourself, but doing so by replacing random parts is not the way to go. You can easily replace perfectly good – and expensive – parts and still have a car that won’t start.

But if you do want to tinker yourself, the first thing to check is the electric fuel pump. These require periodic replacement and when they fail, they just stop, and that’s it. To check the pump, turn the ignition to the start position and listen carefully for a buzz or humming noise coming from under the car. It can be difficult to hear, but if it’s present, then the fuel pump is probably not the problem. No buzzing or humming suggests the pump is the culprit.

Honestly, though, there are literally hundreds of reasons a car will turn over but not start.

A loss of engine power can be due to many things. Most mechanics will start with a check of the fuel and ignition systems to check for things like dud spark plugs, ignition timing, broken ignition leads and coils and whether or not enough fuel is reaching the engine (worn fuel pump or blocked fuel filter). If all that checks out, then the search will move to mechanical things like the camshaft timing, and whether there’s a leaking engine valve or a vacuum leak somewhere.

The 2.5-litre petrol engine in your X-Trail is a very well known quantity, so there’s plenty of expertise out there. A workshop that deals with Nissans in particular may have seen exactly this problem before and will be able to go straight to the cause.

Meantime, don’t rule out the really obvious stuff like a dragging brake that could be making the vehicle feel sluggish.

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.