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Gu Gearbox failure???

Submitted: Sunday, Sep 02, 2007 at 16:50

Member - craig W (NSW)

Oh Boy I just got the best dads day present??NOT!! Cruising down the highway in western Qld on our way back from the cape and bang,Clunk 5 th gear gone?? No warnings, the thud,ect!! Its a 4.2 turbo,Is this common??I thought these rigs were bullet proof??has anyone heard of this or similar?? My delema is im still 1500 ks from home and want to nurse it home,is it wise??All the other gears are fine,no noise,ect. as long as i dont go to 5th!!Any help would be great???Oh well now im going to drink heavily??
Cheers shakey..
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AnswerID: 259964   Submitted: Sunday, Sep 02, 2007 at 17:12

Moggs replied:

Hi Craig,

Yep, a common problem in Series 1 GU's. Good thing though is there is no issue in driving it in 4th once 5th is gone. What year Patrol is it? If Nissan don't proovide you with any good will your likely up for the better part of 3k.

I have a 99 GU with 104,000kms on the clock. Just waiting for mine to go one day soon.....LOL!

Hope the rest of your fathers day is ok!

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Moggs (Melbourne, Adelaide, Mansfield... I dunno anymore)
Reply 1 of 6
FollowupID: 521424   Submitted: Sunday, Sep 02, 2007 at 18:55

Member - Roachie (SA) posted:

Actually, it was mainly the Series 2 Patrols that suffered from this spline problem. You can (apparently) get in touch with Nissan with your VIN number in hand and ask them whether your's is one of the affected vehicles. Mine was a series 2 , 2000 model and 5th was just about to let go at about 88,000klm. Luckily for me, Nissan spotted this potential on the one and only occasion I actually took it to them for a service and they offered to fix it under warranty for me.

I doubt whether a Series 1 or 2 would still qualify for their "goodwill" assistance; but it'd certainly be worth a try.

If they don't, and you've gotta pay for it yourself, it might be worth looking into the Marks Adaptors 5th gear replacement, which is supposedly tougher and also has a better ratio, reducing your revs at highway speeds.......

Cheers

Roachie
Darling River run with Dave B
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FollowUp 1 of 6
FollowupID: 521477   Submitted: Monday, Sep 03, 2007 at 06:57

hl posted:

You can easily check if it is a likely problem.
The colour of the oil changes and it goes really dark long before the splines actually go completely. So, just take the filler plug out and stick your finger in it. If the oil is real dark, almost coffee colour, start worrying.
Cheers
FollowUp 2 of 6
FollowupID: 521480   Submitted: Monday, Sep 03, 2007 at 07:37

Pezza (Bris) posted:

Hey Moggs,

Nice camper trailer you have there mate, reckon mine's better though, lol.

Cheers
Pezza

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" NO FEAR " means you're not going fast enough!
FollowUp 3 of 6
FollowupID: 521563   Submitted: Monday, Sep 03, 2007 at 20:12

Moggs posted:

Hey there Pezza, I reckon yours will go further offroad than mine! Hope it is serving you well.

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Moggs (Melbourne, Adelaide, Mansfield... I dunno anymore)
FollowUp 4 of 6
FollowupID: 521689   Submitted: Tuesday, Sep 04, 2007 at 13:16

Alfantz posted:

Hi Moggs,
I have the same camper trailer. It goes fine off-road. Took it across the Simpson without a problem. Being from Melb you are probably familiar with Zeka Spur into Wonnangatta and Murdering Spur near Dargo they are a few examples of the more serious tracks we've tackled with it.
I'm not trying to lecture you, I just hope your not limiting your camping destinations ;-)

Enjoy
FollowUp 5 of 6
FollowupID: 521770   Submitted: Tuesday, Sep 04, 2007 at 20:52

Moggs posted:

Hi Alfantz,

Nah, never limit the camping destinations, LOL, we even moved from Sydney to Melbourne to have more destinations close to home. Just having a bit of a joke - Pezza has a rock solid O'briens trailer that I used to have, although to be honest, it would go further than the Tambo! Have already dragged the Tambo all through the Flinders and the HC. We are going to drag it to the Cape and back next year...although I think I'll put some independent suspension in first.

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Moggs (Melbourne, Adelaide, Mansfield... I dunno anymore)
FollowUp 6 of 6
AnswerID: 259969   Submitted: Sunday, Sep 02, 2007 at 18:00

Motherhen replied:

Bad luck - sure hope you got better present for Dad's day. I recently caught up with my girlfriend from my school days and we compared notes about our Patrols and caravans. She and her husband towed a fairly light caravan with a 2000 3 ltr, and although only rarely towed in 5th, were in 5th on an easy slightly downward slope when 5th went.

If one gear has gone, metal shavings will be circulating, and will do damage to your other gears. Without knowing the condition inside the gearbox, it is a guess as to whether you should drive the distance or have it trucked home. Either way, it sounds like it will cost. Don't drink heavily - you'll need every dollar!

In our case, all gears went with one sudden bang in our Landcruiser when we were around 300 kms from home with a newly purchased stud ram on the back. We had to call our son for help. A lot of running around in the night to hire a trailer, bring the Cruiser home then to a workshop in another town next morning. We still had to go back for the ram when it was fixed. Quite a few hundreds of kms, and quite a few thousand $s. In our family's experience, Nissan gearboxes have proved a better bet than Cruisers, but will most likely be as expensive to repair.

We don't tow heavy loads in 5th (or overdrive in autos).
Near the Stuart Highway NT
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Reply 2 of 6
FollowupID: 521515   Submitted: Monday, Sep 03, 2007 at 13:46

Truckster (Vic) posted:

Nissan actually tell people or were telling people to just drive it home even with the crap floating round in there box!
FollowUp 1 of 1
AnswerID: 259986   Submitted: Sunday, Sep 02, 2007 at 20:08

Member - craig W (NSW) replied:

Thanks heaps guys,gives me a little Ammo for when i call Val in the morning at nissan. At least i now know that it wasnt me being to hard on the old girl! i,ll keep posted on my outcome!!
Shakey..
Reply 3 of 6
FollowupID: 521435   Submitted: Sunday, Sep 02, 2007 at 20:49

Member - AJB (VIC) posted:

Lost 5th on my 2000 GU-3 at 143,000kms about 200 k's from home. Drove on in 4th and Nissan covered it as it was a known fault. This was in April 2004 and have no problems, with the gearbox, since.
FollowUp 1 of 1
AnswerID: 260020   Submitted: Sunday, Sep 02, 2007 at 23:22

Member - Dunworkin (WA) replied:

Hi craigW, just before our last trip we had a bearing that sounded suspect in our gear box so got it replaced and the gear box serviced, at the same time we had the 5th gear upgraded even though we had not had any problem with it. Cost about 3grand all up but can now tow in 5th (hopefully), we never towed in 5th previously because of the reputation the GU gearbox had but you could tell by the sound of the motor it wanted to go up that extra gear at times.

Hope you get home OK

Cheers

D
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AnswerID: 260044   Submitted: Monday, Sep 03, 2007 at 09:52

Trevor R (QLD) replied:

Shakey,

I will add my car to the list of GU's with 5th gear failure. I had no help from Nissan, but I didn't expect too much from them as I had 270 on the clock. If you do want to drive on, I would give the g/box a good flush out and put fresh oil in before I went anywhere.

Good luck with it and as Roachie has suggested, there is good aftermarket upgrades that you can do while you are in that region fixing things if Nissan don't want to cover your costs.

Cheers, Trevor.
Welford NP local
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Reply 5 of 6
FollowupID: 521492   Submitted: Monday, Sep 03, 2007 at 10:14

Member - John posted:

Trevor, add mine too, 217,000 k's, went last Tuesday at Moree, was on way to Melbourne. Booked in tomorrow at Marks for new gear. Not sure how much it will cost yet.
Before the last trip
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John
FollowUp 1 of 4
FollowupID: 521564   Submitted: Monday, Sep 03, 2007 at 20:40

Member - Roachie (SA) posted:

John,
Sorry to hear you've been caught with this issue too. The Mark's 5th gear is one thing (dunno about it's price), but it's the long shaft that actually needs to be replaced too.....and THAT's the expensive bit from my knowledge. (not to mention labour!!).

Cheers

Roachie
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FollowUp 2 of 4
FollowupID: 521565   Submitted: Monday, Sep 03, 2007 at 20:44

Member - Roachie (SA) posted:

BTW, don't miss on the opportunity to replace the clutch while the gear box is out too....unless it's only recently been done.

200,000klm is about the life expectancy of a GU clutch
Darling River run with Dave B
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"When you hit the tree between the headlights thats understeer. Oversteer is when you hit the tree between the Tail Lights" - Wayne Bell
FollowUp 3 of 4
FollowupID: 521680   Submitted: Tuesday, Sep 04, 2007 at 12:32

Trevor R (QLD) posted:

John,

Don't expect any change out of 3 grand, espescially if you are changing the clutch (adviseable). My clutch was paper thin and even had hot spots where it looked like no clutch left at all, mechanic said it had less than 5 thousand k's left on it at the most. I am mainly highway work so that's why I got a bit more than others have got from their clutch.

I did the crawler gear in the transfer case, clutch replaced, spline shaft 5th gear cog, bearings ect and all up it was 5 grand on the nose. $1250 was just for the crawler gear alone plus another couple of hundred to split the transfer case so about 3 1/2 grand for gearbox repairs.

Cheers, Trevor.
Welford NP local
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FollowUp 4 of 4
AnswerID: 260157   Submitted: Monday, Sep 03, 2007 at 20:30

Member - Robyn J (QLD) replied:

Nissan stopped coming to the party over 2 years ago. We did ours coming home from 17,000 trip to WA and back to Qld. Did it on the last day and frove about 500ks using only gears 1 to 4. The only help Nissan gave us was a reduced labour cost so it ended up costing at $2000.
Cheers
Jenkie
Jenkie
Reply 6 of 6