Navara D40 tow bar fault

Granger

Bad luck with the failure

Why do you think the failure has occured,approx what weights (total & ball weight) have you been towing

Are you using a weight distributing hitch

From your original post it sounds like the chassis is damaged & could you give a more detailed explanation of what has happened & how you & Nissan beleive it should be repaired

I dont suppose you can post any photo's showing the failure & what part of SA are you in

Regards Don

Because nissan have accepted it as a warranty claim they must believe it is a warrantable failure but from what you describe you have not been towing anywhere the max towing weight

Is there any chance that the bar or mounting hardware was installed incorrectly & this has caused the failure

Have you loked at other D40's with genuine bars to see if everything is in the same place (the position of bolts,nuts,spring & flat washers) because if things are swapped around fasteners can loosen & failures can occur (not saying this is what has happened in your case but if a strange failure happens this is one of the first thing a dealership should look at)

Sometimes fitters will put washers etc in the wrong position & not torque fasteners to the correct tension unless they refer to the fitting instructions supplied with the bar

There are a lot of Navara's towing a lot more weight than you are & i personally have not heard of a failure as you have described

Have you personally spoken to Nissan Aust regarding this or has the dealer been doing it on your behalf

Please keep us informed as to what happens with this failure

Regards Don

G'day Granger


Haven't heard of this before on a Navara, but you may recall that there was a similar issue on the R51 pathfinder, which was eventually recalled.

This may well become a Recall factor also.

Please keep us informed, and good luck with the repairs/cost

Donks1

We had a Nissan towbar on our Pathfinder. It failed very quickly, towing our 2 tonne (loaded) van. Luckily, having heard of other incidents, including a van and towbar falling off on the road, we had ours checked at service. The attaching bolts were loose so we were lucky. You may have a similar issue. We got little satisfaction from Nissan who remained in denial until finally a recall was made! However our dealer refunded the cost of the towbar and took it back (as evidence presumably for his dispute with Nissan). We replaced it with a Hayman Reece towbar and have had no problems at all for thousands of kilometres- and we can use a WDH.
If Nissan have admitted yours is a warranty issue you are at least halfway there! If they are so slow in approving the only local repairer ask them to ttransport vehicle and van to Adelaide at Nissan's expense. If they continue to leave you stuck you have a very good case to demand assistance with accommodation and other expenses caused by Nissan's delay in fulfilling their agreed warranty responsibility. Try the Dept of Consumer Affairs or NRMA etc for help to put pressure on them!
Then consider whether you really want another Nissan towbar on your repaired chassis!
Good luck!

Have not heard of the D40 Navara tow bar failing, but plenty of R51 Pathfinders have had a problem. try here for info.
http://groups.google.com.au/group/touring-oz_
http://groups.msn.com/Caravanersforum/