GU 3.0L TD 5th gear issues

hiya andrew. funny thing this si. i asked magic nissan the same question a few weeks ago.
ie " have nissan fixed the 5th gear problem"?
the reply was that in the gu111, the shaft was updated at the factory, so there should be no problems with them.
hummm, makes one ponder where the truth lies, doesn't it?

rick

I have a friend who runs an engineering business. He made up a special jig to change out GU gearboxes for the local Nissan dealer. The dealership keeps a spare and rotates the gearboxes through to fix the 5 th gear.

As one who has suffered the 5th gear failure, I shall share what I gleaned after repairs to my box. If anybody wishes to authenticate the following, then contact the dealers in either Port Augusta or Kalgoolie, as the failure is distance and load specific, as you will see... The internal splines machined in the 5th gear and the corressponding external splines on the mainshaft have too much clearance between them and this does not allow a full spline contact. It is a machining problem that has crept into production, probably at a component supplier that makes the gears for Nissan. 4.2 litre and 3.0 litre boxes are effected as they are the same box(apart from the odd leaf-sprung trayback). The faulty parts are from year 2000 to October2001. Mine is May 2000 build and it failed. Now, it appears that not all Nissan dealers have heard or had the problem in.It was not a general recall as it was not deemed to be safety related. The dealers that have done the most boxes are the above. This is because most failures occur in vehicle that are towing large vans and long periods in 5th, hence either end of the Nullabor plain. My local dealer at Seymour had not heard of the problem after I had returned. Kalgoolie and port Augusta have each done in excess of 30 to 40 claims and now stock a change over box to speed up the process for the client.
Mine is a tray-back and the failure occurred at 80km/h as I began to lightly, read lightly, accelerate out of Pimba on the Nullabor. A huge, loud,metal grinding noise will frighten the be-jeezus out of you and you loose drive in 5th. No other gear is effected, apart from a rather sick noise in reverse too. The dealers will advice you that driving in 4th gear will not do any more harm. I then drove across to Kalgoolie (1100km) in 4th to have the box repaired under warranty. It had done 60,000km at the time.It is a $1200 job, charged back to Nissan. They replace the mainshaft, 5th gear with modified components that have a greater surface area (longer) spline contact. It's a 2 day job. THere is no warning of the impending failure. I was not towing, but did have about a ton on the back. Common incidents usually involve caravans and/or heavy laden vehicles crossing over cattle grids and washouts. There are none of these in Melbouren, that is why some dealers are ignorant of the problem. I have photo's of the parts that were removed from my car.
That's the story. Nothing to do with loose nuts, weak synchro's, poor driving habits. Faulty parts is the story. The modified parts have been on the assembly line since, I think,January 2002 so now more problems since.Nissan WILL NOT DO THE FIX UNLESS IT HAS ALREADY FAILED. I have a contact high in the company, AND HE COULD NOT GET HIS DONE prior either.

Andrew,
I suppose you could put this down to the mighty $$$ and "marketing".

It is an absolute load of rubbish that they are "unaware" of the problem.
My Jul 2000 GU 3.0l did 5th at 72k's some 12 months ago. I asked the dealer for a look at the stripped down box and was shown the replacement parts. Basically a new mainshaft and cog were provided with an increase of about 1/3 on the spline length. These parts were supplied by Nissan

The reports you obtained show just how out of touch or untruthful the dealerships can be. Caveat Emptor - let the buyer beware - a very good reason to support this great website.

As an aside whilst my vehicle was in dock the dealers workshop was full of (about 10) Pulsars having serious surgery (ie engines out). I asked if there was a problem and was told well no not really. A mate has one and is having serious oil consumption issues whilst his dealer stuffs about.

Still - all said and done can any one show me a dealer or manufacturer who stands out from today's shabby pack. Unfortunately in today's environment the customer is increasingly becomong the front line of the Quality Assurance program. I don't hold any hope for change unless we can motivate our sluggish Consumer Affairs Dept's to put the interests of the consumer ahead of Big Business.

Whilst I have been treated OK by the dealer and Nissan this is not really all that re-assuring overall, as often what results are obtained depend on one's individual efforts as one weaves through the dumb silence, can't hear it, we'll look into it further, see if it still does it and then just plain dumb marketing "we are the mister nice guys - would you like to buy a nice new car from us" , when all you want is to know the truth and have your problem fixed.

In my experiences over the years Nissan are ahead of Ford and Mitsi, however, perhaps thats just me.

As with all things new, I guess progress happens in a series of forward and backward steps and when they get it sorted they will have a good vehicle. All said and done really what choices do we have - progress is progress or we'd all be driving around in well recycled T Fords.

For those interested DOTARS (access through Fed Gov website) may be an avenue - especially if safety is involved. They list all manufacturer recalls.

Regards


Pete G

Some further on the 5th gear blow-ups. On reflection, I did complain to the dealer, at time of service, early in the vehicles life, approx 35,000km, of a slight whine in 5th at about 93 to 95km/h. The said they road tested the car, but could not fault it. And, to be fair, it would be a very hard fault to diagnose. Then, as time wore on, I noticed that shifting down from 5th to 4th, like when slowing coming into a town for example, you had to consciously give the gear lever a small tug to get it out of 5th. Those symptoms have since disappered since the rebuild so I can only conclude that they were small warning signs of the impending failure.