GU Patrol 5th Gear

Hi Brett,
What do you call "low speed" as GU's have tendancy to 'torque vibrate' slightly if trying to pull away at too low revs in the higher gears.
Also am pretty sure it was only the 99 and early 2000 models that had the 5th gear problems.

Avagoodn
Pezza

Hi Bretto,
The splines were made too short, I am told. At first it was thought that it was the 2000 series II models with the 3.0 litre, but mine was a 1999/2000 series-I with a 4.2, and the 5th gear failed. No warning, no vibration, just let go at about 100km/h. Had done about 120,000, no towing. I believe that a check of the gearbox oil will show evidence of fine metal bits if it's going to fail. Nissan came to the party with mine as I had an extended warranty. Dunno why they shortened the splines, as the earlier and later gearboxes were unbreakable.
Requires a new main shaft and 5th gear, plus a few minor extras, plus labour. Expensive if you have to pay for it.
Gerry

G'day Bretto,
Mine is a May '99 build (Regd. June '99), and it too suffered the 5th gear failure... (happened in Nov. 2004)..
As above, no warning, no vibration, simply let go at 100 km/h... (Oh Bugga!!!)..
I was towing at the time, vehicle had done about 75000km..

Initially the dealer was like, "Oh, never heard of that happening before, have you been towing in 5th??", but as soon as I let them know that I knew full well that they knew all about the problem, they were onto it very quickly...
I had the vehicle back within a week, no charge, You Bewdy!!!..

Unfortunately, the bubble burst about a week later, when the dealer rung me to say that Nissan Aust. had rejected the warranty claim and that I had to pay!! (Bugga!!!)..
I made a bit of noise about it, and did ring Nissan's customer service dept., but they didn't want to know!!! (Bugga!!!).. Said the vehicle was "too old"... (Bugga!!!)...

The long and the short of it (as explained to me by the dealer service dept.) is that Nissan were covering this 5th gear failure up to 5 years or 200000km (whichever comes first)...
After that you're on your own.... Unfortunately, mine was past the 5 year cut-off when the failure occurred, so "Stiff Cheddar, old son"... (Bugga!!!).....

I guess I was (sorta) lucky in one way though, in that the dealer assured me that what they were charging me was "warranty rates" (exactly what Nissan Aust. were paying them for accepted claims), which is apparently substantially less that what they would otherwise charge (??).... I paid a little over $900.00.... (Bugga!!!)...

Here's hoping that yours isn't one of the affected ones, but if it is, and it's past the 5 year cut-off date, then I'm not likin' your chances of Nissan "coming to the party" (based on my own experience)... Good Luck with it!!....

Regards, Ed. C.

PS I believe that you can find out if yours "might" have this problem by 'phoning Nissan Aust., & quoting the VIN... Apparently they know from the VIN's which vehicles have the dodgy gearset... Hope this helps..

I had a Gearbox problem with my GU, not long out of warranty and nissan didn't come to the party (wasn't 5th gear, was hard facing on a shaft which acts as the inner race for a bearing). My mechanic gave a pretty good deal on the repairs (Just over 2k from memory). He insisted, and I agreed 100% to basically replace all bearings and cogs, as the bits of hardfacing that came off had been in there for a while and there was some evidence of premature wear on the hardfaces of the cogs etc. It wasn't major damage, but while the 'box was in bits we decided it was best to replace the lot. I think the 5th gear failures should be treated in a similar fashion (especially when Nissan are paying) to replace the lot. The magnetic plug won't pick up all the bits off the failed 5th gear.

Cheers Andrew

I caught mine early when I changed the oil at 50,000km, so was straight forward warranty. The wear metals in the oil said it all.

On reflection, the only symptom I had was that if driving in 5th for some time, it required more of a little tug to get it back to neutral, not something that was really obvious, but probably would get more noticeable with time.

The repairs involved replacing parts, including 5th gear with a different part number/design. The information given me is that the original gear did not allow enough lubrication to the spline.

My opinion is that it is not related to towing in 5th, and I continued towing in 5th until sold at 190,000km, with the oil staying clean and bright and free of wear metals on the plug right up to that point. I wouldn't say towing in 5th is OK for all 4x4s, but no problem for that box, at least with moderate loads.

Regards
Brid

I've just gone thru the 5th gear saga, mine is a 2000 4.2td and I fixed it before it failed totally. It had really bad vibration for 90-110 km's. I was lucky enough that my father is a mechanic and he pulled the gearbox down and found that the spine for 5th gear was worn. So I got the parts (about $380 trade price) and dad fixed it. Although my car is well and truly out of its warranty period I sent a letter to Nissan and to my suprise I received a $500 chq yesterday from them. You will also notice that your gearbox oil will have an orange color to it if the gear is on its way out.

As already mentioned check your gearbox oil color if its a browny color your splines are chewing themselves to bits the brown color comes from the rust between the gear and shaft.