Piston/Broke

G'day Don,

Sorry to read that you are another victim of this poor excuse for a motor. At least yours is relatively new and still under warranty, so they should fix it for you for no or at least minimal cost to you.

So much for the blokes who still insist that the problem has been solved in the models built after 2002 (or thereabouts).....obviously this is NOT the case.

When is that class action gunna get started?

Cheers

Roachie

Donald A

Go the 4.2 TD Diesel you wont regret it

Troopy 5 speed

Richard

Sad news indeed. Firstly for you, as no matter which way out it will cost plenty to get rid of the headache, and secondly for those that are praying all this crap with the 3lt stopped in 2002.

All the best with your rebuild.
Trevor.

Bugger..... and I thought they fixed the problem. Just a bit relieved that I didn`t end up buying one after reading that.
Good luck

Cya

Hi Donald, You say that the piston had "a crack running from front to back"

Could you confirm that this crack ran across the piston in line with the gudgeon pin.

Are you able to post a photo of any score or wear marks down the side of the piston?

I am very interested in what causes these sort of problems and a very good indication can be gained from marks on the side of the piston. From what you have described so far this sort of problem is well known in buses and earth movers - vehicles that can often have a large change in load while operating. The sort of load that I am meaning is when an earth mover suddenly goes from idle to full on load when digging in a blade or a fully loaded bus pulls away from the kerb on a steep hill.

#1 is strange is it not normally #3 or #4 for the earlier failures?

G'day Don,

I'm sorry for your grief mate and we should all expect a little more from the car makers. BUT I find it very interesting that you should have a 3 litre Nissan to move that huge van and then say that it will be replaced by a 4.2 diesel or V8 petrol Toyo. Is there some thought there that it may not have been up to the task in the first place? It seems a little like the Nissan/Toyo debate isn't altogether relevant here as you can get a bigger diesel and a bigger (more powerful) petrol from Nissan.

Kind regards

Why is it that no one seems to give a reason why this happens? I have been told by friend of mine who is a Service manager for Nissan and has said they have had a couple of failures of the later 3ltr's including those fitted to the Navara, apparently the cause has been put down to a seized waste gate on the turbo causing to higher boost, and usually causes piston failure on highway driving. I think a good insurance would be for people be to fit a boost gauge.

Sorry I can't help much but I guess if the Piston is broke, If your not too broke, go out and get bleep . The at least you'll be pistnbroke.

After 50k that is disgusting, have Nissan fix it under warranty and move on. Let us know how the warranty repairs go with the engine..

Yep small motor doing a big mans job.

However because of the price I'd think there are a lot more 3ltr patrols pulling vans than toyotas lc's hence more showing up buggered?.
It dosen't seem to matter how large or small the motor it seems to be the amount of work done.
With trucks the larger the load for a given engine size the less hours or kms between rebuilds, some truck makers are going to a fuel consumed warranty because it is a better indication of the work the motor has done compared to just distance.

The 3litre nissan is not the only small diesel to have issues having had up to 6 2.8 td Rodeo's in the family (on our farms) we thought they were bullet proof until one after the other between 189000 and 233000 they cracked No 2 piston, pressurized the sump and tried to rev to destruction.
If you have one at around 150000 k's replace the injectors and recal the pump because the spray pattern goes bad and causes hot spots which crack the pistons
The whole lot were cracked but No2 seems to go first.
No other wear in the engines.

I have a 3 litre 2002 Navara 160000 ks done a lot of heavy pulling mainly big trailers, 900k trip 2 days ago all up weight 4.9 ton GCW and geting worried about how much longer she will go.

If you look at the spec's of the new V8 diesel criuser it is going to be more highly stressed and if used to it's "full" potential as the little 3litre Patrol is I don't think it will live much longer.
Ya cant send a small boy on a big mans errand all the time.
Cheer's

wafarmer

Being the ower of a Dec 2003 3.0 TDI GU I have watched these reports with great interest. I was aware of the problems when I purchased mine, but was reassured by the Nissan sales and service people that "the series three was OK". I had not discovered this forum at that time!

I have taken out the extended warranty ($1000.00 premium gets you to 150,000KM or six years). I am sitting on 76,000 KM at the moment with the big 80,000 service coming up. I have had no mechanical problems apart from a couple of rattles and squeaks. The belt tensioner was replaced at the last service (no charge).

I am starting to look around for a replacement vehicle perhaps next year. It is not surprising that the resale value is very low. Mine is an ST-L with a few good extras, but similar vehicles are advertised at around $33,000. Mine was valued at $60,000 in Dec 03. The 4.8 petrol of the same vintage sells for about the same price. The 4.2 TD is hard to find (surprise surprise) but usually sits at around $40,000 if two to three years old. You can even get a TI for not much more.

If I look at Toyotas even as a used vehicle, the changeover is going to be very expensive. Maybe I will just tough it out until the end of my extended warranty.

Kingo.

I'm so depressed I didnt buy a 3.0 now. They fixed all the problems with the series 0 model

You wont be the first one to drive out of nissan dealer after a repair and trade in the handgrenade with under 10klms on the new engine. your the 6th I've heard of, with 2 having already arranged tradeins while it was being rebuilt!!

I feel for your pain. I think you should get a many I told you so's...

Hi Don

Sorry to hear of your bad luck, but its interesting to note that its a piston crack, not a holed piston like earlier series II issues. But this will not stop the Nissan 3.0TD knockers from coming out of the woodwork and telling us all we are driving time bombs.

All vehicles have a rate of failure as they are mechanical devices. Even on this forum there are reports of GU4.2 turbo failures, Toyota 4.2TD turbo failures, overheating issues, diff issues, gearbox issues and every other type of problem for any make that you can imagine.

However, what made the GU 3.0TD different was the sheer number that failed in the early days. No-one can argue that the series II had a higher rate of failure than what is "acceptable". But the difference now is that there are only very isolated failures of series III/IV and in the same order of magnitude as that of vehicles that are considered very reliable. But few will look at the facts and simply write all versions of the GU 3.0TD off.

As for your decision to get rid of it once repaired, I can certainly understand that as once bitten, twice shy. But the reality is that, if repaired properly, you would most likely get a very long service life from it (series II repairs occassionally had a turbo failure not long after repair due to metal particles damaging the blades and not being repaired at the same time as the engine).

While I do believe the series II engine has a big question mark over it, even after your problem I will go against the trend here and state that I still believe the series III/IV GU 3.0TD is a good package. But with that all said, I doubt I will be replacing my current GU 3.0TD with another. Not because I reckon there is anything wrong with the engine, but simply because I have yet to buy the same 4WD twice. I am due for a new 4WD next month but will probably wait for the new models to come out in 2007, be it a V8 diesel cruiser, GU 3.5TD (3.5L version of Pathfinder 2.5L motor so the rumours go - 4.2TD extinct on 2007), Hummer (only if its a diesel - unlikely) or perhaps even a Jeep Commander, who knows because I certainly don't.

But hope all goes well with the warranty, unfortunately Nissan normally take a bit of prodding before they eventually come to the party.

Cheers

Captain

I am not a Nissan owner, I chose a Pajero diesel and very happy. A fact of life is that any thing mechanical will break down. That is why there are vehicle warranties. I have seen a Rolls Royce broken down does that mean that they are all cr*** .
It is useful to have the information on what vehicles break what but then use that info for our own research without jumping to conclusions.
I respect everyones opinion but lets not be unfairly critical.
What would be useful is a forum giving the reasons you, the individual, chose a certain vehicle against another.

wouldn't it be a buggar if we were all the same.

Neil

I'm a Toyota owner, but I understand your emotions with such a catastrophic failure. I sincerely hope that you end up with a more reliable vehicle, no matter what badge it has on the grill :))

"Piston/Broke"

Me three, hic....

Damn! Im just going to have keep buying Toyota's and JEEP's