3 Litre Nissan Patrol "Bill Gates" Problems

Having spent the last 4 months on the road, we came across a lot of folk at various camp sites who have had numerous horror stories about their 3 litre turbo diesel Patrols. One in particular I thought might be useful for members to know :-
This bloke was enroute to Normanton when his Patrol lost all power and the "water in fuel" light came on. He stopped and drained the water out of the fuel filter and managed to limp into the Bourke & Wills Road House but the mechanic (?) there could not help him. He rang the nearest Nissan Dealer in Mt Isa who said "don't drive it, you'll do more damage, I'll send a tray back tow truck to fetch you". The guy had to leave his camper trailer at Bourke & Wills and accompanied his vehicle back to Mt Isa. (over 300 km). The Nissan folk fixed the problem and presented him with a bill for $1,800 !
As he was leaving the Nissan dealers, a mechanic approached him in the car park and said he had been working on the vehicle and that all they did was check the fuel water filter, plug in the computer / analyser and reset the fault on the vehicle computer to restore full power. He then said "mate, if it happens again, drain out the water, remove the battery terminal then replace it - this resets the power for you". Suffice to say, my campfire friend was not too happy but a lot wiser !
As an aside, our vehicle is a 2003 GU 4.2 litre Turbo Intercooled Diesel Nissan Patrol and has done 95,000 hard Km's and has never missed a beat or let us down. It still has the mechanical fuel pump which I think is a comfort to me as I don't like traveling with Bill Gates in the bush !