ZD30 - It had to happen to me

Dave, the cause of the problem may not have been low on water, it may have been low on water because the head cracked. Michael.

Bugga !!! Start looking for a 4.2TD motor etc

Dave,
commiserations on your miss fortune.

I maybe a Toyota owner, but I would never laugh at anyone's misfortune.

It will cost you a quid or two to fix and hopefully you can track what caused it in the first place.

No matter what the vehicle they all break.

Bugger...!! You got me paranoid now...with all the work we've had done on ours (01 GUIII) Im hoping its just used a little fluid....Im too scared to look at it now.....! i hope we dont have the same thing.....

best of luck with it....keep us up to date hey!

"I love pointing out that the start battery outlasted the engine."


That's the bit I'm laughing at........ but I'm not laughing at your misfortune!

Mate, in all honesty, have a look at Project Toni on this site somewhere....... he put a turbo Toyota motor in a GU where the grenade had been...... sound's like sacrilege doesn't it??? But now he really does have a damn near unbreakable 4WD.


If you're planning on touring, you may want to try a, ahem.... shall we say "more reliable" option than the ZD30 has proved itself to be?

Cheers

Brian

Where on the head were the cracks or haven't you pulled it down that far yet. When mine went "bang" the head had 4 cracks but it didn't leak any fluid. The cracks were all where the injectors enters the cumbustion chamber, for want of a better word, and 3 were repairable but the 4th one too large. New head to go with the rest of the motor.
My battery didn't last longer than the engine but the brakes did! Anyway repairing is cheaper than replacing.

Dave, no extended warranty? if not, make sure you still exhaust all your avenues with Nissan Australia. It's not an old car and 80,000k's is a joke.

Did you buy it new? if so this will be in your favour, make sure you CC everything you write to Nissan Australia and the Dealer you bought the car from.

It's a sorry tale these ZD30's. I had a 2002 GUIII manual and decked it out. Loved it, but after the extended warranty ran out I just didn't have the guts to keep it (see rig pic) and sold the beast.

I sold it with 105,000ish on the clock. It took me around OZ, GRR, Fraser Is, mud, sand and water. Great 4 x 4. Never an engine issue. I did change the MAF though at about 70,000k's as insurance.

I cut my loses and bought the cruiser. Not that it's a better car, both have their issues, but the one big plus I see is reliability.

Great car the Nissan ZD30, shame about BOOM factor.

Bad luck Dave and Shell, but at least not the Hand Grenade story.

We had a niggling overheating problem for quite some time with an Landcruiser wagon some years ago, and after replacing thermostat and radiator the problem kept coming back. Eventually the mechanic diagnosed a hairline fracture in the head. He put two bottles of 'emergency repair gunge' into the radiator and the problem never re-occurred.

We love our Patrol too (2002 model). We fitted boost and EGT gauges and have never had a moment's trouble from it (we purchased it ex Govt and have done over 100,000 in it ourselves). Our daughter sabotages any attempts to sell it now we have the F250 for towing.

Prior to that, the head cracked on a Falcon sedan. It was Christmas day, and we were gathering in Perth as a son was in hospital. Elder son was bringing his sister and younger son's best friend ('our third son') and noticed the temp rise a bit, but with nothing open and the family expecting him, he pushed on. This resulted in the head cracking. We had it repaired satisfactorily at not a huge cost - i don't know if a similar repair can be done on the Nissan.

The day was topped off by our elder daughter's car being stolen in the early hours of Christmas Day. We sent her with her irrational hubby and baby home in our vehicle, squeezed into my parent's small sedan to get back to the farm and jobs, leaving the children in Perth to fend for themselves until the Falcon was fixed. After our son went back to a 4wd, younger daughter (and her teenage friends) drove it for a couple of years until she traded it in on a troopy.

Hope you can get a satisfactory outcome

Motherhen

When are people going to get it . Old coolant and alloy dont mix . Get your coolant replaced and flushed properly from a reputable radiator place every 12 months . For about $150 per year you are looking after a major part of your engines system . I am not saying this was your problem though . Sorry about the bad luck .

G'day Dave and Shelley,

First: sorry to read of your troubles and I hope they don't prove to be as serious as it's starting to appear.

Secondly, can I suggest that you have a look through the numerous posts on the topic of the 3 litre Patrol, on the www.patrol4x4.com.au forum?

On there you will find a list of things that blokes have done to their Patrols to try and ensure the last a long time.

The list includes:

**Fit a www.enginesaver.com.au (an alarm to warn you as soon as coolant level drops by an inch or so.

** Fit an oil catch can

** Fit an intercooler fan

** Block off the EGR valve

** Fit a Dawes valve

** Fit a 3" free flowing exhaust system

** Fit EGT and Boost gauges

The blokes on there who have done these mods, don't seem to have suffered any further ill-effects of the dreaded early demise variety associated with this motor.

Alternatively, Project Toni or a Chev 6.5 V8 Diesel (which is what I have under my bonnet), may be suitable alternatives.

All the very best to you.

Roachie

i had the same problem with a ford found a couple of cans of sealup and 150000ks later(total ks now 390000) still doesnt use coolant

I wonder when they flushed the coolant system they next got all the air out from system when adding the new coolant which might have contributed this problem

Just had a thought (early for me but I've had one lol) Nissan probably have not enough money left to spend on the repairs of the ZD30 cause they have spent it all on the new GT-R hahahahaha. Looks like it is going to be the new Safety car for the V8 Supercars to.

Cheers Bruce

Hi Dave,

I am sorry to read about your misfortune. Out of interest, how has the cylinder head leak been confirmed? If cracked coolant will either flow into the oil or cylinder. If in the oil it will be milky. If into the cylinder you can use a CO2 detector on radiator. The old fashioned way of getting hot then removing a sparkplug and crank is going to nbe a bit difficult on a diesel.

The reason I ask is that ~ one year ago my GUIII patrol had similar coolant leakage with reservoir depleting with no obvious sign of cooant leakage. The coolant system has radiator and 2 expansion bottles, 1st has pressure cap and 2nd threaded cap which is one to fill up. Anyhow after being told I might have a cracked head turned out that the outlet from the 1st pressuriised tank was cracked (easy to lean on during service) and had been leaking with leak only noticeable underneath. Replaced and all has been OK since.

So during pressure test was it only radiator checked or 1st expansion bottle also. Might be worth a look.

The other problem I had was after Nissan replaced turbo gasket on warranty and someone didn't tighten coolant pipe to turbo. No noise, just slow coolant leak and after a while staining on turbo heat shield. Tightened and all was good.

I really hope it isn't the cyl head and given the expense hope the above gives you something else to consider.

Regards,
Hugh

Hi everyone,

Well it has been a month and the Patrol went in today to get a new head. I would have put the beast in earlier but I was waiting for quotes etc. Luckily I did wait as I was very surprised and relieved when Nissan Australia agreed to provide all parts for free (ie the head, seals etc).

This is pretty good in my books. Yes the engine is rubbish but after a phone call and e-mail they agreed to help out. Not too bad since the Patrol is out of warranty.

I agree with almost everyone’s comments about the old ZD30, but at least they are coming to the party. They could have turned their back on the situation (which apparently happens a lot with most manufactures these days).

I am trying to be out around the Gregory national Park at Easter now, so happy travels everyone.

Dave