Piece of crap

Piece of crap :: 2007 Nissan Navara RX (2014-12-28 12:10:04)

sorry to hear.... any idea of the cause?

Most government 4wds get a work out and driven like stolen. Its human nature, you don't own it or pay for it ,you don't care.... and services are not critiqued like they are with private owners so the dealers change oil and park'em saving money..

4 naving. I don't know if you have worked for a government business before with the privilege of a vehicle in the position. I work for a Queensland government business and have a vehicle as part of my position. It's def not my choice of vehicle as it's a Holden fuel guzzler Colorado but it's a privilege. The government vehicles have one of the best service histories I have seen. Serviced every 10k or 6 months whichever comes first(obviously some vehicle have 15k service changes but the 6month never changes). All done by genuine service centres and cars not released until fit for purpose.

As I said a May not like the car but it is treated like one of mine. It's part of our vehicle owners code of conduct with the business.

On that note I'm sorry to hear about the navs bad history. Hopefully something will change for you and pickup.

Rusty

x2 on govt vehicles.
They get the best servicing as Qfleet is now gone.
Dealers are competing for business and know they will be getting the lease returns to on sell privately or send to auction.
Its in their best interest to do a good job.
With monitoring gear installed they definitely don't get flogged either.
If your busted flogging a vehicle you will get you arse hung out for a good kicking, second time you get the boot.

Thanks for the support and help guys.

First implosion was due to a leaking cooling system cooking the engine. No warning light or hint of complaint or drop in performance until it just stopped.

Reason for expiration of 2nd reconditioned replacement engine unknown yet. It seized just before Christmas and my mechanic is closed down over the holidays, so I'll have to wait for the diagnosis.
But there was nothing dramatic in terms of heat or loud, unusual noises before it stopped. Full of coolant and fresh oil. I just pulled up at the lights and it stopped. Reached for the key, but it wouldn't turn at all. Battery and starter good. Can't even turn the crankshaft directly.

Local wreckers are asking around $5500 for second-hand motors with 100,000kms. The first reconditioned engine cost me double that! This is twice the cost of most other similar reconditioned 4x4 engines because of the timing chain issue eating up supply to the second hand market. Wreckers and reconditioners know they are money in the bank.

So, the question of the Titan V8 as an alternative can be entertained if I'm going to spend a pile of cash either way. Or, do I set a match to a vehicle that is otherwise perfect and set up the way I want it?

As far as I have been able to find out over the past few days, a lot of people globally get excited about the idea of transplanting the Titan 5.6l V8 into a Navara/Frontier, but nobody has actually done it.

The Titan is not sold in Australia, but the current model Patrol has the 5.6l motor. It would be ridiculously expensive to source one in Oz, but I shouldn't be too hard or expensive to get one from the US or maybe Japan.

It's early days, so I'm not sure whether I will be able to register the Navara with a V8 transplant.

I am very interested to find out if anyone actually has done a Titan V8 conversion?

Cheers and Happy New Year fellow Navarians,

Scott

Hey Scott
Sorry to hear about your run of bad luck
if you have a look on ClubFrontier.org there is at least 1 guy that transplanted a Titan 5.6 into his Frontier. mechanically its a direct bolt in job.
The electronics however is a major job.And just to make it more fun the Frontier has a different wiring harness etc to the Navara so all his hard work working our the wiring would have to be done again.

Navara seized engine rebuild done!

OK guys, here's the final chapter of the seized engine story...hopefully.

Problem diagnosis:
My "rebuilt" engine from HP Gem engines had a cheap after-market single row timing chain that simply tore apart at the links.

Solution:
Thanks to a forum suggestion I contacted Paul Calcino at YD25.com.au. He rebuilds a couple Navara engines every week and clearly knows his Nissans. He even engineers permanent solutions to factory weaknesses like timing chains, oil pumps, clutch pressure plates and is working on new small un-sexy stuff that will save engines. He sourced a replacement engine and rebuilt with double-row timing chain. Had I not already poured so much money into the vehicle I would've got his premium high flow engine package.

My local mechanic Mr Spanners did a sterling job coordinating the removal of the old **** heap 55,000km recon motor and installation of the new diesel powerplant.

Overall the cost was the same to get a specialist reconditioned motor versus the big national company mass produced offering. And it was even cheaper to get Paul to rebuild than wreckers were offering for engines with 65,000-100,000kms.

Paul even checked the air filter for a good seal before letting me go on my way. Apparently, the aftermarket options are notorious for not sealing correctly and letting dust and sand in to chew out turbos. And he was right. The fresh filter moved around inside the airbox and left a couple millimeters gap when pushed to the side. It might as well not be there. He might of just saved me another couple thousand dollars.

In closing, thanks to all the forums friends and hope this info helps someone and that it doesn't happen to you.

Cheers, Scott

PS: If anything bad happens, I will keep you posted.

A tip apply a thin layer of grease around the seal on the filter, even with the genuine filters it helps.