- Report: #105479
Complaint Review: Nissan Motor GB - Rickmansworth, United Kingdom
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Nissan Motor GB
The Rivers Office Park, Denham Way, Maple Cross, Rickmansworth,, WD3 2YS United Kingdom, United Kingdom
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Nissan Nissan Motor GB Dangerous engine failure due to design fault Nissan Patrol Diesel engine ripoff Rickmansworth Hertfordshire United Kingdom
We have our second Nissan Patrol, having been very pleased with our first one which we had no problems at all with over several years. That was a Petrol engine vehicle. This is a diesel.
A week ago my wife was driving in the fast lane of a busy motorway, the M25, when there was, with no warning lights, a sudden complete loss of power, and grey smoke poured from the exhaust. Fortunately she managed to get the car to the hard shoulder without crashing. She had three young children on board. This could have caused a very serious accident. We are just lucky it didn't and that no-one was injured.
The vehicle was towed to a Nissan dealer who said this was very unusual, and that it would need a new engine. The car is 3 years and 2 months old, so just out of warranty. Searching on the internet we found that this catastophic failure of the Nissan Patrol diesel engine is not uncommon. They have been recalled in some countries, and apparently the engine has been redesigned to overcome this fault in newer models.
We contacted Nissan Motor GB who said they already knew about this problem as the dealer had contacted them, but we would not be covered by their "Goodwill" policy as the car was overdue for a service. This does not sound like goodwill to us. They acknowledged that this is a known problem to them, and said that they had recalled our car to fix the problem before we bought it - we had bought it a few months old directly from Nissan, as it had been a demonstration model. We had been told nothing of this when we bought the car from Nissan, and clearly their "fix" had not been sufficient.
They are taking no responsibility for a design problem in the Nissan Patrol Diesel engine which could easily have caused a fatal accident. We feel their comment about being overdue for a service is irrelevant. As the engine is a sealled system it should not have been short of oil. There had been a sudden catastophic loss of oil from the engine. No warning lights had come on - which could be another fault with the engine, although we understand that the engine failure probably happened so quickly that there would only have been a fraction of a second to respond.
Having my family's lives endangered by a Nissan design fault is bad enough. For Nissan to take no responsibility and not offer to replace the engine feels like a rip off.
David
Hawkhurst,
United Kingdom
A week ago my wife was driving in the fast lane of a busy motorway, the M25, when there was, with no warning lights, a sudden complete loss of power, and grey smoke poured from the exhaust. Fortunately she managed to get the car to the hard shoulder without crashing. She had three young children on board. This could have caused a very serious accident. We are just lucky it didn't and that no-one was injured.
The vehicle was towed to a Nissan dealer who said this was very unusual, and that it would need a new engine. The car is 3 years and 2 months old, so just out of warranty. Searching on the internet we found that this catastophic failure of the Nissan Patrol diesel engine is not uncommon. They have been recalled in some countries, and apparently the engine has been redesigned to overcome this fault in newer models.
We contacted Nissan Motor GB who said they already knew about this problem as the dealer had contacted them, but we would not be covered by their "Goodwill" policy as the car was overdue for a service. This does not sound like goodwill to us. They acknowledged that this is a known problem to them, and said that they had recalled our car to fix the problem before we bought it - we had bought it a few months old directly from Nissan, as it had been a demonstration model. We had been told nothing of this when we bought the car from Nissan, and clearly their "fix" had not been sufficient.
They are taking no responsibility for a design problem in the Nissan Patrol Diesel engine which could easily have caused a fatal accident. We feel their comment about being overdue for a service is irrelevant. As the engine is a sealled system it should not have been short of oil. There had been a sudden catastophic loss of oil from the engine. No warning lights had come on - which could be another fault with the engine, although we understand that the engine failure probably happened so quickly that there would only have been a fraction of a second to respond.
Having my family's lives endangered by a Nissan design fault is bad enough. For Nissan to take no responsibility and not offer to replace the engine feels like a rip off.
David
Hawkhurst,
United Kingdom
1 Updates & Rebuttals
JIM
OREGON,Ohio,
U.S.A.
it is not a sealed unit
#2Consumer Comment
Thu, August 26, 2004
you stated that the engine is a sealed unit it is indeed not -- combustion engines draw in air and fuel and need a release of byproducts - exhaust, pcv etc. ANY combustion engine uses some amount of oil in some cases as much as a qt/1000 mi. Also, oil breaks down and loses its protection and lubrication properties over time so it is critical to service any vehicle regularly. It sounds as if Nissan is admitting some fault by offering assistance, but some fault falls on your shoulders for not taking care of the car !!!! If Nissan didn't want to help they probably could have denied assistance based on your lack of maintenance. Let them fix it, thank them, and from now on take care of your investment.
