spanktheplank

I just want to relay my recent experience for the benefit of others that might not be in the know.

I bought my X-Trail secondhand from a local Nissan dealer in January 2007 to replace a 15 year old Land Rover Discovery TDi which we'd had from new without major problems. The X-Trail is a 2.2 DCi Sport 136 first registered in July 2004. When I bought it, it had 20,200 miles on the clock. By the time the turbo went on 4th August it was up to 26,800.

Most of my driving has been on motorways. I haven't taken it off road yet, or towed with it. I don't thrash it. I try to keep the revs below 3,000.

On the day in question, I'd driven about 3 miles from home, and was pulling up the ramp onto the local motorway, I guess accelerating steadily through 50mph, when there was a strange noise and immediate siren like sound that both my wife and I thought was a police car or ambulance behind us. On looking in the mirror, I could see that the car had deposited a large cloud of black smoke on the following traffic.

Took it to the Nissan dealer. Hey presto turbo failure. Luckily they managed to get a new replacement turbo from Nissan UK under warranty, even though the car was just outside the warranty period by a month. This took about a week waiting for Nissan's decision. I had to pay for the labour though. Got the X-Trail back this morning.

I asked the service rep would it go again, and he told me that turbo failure in this engine is pretty common between 20 and 30,000 miles, but that hardly any of the ones that they've replaced have ever come back in. NIssan won't admit it's a design fault, but my dealer thinks they have probably done a mod on the turbo. Anyone know if this is true?

I love the X-Trail so far, but it's let down by the turbo failures etc. Would I buy another? Well, I'm not sure. Before the turbo went I would have said yes. I think I'll keep it until 2009 then decide.

flynn

My brother-in-law bought his X-t in 2005 and there was a recall a few months later to tweak the ECU after reports of turbo failure. The dealer should have details on his system. Do you know if that was done on yours?

It was a known problem and I'd guess you might be covered by the Sale of Goods Act to recover the labour costs from the dealer. Would have a word with Trading Standards and/or CAB.

spanktheplank

Thanks Flynn. I'll look into that. I'll make enquiries about the recall aswell. Do you know if anyone keeps a list of recalls on particular models?

flynn

I seem to remember seeing a list of recalls on the Nissan site but it didn't seem to be complete. You might get some sense out of Nissan customer services if you catch someone there on a good day.