4x4s are not everyone's favourite car, but sometimes you do need something tough and powerful. Nissan says its Navara pickup is designed to put you in control of every situation and that it's built to outperform. However, if you're among the thousands of people who bought one particular model, the chances are your Navara is not as tough as you thought, and the first you'll know about it, is when you hear a knocking noise from your engine.
The problem affects Nissan D22s, built before August 2006. Darren Levett relies on his Navara D22 to run his events company. It had done 46,000 miles when he ran into trouble. He was travelling on an A-road at 50mph when he heard a noise. Darren turned his radio down and heard a knocking sound. Then there was a big bang.
Darren describes how the engine lost power and it felt like the floor beneath his feet was moving. Instinctively he dipped the clutch and coasted into a nearby lay-by. Darren's vehicle had showered the road with oil and metal fragments. The vehicle travelling behind him also pulled in - oil from Darren's car had covered the windscreen. Darren had his engine replaced by Nissan but he wasn't the only person to have a problem.
Toni Kent-Chapman and Paul Robinson's Navara had just 52,000 miles on the clock when their engine blew. Paul was on the slip road of the motorway when his engine failed catastrophically, leaving a trail of metal fragments and oil in the path of following traffic.
In both these cases, a hole had been punched in the side of the engine by one of the key internal components - the connecting rod or con rod. These turn the drive shaft, which sends power to the wheels. Where the two join there's a bearing which has to be incredibly tough. But in the D22 pickups, these bearings aren't tough enough, and can wear out. The first sign of trouble is a knocking sound as the gap between the bearing and con rod grows. If you don't stop immediately your engine can tear itself apart.
Dangerous?
Nissan hasn't issued a recall of these vehicles because it says it isn't a safety issue. However, independent motor expert Steve Lee disagrees. He thinks it's a dangerous problem for an engine to fail, particularly if you were to be driving on a motorway at the time. He believes that Nissan has a moral obligation to recall the vehicles and replace the bearings that are responsible for this issue.
By May this year Nissan had heard about hundreds of failed engines so it decided to extend its warranty on D22 pickups from three years to five years or 93,000 miles. However, a bulletin sent from Nissan to its dealers telling them about the problem and the extended warranty says "concern is on a complaint basis only with no proactive customer contact". That means many D22 owners wouldn't know they were driving a car with a potentially dangerous fault, or that they might be covered by an extended warranty.
We've also heard from some D22 owners that even when they contacted the dealer about a failed engine, they still weren't told about the problem or that they may be covered under extended warranty. Watchdog called ten Nissan dealerships around the country and told them we had an engine failure on a four-year-old Nissan D22. Six out of the ten told us they hadn't heard about an extended warranty.
Even if you do hear about an extended warranty you'll be lucky to qualify. If you don't have a near-perfect service history, Nissan may wash its hands of you. Graham Parkinson's company owned three Nissan Navaras - all with the same fault. When the third engine blew he went straight to Nissan but the company told him his service history wasn't good enough.
Independent vehicle examiner Steve says: "Everyone knows it's important to service your car correctly and on time but missing the odd service here or there doesn't cause this problem. All it does is speed the process up. This is a problem of Nissan's making not of the vehicle owner's making."
When we asked Nissan about the problem with the D22 it gave us this statement:
"Nissan is absolutely committed to quality both in terms of product and customer service and, as such, has openly stated for some time that the durability of a small number of D22 pickup engines, produced before August 2006, have not performed to our exacting standards. As a result, Nissan launched a five-year 93,000 miles extended warranty in May to formalise the support we were already providing to our customers. If any customers have concerns or questions regarding their D22 please contact us via a dedicated e-mail address:
customer.support_d22@nissan.co.uk or call us on 01923 899 334."
Nissan also told Watchdog:
"As a result of the information that's come to light over the last few weeks we have started the process of writing to all our current owners to explain the issue and the availability of the extended engine warranty to cover the small number of customers who may experience this concern. From the information provided by Watchdog on 21 October we have already agreed full resolution for two customers and are investigating details of the remaining cases."