Starting from scratch

[ricster]

Nice Tony.... Look after her and she'll treat you like a king

[Tony]

Ok guys, I guess this update is long overdue!

Took my 'Troll for a 4000 km joyride (just myself & my wife) down to the Cape to give the car a really good run, and to check that no more problems crop up. We left early on the 11th March and took a relaxed drive down, filling up at Colesburg. Fuel consumption exactly the same ie. 650 km on main tank and fuel light comes on 12,5 l per 100 km. The car behaved fantastically. A little later, however we stopped at a stop & go and suddenly the idling started going beserk as if the accelerator pedal had a mind of it's own - anyway, we moved on, and like 10 mins further on, the engine management light comes on!! A little while later, at another stop & go, I turned off the ignition while we waited, and when we moved again, the light had gone off again and all was well. This continued happening, with the idling doing it's thing every now and then, and the light coming on usually after a longish drive. At one point, while in the vicinity of Worcester, I pulled into the Nissan Dealership and they checked the fault and reset everything. The problem was identified as the water temp. sensor.
After they reset, we had no issues for 3 days, until, on the Friday 21st, on a long haul from Ladismith to Graaff Reinet in 35 degrees with aircon on, the light came back on, and with it, a sudden power loss. The light remained on the rest of the trip, and the power issue got worse with each incline - but we managed to get to the game farm that we were staying at for the next two nights and left the car to rest. On the Sunday we were now heading home and needless to say, I was not feeling too comfortable! All was fine untill after filling up in Graaff Reinet, when the light came on and that little power loss thing happened again. I tried to continue, but 40 km out of town, on the 3rd long uphill, she simply went into limp mode and we had to pull over. After lots of phone calls, Glyn Demmer suggested disconnecting the battery for 10 min and then returning to town and trying to find an emergency tel. no. at the dealers - when I reconnected, and drove back, all seemed fine again, so we turned around and attempted to get as close to Bloem as possible. Well the car went fine, maybe lacking a little power, with the madman showing pretty high EGT's and water temp climbing alarmingly especially up the final long one (Naudeberg Pass) - but once over, and back at higher altitude, everything seemed to be back to normal. So much so that we decided to push on all the way home. Only when we swapped over for me to push the last 200 km and as the sun dipped, did the light suddenly come on again - and the idling began to go funny. We managed that last 200 km ok, with the light burning all the way and no further worries except that the car lost that "spark" that she had when I got her back in Feb.
At RGM on Monday, we checked for the fault again, and it showed exactly the same error code as Nissan did the week before, so we ordered a new sensor from Nissan, checked the dash temp. gauge versus the madman versus the diagnostic kit, and found the madman to go out exponentially more with higher temps. so I was getting the wrong reading and my water temp never went as high as I had thought and no damage has been done. Also the Dyno showed power to be exactly the same as when I got her back in Feb!
Everything seems to be fine again, except she just does'nt feel as responsive as she did before all the work was done, there are times that there is no turbo/boost response when pushing down on the throttle, untill after repeatedly pushing and releasing the pedal, only then does she respond. (This is an erratic thing)
Also, having redone the clutch, the pedal is not as smooth as it was with the old clutch, I get a sort of shudder as i press down - they bled the clutch thinking that it would sort it out, but it's still there - also it gets a little stiffer with lots of driving / heat.
But apart from that, the engine never missed a beat and really sounds nice and quiet, there is not a single droplet of oil, nor oil sweat anywhere on the engine, she's not using oil, water levels are perfect and no other problems .... except SWAMBO she still does'nt trust the 'troll after the bloody light issue!
When Graham did my 190 000 km service last year July just before my major breakdown, one of the things I bought for him to replace was this same temp. sensor which he never replaced, because he said they gave me the wrong part (it was blue and that was for the 4.5 petrol) and so he bought it back from me! Steven Green got exactly the same one for me now, and when I told him what Graham had said, he went back to Nissan to sort it out, only to be told that it was correct - so we'll see what happens over the next couple of months!

Fluit, fluit my storie is uit, cheers for now!

[Tinus lotz]

Tony hope its plan sailing from here on drive that patrol .....hope you get at least 500000km worry free this time

[BABELAAS]

Hi Tony,
so how did things turn out in the end? was is the sensor?

[Tony]

Hey Babelaas, sorry it took me so long to reply Yes, the temp. sensor was the culprit and all is running really well now.

[BABELAAS]

Hi Tony,
great to hear all is lekker
Cheers