Nissan Patrol 4x4 (Africa)

Good Afternoon!

How are you all?

Can you PLEASE help me?

My 1998 Nissan Patrol 4,5 is in very good condition with 235 000 km.

This is my first 4x4 and I have noticed that changing gears is not nearly as smooth as with my Golf.

The gearbox NEVER “scratches”, but it is almost like a truck, not smooth. Especially from1 to 2nd.

Changing gears is not like with my Golf one movement, but more like two . (It is like a “gluck-gluck” movement.)

Is this normal?

Kind Regards,

Stoffel.

Hi Stoffel and congrats on your first post .

you have to remember that you are now driving a vehicle that has more in common with a light truck than with a family hatch. The gearshift is meant to be meaty and it requires a deliberate action. It helps to pause in the middle to give the box time to synchronize. Remember the gears and everything else in there is designed to take more torque more often than in a hatch, so they are big and beefy and heavy. Still, the right oil can make a huge difference to the shift quality in these (and other) gearboxes. Always remember that oil is not just oil...

Have a look at this:CLICK HERE.

Hello Gerrit

My manual (Max Ellery's) for my Y60 says the gearbox oil should be replaced every 20K km. Do you think after changing to BOT I could extend that to 100k? What would be the reason for such short intervals?

Thanks
Peter

Just remember the Patrols are build in the same factory as the Nissan Trucks - that is why they are so strong!

You Patrol probably changes gears like a truck because it is a truck, with a light truck transmission.

Try changing transmission oil and see if that helps. Change the throwout bearing when the time comes. If not, let it continue Patrolling about for the remainder of its natural life.

Peter Connan wrote:Hello Gerrit

My manual (Max Ellery's) for my Y60 says the gearbox oil should be replaced every 20K km. Do you think after changing to BOT I could extend that to 100k? What would be the reason for such short intervals?

Thanks
Peter

Peter, according to the Y60 workshop manual from Nissan that I have, the oil change interval on the gearbox is 40000 km or 24 months (the Haynes manual mimic this). Anyway, back to your question on extending the oil change intervals with synthetic lubricants: It seems that the oil change intervals with synthetic gear oils could be around three times that with mineral oils. One has to bear in mind that any water contamination will immediately kill the oil...

It is also interesting to note that the oil change intervals specified for the manual transmission in the Y61 is 100000km (but then again, the transmissions are not quite identical).