A modern question, sorry.....

[Luxobarge]

If I were you I'd be walking away from that "Nissan" garage so fast I'd be a blur.

Here's why:

1) Their equipment wouldn't "talk" to your ECU eh? Absolute rubbish - any EODBII reader will read codes from your engine, and come on, this is a Nissan garage, they should have enough diagnostic kit to make you drool, I have trouble believing this.

2) 82 Euro to do a full diagnostic? They're having a giraffe. What does a "full" diagnostic consist of? About the only thing you can do is to read the codes, clear them, see if they come back, and record some live data. The last bit is almost certainly not necessary, and the rest is a 10-minute job. You can do this with your own code reader, which you could buy for a lot less than 82 bucks. If you really don't want to get your own, then go to a decent independant mechanic, they will often do code reads for free, or at least for beer money.

3) Timing chain? They're happy to diagnose a 1,000 Euro job without reading the codes - sounds like they're heavily into your wallet here. Sure, at 191k it might be the timing chain, but until you see a code for a cam sensor fault you simply don't know.

Sure, all the things you mention doing are fine, but don't be surprised if they don't actually clear the fault - I still go back to my (and others) original statement - get the codes read. I hear you start talking about swapping the engine, yet you don't actually know what the fault is yet - madness IMHO (no offence!). The last place I'd go would be a Nissan dealer, find someone with a code reader or go to a decent indy would be my advice, you shouldn't be paying more than about 10-15 bucks for a code read, tops.

We have a primera too - I agree, a good car and good engines, well worth fiddling with. Ours was my aged father's from new, it's 10 years old and has only 25k on the clock!

All the best with it - keep us updated!

Cheers

[mach1rob]

A faaarrghsand paaarrghnds!!! Bladdy ell!!

Surely there's someone down the internet who can do them for one or two hundred?

Or are jap cars like Jap bikes for dealer spares prices......

It's around £900 to have the belts done on a KV6 in a Rover 75 (quad cam V6), although a few specialists do the job for a few hundred, with all these 'extras' like AC compressors in the way, and everything crammed in making access nigh on impossible it's no wonder prices are high.

[Diesel Fionn]

Stil haven't been able to get the codes read. however I think it's the coolant sensor. The fan is on permanently with the ignition and it's definitely runnign rich judging from the big lumps of carbon that come out of the exhaust every time I start it up. I went to two garages yesterday to get the codes read, one said they were too busy to do it. The other my regular garage have a broken cable so they couldn't check for me either. Also I suspect the battery is a dud, I had to charge it all day. Well at least I got to clean it a bit more today, try to get the mould off the back seats. I won't do anything drastic until I know exactly what I'm dealing with. It wasn't the Nissan garage that couldn't read the engine code, it was another non-franchised garage. Have to get tyres, changed the oil yesterday and the filter.

[JPB]

Why not get an adaptor and read the fault codes yourself? I bought one for my modern Smart from an eBay seller and, although it's a clone, it works perfectly with both my car and Dad's Jetta, as well as every other car to which it's been connected so far. The cost was a mere £20, all you need is "Torque" installed on any Android phone or a laptop running Ubuntu or Suse, either of which will act as the receiver.

I bought mine primarily as I wanted the MPG, turbo boost pressure and oil temperature sensors to work and hadn't opted for the full in-car computer option when I bought the thing earlier this year, but it's since paid for itself several times over as I've charged several neighbours for taking readings so that their cars could be driven in with the owner knowing what to ask for at the garage.

I believe that the £20 is less than some main dealerships charge for a quick hookup to their OBDII adaptors and it's so ridiculously simple to do, plus you can leave the adaptor in the dash socket as you travel for on the spot readings of any parameter served by OBDII in your car, which is pretty much everything.
Torque was written by a private individual who was annoyed at the lack of DIY software for BT OBDII adaptors, it's constantly updating itself and new PIDs can be added manually in the unlikely event that it misses anything.

[Diesel Fionn]

Had my local spanner wielders look at it today. they also reckon its the coolant sensor and it needs a new battery. INterestingly their diagnostic tool also would not talk to the car, however they said they could sort it. I'm to drop back to them after christmas. I think i'll get the coolant sensor first and see how the car fares with that and it's new battery which i also bought today. Haven't fitted it yet, still in the boot. Cycled to work and had our office xmas dinner this evening. They said they cleaned the distributor too. There's two possible coolant sensors for my car, either a socket type one or a single spade connector. have to find it....

[TerryG]

The one with the socket will be for your ECU and the one with a single spade is for the gauge on the dash. No point in changing the gauge sensor as it won't make any difference to running.

[Diesel Fionn]

Got the new sensor with the socket. Going to fit it tomorrow and hopefully then I will see some improvement. Have four spark plugs to fit to my wife's eunos as well. Fitted new leads to it last week. I definitely reckon it's improved. it's smoother revving and doesn't sound like it's pinking as much.

[Diesel Fionn]

Nothing has worked so far, new battery and coolant sensor had no effect. It actually still does that sort of clicky noise when you start it that you get with a duff battery??? The garage I went to had a second go, but no luck. it would not talk to their computer. So it's going to the main dealer on tuesday for a diagnostic. God willing they'll fix it and it won't be the f...ing timing chain.