Nissan Qashqai - Engine Failure

kormak

Wife's 07 Qashqai 1.5DCi was recently getting sluggish to start at times with puffs of smoke, but it would start all the same and drive okay.
The other day, it just decided it wasn't gonna start. Spluurted & coughed, but no starting. No engine warning lights either.
Got it towed into a Nisssan dealer who now tell me there's no compression in the engine!! which sounds pretty bad.
He reckons he doesn't know the cause yet and that the turbo is okay.
Anyone else have/know any issues around Qashqais engines failing like this?
I've heard of the timing belt recall, and this could be the cause here but I don't actually know unless the dealer tells us.
Sounds like it's gonna be an expensive repair...

kormak

On a separate forum I read this:

Nissan Qashqai engine case problem
Some Qashqai built between Nov 2006 and Jan 2007 had problems with their engines stalling. The air-conditioning compressor could seize, that competence outcome in a engine dying.

What grounds do I have to argue this with Nissan or is the car too old for this?
a new reconditioned engine could cost a fortune!!

Ded_Zebra

What's the milage on the car?


Was it serviced on time always?

punisher5112

Hi op was the diesel checked?

This can happen with laundered diesel.

Where do you fill and do you fill in the same place ?

robertxxx

And so it begins..........the failure or Modren city Diesel engines.....stop start stop start.

kormak

Ded_Zebra wrote: »

What's the milage on the car?


Was it serviced on time always?

there's approx 160,000 kms
service was late on it this time but only by about 2/3k kms. It's been religousley serviced every 10k kms up to date
Nothing major happened to it while driving.
Recently broken in to and the loom was snipped. Since then the ECU has been missing journey counters.
I suggested this to the garage as a long shot and they say no, this is purely a mechanical problem. Not related to onboard computer.

kormak

punisher5112 wrote: »

Hi op was the diesel checked?

This can happen with laundered diesel.

Where do you fill and do you fill in the same place ?

9/10 we fill it in Esso On-the-Run garage. There has been 1/2 times we've filled it with a "cheaper diesel less established service station"
so yes, perhaps the injector pumps or something like that is at play here?

JC01

One bad fill of diesel can kill an engine but there's also a hundred more reasons for an engine losing compression, check your warranty terms and see if it's under warrenty. Other wise I'd start getting onto traynors/ English breakers about a second hand engine because as you said Itl cost mental money to recon your one.

Out of curiosity what kinda driving did the car normally get? Stop start city driving or long motorway runs?

kormak

JC01 wrote: »

One bad fill of diesel can kill an engine but there's also a hundred more reasons for an engine losing compression, check your warranty terms and see if it's under warrenty. Other wise I'd start getting onto traynors/ English breakers about a second hand engine because as you said Itl cost mental money to recon your one.

Out of curiosity what kinda driving did the car normally get? Stop start city driving or long motorway runs?

a bit of both really... we live in the countryside so it would always have longer runs to towns, etc... but it didn't live on the motorway all the time!

kormak

So, there's no compression in the engine whatsoever.
The mechanic has advised there appears to be a leak on the cylander head that's causing it.
He still hasn't been able to give an explaination about how this might have happened...
I put it to him about examining further to find the reason and he reckons there would be a lot of stripping down everything. I've suggested to him should I not be replacing it with a complete engine, i.e. engine block, turbo & injector pumps, as if we don't know the source of the problem, surely it's dodgy to just stick back in a new engine and 6 months later, the same thing happens again. He doesn't seem overly bothered by this... he reckons you would just test the turbo, injector pumps, etc.. are working fine.
what are people's thoughts on this?
anyway, the prices quoted for engine blocks vs complete engines vary hugely... some people seem to be taking the complete pi$$ compared to others... either way, it's looking like a pricey job. Cheers Nissan!

ironclaw

No compression in a cylinder is a pretty serious job. Speaking as someone who battled with a problem (VW Touareg) that could have been this, that or this for about 6 months, in hindsight, it would have been cheaper to change the entire block. As long as all other major components checked out, I consider a block change with an indie. I'm sure others would argue with a full strip of the current block.

dieselbug

"So, there's no compression in the engine whatsoever.
The mechanic has advised there appears to be a leak on the cylander head that's causing it.
He still hasn't been able to give an explaination about how this might have happened...
I put it to him about examining further to find the reason and he reckons there would be a lot of stripping down everything."

Your mechanic doesn't really inspire a lot of confidence to be honest. A very simple cylinder leakage test would show where the compression is leaking with very little stripping involved.

Is he saying there is no compression at all, nothing, or is he saying it has low compression?
What does he mean "there appears to be a leak on the cylander head that's causing it." What exactly is leaking?

A complete loss of compression would usually only occur after a catastrophic event, like a broken timing belt, damaged valves, or severe overheating.

Is the engine drawing in air to compress in the first place?

160,000km so about 100k miles, not exactly mega miles on a car that's been reasonably well serviced, so a poor show for this engine if it's down to wear and tear.

garancafan

Cylinder-head gasket?