Nissan letter re Qashqai ECM Problem

turninggreen

Hi All,

Long winded this but please bear with me.

So I have a 2011 Qashqai that has had an engine malfunction indicator light (amber) on for about six months. Brought it to my garage back then and they stuck the computer on it and it came up with injector failing (cost about €500-€600!!!). Now I had no problem with the running of the car (no power drops, jumps, start problems as garage asked) so they said it might be a fault with electric/warning system and they turned it off and said to wait and see.
They also suggested trying a long journey on motorway at high speed (within speed limits!) as it might be just dirt & change where I got my diesel. Did all of this.

Light came on again after two weeks, they turned it off again. Back on again after a month, turned off, back on again after three weeks and I just left it after that and car running fine.

Now I received a letter yesterday from Nissan re an issue with Engine Control module (ECM) software & DPF, where the malfunction indicator light comes on. It requests I contact a dealer to get it rectified as engine performance may be reduced. Now I have googled this issue and in the UK there seems to be a fair amount of people saying the upgrade caused more problems than fixed - car noise increased, fuel consumption up, faults turning up days after the upgrade (maybe pure fluke or not). Some people have suggested its nissan's fix to their own reduced emissions trick re volkswagen .

Eventually, my questions are

(1) Has anybody had the software upgrade ?

(2) What was the result of upgrade ?

(3) Did any mechanic explain the exact nature of the upgrade - what it was for and what would happen if you did not upgrade.

Many thanks for reading.

scuby

Got the letter as well.

Mechanic I know had to change 4 injectors on a qashqai in January. Got the injectors in Tipperary from a place that sells them. They can also test the injectors, as apparently it an electrical component in the injectors that fails. Cost was about €370+VAT...Nissan garage was quoting €570 each

A light came up on mine for one of the injectors recently, and after resetting it, hasn't come up since ( about a month )

Have you done anything with yours since ?

lawred2

got the same letter - haven't done anything with it yet

turninggreen

Hi,

No I still haven't done anything about it. My car is running OK (touch wood!) and I'm not impressed by some of the upgrade outcomes mentioned on UK sites. The injectors are a colossal price so interesting to know if this ecm problem wrongly causes the injector to be identified as a problem.

Ellie6W

I dropped my car in on Tuesday for the engine upgrade. Car was driving perfectly and there were no warning lights on.

Picked up car at lunch time after upgrade. Within 50 yards of garage, car started spluttering and surging forward. Barely got the car home. Phoned garage who told me to turn on and off the ignition and see if it reset itself. I did that and the car drove fine that evening.

Yesterday morning I went out to start my car and it wouldn't start! Ended up calling the AA who had to tow it back to the garage. When it got started eventually, there was smoke pouring out of exhaust. Garage said that the upgrade caused the engine to become more sensitive and that I probably needed two new fuel injectors.

They put it back on the computer diagnostics and nothing has shown up, not even the fuel injectors! They replaced the filter with a Nissan filter as they said it wasn't a genuine part used and said it was running fine, but wanted to keep it overnight to check it from cold this morning to see if it wouldn't start again.

They have just called me to say that the engine still isn't right. They have changed filter, they are re-doing computer update and will look at it from there. He is trying to tell me that the injectors are worn (eventhough there are only 50,000 miles on the clock) and that they may need to be replaced at €300 each plus labour. He also tried to tell me that petrol had been put into the tank at some stage before I bought it! I bought this car from new so am the only owner and petrol has never been put into the tank!

They still have my car again today, don't know if I'll get it back this evening.

So don't get this upgrade done. I drove a perfectly running car into their garage on Tuesday and drove out a car that wouldn't run.

scuby

Sorry to hear, keep us updated. Was due to get mine done but cancelled it

Ellie6W

Update .....

Garage called to say they had replaced both engine and exhaust/fuel filter with genuine Nissan parts and there was no improvement.

They then put in four used injectors from another engine to see if they worked and that the car was now running perfectly.

So the outcome is that Nissan are going to cover the cost of four new injectors, and I have to the cover the cost of the labour to fit these, along with the cost of the two filters. This all totals €350.

Apparently, the injectors couldn't cope with the upgrade and were damaged in the process!

I have my car back temporarily at the moment with the used injectors fitted and it's running perfectly. They hope to have the new parts in on Friday and I've to return it to them then to have the new injectors fitted.

lawred2

Ellie6W wrote: »

Update .....

Garage called to say they had replaced both engine and exhaust/fuel filter with genuine Nissan parts and there was no improvement.

They then put in four used injectors from another engine to see if they worked and that the car was now running perfectly.

So the outcome is that Nissan are going to cover the cost of four new injectors, and I have to the cover the cost of the labour to fit these, along with the cost of the two filters. This all totals €350.

Apparently, the injectors couldn't cope with the upgrade and were damaged in the process!

I have my car back temporarily at the moment with the used injectors fitted and it's running perfectly. They hope to have the new parts in on Friday and I've to return it to them then to have the new injectors fitted.

are they going to replace injectors for everyone else?

davycha

So Nissan did a software upgrade which as a result damaged the 4 injectors in your car .
They are now going to replace the injectors but charge you for the labour .

if it was me I would be expecting them to put your car back as it was before the software upgrade free of charge .
I think you should have a chat with the service manager and see what he can do for you. There is no way I would be paying €350 for my car to be restored to the way it was prior to the upgrade.

slave1

No way should you part with a cent, they should be offering you a run around.
Honestly, when this happens go to the internet, post on forums like this, Twitter and Facebook and they will cede much much quicker.

I was missing my service/warranty book from a UK import, purely a clerical mess up and was 3months chasing it, I posted on a UK forum and twitter and boom, it arrived 2 days later by courier.

slave1

Also sounds like you were the guinea pig and what you suffered is whatever another customer was going to suffer and you were the unlucky one

tinofapples

Hi guys , I don't suppose you have any codes from diagnostics that were run on your Qashqai's while there was an issue ? Looking at a Qashqai at the moment that's given up

DTC1525F3
- Cruise controller switch with variable speed limiter
- The data supplied to the cc/sl is incorrect
-Permanent

DTC038096
-Preheating unit diagnostic connection
-Fault alerted via the control unit
-Permanent

DTC020429
-Cyclinder 4 injector control
-Signal incoherence
-Permanent

My buddy made a few enquires and 99% its the injector and a good chance that issue is throwing up the other faults as a consequence.

my_ancestors

Hiya,

To be honest I have not had the upgrade done so cant give you any info.

tinofapples

my_ancestors wrote: »

Hiya,

To be honest I have not had the upgrade done so cant give you any info.

Thanks for the reply, hows the car running since ?