I have a 2004 Nissan Tino 2.2 DCI which is covered by a Nissan warranty. It has done 25K miles and until now has been trouble free.I start the car after a week of non use and after driving 2 miles it loses power with a max speed of 35mph. This happens intermittantly for two days then I get a EMU warning saying there is a problem. I take the car to the local dealer who has serviced it twice and he says the airfilter was dirty , despite it having been changed on the services. It is replaced and the car is fine covering a 100 mile high speed round trip, much to my surprise. Then the fault reoccurs a day or so later . Back to the dealer who then tells me, that from the diagnostics it is a fuel pump problem and warns me that it may befuel contamination and if so, it is not covered by the warranty. Somewhat shocked I ask at what cost . The reply was "not too bad, only about £800" I ask him if he is living in the real world!! He tell me that the pump has to sent to a specialist who will determine if it is fuel contamination or a manufacturing fault and on that result will determine whether it is covered by warranty or not. Is this the likely cause of the problem and is the dealer correct as I had assumed that the pump would have just been replaced as a matter of course.
I would be interested in views, as I am sceptical as to his diagnosis
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you dont say whether you are the only owner or its had a previous keeper,my advice would depend on that
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I would be asking some very searching questions regarding the possibility of fuel contamination.
Any diesel installation must be equipped with a fuel filtration system capable of removing solid contaminants large enough to damage the fuel pump or injector nozzles. This requirement is usually met by the fitment of a fuel strainer to remove brick sized debris, followed by a large area paper filter capable of blocking solids larger than 3 microns or so. Severe contamination will cause the engine to stop through fuel starvation, but no damage should then result. If there is any suggestion that solids have caused damage and the maintenance schedule has been followed, then the design of the engine installation is deficient.
Water in fuel is extremely damaging as it causes corrosion of the finely lapped operating surfaces of the pump and nozzles and again, measures are taken by the engine installer to prevent damage. Usually, the main filter is fitted with an agglomerator (wonderful word) in the base of the unit. The function of this is to cause any droplets of water to coalesce, forming a pool in the lower portion of the can or housing, which can be routinely drained, usually with a tap. The pool of water is arranged to be out of the circulation of the fuel through the filter and must be drained out periodically as part of routine diesel maintenance.
We are left with corrosion damage due to acids or other soluble contaminants in the fuel. Fuel purchased through a high street outlet is most unlikely to be corrosive - I've never ever seen this in many years in the diesel business. If your supplies of fuel are unorthodox, then liaison with the supplier and fuel testing might be the next step.
There have been issues with the durability of diesel fuel system components made by Japanese manufacturers, often made under licence from a European maker such as Bosch. It's easy to reproduce a design, but the devil is in the detail and in particular the actual production processes and tolerancing. There is a measure of black art involved in making these components properly.
I wish you luck with this problem; don't get fobbed off and try to get a measure of the reliability of other vehicles of this type, operating under similar conditions.
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Thanks for the very interesting and informative response. I would confirm that I have owned the vehicle from new with no previous problems. The fuel used was Shell from a very busy 24 Hour outlet.
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I think the dealer suspects 'misfuelling' - i.e. accidentally putting some petrol in. Unfortunately it can severly damage the Diesel injection system (pump and injectors etc).
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