Car belongs to someone at work - it's a 2001model 1.8 litre. Her partner had a minor accident last weekend which knocked the lambda sensor wiring off its bracket, onto the exhaust manifold heatshield, and melted all the insulation. Her dad taped the wires up with insulating tape and re-attached the wiring to its bracket.
Co-incidentally (or not?) the engine management light has been coming on ever since. Nissan dealer charged them £40 to plug it into the computer and no fault codes were stored. Is it likely that I'm right in thinking the lambda sensor may be shorting out, sending back a dodgy signal to the ECU, and putting the orange light on?
All answers gratefully received....
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Yes, you could be right. Needs properly checking out. It must have been a fair accident too - but more than just a minor tap I reckon...?
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Greg
It might be worth checking if the shorting wires have blown a fuse. My data indicates fuse 11 in the dash box controls both oxygen sensor's heating; but check the car's own handbook for the most accurate fuse data.
So, yet again, the MIL light is on and the dealers say that they can find no code...... Amazing.
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makes you wonder if they get a man in if a fuse blows at home really doesnt it.?
really doesnt help to put garages in a good light
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Update....
On telling the main dealer that the problem might be the lambda sensor, they stripped the loom and fixed it, at a cost of £90(!!!!!!), only for the light to come on later the same day.
They've now replaced the sensor and all wiring between it and the ECU (at a cost of £130), and guess what! Light's still coming on!! My friend's now £250 out of pocket, and the useless main dealer has not solved the problem. I'm guessing they've not thought to check the fuse - next time I see the car I'll check it.
Whatever happened to real mechanics? Surely it doesn't take years of training to change oil, fit plugs and filters, and read information off a laptop? Shouldn't the job be rebranded as "parts-fitter and laptop-slave"?
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Greg
Are they still saying that they can find no codes? I wonder if they're just using their Nissan [Consult?] scanner and overlooking the possibility that this ECU may have a "grafted-on" section for EOBD-compliance; [it is an '01, when it became mandatory] and the code is stored on that side. Assuming it is an oxy sensor [emission-related] code it should be replicated there anyway.
"Parts fitter and laptop slave" was the whole idea of introducing self-diagnosis systems. Whoops! That worked well; didn't it.....
Mechanics have morphed into electro-mechanics; the [usually brighter] auto-sparks have been shifted to diagnostics - and the really bright ones are seeing that it's all over, leaving in droves and getting £35K jobs with the councils just mooching about checking Part P work.
Who in their right mind would want to do this for a living?
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Are they still saying that they can find no codes?
They gave her partner a print-out which apparently states no code found (I haven't seen it so can't be 100% sure).
I know exactly what you mean about the industry - I use 2 independant garages. One does routine servicing, plus exhausts & cambelts etc. They only charge £25/h, and refuse to do anything remotely complex like clutches, even though they're more than capable. The other place used to be an auto-electrics specialist, but they now do diagnostics as well as tuning. Both places are horrendously busy all the time, as they have their niche markets.
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Well I have a 2000(W-plate) Primera 1.8S which has an almost identical problem.
In the last six weeks the engine management light has been on & off very regularly. I first noticed the light on while travelling on the motorway at a steady 60-65mph. Of course, I feared the worst but the car drove perfectly normally and got me home without a fuss. I had the light switched off the next day by a Nissan dealership who said after putting their Consult box on it that the Pre-Cat 2 sensor had put the light on, but there was no stored fault.
Two days later, the light was back on, and I took it to the independant garage who services the car. I explained the history of the fault, and he put his own reader on it - which also said 'no fault stored' This went on for a week, so I got the indy to replace the pre-cat lambda sensor (£159 - all-in). A week later the light came on again. I took it back and he replaced the new sensor with another one - the light came on again.
I took it back again last week (after the light miraculously put itself out and stayed out for a week) because the front pipe was blowing. The indy immediately latched onto this and blamed it for the lambda fault. He replaced the front pipe and the middle section and reset the light again. The exhaust kept rattling so went in again last night to be re-fitted. On the way to the garage the light came on again!!!
The exhaust is now on properly, but the light has been out and came on again today - I'm £359 down, and the car still has the same problem it had six weeks ago. There is (however) a light at the end of the tunnel. Another parent at my son's football training session tonight has pointed me in the direction of an accredited fault diagnosis centre who have ALL the correct gear - not just the hand-held numpty boxes. I will be making contact with them tomorrow to get this sorted once & for all.
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sump-plug, We have a Y reg 1.8s like yours and had the same exact issue, after a week of researching this and 2 trips to the local Jap specialist we found the problem wasn't the lambda but the Mass air meter. Be ware of the high price a Nissan dealer charge for this job (£400+) , you can get a new MAF from ebay for less than a £100 and fit it yourself. The car is happy now.
Mass air flow meter problems apparently don't show up on the dealers diagnostics.
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Thanks for you post, Almera - my son has just bought a W reg 1.8 Primera S, so I'm following this with great interest.
From reading an ad on ebay, I got the impression that the efficiency of the mass air meter could deteriorate over time. Is this true, or is it a case of 'all or nothing'?
It would be good if those guys who are experiencing problems could let us know how they get on.
Thanks, Waino.
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Well Almera was spot on - my car's problems were directly attributable to the MAF sensor having failed. I got the indy garage to swap it and the car has been transformed - it's like driving a rocketship by comparison to how it limped home on Tuesday.
One thing that made me chuckle was how the part was sourced. I have a pal whose family own a Nissan dealership - he's the parts manager. Now he knew I was having problems and he also knew that an indy had looked at it - he doesn't take this as an affront and is always very amenable if I pick his brains from time to time. When I asked the indy garage to swap the MFA out, I already knew that the correct part was available on eBay for £67 (inc. post). He came back to me and said the no-name equivelent was £130, yet the Nissan-boxed product was £46 - ?!?!?
I called my mate at the Nissan dealership and asked him for a price - he quoted me £18.95 trade and £45 retail - what happened to the £400 from earlier?? Needless to say my mate told me to get the indy to buy it from him, but he'd already sourced one from somewhere else. He didn't charge me for it, and I now have a car that goes better than at any time while I've had it (15 months).
I guess that's a long-winded way of saying the MFA deteriorates over time until you get to the point where the car runs like a bag of spanners and you HAVE to replace it.
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Good result, sump-plug; well done, Almera. Many thanks for posting the outcome! :-)
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