Hi,
I am in a bit of a long running situation and would really appreciate some advice.
My situation is an extremely long running affair and I will try and summarise where possible in order to get to the point.
I bought a 2.0D Nissan Qashqai with extended warranty for £9500.
The car was 4 years old and had only done 32000 miles.
11 months after buying the car and only doing 6000 miles in it, it broke down.
We returned the car to Stratstone Honda where we had bought the vehicle from,
they spent 5 weeks attempting to diagnose the issue by replacing several parts in the vehicle linked to the fuel system.
They could still not get the car to work when they gave up and sent it to a Nissan dealership.
The Nissan dealership also struggled to diagnose the issue and presented a quote for £11,500 to fix the car.
This was rejected by me and they requoted for £1200 to attempt to diagnose the issue (with no guarantees).
I rejected this and at this point we found that there was a potential mileage discrepancy on the car.
This was investigated by Trading Standards who have effectively put it down to a previous admin error
and advised that I should pursue the garage for the standard of the vehicle as they thought I would have more luck.
At this point the Citizens Advice Bureau advised I should get an independent engineer out to provide a report.
This has now been done and below are the observations and conclusions that I would really appreciate your input on.
In my opinion (and I know I have blinkers on at this stage) I do not feel that such a failure can be considered fair wear and tear
on a vehicle this old and only done 6000 miles from when I purchased it.
Do I have a leg to stand on.
Thank you
Observations:
As instructed, inspection was carried out in order to establish the cause of the engine not
starting and check for possible diesel fuel contamination of the injector wiring.
I would confirm the engine would not start. Diagnostic fault codes found by the current
repairer, "Bristol Street Nissan", indicated electrical circuit failure to all 4 fuel injectors as being
the cause.
Initial inspection of the engine found no visible cause or evidence of fuel leakage. The repairer
then removed the bolt on injector cover from the cylinder head. This exposed the fuel injectors
and wiring. The entire surface of the cylinder head under the cover was heavily coated in
carbon and diesel fuel leakage.
Heat from the engine had baked the fuel leakage turning it into a solid crust of carbon and tar
deposits - see attached images.
The fuel leakage had also contaminated the wiring connectors to the injectors which would
explain the diagnostic fault codes found.
Conclusion / Opinion:
Having inspected the vehicle in respect of the reported concerns I would advise;
The cause of engine non-starting was fuel and carbon contamination of the injector wiring.
The extensive presence of burnt on fuel, carbon and tar deposits indicated that fuel leakage
had been occuring for a considerable period of time prior to final electrical failure.
The area of leakage was enclosed under the bolted and sealed injector cover. There would
have been no visibly detectable evidence of leakage.
If it was present at purchase it would not have been noticed during normal pre-sales checks
and servicing as the area is hidden without dismantling. It would not have been noticed during
any possible MoT test done.
It was not possible to be specific as to when the fuel leakage first started. However, evidence
was conlusive that it must have been present for some considerable period of time, as stated
above. It was not a recent or sudden failure.