Owning Nissan Terrano 85 ps [9+ years 190000+ km]

[deepam]

For last couple of months when I was cranking the car and turning off the car, I used to get a good amount of jerk of roughness.
So during the last service, Team Leader figured it out to be C-mounting and Part was Not available.
Part order was placed and part cost is INR 4053.
Part arrived couple of days back and Saturday I went for replacement:
Old part in below pic:

One can see the Rubber portion being shear off on left side.

The new part:

Process of Assembly:

Final Assembly location before placing screws:

Post this Part replacement the issue is resolved.
Hats off to team leader to identify the faulty part.

 

[deepam]

Well friends I had near death incident last month.
I was driving from my Hometown to Hyderabad.
After 60 km at one small village I noticed that brake was ineffective and I missed ramming to a Lorry tripper and after crossing the village I pulled over and opened the bonnet I am seeing fumes behind the engine.
I was not sure this was an Electric issues or why this was happening. I didn't have anything.
I immediately doused off the fumes.
On closer observation, I figured out that the Vaccum Brake booster pipe has melted due to fumes.
Car was Fully loaded along with my parents. I called the Team Leader of Service Center and he asked me for any Instrument cluster warnings.
There was no warnings. I was advised to drive slowly to the nearest town. I tried to check if I can get local mechanic and he was not available for nearly 90 minutes.
So I decided to not wait and drive for 80+ km slowly in this condition carefully. I was able to understand how at times it becomes challenging to drive in this condition keeping car and other road user safe.
On reaching the City and visiting local mechanic found out the cause of the fire. The Felt behind the engine Portion of it fell on the Exhaust and it caused for the fumes to burn off the Vaccum booster pipe, below is the pic:

A learning of a life time.
Had I not stopped to check it would have been catastrophic and probably I would have not been alive to write this info in this forum.

I had to thank god for saving me, my car, my family and other road users.
Now the interesting part is I complained to Nissan India and they were lethargic in their initial response.
When I blasted back they became serious and working to solve to my satisfaction.
This felt is a big piece in engine compartment and I did not notice the deterioration. Even Service Center is casual and not reported to me.
So my recommendation is, on regular basis take pics of engine bay and spend some time to compare to make sure all is well in Engine Bay. I don't think no Mechanic in Workshop or FNG will be serious to check this.
This may be one of the causes when car goes up in flames.

Till date nobody has asked for Felt and replaced it. Usually they might ignore. I am adamant to have the felt replaced and it may have been provided by car manufacturer with a purpose and why to run the car without the felt.
The felt is yet to be received at Service Center.

This is a freak incident and may happen to anyone.
So please keep a track of engine bay from time to time, thus making sure all of us remain safe.

 

[deepam]

Another incident observed is Driver Seat belt buckle is not working properly. It's has potential for failure. It is not latching properly at times and requires assuring the buckle has latched properly. This may be due to ageing process.
Luckily buckle is available as separate piece, Part was not available and I have asked to place order.

 

[Salil]

Thanks for the heads up. This felt was on the firewall or the inside of the hood?

 

[gauravtalan]

Another incident observed is Driver Seat belt buckle is not working properly. It's has potential for failure. It is not latching properly at times and requires assuring the buckle has latched properly. This may be due to ageing process.
Luckily buckle is available as separate piece, Part was not available and I have asked to place order.

I own a Duster 85 ps which is practically the same car. Even my driver seatbelt doesnt latch properly. Have to try several times before it latches. And once it does, often when driving for sometime, the belt unlatches itself automatically. Will need to get it changed.

 

[gauravtalan]

Well friends I had near death incident last month.
I was driving from my Hometown to Hyderabad.
After 60 km at one small village I noticed that brake was ineffective and I missed ramming to a Lorry tripper and after crossing the village I pulled over and opened the bonnet I am seeing fumes behind the engine.
I was not sure this was an Electric issues or why this was happening. I didn't have anything.
I immediately doused off the fumes.
On closer observation, I figured out that the Vaccum Brake booster pipe has melted due to fumes.
Car was Fully loaded along with my parents. I called the Team Leader of Service Center and he asked me for any Instrument cluster warnings.
There was no warnings. I was advised to drive slowly to the nearest town. I tried to check if I can get local mechanic and he was not available for nearly 90 minutes.
So I decided to not wait and drive for 80+ km slowly in this condition carefully. I was able to understand how at times it becomes challenging to drive in this condition keeping car and other road user safe.
On reaching the City and visiting local mechanic found out the cause of the fire. The Felt behind the engine Portion of it fell on the Exhaust and it caused for the fumes to burn off the Vaccum booster pipe, below is the pic:
View attachment 793518

A learning of a life time.
Had I not stopped to check it would have been catastrophic and probably I would have not been alive to write this info in this forum.

I had to thank god for saving me, my car, my family and other road users.
Now the interesting part is I complained to Nissan India and they were lethargic in their initial response.
When I blasted back they became serious and working to solve to my satisfaction.
This felt is a big piece in engine compartment and I did not notice the deterioration. Even Service Center is casual and not reported to me.
So my recommendation is, on regular basis take pics of engine bay and spend some time to compare to make sure all is well in Engine Bay. I don't think no Mechanic in Workshop or FNG will be serious to check this.
This may be one of the causes when car goes up in flames.

Till date nobody has asked for Felt and replaced it. Usually they might ignore. I am adamant to have the felt replaced and it may have been provided by car manufacturer with a purpose and why to run the car without the felt.
The felt is yet to be received at Service Center.

This is a freak incident and may happen to anyone.
So please keep a track of engine bay from time to time, thus making sure all of us remain safe.

Where do you usually get your car service done? Authorised service station or outside? If you get it done at authorised service stations then they failed to flag this issue beforehand as they are supposed to check on multiple points where car is not performing up to the mark.

 

[deepam]

I own a Duster 85 ps which is practically the same car. Even my driver seatbelt doesnt latch properly. Have to try several times before it latches. And once it does, often when driving for sometime, the belt unlatches itself automatically. Will need to get it changed.

+++++++++++
Hi Gaurav,
Nice to hear from you. I still remember your wonderful trip on Maharastra Mahamarg Konkan Trip. How many km you Duster car has run?

Yes, safer to get the Latch replaced. The part cost if it has seat belt warning comes around INR 1700.
Recently while driving last week my seat belt unlatched automatically and that is the reason I checked with ASC and they confirmed latch is available separately and asked them to place the order.
I am also contemplating even to replace the co-driver latch as Seat belts are worn 90% of usage.

 

[deepam]

Where do you usually get your car service done? Authorised service station or outside? If you get it done at authorised service stations then they failed to flag this issue beforehand as they are supposed to check on multiple points where car is not performing up to the mark.

++++
Be it ASC or FNG I do not think they're empathetic. ASC to check the points and In order to comply they just tick the boxes to satisfy OEM documentations.
Earlier when car was new and ASC new, they used to measure Front Pad thickness and record it in the Job card. As over time approx. and random values are filled,

 

[deepam]

In recent visit to ASC, on my request the Team Leader cleaned the Condenser coil from outside.
There was marginal improvement in the cooling of the cabin.

 

[gauravtalan]

+++++++++++
Hi Gaurav,
Nice to hear from you. I still remember your wonderful trip on Maharastra Mahamarg Konkan Trip. How many km you Duster car has run?

Yes, safer to get the Latch replaced. The part cost if it has seat belt warning comes around INR 1700.
Recently while driving last week my seat belt unlatched automatically and that is the reason I checked with ASC and they confirmed latch is available separately and asked them to place the order.
I am also contemplating even to replace the co-driver latch as Seat belts are worn 90% of usage.

Thanks Deepam. The car is 8 years old now and i have clocked some 115000 kms so far. Living in Delhi NCR so have less than 2 years with it. Lets see what all options are available then. Dont want to buy a sub 4 m and dont have budget for a compass or harrier. Also, i need good ground clearance (at least 200 mm) as my drives involve off roads. So Creta, Seltos, Kushaq etc. also wont serve wthe purpose. Looks like i have Duster and Kicks only as my options as of now. I do like the way kicks looks and performs but then i am also dissapointed to see so many aggrieved Nissan customers.