....I knew iy would ! SWM and I were off to the shops in her Note this morning.
I opened the tailgate to put some stuff in and didn't hear the usual small whir of the motor returning the catch to it's close position. Nothing unusual there ? Well, not with this car ! Tomorrow, I will be down at the Nissan agents to buy a new unit....for the third time in 30 months.....add to that the one fitted when we got the car and possibly some with it's previous owner, that's at least 4 that I know of.
Last one was fitted January 2011 and cost me £82. It's just not good enough to only get an average of 10 moths from each lock. It's costing me £8.20 a month just to keep the boot shut ! I'll be hitting them with this statistic !
Part of ' my ' fleet of hire cars consists of 18 Fiestas, all under warranty. We're now working through them, 5 to date, with the same fault. I keep a couple of bungys in our car just for this occasion.
Just think, in the past, about the fact that probably 100% of cars scrapped went to the grave with a simple rod mechanism which was still working ! I just don't see the point of a microswitch and a small electric motor in a part of the car that picks up rain and muck and is heavily slammed. A non-existing problem with a hopeless ' cure '.
I'll see what tomorrow brings but I won't hold my breath !
Grumble over.
Ted
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I had one fail on an E46 (still in warranty) - nuisance and pointless really.
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The Mondeo has the same set-up... every time I press it I flinch slightly but it's always returned so far. Stupid idea for the sake of automating something that didn't need automating.
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I wouldn't be surprised, Ted, if you told us that your Javelin has had the same boot catch for 60 years.
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Indeed it has, Avant. Although I've changed the handle to one with better chrome.
It's never given any trouble...big square rod to unlock it and it shuts automatically like any mortice lock.
Ted
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Common problem on the higher spec Pandas and 500s too. Thankfully my boot is just simply a lock with no remote boot release so not much to go wrong. Won't the part still be under warranty Ted?
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You will buy these ere blimmin French vehicles Teddy - some people will never learn!
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No warranty, over a year old Rattushka. Would have bought British me ole woofer, but wife didn't want a Morgam.
At least the Note comes out of some god-forsaken hole in the UK...Sunderland, I think.
Anyway, got the tram and bus down to Altrincham this morning looking for a fight. Completely disarmed by the 20something girl receptionist who got the partsman out for me. I showed him the reciept for last year's lock and he did me a deal, saving me about 15 notes.. Had one in stock as well.
I suggested he get another one for me to buy next year...sarcastic sod ! Home foir lunch and 5 minutes to fit it in the cold and rain.
Ted
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Happened twice in less than 9 months on that Signum I had. Wasn't the reason I got rid of it but the whole car just felt like it was made by Airfix rather than a mainstream car company.
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>>At least the Note comes out of some god-forsaken hole in the UK...Sunderland, I think<<
Its the French electrickeries I was thinking of Teddo, being the car is based on the Reno Modus.
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Well, would you believe it, it's happened again, again. Took the Note for it's MOT this morning and checked the boot when I got there as something was rolling around.
Come to close the tailgate and it wouldn't catch itself down. Cancelled the test and drove home in a bad mood. I got out the 3 receipts from the last 3 catches and set off for the main agents. That's the fifth one, to my knowledge. Just not good enough on a 6 year old car !
The 'service adviser' tried everything to get out of their warranty obligations but I wasn't not going nowhere until I got satisfaction. I was then told that I can have one under warranty. I should think so, it's only just over 3 months since the last one. Of course, they denied ever having had this fault crop up before...I pointed out that they were holding 3 invoices from themselves for the same part and the original fitted to the car made a fourth. I said I wasn't buying them to put on the mantlepiece !
Of course, they didn't have one in stock and they insisted that, to get a warranty on the new one, they would have to fit it. Meaning booking it in as a job after my holidays. So, I guess I'll be made to sit around there for hours while they get their asses into gear to do a less than 5 minute, easy peasy job, which I'd be more than happy to do on their car park !
Meanwhile it's back to the bungee under the back seat.......now part of the car's ' essential equipment '.
Ted
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It's time to sell it and make a mental Note not to buy another.
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>> It's time to sell it and make a mental Note not to buy another.
>> Mental Note Ha ha
get a honda next time ted
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You will buy these ere blimmin French vehicles Teddy - some people will never learn!
:}
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Has anyone considered, at this stage, that there might be some root cause for this repeated failure scenario. Duff part does not cut it now.
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>> Has anyone considered, at this stage, that there might be some root cause for this
>> repeated failure scenario. Duff part does not cut it now.
>>
Who fitted all the replacements?
:-D
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You beat me to it Zero.
I do not for one moment believe that if it were a part that failed so often on everybody else's cars that the main dealer would not have a huge stock of them.
Something isn't set up properly. Maybe the seating is bent and thus putting a strain on it? Maybe something leaks water in?
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If there is a batch of duff parts, it could take a long time to work its way through the supply chain.
Unless someone junks all current stock, held everywhere, which is unlikely not least because it's impossible to do.
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>> Unless someone junks all current stock, held everywhere, which is unlikely not least because it's
>> impossible to do.
Its not, its really not. Everything has batch numbers. They wont tho because its costly.
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I had two of those go on my Signum in 9 months.
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The first one was fitted during manufacture...it lasted just over a year. The second by the supplying dealer, although I paid for it, they fitted it free. Big deal.... 3x 6mm bolts and a plug. I bought and fitted the last two. There's no sign of water ingress and there's nowt wrong with the seating or the wiring. It's not even Airfix rocket science ! There's a lot of posts on a Nissan forum I've looked at...not just the Note but other models in the range.
I look after18 Fiestas and now Yarises are being introduced onto the fleet. We have about 8 in the city. Probably 10 of the former and a couple of the Toyotas have needed boot locks. Fortunately all under warranty, all being newer than '10' reg. Some private owners are due a few shocks in the future
With regard to dealers not stocking the part, this is common with all parts at the dealers I use, Ford/Toyota/Fiat/Vauxhall and Volkswagen commercial. Policy seems to be ...get all the days requests in and get then delivered a day or so later from a central depot. I even had to wait two days for something as cheap and simple as a rear wiper blade for a Fiat 500 Twinair !
I, and others, am convinced that the bottom of a tailgate is not the place to fit a tiny motor about a quarter of the size of an 00 model locomotive. On the Nissan, this drives a tiny worm gear connected to a fairly large plastic gearwheel/cam and lever to move the claw.
Probably impossible to convert to any other system, unfortunately.
Ted
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Clearly a component that is simply under-specced for the job it has to do. I would expect better from a Japanese manufacturer. They are normally the best in the world for specifying components just right for the job they need to do. They don't normally under, or over-engineer. The part is fit for purpose and works. Nothing more or less.
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It's happened again..... - R.P.
