2007 Patrol Gear Box Question

[Neil & Cass]

Hi there, we have a 2007 3L Turbo Diesel Patrol and we are not sure if we are getting stiffed by the warranty mob or not. Any help is appreciated.

We tow a 3T caravan with us and admittedly have done a bit of 5th gear driving with it, but we bought it 2nd hand with 84000 on the clock ex FESA so its definately had a lot more towing use than we have given her.

About 1000k's ago we got a really strong smell in the cab, to us it smells like burning gear oil. A few other issue with it (engine light and fuel filter probs around the same time). There diesnt seem to be any issue with the power or performance of it and admittedly it was getting warmer as we came across the Nullabor.

It's in getting fixed now and they are trying to tell us the oil smell is coming from the Cat Converter and that its cracked near the cabin air intake and its not covered under warranty.

I am trying to work out if they are pulling a shifty on us or if its possible. Has anyone had this happen?

Thanks for any help you can give :-) Great forum btw. Been very helpful so far.

[growler2058]

Gday guys welcome aboard gotta friendly mob here fulla great info and advice. jump over to the intro thread when ya can an say gday youll get alot more responses if the folk here know who theyre chatting to. Good luck with the box. There was some boxes that had issues with fifth gear use the search button and put in "towing in fifth gear" you may find some good info there

[Maxhead]

Hi and welcome to the forum mate. Wouldn't a 2007 Patrol be OUT of warranty? not sure if you have extended warranty or not? but a cat converter is in the exhaust system and not in the the air intake

[Neil & Cass]

Thanks guys, yep will go and have a word in the intro forum in a couple of minutes.
And yes it is out of warranty but we got it through a dealer who set us up with Toyota finance and offered an extended warranty up to 150,000k's. Which is where that comes into it.. btw.. if you can avoid TFS then do so, they are slightly painful to deal with at times!!

Ok, the report we got from Toyota mechanics today told us they thought the burning gear oil smell was coming from the crack in the Cat and that it was filtering in through the cabin air intake. Thus our reason for asking the question here because a) we honestly don't think the smell from a Cat (operating or drawing extra air through a crack) would be anything like the smell of gear oil and b) as far as we know its located no where near the intake filter.

It could be the boot at the top of the shaft and we haven't looked at that as yet but will do tomorrow when we get it back (found that in the forums here).

Our main concern is if there is a known issue with the gearboxes in these and they give us the run around until it is out of warranty then we are up the proverbial creek with a bung box.

We are going to drain and refill the gearbox before we do much more with her and see if that makes a difference.

Any other ideas would be helpful as we are flying blind here.. we have mechanical minds but are not inclined to pull the box just to be certain lol.

Cheers.

[Clunk]

Hi Neil & Cas, sorry but I'm of no help............ hopefully one the experts on here will see this post and be able to point you in the right direction, hang tight and if you don't get a response give this thread another bump so it comes back up to the top of new posts.............. sometimes they can get buried

[Neil & Cass]

Hi Neil & Cas, sorry but I'm of no help............ hopefully one the experts on here will see this post and be able to point you in the right direction, hang tight and if you don't get a response give this thread another bump so it comes back up to the top of new posts.............. sometimes they can get buried

Thanks Clunk, will do that :-)

[taslucas]

I think I know the problem.....it's the tt toy o mechanics!

[the evil twin]

Hiya Neil and Cass,

There are no known problems with the ZD30 Gearbox. You can tow in 5th to your hearts content assuming you don't bog the engine down by trying to get up Greenmount :smile:

My '07 has 105,000 on it now however I don't tow quite the load you do but 10,000 grey nomads certainly do.

If you have the service history of the vehicle... if it was a Perth FESA truck then the closest it ever would have got to towing anything would be getting parked near a trailer on a callout. Country vehicle maybe different but gearbox should still be fine.

Has the G'box oil been changed recently? Patrols do like their factory spec oils, weird stuff can happen otherwise.

What makes you suspect it is the 5th gear? If towing in 5th that is probably the highest EGT's you will see unless climbing so that is also the hottest the CAT will get and they can smell 'funny'.

If the Cat is split I would see an Exhaust specialist and get it fixed anyway so no harm done.

[Neil & Cass]

Thanks for the comment ET :-D
No the oil hasnt been changed since we got her as far as we know and that is next on the list. It was used up north for FESA so we are assuming its towed a light water tanker at best. The two factors that lead us to a GB problem is the vile smell and the fact we have come across a couple last week who had the same lead up (towing a van, bad smell etc... ) who lost 5th completely halfway across the Nullabor. The sound was reminicent of a bucket of bolts in a washing machine... and that gave us a bit of a fright in case the same was happening to us.

Towing in 5th - we are gentle with her on any hill that makes her think so if there is any damage it isnt from us.. And again, the power is fine, its just the smell that worries us. Will see how it goes when we go and pick the van up in a few days, hopefully its a cooler day and that will be the tell tale really. It may simply be normal GB smell and a broken rubber (fingers crossed!) and maybe we are being paranoid lol.

Cheers,

[the evil twin]

No worries...

I am assuming yours is a CRD?

If so, may I especially recommend a Scangauge. http://scangauge.com.au/?page_id=6

Best 'Under $200' (or under $100 if you grab the "E") you will ever spend on a ZD30 CRD

[Neil & Cass]

hmm now that's an interesting bit of equipment.. Order will be made asap! Thanks for that.
Will update this when we get her back home and see whats what.

Most helpful everyone :-) Ta

[Neil & Cass]

hi guys a queistion about cat convertors on a common rail 3 litre. we have been told that one is cracked and this gives off a smell not unlike gear oil.
question is can we get rid of the cats altogether without any probs
cheers

[Woof]

Before I got rid of my 2007 CRD GU, I replaced the standard exhaust system with a 2.5" straight through system as well as a DP Chip.

[the evil twin]

hi guys a queistion about cat convertors on a common rail 3 litre. we have been told that one is cracked and this gives off a smell not unlike gear oil.
question is can we get rid of the cats altogether without any probs
cheers

Not legally so some/most exhaust shops may refuse to do so

[Neil & Cass]

Hi folks, Thanks everyone for your help with our problems here, we are a few steps ahead and i thought some of what we have learned will be of interest to you :-D
We have now had her back at a proper Nissan dealer and had the GB relubed. What came out was vile so that was part of the problem. Second, they reckon the next step to eliminate the stench is to check the top boot on the gearstick (which is mentioned elsewhere in the forum and is a known issue).
Next - they actually laughed when we told them the story we were given about the catalytic converter being the cause of the smell. Yes there may be an issue with the Cat, but it sure as eggs isnt going to stink the cab up like that! Verdict - Toyota fed us a line of horse crap. (Gee what a surprise there lol)
Lastly, the age old question about towing in 5th gear..... we asked the service bloke if it applied to the modern vehicles or was just an old wives tale and he adamently told us that towing in 5th will flog the gearbox out double quick. Basically he said the design of the gearbox meant that any undue stress on the vehicle in 5th gear pulled the force of the gears down and off centre, unbalancing the whole set up and more than doubling the strain on the main shaft. Towing in 4th did not use more fuel at reasonable speeds (i.e. 100k/hr and under) and distributed the stress load evenly throughout the box. He also told us the workings of the gearboxes in these were adapted from a truck set up and the main gears are fairly large. Other tips were to use genuine fluid and not to force it into gear... the slight crunch into 4th is 'normal' in them because of the size of the gears.
There you go, the sum total of our lessons regarding our gearbox!! Now to go find the info here on how to pull apart the cab to get to the top of the box and we are off & running again! Keep an eye out for us, 'Slowly But Surely' is our tag and we are not in a hurry! Eastbound mid March :-)
Cheers, Neil & cass