Sorry...another timing chain question!!

Hello all,

I am just about to buy my first Nissan Micra - going to the dealer Friday to finalise. However since falling in love with the little 57 plate Micra I have now read numerous articles on the internet about the problems with Timing chains expandanding and costing a fortune to replace. It is not entirely clear to me whether Nissan ever addressed this problem and used better quality Timing Chains.

Most of the posts/articles I have read have been about older models - 03 & 04 but I dont want to assume that that means mine will be ok!! !:suspect:

Apologies if this has been repeated numerous times - I did find a previous thread where the same question was asked but I don't think there was a definitve answer.

Would a 57 plate have the same issues or had Nissan dealt with this problem by then? :glare:

Any info would be much appreciated - thank you
 

C0llis0n

Ex. Club Member
Club Member
Its not really a 'problem' that occurs often to be honest. Not that I know of anyway. I suppose it just depends how the cars been treated all its life.

For instance I have 1 k11 with 169k on the clock, chains absolutely fine, but I've also just replaced the chain on my other k11 with 99k on the clock.
 
Its not really a 'problem' that occurs often to be honest. Not that I know of anyway. I suppose it just depends how the cars been treated all its life.

For instance I have 1 k11 with 169k on the clock, chains absolutely fine, but I've also just replaced the chain on my other k11 with 99k on the clock.


I think, from what I had read anyway - it was specifically a problem with K12's from 2003 onwards and with just googling it I found loads and loads of links to people ciriticising Nissan because they knew of the problem, had used a cheaper version than normal and people were having lots of problems but Nissan were dragging their feet on resolving it - some folk were having problems with only 14,000 miles on the clock - the most common being around the 30,000 miles mark. Nissan didn introduce a Timing Chain kit to fix problem cars (not sure what that means) but I am not sure at what point they actually replaced the types they were using!

I know that people tend to comment when they have problems more than when they don't but I was choosing between three different cars - and settled on the Nissan Micra and now I am getting rather concerned as it has really bad write ups compared to the other two (a Mazda 2 or Clio) !! Especially about this timing belt - and often from people who have serviced their cars as per guidelines!!
 

C0llis0n

Ex. Club Member
Club Member
serves me right for not reading the thread properly eh. sorry about that.

Im sure one of the k12 guys will be able to spread some light on this at some point today.
 

frank

Club Member
my understanding is that they had rectified the problem by 05 caledonia, and almera,s/tino,s suffered the same fate fwn
 
my understanding is that they had rectified the problem by 05 caledonia, and almera,s/tino,s suffered the same fate fwn

Thank you - happy to hear it has been recitifed!

I have been reading quite a lot of negative reviews of the Micra K12's and the fact they are not as reliable as their predecessors and I am now rather wary of my decision to get one!
 
well the k12's engine is taken from the k11 with just some minor changes as far as im aware and the k11 engines are well proven of being capable of seeing 200k and more.

renault own nissan now so if you had have bought a clio you would have indirectly bought a micra anyway though im not sure if the engines are shared.

and a mazda 2 is just a fiesta really isint it....
 

frank

Club Member
the CR engines have a single (very long) cam chain andy, which will stretch twice as much as the 2 shorter CG ones eh :eek:
 

Dragonmaster_uk

K12 NUTTER
personally i`ve had no problems with timing chain stretch and my k12 gets driven hard day in day out so i think that would`ve gone if they hadn`t sorted the problem out
my mum`s car has never had any problem with the timing chain an that gets driven gently by her and driven hard by my dad when he drives it
both cars are 06 facelift sport+ models 1.2 engine
 

Guy

Has gone over to the oily side...
Club Member
My '06 160 has got 82,000+ miles on it and no problems so far. You're right about the Clio thing, my wing mirrors actually say Renault on them :grinning:.
 
I own a 2nd hand 53 plate 1.0E currently at 20K mileage. The model should be a high risk model according to various forum and the bad feedbacks, actually, make me keep thinking of trading-in the car for other brands.
 
The timing bell of the Nissan March is metallic and you´ll never must spend money in change it, the problem is when are rubber made, it must be changed at 100.000 kms.
 

kennierobo

Buy & Sell Member
I have an 04 k12 did the camshaft sensor still runs like a bag of doggy doo,s so today i bought the timing chain kit £165.00 plus vat £195 all in had I still been trade it would have been a good price. Anyway im starting it tommorow so will take loads of pics and post them up, I will aslo see how much stretch is in the chain. roll on happy motoring lol
 
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