to buy or not to buy

Hi all,

I went to test drive a 1.2 Micra yesterday and the car seemed great, the only thing that was concerning was the warning check engine light that appeared when I started the car...now the guy didn't mention this to me when I spoke to him over the phone so I was going to walk away, but after speaking to him decided to take my ODB2 reader down and plug it in and see what it says just in case it was something minor like a o2 probe error or something

the fault codes it returned were:

- P1611 "powertrain"

- P0011 - "A" Camshaft Position - Timing Over-Advanced or System Performance (Bank 1)

now, I know of the stretching timing belt issue which affects micra's, is the one above this fault? or is there anything else it could be? the car starts fine and doesn't make any odd noises, it doesn't seem underpowered or anything like that and its not juddering etc etc - if it wasn't for the warning I would be none the wiser... any advice owners can give would be great -

is it definitely the
  • stretched timing chain issue?
  • is this a problem that you can live with or does it get worse?
  • how much does it cost to fix?

the P1611 I have no knowledge about and googling it doesn't appear to reveal any pointers either, so any advice you can give on this would be great
 
Well here's a link to some info for the P0011 code

P0011

P1611 shows up on various sites for various cars as either a MIL voltage error, or immobiliser malfunction. I found this description:

A communication line exists between the Engine Control Module (ECM) and the Transaxle Control Module (TCM). The sole purpose of this communication line is for the TCM to notify the ECM to activate the Malfunction Indicator Lamp (MIL) when a serious transaxle failure has occurred.
ECM sets DTC P1611 if the ECM detects that the voltage is lower than threshold value.


Can't help you beyond that, but maybe it'll help you in your quest.
 
if there is no proof of a replaced chain (FSH ?) i would walk away then dazza

The thing is this one is 1500 which is about 50% cheaper than other models. Of course now I know why. Thing is even if its a 500 pound fix it will still work out cheaper than paying 3k for one. Am I just being stupid here and naive, will it have completely ruined the engine. It's going to be hard to walk away from as its got keyless entry and all sorts!
 

frank

Club Member
the dealers charge about £1200 to fit a new chain (small garage 1/2 that i guess)
the only way to be sure is to measure the tensioner extension eh
 

superls

K10 Tuner
there's generally a reason why cars are half price, and you may have found it, if the garage/dealer could spend 500 to get 1500 more they would. id walk away mate.

what reader you got btw? im looking at getting one
 
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