2016 Micra manual box failure

[Tyred]

Hi, first post here, I was wondering if I could ask for advice and feedback? Sorry if this is the wrong place but it seemed like a good forum for traffic.

I bought a new 16 plate 1.2 Visia Special Edition back in June and for the first few months was happy enough with it. However, come early October with the weather getting colder I started to notice the gearbox becoming stiff when cold, particularly when changing down from 3rd to 2nd. Also, the box tended to crunch when going into reverse when stationary unless the revs were perfectly matched. 

I got in touch with the dealer who, along with a fair bit of messing about, took it in for a look. They agreed that there was a problem and said that changing the gear cables would sort it out. Needless to say it didn't, and I phoned the branch on the day of return and threatened to reject the vehicle under the Consumer Rihts Act 2015. After a bit of negotiation the manager agreed to drop off a courtesy car and pick mine up from my home when cold to have a drive and see for himself. He did so and agreed there and then that it was a fault; the garage then swapped out the box for a completely new one.

When I picked it up I took it for a test drive with the workshop manager and it seemed fine, not at all notchy. In hindsight I'm starting to think that it had been kept indoors the night before as the notchiness came back with a vengeance when I got it home and kept it on the street outside. With the first frost of autumn the other day I took it for a spin and it was nearly impossible to change down from 3rd to 2nd.

I'm now in the early stages of negotiation with the dealership, RCI Finance, and Nissan UK; so far the finance company have proved quite constructive and helpful but Nissan have been quite f- off about the whole thing. I've emailed all three companies reminding them of my rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 and Consumer Credit Act 1974, given that I am within six months of purchase, and have said that I'll cooperate fully with any testing that they wish to do.

Bottom line, I think this car has a really naff manual box that doesn't work properly in the local northern English climate; the courtesy car I was given (same model) was almost as bad in some circumstances. Frankly I've had better cars I paid £100 for, including a mk 1 Micra. 

I was wondering whether anyone else had experienced these problems and what the outcome was? I'm aware that some may say that the notchiness is a characteristic of the box, which is what the dealership have tried to say. I can put up with notchiness but it seems to me that my box actually froze on at least one occasion and that's something I'm not putting up with. I live in the Pennines, not Murmansk.

 

 

[Trevor]

Hi...and welcome to the Forum

My first thoughts are as it seems to be temperature related, is the oil being used in the gearbox is of the wrong grade or at the very least a lighter grade oil could be used to facilitate easier gear shifts. 

Used to have this years ago with certain boxes and a quick swap out to a lighter weight of oil usually solved it. The synchromesh mechanism requires oil to be present but not too 'thick' as this could have the effect of dragging the baulk rings and making changing more difficult, especially when the oil is cold.

Ask them to change the oil to a lighter grade to see if that makes the difference.

Let us know how you get on with it all.

Cheers  Trevor

[Tyred]

Thanks Trevor, I had thought about the oil as it's the only thing they haven't changed yet. Annoyingly when I took it out this morning after last nights freeze the damn thing worked ok so I don't know what's going on with it. I'm going to look a right prat if I send it in for testing and it works properly so I might have to suspend the rejection for a week and see how it goes.

[Trevor]

probably a good idea