Simon's new Xantia V6 and Leaf blog

[Gibbo2286]

Well done, nice to see a good result without huge expense, I think we're all waiting for the diagnosis of the old box.

[Mandrake]

You can probably sell the input shaft to someone who is installing a Leaf motor in a RWD car, as the motor splines are otherwise difficult to couple to a traditional gearbox.

I might stick it up on ebay for £100 as "parts only, collection" and see if there are any takers...

[Mandrake]

So I've managed to scrape and chip off quite a bit of underseal under the car - mainly from having to put a bar between the lower suspension arm and body to lever the bottom ball joint pin out...

Is something like this the right stuff to use for "touch up" work on body underseal?

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/paint ... 12460.html

Is this the thick gloopy bitumen looking stuff that will be under the car already or is it something else ? I'm hoping to find something with a similar consistency to what is already on the car so I can cover over the exposed paint work before it rusts.

[Gibbo2286]

This is what the trade use but you need the gun and air compressor to use it. Although you could probably brush it on to small areas of damage.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353224416533 ... af436e348

[Mandrake]

Ok.

I'm looking for something I can paint on with a paint brush that will protect the bare bits and won't look too out of place with the underseal that's already there around it.

I'm not looking to respray large areas, just cover over some small bits where I managed to scrape the underseal away.

[bobins]

I've used that Hammerite Underbody Seal on loads of things over the years and it's been fine. Sure, there'll be better products with added (snake) oils and that are guaranteed to last for someone's lifetime, but there's nothing actually wrong with the Hammerite stuff and it'll do fine for splodging into the scraped bits. The only caveat is that it might react with what's already there, but that's highly unlikely and could happen with other underbody sealants anyway. The Hammerite stuff does take a while to dry, so don't be alarmed if it's still tacky when you next check it

[mickthemaverick]

This is the stuff I use for brushing on!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184879127875 ... SwAQBgZ28W

[Mandrake]

This is the stuff I use for brushing on!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/184879127875 ... SwAQBgZ28W

I've ordered a smaller 1 litre tin for £7.50 - I only need to do a bit of touch up work not paint the entire underbody.

[Mandrake]

Found a couple of very useful websites while working on the Leaf.

I have the service manual in PDF form which is great, but there is no parts listing in there for ordering parts - all parts are shown in diagrams with torque figures etc but no part numbers. A couple of days ago I found this free website:

https://nissan-europe.epc-data.com/

This seems to have all the exploded diagrams and OEM part numbers to easily identify and find the OEM part number from. For example here is the cotter pin for the Leaf:

https://nissan-europe.epc-data.com/leaf ... 00/40262A/

The second website is one that sells Nissan genuine parts a little cheaper than Nissan, and without the hassle of phoning Nissan etc:

https://nissangenuine.com/

So between the PDF service manual, the free online parts lookup and somewhere to order them from I think I'm set for any future parts I might need...

[NewcastleFalcon]

With 2 Nissans in the bargain basement stable those sites are excellent reference, especially the exploded diagrams.

Regards Neil

[Skull]

New gearbox fitted @ 150K

2016 Leaf

[Mandrake]

New gearbox fitted @ 150K

2016 Leaf

Interesting. While it shouldn't fail at all really, 160k miles is not too bad I suppose - I strongly doubt the 4HP20 in my Xantia would still be working at 160k miles.

A new post has just popped up on SpeakEV - a taxi driver who says his "differential" has failed at 119k miles - I've asked him a few questions to see if its the same kind of failure mine has had but haven't had a response yet.

Seems there are a few failures around but still a very small number relative to how many Leaf's are on the road. At least we now know this is a fixable problem if you can get a good box for an acceptable price!

[Skull]

Just seems a bit of a bargain given the price of a new gearbox whilst you were gathering quotes

[Mandrake]

Just seems a bit of a bargain given the price of a new gearbox whilst you were gathering quotes

The battery will be significantly degraded at 160k miles. It has 11 bars on the dashboard meaning the State of Health is between 78.75% and 85%. And it's only a 24kWh model to start with.

If it hasn't been manipulated that is actually very good for the mileage though, which tends to suggest that most of the degradation is age related rather than mileage related.

I wonder if the owner of that car paid for a new gearbox or found a 2nd hand one ?

[Mandrake]

The Leaf is driving well, has done about 500 miles now and it's nice to have it back on the road.

I still haven't had a chance to check the wheel alignment, (busy, bad weather etc) but will do so as soon as I can. So far I don't see any tyre wear and the steering feels good apart from the very slight offset to the left which I think was there before so my hunch is the adjustment hasn't shifted and it just has a small offset that was previously there.

I do notice a very slight whine when the motor is on power in the 60-80mph range which fades away when power is removed, however it's only just audible above the wind noise on a smooth motorway surface and to be honest I don't know if it was there before or not. I'm obviously hyper sensitive to any possible gearbox noises after swapping the gearbox and I'm likely hearing a normal noise. The old gearbox did have a slight "warble" under acceleration in the 30-40mph range but I don't notice any noise from this one at all below 60mph.

It has the correct amount of oil in the gearbox, (it uses a level plug so as long as the car is on level ground it's pretty hard to get it wrong) but I suppose there may be a small difference in the properties of the oil Nissan use and the oil I've used (Castrol Transmax ATF) even though it's listed as a direct replacement.

I plan to do an oil change after a month or two to check what comes out to judge the condition of the 2nd hand box, so perhaps I'll try a different oil or even the Nissan official one when I do that change and see if it makes any difference.

It's kind of strange to me that EV's all seem to use thin Dexron compatible ATF in what is essentially a manual gearbox - there are no clutches (wet or dry) etc it's just meshed gears like a manual gearbox minus syncro, clutch and shifter etc...and with splash lubrication like a manual box. I would have thought a thicker gear oil would be more suitable but manufacturers seem to disagree!