Longevity and mileage

[Jc1986.carter]

Good day everyone,

Just wanted to see what some of the d40 owners out there are getting out of their vehicles and motors in regards to longevity.

I am currently at 29k on my 17’ and I bought the truck a year ago. Unfortunately it’s all highway miles for me though.

 

[(none)]

Plenty of people out there with lots of miles on their Frontiers and Xterras. It's a proven drivetrain that has been around for far too long. That's one of the many reasons I bought one. My '17 has almost 3000 miles on it... :/

 

[wreckdiver1321]

My Frontier is at 182k on the clock. Except for a freak engine failure due to what I'm convinced was shoddy mechanic work, I've had no really major issues in the 70k miles I've driven it.

I've had a few bigger things fail or need replacement. I blew up the front diff being an idiot in the snow with 33s, and replaced it with a Titan front diff for around $800. Worst thing that's happened is a steering rack leak that necessitated the replacement of the rack. Got a replacement unit from a wrecked Xterra for $150 and had it installed. Total cost about $600.

Other than that, all maintenance has been minor and expected. Replaced the u-joints, brakes, a couple of engine sensors, a few light bulbs. That's honestly about it.

Feels just as good today as the day I bought it. It's an incredibly solid platform that has taken me to some amazing and very remote places. The D40 takes a large amount of abuse very well and I think is a sadly overlooked overland platform. I wouldn't hesitate to take mine to Alaska or Cabo tomorrow.

 

[broncobowsher]

2010 Xterra is 108k. Besides oil changes the only time the hood has needed to be opened is to change the battery (twice as of the Janurary)
The only hoist is for tire rotations which are wearing true and never needed an alignment. Thinking about getting around to doing the 105k spark plug change sometime in the next year.

Anything that has been worked on was my own doing, my choice, not because it was needed.

I do tow with it. Usually just a motorcycle, sometimes a boat. Couple of times I have borrowed a car trailer to haul a car around. It will see forest service roads, but not extreme trails. I think I have lifted a tire on a trail once. And I have built dedicated rock crawlers in the past.

I do see some early catalyst failures. But I can almost always narrow that down to poor maintenance. The 15k oil change is fine crowd. Well that works for about the first 6 years and 100k or so. Then the engine starts eating oil and that wastes the cats. Now you need a new engine to go with those new cats, or just put new cats on and sell it, or put new cats on and wonder why they failed again so soon? Oil changes are cheap. No matter what, you drive the extreme driving pattern and need the short interval oil changes. Less than 1% of the population can get by with the extended service interval.

 

[jackflash]

Could someone tell me more about the catalyst failures and blown engines? Did some google searching but only really found info on this issue for early models 2006 - 2010. I have a 2013 with 85k on it. Pretty hard miles. Truck runs great, have had zero issues. I bought the truck new in 2013, drive-train is all stock.

Did they fix these issues in the later models? Also, what do you look for to help prevent this issue?

 

[Dmski]

Could someone tell me more about the catalyst failures and blown engines? Did some google searching but only really found info on this issue for early models 2006 - 2010. I have a 2013 with 85k on it. Pretty hard miles. Truck runs great, have had zero issues. I bought the truck new in 2013, drive-train is all stock.

Did they fix these issues in the later models? Also, what do you look for to help prevent this issue?

You know, this has only recently shown to be more of a problem as more xterra's hit the 120-180k mile window and is still uncommon. Just the other day a member over on TNX just blew his engine due to cat failures. And I'm not sure he even got a P0430 code or anything like that. It's been rather hit or miss, but I do know that when that light comes on, do not ignore it. For most, you can replace the primary cat's and be trouble free after that. The secondary cat's aren't monitored by the ECU so those don't cause the failure. There are those that are unlucky and have part of the honeycomb fro the primary cat's break off and get sucked back into the engine which ruins it. It is in the back of my mind as something to worry about seeing as I'm ticking over 120k miles on my 06 but I've also heard of countless Xterra's reaching 200-300k miles without any real issue. Anyone else have any comments on these failures?