Nissan Elgrand E52 Lowdown

Welcome to week one of my CVT service, if you haven't read the intro then I would recommend you take a look at that first. After reading a lot of Facebook and forum posts I am starting a 3 week process to fully service Elsie's CVT gearbox.  The E52 community recommend draining and refilling a number of times to flush all of the old fluid from the box, so this week it is only about a drain and refill.  Having never done it before I am hoping it will be an easy thing to do... The first issue for any of you who like me have the Rider model is that its quite difficult to jack up the car at the front, due to the front bumper lip being very low to the ground.  There is a plastic cover under the front of the car that is held in place by a number of press studs, so I removed the studs and the cover so that I could find a jacking point.  WARNING the studs break and so you might want to purchase some on eBay / Ali Express before starting this job. I previously purchased a low profile jac

When my E52 arrived at Southampton docks a year ago I was very enthusiastic about making sure the car was serviced and checked over so that it would last forever.  Once I began looking at the car it seemed that I had been extremely lucky and had bought one that had recently been serviced.  (I bought it from a Japanese dealer who wasn't even advertising the car outside of Japan, and not from an auction so found one that was well maintained)  My mechanic who checked the car over described it as 'mint' and when we checked the oil, it was the cleanest I had ever seen in a used car. Anyway, fast forward now and its 12 months later and now I am keen to show my car some attention.  The big headline item as I'm sure you all know, is the CVT gearbox.  Let me just summarize what I have picked up so far from the various Facebook groups and forums: People often claim the CVT gearbox is bad or prone to failure (especially E51 owners!).  I haven't seen one post anywhere that prov

 My Elgrand arrived with an interesting yellow colour bulb in the front fog lights, which neither look good or are useful on a dark or foggy night.  If you want to replace them you need H8 bulbs which you can buy from eBay or a parts shop. You have to remove two screws and a bolt in the wheel arch and then you can lever the wheel arch cover far enough out to get at the fog light fittings. You simply twist the black fitting where the wire goes into.  Either clockwise/anticlockwise to remove or fit back in place.  Then you can remove the bulb and replace with a brighter and better colour option.