2005 Nissan Almera Headlight's

Raf66

Samsboy, Thanks for the advice

samsboy

No worries , Raff66 ! Let me know how you get on with this issue ...

samsboy

Colm ,

Do you know if Fully synthetic oil is advisable to use on an '05 Almera 1.5 Petrol ? I am using semi-synthetic and it seems to be using a litre every week or so !!!!

Cheers ...

THEDONWALDO

i wouldnt use fully snthetic in an almera,..its not recommended by the manufacturer, use semi synthetic.its very unusual for it to be using that amount of oil, you should check if you have an oil leak..be it the front or rear crank oil seal or the rocker cover gasket

hope this helps

colin

samsboy

Colin ,

Thanks for your quick reply .

I ll have to check this problem out , maybe tommorow if its dry !

Would you think bringing this car to Nissan would be a good idea ?

Its my wife's car , with only 91K/Kms .

I don't think its burning oil as it passed Nct test about 2 months ago .

I will investigate it fully + will keep you posted .

Many Thanks ...

samsboy

Colin ,

Is there a Breather valve on this Almera ?

If so does it get Blocked ?

Thanks ...

THEDONWALDO

hey samsboy

there is only 1 breather valve on the car, it is the pcv valve which would govern the air going into the crankcase. when you say breather valve do you mean egr valve..they are known to get blocked up but wouldnt be that popular. the best thing to do would to go to a dealer and get it checked out, just to be sure.

let me know how you get on

samsboy

Colin ,

Thanks again for your prompt reply .

I will book it in to a Nissan Main Dealer & will keep you updated .

Cheers ...

samsboy

Colin ,

I have bought Fully synthetic oil , and on the next oil change , I will use it along with a genuine Nissan oil filter and a new oil sump washer ! I am just trying a process of elimination !!!

Thanks.

Neil_Sedaka

My wife bought an early 05 Almera hatch, last year.
The dip lights are a total joke, you can't see more than a few yards ahead of you.

NCT failed it on beams, I found that the housing around the bulb, was melted and the bulb and holder just fell out one day.
The previous owner had done a botch job at repairing it.

Got my local garage to replace the light unit and focus the beams.
It passed the NCT, but the light output is still absolute sh1te.

THEDONWALDO

Hows it goin samsboy

make sure you get a 15208-9f600 oil filter and 11026-01m02 washer, fully syn would do the job but it is more expensive then semi syn. hopefully you get the problem sorted!

samsboy wrote: »

Colin ,

I have bought Fully synthetic oil , and on the next oil change , I will use it along with a genuine Nissan oil filter and a new oil sump washer ! I am just trying a process of elimination !!!

Thanks.

samsboy

Colin ,

I am impressed with your detailed knowledge of this industry !
I am living in hope that its not burning oil , i am probably wrong (No blue smoke) .
Its incredible that we had an older ('98 Almera saloon 1.4GX ) & it used no oil whatsoever from 1-6000Miles . I always used semi-synthetic and genuine Nissan oil filter and copper sump washer on that model. Circumstances beyond our control forced me to change to '05 Nissan . Merry X-mas , + I will keep you updated ...

samsboy

Neil ,

Sounds like you have a real case for a recall by Nissan .
Any wires melting or Halogen bulb holder melting thus causing a fire is a real safety concern no more than defective headlights , However your Dipped Beam Diffuser element sounds like it is deteriorated too over time . If you have a full Nissan Service history you just might have a hope ! If not , sounds like New Headlamps For you too , i am afraid ...
Somebody at some stage may have put higher than recommened Halogens i.e higher wattage bulbs to improve headlight intensity, perhaps causing meltdown ...

samsboy

Neil ,

Get your car checked out by an Auto- Electrician to make sure you are getting right voltage to Lamps . Did you get New Lamps & are they Nissan ones ?

samsboy

Neil ,

I cannot understand how it passed NCT if the lights are still of Poor Intensity !!!

samsboy

Neil ,

Did you have to pay for HeadLamps ?
Or was it done under Recall ?

Neil_Sedaka

Unfortunately, I don't have a full service history for it.
I got my local garage to supply and fit the light unit (only the one with the melted bulb holder)

It was a brand new unit, but I'm assuming it is a spurious part, as if I remember correctly, it cost about €150 for the unit, plus labour.

I'm guessing that the previous owner, did what you said, replaced the bulbs with 80/100s or something.
I was going to do this myself, until I came across this thread!!!

But yeah, after getting the unit replaced and focused, it passed the NCT.

I must check and see if the new unit is putting out more light than the old one, although I don't think it is, I'm sure I would have noticed by now.

I'm guessing now, faulty wiring or voltage somewhere.
Hope to fcuk the units don't melt again, we're not in a position to be throwing money about at the moment.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, I do appreciate it.

Cheers.

Pkiernan

If the people with failed lights wish to be compensated, here is how:

1. PM eachother with details of your NCT failures. It is quite obvious that the 05 Nissans are failing on their first required NCT after new (i.e. 4 years).

2. Compile the car details and NCT reports - each will be showing the same failure.

3. Share any copies of correspondence with Nissan (emails or letters) with eachother.

4. Each party file against Nissan in Small Claims Court, and bring above documents with you.

Writing letters to Nissan will get you nowhere, nor will emailing radio hosts.

However, a history of vehicles failing for the same reason (and a safety reason at that), coupled with the fact that Nissan recalled an ealier model for the same problem, will virtually assure that you win your case in Small Claims Court.

Alternatively, if there are enough people affected consider legal representation, with a proviso that your solicitor recover his/her costs from Niaasn.

samsboy

PKiernan ,

Thats sound advice , many thanks !
And a Merry Christmas to you & all ...

THEDONWALDO

the old model almera n15 was bulletproof, again i wouldnt say your model is burning oil...i have never come across it. and my knowledge, acquired over 16 years working in a parts dept in a nissan main dealer!

merry xmas and best o'luck with the jammer!

samsboy wrote: »

Colin ,

I am impressed with your detailed knowledge of this industry !
I am living in hope that its not burning oil , i am probably wrong (No blue smoke) .
Its incredible that we had an older ('98 Almera saloon 1.4GX ) & it used no oil whatsoever from 1-6000Miles . I always used semi-synthetic and genuine Nissan oil filter and copper sump washer on that model. Circumstances beyond our control forced me to change to '05 Nissan . Merry X-mas , + I will keep you updated ...

samsboy

Thanks again , Mate !

If I brought Almera to a main dealer , can they hook it up to some sort of a Diagnostic machine which would tell them for SURE that it IS burning oil ?
Sorry for being a pain in the Ass ...

Seasons Greetings ...

THEDONWALDO

no bothers! the only way you can tell if a car is burning oil is by looking at the smoke coming out of the exhaust. what a diagnostic will tell you is if the engine is running too rich or lean.

hope that is of some help and all the best for xmas!

samsboy

Colin ,

How much would it cost for me to buy a crankshaft oil ( the 1 underneath ) seal for my wife' Almera from a Nissan Dealer ?
Would it be a costly job if I were to leave it in to Dealership ?

Thanks ...

BronsonTB

I was looking at buying an 02/03 almera van (2.2 td). Is this the same model that has the headlight issue mentioned so much in this thread & if so, is there any way to tell it has been addressed? Thanks

samsboy

If the van has Glass headlights (older model ) i don't believe they gave trouble ! New shape has plastic instead of Glass ! If van has DOE , it should be fine ...:)

galldar

Hi,

I had a (company) 04 Almera from new. Within a few months, realised the dipped lights were useless, one night I was driving on side lights and fog lights and didn't notice the dipped beams weren't on!
Went to the dealer (H&M) and was told there was nothing wrong with them, keep them clean!
At next service was about to tell them to replace the bulbs when they told me there was a recall on them.
Lights were better after this, but still not great.
I've just inherited one of the other company Almeras, a late 06, lights on this are terrible, don't know if the lights on this one were replaced or not, will have to see if H&M have records of it. It passed the DOE recently, I wonder if the DOE test is as stringent as the NCT...

Neil_Sedaka

Our privately regd 05 Almera passed the NCT and the output from the dipped lights is miserable!!

See my earlier post from 22/12/09 ant the 23/12/09

ianobrien

I had the same thing on my 05 Almera. A drunken glowworm had more light. It got very bad over the winter. I bought two new Headlights from my nearest Nissan dealer (for 400 notes). I changed them myself and had a friend set the aim of the lights. The difference is unbelievable. It was the best money spent.

On examining the old headnights (manufactured in Feb '05 according to their date stamps) the reflectors were tarnished and the inside of the lens looked like they became opaque.

Neil_Sedaka

Jesus wept!

Before buying the car, second hand (from a non Nissan dealer) I rang Nissan to see if any work had been carried out on my particular car, as I'd heard that there may be a problem with the timing chain stretching and some models were recalled to rectify the problem.

Nissan told me that there were no recalls issued, in relation to my intended purchase!!
Surely a defective headlight unit is reason to recall them?

galldar

Neil_Sedaka wrote: »

Jesus wept!

Before buying the car, second hand (from a non Nissan dealer) I rang Nissan to see if any work had been carried out on my particular car, as I'd heard that there may be a problem with the timing chain stretching and some models were recalled to rectify the problem.

Nissan told me that there were no recalls issued, in relation to my intended purchase!!
Surely a defective headlight unit is reason to recall them?

I don't think the headlight issue was a 'full recall', more like a technical bulletin, something to be checked at next service, which is when they let me know about it. We had four Almera vans at one stage, three bought in '04. We weren't contacted by Nissan about the headlights, but they were changed during service.

michaelobrien1

I have the same problem with my car, went to a dealership, the lad played dumb said it would cost me €500.:mad: I am delighted to see this message board as I had heard there was 03 04 problems. I will email road safety authority and nissan dealership referencing above comments... thanks for the advice,:)...................................i didnt read full thread, looks like most people get the run around..misery

ifconfig

My father in law has this same issue with a 2006 Saloon Almera.
His dipped lights are extremely dim and he was marginal on the NCT last time around.
There is a dark zone when on dimmed headlights according to him.

We originally ordered a HID lamp replacement kit for his Almera and that made a slight improvement but it is the actual headlamp optics which seems to be the problem.

Like one of the posters here the Nissan dealer offered to change the headlamps for around the 300Eu mark.
The local mechanic here who lives beside us recommended Bosch, Valeo and some other brand of headlamp but he said he cannot source these good brands for replacement/aftermarket headlamps anywhere.
He rang the Nissan dealer himself and he wasn't particularly enthused by the brand they were offering to put in instead of the orignals

Sorry about the longwinded introduction.
My basic question is.. who got these changed and what make were they ?
I think , at this stage, he just needs them replaced and he wants to be sure that he is not replacing inferior headlamps with something only marginally better (as he's already shelled out over 100 for the HID lamps).

--ifc

Lupo_solitario

ifconfig wrote: »

My father in law has this same issue with a 2006 Saloon Almera.
His dipped lights are extremely dim and he was marginal on the NCT last time around.
There is a dark zone when on dimmed headlights according to him.

We originally ordered a HID lamp replacement kit for his Almera and that made a slight improvement but it is the actual headlamp optics which seems to be the problem.

Like one of the posters here the Nissan dealer offered to change the headlamps for around the 300Eu mark.
The local mechanic here who lives beside us recommended Bosch, Valeo and some other brand of headlamp but he said he cannot source these good brands for replacement/aftermarket headlamps anywhere.
He rang the Nissan dealer himself and he wasn't particularly enthused by the brand they were offering to put in instead of the orignals

Sorry about the longwinded introduction.
My basic question is.. who got these changed and what make were they ?
I think , at this stage, he just needs them replaced and he wants to be sure that he is not replacing inferior headlamps with something only marginally better (as he's already shelled out over 100 for the HID lamps).

--ifc

Just Read your post ,I was the original poster, the problem with the OEM headlights in the Nissan Almera is the Fact they are Basically a plastic housing in the low beams if you drive long distances the heat inside the housing causes the housing to deform and before all the experts have a go at me this is fact ,I replaced mine and had the material in the holders for the low beam lights tested by a company who test the parts we make for electrical panels , they failed under a constant heat basically the bulb holder and the inner cone on the headlamp deform and the bulb is not pointing in between the diffuser plates in the lamp and hits the front diffuser in the wrong area , hence the dim glow , I changed my Headlamps and bought them from a company in england allpartssouthwest (mods this is not a ad for them) the parts are spurious but the low beam holder in the lights is a alum alloy casing and the lights are brillant ,passed my nct no problem so if you are buying lights and upgrading the lights will not work it is the holders that are the problem also if you increase the temperature in the low beams all you will do is warp the light even more and decrease the light emitting also if you
buy from nissan or micksgarage make sure the low beam holder and cone is alloy not Plastic , Hope this can help any one who has this problem ,Ive been there and know how dangerous it is and as for Nissan Bunch of useless ??????
The rest i leave to your own belief , I fought for two years with a bunch of Muppets and that is being nice

Regards
Lupo

Lupo_solitario

Just checked on Micks 306.50 for Nissan almera with black bevel inside for two front headlamps and no description as if they are spurious or oem headlamps
for allparts it works out at 164 for the same which i bought with alloy housing fit your self no problem and bring to the local tyre shop will align for 20 euro sorted

Ronfar

I have the same problem with my 05 Almeria, so I rang the garage where I bought the "car" only to be told that it didn't come under the "Recall" So I tried to contact Nissan Europe or Global. Total waste of time. How can Nissan Ireland sit by as they're cars are going around in such a dangerous state, is there anything that can be done.
Oh Yeah the quote I got for replacement head lamps was €240 a side.
On a seprate issue does anyone have problems with the radio staying on while the keys are our of the ignation and the battery is disconnected?

kala85

for anybody who bought new headlights , were the new headlights any better after or did the same problems begin to occur after with the new set as I think my headlights were replaced already?

framework123

Hey guys ,

I also have this problem with my 2005 almera..im looking to fix for safety and with nct in mind next year .. I saw these on micksgarage -would these do the job ?
The price seems reasonable?
Are these something I could fit myself?

http://www.micksgarage.com/proddetails.aspx?pid=893874&pk=0DE2B

omurchuc

This is nuts!

Having the exact same problem, just back from my NCT with the same issue. The bloke looking at the light said he suspects it's because the entire light housing is not held peoperly thus the light is out of focus. He said go have it fixed, "perhaps a few screws loose or missing"

I don't know what to do here. the garage said it would be 300 euro for new lamps which is totally insane for a 2005 car!

markfinn

Wish I'd read this before buying my 05 Almera which just failed NCT for dips too dim to register on the machine, and high beams failed visually for "head lamp condition 30 : Intensity".

Just have to hope the dealers agreement that they'd see it past its next NCT holds water.

Thankfully it's in writing.

yoke

framework123 - yes that is the part.

i had this happen before on a 2005 almera, the problem is that nissan use plastic casings for their reflectors, and the plastic casing is burnt/gone black and doesnt reflect very well anymore.

solution was to get a new pair of headlights, its not hard to fit them on yourself - the front bumper needs to be removed, it sounds hard but it's actually quite easy.

Before I bought/replaced them myself, I rang up nissan ireland and they told me they wouldnt fix it and there was no recall. bunch of pr_cks.

-Sam

markfinn

Well, update on mine... Dealer's "fix" was to tell me on the phone he had the replacement units ready, got me to drive half the length of the country and then told me "actually the parts won't be in for an hour or two, but I'll just use this miracle polish instead", wedge the bulbs in arsewards until some light actually came out, and declare it done and ready for NCT.

This "fix" didn't even make it to the nearest Advance Pitstop where the bodging came to light pretty damn quick, as one bulb had moved away from its wedged position (probably at the first speed bump) and the other was merrily wedged pointing at the sky, though at least it was bright enough to register on the machine this time.

The A.P. guys phoned the dealer for me, and made it pretty clear that the car was not ready for NCT and needed new headlight units (Second time he's been told this by pros), leading to much waffling and his decision to "Call me back after he speaks to his mechanic" on Monday.

Come Monday afternoon, I suspect I'll be talking to SIMI, see what they can do about it (as he is a registered member).
It's no longer just about passing the NCT either. I really do not want some half-assed bodge that squeaks by the test and falls apart a day/week/month later, but would much rather a vehicle fit for the purpose it was sold/bought for.

Kaizersoze81

My 05 almera just failed nct also due to poor headlights. The light from them is terrible and is dangerous to drive with. I sometimes have to check the switch to make sure they're on as I can see no light coming from them when driving. Has anyone managed to get Nissan to acknowledge the problem and replace them free of charge ?

Jasper79

Kaizersoze81 wrote: »

My 05 almera just failed nct also due to poor headlights. The light from them is terrible and is dangerous to drive with. I sometimes have to check the switch to make sure they're on as I can see no light coming from them when driving. Has anyone managed to get Nissan to acknowledge the problem and replace them free of charge ?

Nope, I ended up buying a new set on micksgarage for 110 and paying 50 for a garage to change them.

Kaizersoze81

Is there a big difference in the brightness since you changed them?

Jasper79

Kaizersoze81 wrote: »

Is there a bit g difference since you changed them in the brightness?

Huge difference,new lights were brilliant , before hand was like 2 candles at front of car, so I would recommened doing it for safety.

Kaizersoze81

Jasper79 wrote: »

Huge difference,new lights were brilliant , before hand was like 2 candles at front of car, so I would recommened doing it for safety.

Yeah it's ridiculous how dim the current ones are. Literally like driving in darkness. Which ones did you order if you don't mind me asking?

http://www.micksgarage.com/search.aspx?fffDepartment=Headlamps&fffMake=nissan~~~nissan&fffBasemodel=nissan%20almera~~~nissan%20almera&fffModelDescription=almera%20mk%20ii%202000%20onwards~~~almera%20mk%20ii%202000%20onwards&ffftd_car=1.5&fffBHP=90

They've several different types at different prices .

Jasper79

Kaizersoze81 wrote: »

Yeah it's ridiculous how dim the current ones are. Literally like driving in darkness. Which ones did you order if you don't mind me asking?

http://www.micksgarage.com/search.aspx?fffDepartment=Headlamps&fffMake=nissan~~~nissan&fffBasemodel=nissan%20almera~~~nissan%20almera&fffModelDescription=almera%20mk%20ii%202000%20onwards~~~almera%20mk%20ii%202000%20onwards&ffftd_car=1.5&fffBHP=90

They've several different types at different prices .

It was the black bezel mark 2 I got , item code: 893874 and Item code: 893875

There are youtube videos on how to change them too

Kaizersoze81

Jasper79 wrote: »

Nope, I ended up buying a new set on micksgarage for 110 and paying 50 for a garage to change them.

I've bought them from micksgarage. Just need to find a mechanic to fit them for a reasonable price now. Do you mind asking what mechanic you used?

Thanks

projectgtr

Kaizersoze81 wrote: »

I've bought them from micksgarage. Just need to find a mechanic to fit them for a reasonable price now. Do you mind asking what mechanic you used?

Thanks

they are simple enough to fit i done a set a couple weeks back

Kaizersoze81

projectgtr wrote: »

they are simple enough to fit i done a set a couple weeks back

I don't have the tools for the job and would rather get it done by someone who knows what they're at. How long did the job take to do?