2012 Nissan Xterra
Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2016 4:37 am
I never started a thread for this vehicle because I never intended to do anything with it. My plan when I bought it was to take it to Africa and then sell it there. Well, the political situation was beginning to get unstable as we left Africa and the rich people were not spending money. It even turned a little bloody since then so it was a good time to leave. Most of the people who left at that time ended up taking their vehicles with them as the market was a little unusual. I wasn’t too upset because I really like this truck.
Since I am now living in Australia and the vehicle is not legal here, the US Government has it in storage for me in Belgium. When we leave here next year for a two or three year assignment in Buffalo, New York (my wife will be a customer service manager at a passport agency there), I will be reunited with the vehicle.
There is an argument to just sell it. It sounds like a gem, a 2012 with less than 9,000 miles on it, but it isn’t like low mileage is going to make a Nissan Xterra worth a lot and it really should be a good vehicle for Buffalo winters. There are some problems and since I have been thinking about it, I thought I would start a list of things that need to be done so that when I get it back, I won’t forget anything. If you think of things that you would check on a vehicle that has seen nothing but harsh service and then been put in storage for two years, please feel free to give me some suggestions.
I will need to register the vehicle. It had South Dakota plates for the six months I used it in DC and it still has a SD title. We will eventually need to put NY plates on it, but we can’t do that until we have an address. I will probably just get SD plates as the registration fee isn’t that high and that will allow me to use it during our vacation between assignments and up to the point that we find a permanent place to live and can establish NY state residence.
The top of the tailgate was damaged in shipment to Africa. Someone tried to back my 75” tall truck under a 70” high obstacle and gave it a couple of ugly marks. I never filed a claim or had it fixed because there is no such thing as a body shop in Brazzaville. You should have seen some of the body work we had done for the embassy fleet. It looked like the kind of stuff we all did on our first cars, maybe even worse as the paint quality was simply horrible there. At any rate, these marks will need a little touchup before winter salt service. There are a few other minor dents from: contact with a stationary pickup (my fault, but the pickup got the worst of that and it only cost me $100), contact with a tree (I suppose my fault but I was yanking a friend out of some deep sand hours from the nearest real road), contact with one of the green third-world-version Toyota Corolla taxis that were 90% of the vehicles on the road(stupid taxi driver’s fault and all I managed to do about it was make a scene by being the white guy who got out of his vehicle in bumper to bumper traffic – not an effective strategy), and contact with a mango (no one’s fault, although I wasn’t happy about having my only parking space at home be under a mango tree).
The vehicle needs detailed. It hasn’t been waxed. It spent the entire two years in Africa parked outdoors. Nasty soot from the garbage burning in the streets turned the white roof very dark gray. My gardener (yes, I had hired help for next to nothing) never washed the roof of the vehicle because he was too short, but he washed the rest of the vehicle twice a week with rags that were probably not kept clean enough. In spite of all that, I think the paint is in good shape, but it will need checked out.
The rear suspension squeaks. My short drive to the embassy each day was essentially in offroad conditions and I used to just have fun with it. I don’t know if something is broken under there. I might need a tiresmoker to jump on the bumper while I crawl underneath to find the source of the squeak. I think the Bilstein shocks are still good, but they deserve a good inspection/test, too, as they have seen a lot of cycles.
The tires will need a careful inspection. They have been bounced over curbs countless times. Parking was often on the sidewalks. My favorite parking place at the ironically named grocery store, Park-n-Shop, was a sidewalk too tall for most vehicles so it was always available and never double parked. Sometimes driving was on the sidewalks, too, as cars just seemed to stop in the middle of the street so there was only one way around. Sometimes there were potholes so deep that other vehicles got stuck in them or at least bottomed out with a sickening scraping crunch sound. I spent two years in a horrible place. I know the tread is still good, but that might not be enough.
It will need an oil change. The last oil change was a disaster. I had the embassy mechanics do the oil change for me while I went to lunch one day. When I got back, the head mechanic was revving my engine fiercely for no apparent reason which I put to an immediate stop with my stumbling French language skills. Then I discovered that the mechanic who actually did the work assumed that the two giant bottles of oil that I provided was the right amount of oil for an oil change. The correct amount was actually one bottle and only about a quart out of the second. Since this was my last oil change in Congo, I did not have any more oil in my personal supplies and the oil that they just put in the vehicle would have cost over a hundred dollars locally. There was no pump for removing oil so I laughed as the head mechanic paid a high price for revving my engine until hot because he had to burn his fingers while trying to drain the oil back down to the correct level through the drain plug. Rather than risk going low, I stopped him when the level was still showing just a little high on the stick. I drove it that way for a month and then it went to storage. Did I mention that I spent two years in a horrible place? Or that these were the guys maintaining a fleet of 40 US Government vehicles?
The wipers will need inspected. I had a spare set with me but I never installed them as the original ones were still working well. It was quite hot in Brazzaville at just four degrees below the equator, but it was always a little overcast so I don’t think the u/v was all that bad. I figured the wipers would have rotted off in the first year, but they were still working great in the last rainy season as we left.
The neutral safety switch needs fixed. The rubber piece that activates the switch disintegrated, probably due to the interior of the vehicle often being over 100 degrees. It currently has a duct tape solution in place. I can’t tell you how disturbing it is to come out of a restaurant and find your truck won’t start in a country with no tow trucks, mechanics like the ones described above, and no local supply of Nissan parts. I had to fight through panic to diagnose this simple problem.
Everything underneath needs inspection and lubrication. The roads flooded frequently. One flood event was so bad that I drove through over a quarter mile of water only guessing where the road was and only knowing that the water wasn’t too deep because some idiot in front of me volunteered to be a dipstick. There were at least a half dozen shorter vehicles flooded and stalled in that flood. The water did reach the door seals that time, but did not find its way in. A friend and I also routinely competed in mud spraying of the walls along the roads behind the embassy but he never cleared the wall like I did one day; I hope no one was on the other side. I suspect there is dirt everywhere underneath and I hope water didn’t get into the differentials.
The brakes should be inspected. They haven’t seen much mileage, but the assertive nature of driving in the third world does have even a manual transmission vehicle going from throttle to brake repetitively and heavily. The 4.0L V6 really was one of the hottest things in Brazzaville, other than a few Range Rovers that corrupt government officials drove. I was always able to beat those lawn mower engine Toyota taxis off the line when I needed to cut them off, but that usually meant having to brake heavily when running up on the next vehicle in front of me. Throw in all the mud and sand and the brakes might be prematurely worn or damaged.
The cabin microfilter needs to be replaced. I didn’t take one with me. I didn’t even realize there was one until reading the specs on my vehicle recently. That filter is probably really gross and possibly dangerous. Luckily, ebola and malaria can’t be transferred that way. Did I mention that I spent a night in a village that was twice infected with ebola? Did I mention that upon leaving Africa I was given a drug treatment to kill anything I might have picked up and it felt like it was killing me for about a month? To those of you who saw me during that time period, I apologize if I seemed rude.
The air filter will need inspected. It was replaced late in the time in Africa, but it was a filthy dirty dusty place. If the air filter needs replaced again, I probably should start shopping for some new lungs for me.
The fuel filter might need replaced and it might make sense to run some additives through the system. I am a little concerned about the fuel quality that was available in Africa. Luckily I never had to fill up at a local station as we were able to buy our fuel at the embassy and I always kept my adventures under one tank – sometimes barely. The embassy bought fuel in bulk and there weren’t any issues with any of the fleet vehicles, but I don’t think we were getting Chevron’s first world additive package for fuel injected engines. Other people reported a diminishing performance in their engines, but I did not sense any issues.
Anyway, if you read this far, you are having a slow day, but hopefully you found some amusement in my adventures in the third world. Let me know if you have other concerns about my abused low-mileage vehicle. This thread really will be my checklist for returning my vehicle to service which is still about six months away. In reality, it is a low mileage and very capable vehicle that is still in very nice condition. And while I don’t highly value sentimentality in my vehicles, this one really has served me well in vividly memorable ways. It is my Afri-car.
Since I am now living in Australia and the vehicle is not legal here, the US Government has it in storage for me in Belgium. When we leave here next year for a two or three year assignment in Buffalo, New York (my wife will be a customer service manager at a passport agency there), I will be reunited with the vehicle.
There is an argument to just sell it. It sounds like a gem, a 2012 with less than 9,000 miles on it, but it isn’t like low mileage is going to make a Nissan Xterra worth a lot and it really should be a good vehicle for Buffalo winters. There are some problems and since I have been thinking about it, I thought I would start a list of things that need to be done so that when I get it back, I won’t forget anything. If you think of things that you would check on a vehicle that has seen nothing but harsh service and then been put in storage for two years, please feel free to give me some suggestions.
I will need to register the vehicle. It had South Dakota plates for the six months I used it in DC and it still has a SD title. We will eventually need to put NY plates on it, but we can’t do that until we have an address. I will probably just get SD plates as the registration fee isn’t that high and that will allow me to use it during our vacation between assignments and up to the point that we find a permanent place to live and can establish NY state residence.
The top of the tailgate was damaged in shipment to Africa. Someone tried to back my 75” tall truck under a 70” high obstacle and gave it a couple of ugly marks. I never filed a claim or had it fixed because there is no such thing as a body shop in Brazzaville. You should have seen some of the body work we had done for the embassy fleet. It looked like the kind of stuff we all did on our first cars, maybe even worse as the paint quality was simply horrible there. At any rate, these marks will need a little touchup before winter salt service. There are a few other minor dents from: contact with a stationary pickup (my fault, but the pickup got the worst of that and it only cost me $100), contact with a tree (I suppose my fault but I was yanking a friend out of some deep sand hours from the nearest real road), contact with one of the green third-world-version Toyota Corolla taxis that were 90% of the vehicles on the road(stupid taxi driver’s fault and all I managed to do about it was make a scene by being the white guy who got out of his vehicle in bumper to bumper traffic – not an effective strategy), and contact with a mango (no one’s fault, although I wasn’t happy about having my only parking space at home be under a mango tree).
The vehicle needs detailed. It hasn’t been waxed. It spent the entire two years in Africa parked outdoors. Nasty soot from the garbage burning in the streets turned the white roof very dark gray. My gardener (yes, I had hired help for next to nothing) never washed the roof of the vehicle because he was too short, but he washed the rest of the vehicle twice a week with rags that were probably not kept clean enough. In spite of all that, I think the paint is in good shape, but it will need checked out.
The rear suspension squeaks. My short drive to the embassy each day was essentially in offroad conditions and I used to just have fun with it. I don’t know if something is broken under there. I might need a tiresmoker to jump on the bumper while I crawl underneath to find the source of the squeak. I think the Bilstein shocks are still good, but they deserve a good inspection/test, too, as they have seen a lot of cycles.
The tires will need a careful inspection. They have been bounced over curbs countless times. Parking was often on the sidewalks. My favorite parking place at the ironically named grocery store, Park-n-Shop, was a sidewalk too tall for most vehicles so it was always available and never double parked. Sometimes driving was on the sidewalks, too, as cars just seemed to stop in the middle of the street so there was only one way around. Sometimes there were potholes so deep that other vehicles got stuck in them or at least bottomed out with a sickening scraping crunch sound. I spent two years in a horrible place. I know the tread is still good, but that might not be enough.
It will need an oil change. The last oil change was a disaster. I had the embassy mechanics do the oil change for me while I went to lunch one day. When I got back, the head mechanic was revving my engine fiercely for no apparent reason which I put to an immediate stop with my stumbling French language skills. Then I discovered that the mechanic who actually did the work assumed that the two giant bottles of oil that I provided was the right amount of oil for an oil change. The correct amount was actually one bottle and only about a quart out of the second. Since this was my last oil change in Congo, I did not have any more oil in my personal supplies and the oil that they just put in the vehicle would have cost over a hundred dollars locally. There was no pump for removing oil so I laughed as the head mechanic paid a high price for revving my engine until hot because he had to burn his fingers while trying to drain the oil back down to the correct level through the drain plug. Rather than risk going low, I stopped him when the level was still showing just a little high on the stick. I drove it that way for a month and then it went to storage. Did I mention that I spent two years in a horrible place? Or that these were the guys maintaining a fleet of 40 US Government vehicles?
The wipers will need inspected. I had a spare set with me but I never installed them as the original ones were still working well. It was quite hot in Brazzaville at just four degrees below the equator, but it was always a little overcast so I don’t think the u/v was all that bad. I figured the wipers would have rotted off in the first year, but they were still working great in the last rainy season as we left.
The neutral safety switch needs fixed. The rubber piece that activates the switch disintegrated, probably due to the interior of the vehicle often being over 100 degrees. It currently has a duct tape solution in place. I can’t tell you how disturbing it is to come out of a restaurant and find your truck won’t start in a country with no tow trucks, mechanics like the ones described above, and no local supply of Nissan parts. I had to fight through panic to diagnose this simple problem.
Everything underneath needs inspection and lubrication. The roads flooded frequently. One flood event was so bad that I drove through over a quarter mile of water only guessing where the road was and only knowing that the water wasn’t too deep because some idiot in front of me volunteered to be a dipstick. There were at least a half dozen shorter vehicles flooded and stalled in that flood. The water did reach the door seals that time, but did not find its way in. A friend and I also routinely competed in mud spraying of the walls along the roads behind the embassy but he never cleared the wall like I did one day; I hope no one was on the other side. I suspect there is dirt everywhere underneath and I hope water didn’t get into the differentials.
The brakes should be inspected. They haven’t seen much mileage, but the assertive nature of driving in the third world does have even a manual transmission vehicle going from throttle to brake repetitively and heavily. The 4.0L V6 really was one of the hottest things in Brazzaville, other than a few Range Rovers that corrupt government officials drove. I was always able to beat those lawn mower engine Toyota taxis off the line when I needed to cut them off, but that usually meant having to brake heavily when running up on the next vehicle in front of me. Throw in all the mud and sand and the brakes might be prematurely worn or damaged.
The cabin microfilter needs to be replaced. I didn’t take one with me. I didn’t even realize there was one until reading the specs on my vehicle recently. That filter is probably really gross and possibly dangerous. Luckily, ebola and malaria can’t be transferred that way. Did I mention that I spent a night in a village that was twice infected with ebola? Did I mention that upon leaving Africa I was given a drug treatment to kill anything I might have picked up and it felt like it was killing me for about a month? To those of you who saw me during that time period, I apologize if I seemed rude.
The air filter will need inspected. It was replaced late in the time in Africa, but it was a filthy dirty dusty place. If the air filter needs replaced again, I probably should start shopping for some new lungs for me.
The fuel filter might need replaced and it might make sense to run some additives through the system. I am a little concerned about the fuel quality that was available in Africa. Luckily I never had to fill up at a local station as we were able to buy our fuel at the embassy and I always kept my adventures under one tank – sometimes barely. The embassy bought fuel in bulk and there weren’t any issues with any of the fleet vehicles, but I don’t think we were getting Chevron’s first world additive package for fuel injected engines. Other people reported a diminishing performance in their engines, but I did not sense any issues.
Anyway, if you read this far, you are having a slow day, but hopefully you found some amusement in my adventures in the third world. Let me know if you have other concerns about my abused low-mileage vehicle. This thread really will be my checklist for returning my vehicle to service which is still about six months away. In reality, it is a low mileage and very capable vehicle that is still in very nice condition. And while I don’t highly value sentimentality in my vehicles, this one really has served me well in vividly memorable ways. It is my Afri-car.