Righto, so the pic below should clear up a couple questions for users whom the fuel gauge fix doesn’t apply. Specifically New Zealand, as far as I can tell our local authority doesn’t deem a functioning fuel gauge as a safety issue, so Nissan NZ isn’t required to fulfill the recall for our Elgrands. Regardless of how much you beg or reason, Nissan NZ doesn’t want to know so you’re on your own.
I’d be almost positive New Zealand isn’t alone there and there’s likely owners in other nations scratching their heads re their dodgy fuel gauge.
The actual fix is a pretty simple circuit board and a loom connecting everything affixed to the rear of your instrument cluster. Someone else would be able to explain it better but essentially I’ll describe it as a bypass between your in tank fuel pump/filter/sender, and the dicey circuit components relating to the fuel gauge inside your instrument cluster. Probably not technically correct but that’s the underlaying gist.
The recall component in its entirety includes the rear cover of your cluster. You simply remove your instrument cluster from the dash, then remove the rear cover and replace it with the “recall cover” which includes a piece of loom, and the additional circuit board affixed under the plastic lid with the two screws illustrated in the cluster at the top of the pic. This cluster at the top of the pic is the complete E51 series 2 fuel gauge fixed cluster.
The rear of a regular E51 cluster without the fuel gauge fix, of any series, once removed from the dash of your vehicle is blank. No loom, no screws holding the lid on a circuit board.
The bottom of the attached pic shows an E51 series 1 rear panel. You’ll notice I hacked a big rectangle hole out of it, I did this to rob the case component of the rear panel which houses the “recall fix” circuit board. Because this loom and circuit board was required for a Series 2 E51. You can see my handy work of tying these pieces together in the loom sitting between the complete S2 cluster on top, and the S1 rear panel on bottom.
There are some differences between S1 and S2 Elgrand instrument clusters, most notably the location of the small loom connection from your dash into the cluster top left. The series 2 cluster has moved this connector inboard on the panel by about 10-15mm, so the series 1 rear panel won’t fit onto a series 2 cluster without some modification to that connector location. There’s other differences too, so it just made more sense to me to sacrifice the S1 rear panel in order to simply have the piece of that rear panel I hacked out that encloses the fuel gauge fix circuit board.
Both looms and circuit board from the Series 1 cluster and the Series 2 cluster were identical. Same part number, same everything. I fitted both Series 1 and Series 2 recall fixes into my series 2 4x4 E51 and both behaved the same. Everything lit up on my dash, my instrument cluster behaved perfectly fine. Neither of the recall fix clusters I purchased were from a 4x4, so there is no distinction between any different build for the purpose of the fuel gauge recall fix.
The small circuit board included with the fuel gauge fix is a standalone item. It’s not tied or connected directly to the existing innards of your instrument cluster. It’s only connection is via the additional loom supplied with the recall fuel gauge fix.
A bit long winded I know. Someone might want to know though.
