After years of complaints within the Nissan Titan community regarding broken crankshafts, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is finally opening an investigation. The federal agency is specifically looking at diesel trucks from 2016 through 2019. Depending on the findings, it has the potential to result in a recall affecting over 38,000 trucks in total.
If you browse through threads on TitanXDForum or review complaints on the NHTSA’s website, a recurring theme emerges among diesel-powered Titan trucks. Some of them are plagued by catastrophic crankshaft failures that ultimately render the engine inoperable.
Owners can’t seem to come to a consensus as to exactly what the heart of the issue is. Now, the NHTSA is stepping in after it says it’s received 10 specific complaints and “several” early warning field reports about it.
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The trucks in question all have the same type of 5.0-liter V8 diesel from Cummins. Model years range from 2016 through 2019 and appear to behave the same way when the crankshaft breaks. The engine won’t turn over for obvious reasons and the trucks end up needing an entirely new long block at least.
One complaint to the NHTSA reads as follows; “Was driving down the interstate going 70 mph truck started loosing power without any warning or check engine light’s. Truck started vibrating violently to the point almost lost control of truck. Dealer says broke crankshaft in motor truck only has 77k miles on it. This should be looked into as it’s happening a lot with models with the Cummings diesel motor. Please look into this before someone is killed. Thank you for keeping us safe.”
Others echo those sentiments and surround the broken crankshaft as the big concern here. As a result, the NHTSA says it’s opening a preliminary investigation into the matter and planning to determine exactly what’s going on. Depending on what it finds it could offer relief for the many who’ve dealt with this problem or it could end up being a big letdown. Sort of like a snapped crankshaft on an unabused vehicle.
