Nissan Largo Friends

Hi im trying this site as i am totally baffled by my granddads nissan largo highway star the van is totally alien to me. I done an oil change on the Nissan today and changed filter and after i had topped up oil and put everything back in its place i test drove it and it seemed like it wouldn't change gears then as i accelerated more the revs shot up into the red i put the nissan in park pulled the keys out and still it over revved and kept running. i genuinely thought it was going to explode there was black smoke bellowing out of the exhaust and water coming from somewhere so was wandering if anyone could make any suggestions on my problem thanks.

Are you sure you got the oil level right? The dipstick by the front left of the engine?

It sounds like the engine has way too much oil in it to the extent that it has overpressured the sump and pushed past the turbo seals and did "diesel runaway" (redline and lots of black smoke as the engine runs on it's own sump oil).

Unfortunately the action of this may have damaged the head gasket hence the water.

I take it that it was working fine beforehand?

are you shure you didnt drain g/box and top up engine with more oil and overfilled like tony says,i think you may have

Well i had told my grandad because it was a totally different thing to what im used to take it to the garage to be done but he insisted which in his case i think was a bad move. and im pretty sure we drained the oil mate personally i don think he got the proper oil but im no exspert i just done as he asked and was shocked with the outcome :-/

And yes it was working fine before hand hense the reason we all said take to to a garae for a servive properly i was just helping my grandad
Thanks for replys by the way guys i just cant seem to find much info on his largo

There isn't much info, it's bit of a specialist car being a rather unusual grey import.

It has two sumps, one for transmission oil with a dipstick under and behind the driver's seat, and one for engine oil with dipstick to the front left of the engine accessed via the passenger fold-back seat.

The engine is a tough old diesel lump, there is very little to go wrong with it.

Certainly lack of automatic transmission fluid would stop it changing gear properly or delivering power to the drivetrain, and you also describe unmistakable diesel runaway with ignition off with the engine redlining.

Check the level on the two dipsticks first and foremost before doing anything else.

How much oil did you put in?

Thankfully my grandad took my advice and got the Nissan properly done at a garage he did get it wrong by telling me the transmission sump was engine oil hence the reason there was no gear change and so on he ended up putting another 3 litres to what was already in the engine but thankfully nothing major went wrong now its running perfect again.

you were very lucky m8ty ,glad you learned a lesson and all end well

Cheers buddy

hi just got a largo where do i locate the oil drain plug. best oil to use, and locate the filter and best way to change it thanks also where to top up transmission fluid, and how to change the roll bar linkages just ordered a pair... parts are cheap! thanks pete n...20ltr diesel