Updates - what a week
First, I need to thank everyone that has responded to this post - the encouragement and personal offers of help have been absolutely brilliant. Apologies for not responding, but on top of the car saga, I've had the most sh*te week of work and then ended up spending part of Easter in Accident and Emmergency with a member of my family.
So.... the car. Its at Litchfield to be fixed. Iain and his team are terrific.
The issue I had was caused by water coming into the cabin and onto the electrics, which over time has corroded a pin in the wiring harness. On the journey that I had on the M40, it was raining/snowing and the water ingress obviously caused a short and I suspect the pin now needs to be replaced.
Nissan (Westway Oxford - Bless 'em) proposed that they couldn't replace just a connector, and therefore a replacement wiring loom would be required (over £5k for the part plus over £1.8k plus VAT for fitting - bargain). I tried the warranty route, lodged a case/claim with Nissan and they stuck to the "your care has been modified by passing the camera ribbon cables through the same grommet" line. I explained and gave evidence of other people with the same issue, but they advised they weren't going to change their opinion.
Iain Litchfield however, said bring the car to them, and he'll fix for free and warranty the work. I'm not sure if the additional ribbon cables going through a grommet that already had a whole in it caused the issue, but Iain has kindly offered to take responsibility for fixing. His team have also organised the transport to take the car to their premises and it was picked up from Nissan Oxford today.
I attach a photo of the grommet, taken by Nissan, which clearly shows the additional cables that were installed for the front camera and laser jammer.
I'm hoping that Litchfield can fix the car this week and I can go and pick it up!
If Iain and his team fix this, I'll be looking to remove the Nissan badge and replace it with a Litchfield badge out of protest. I can also see myself getting a Litchfield warranty when the current one expires.
Once again, I can't thank people enough on this forum for your support and practical advice. Particularly Satan and Charles - you guys are proper gents and I owe you both a beer. Satan - apologies that I didn't repsond to your PM - this is the first time I've had 5 minutes to myself and to update the thread, but I'm genuinely very grateful for your offer of personal help - you're a top bloke :clap:
I would urge everyone who has ever had any condensation build up in their car and think nothing of it, to check the grommet, check under the carpet in the passenger footwell, and maybe even the connectors to the BCM and PCM for any potential issue - its worth preventing if you can.
I'll update again when the Litchfield team have advised on the progress.
And finally, one more thing! I rang Litchfield's office this morning slightly before they opened after the bank holiday weekend and the number was diverting to Iain's mobile, while he was in another country. I waited 10 minutes and called again and got through to the office and James helped confirm the time of the pickup from Oxford Nisaan - but Iain called me back. He explained he had a missed call, didn't know who I was but wanted to make sure I was being looked after. Compare that to the amount of times I've had to call Nissan just to get them to call me back.:thumbsup: