Qashqai cam belt failure - should Nissan pay for the repairs?

My sister’s 2006 Nissan Qashqai cam belt broke whilst on the motorway recently. The car has covered 62,000 miles and now needs a new engine. Nissan recommend that the belts are changed at five years or 90,000 miles, but they will not help as the car was outside their dealer network. Block Exemption means that cars can be serviced outside the franchise so this should have no bearing being serviced when it was purchased about 10 months ago. My sister has done less than 6000 miles and is only the second owner. I am trying to help put pressure on Nissan as I believe that this constitutes not fit for the purpose as it has broken so early. Can you help us please as I do not believe this is the only case
This must be a 1.5DCI diesel because all the other Qashqais have chain cam engines. It doesn't surprise me at all, which is why I recommend timing belt changes at 4 years or 60k mile if there is any history of belt failure.

Block Exemption only applies if the car has been serviced precisely to Nissan specification using the correct fluids and parts, so for any warranty claim to stand a chance, this needs to be conclusively proven. Timing belt failures on this engine were common and apparently Nissan issued a TSB for Qashqai 1.5 dCi up to August 2010 to correct the problem. If the car was not serviced by Nissan dealers it would have missed the TSB.
Answered by Honest John on

Ask Honest John