Nissan CG10 / CG13

Nissan's small petrol four — the 1.0 CG10 and 1.3 CG13 — in the Micra, March and Cube.

It is a chain-driven, all-aluminium, twin-cam design that was unusually sophisticated for a supermini engine of its day, and it is most of why cars of that generation are still running.

Its recurring complaints are cheap and physical. Ignition coils fail one at a time and misfire under load before they do at idle; the idle control valve carbons up and gives a hunting or stalling idle; and the crankshaft position sensor produces an intermittent no-start that reads as an electrical fault.

A rattle on a cold start at high mileage is the timing chain tensioner, and on a car of this value that is often the point at which one is retired rather than repaired.

The CR family that replaced it has its own page here and shares the model line but not the engine.