Called three Nashville Nissan dealers today..curious as to what they would say about the VTC issue.

1) Acted like he had no clue as to what I was talking about, said I'd have to bring the car in for diagnostics before giving me any price.$65 diagnostic charge

2) Another said "hmmmm, never heard of the VTC problem on a Maxima before" but the VTC is a computer and we'd need to hook it up to our diagnostic machine to see what it says" $64 diagnostic charge

3) "Hmmmmm, sorry ma'am, but the price of that is $1889.95." I said "can you simply disable them?" and his response was "hmmmm, we've never done that before ma'am". When questioned about parts only..said the little "thingies/whatever he called them"..were $492 apiece. Also said in conversation..that the issue was not a "problem", just annoying...and that many chose to live with it.

At this point, I'm not even sure thats my problem...all the descriptions seem to be a little different as to the sound and since I got the car on Friday..I've probably heard it all of less than 10 mins. Called the dealers today just because I wanted to know what they would say. :-)

 

VTC is a computer. HAHAHAHAHAHA!!

 

Thats pretty funny, considering the SECOND i pulled into the United nissan dealership here in chattanooga to get my oil changed the last time, as soon as i got out of the car the woman walked up, put a paper mat on the floorboard, and said "sounds like your vtc's are acting up" lol... they all know what they are.. must just be trying to act dumb for more money on your case..

 

Dont even bother going to the dealer. It really wouldnt surprise me at all if they didnt know what the VTC's are, I've found that to be the case in all my situations with the dealer, bunch of dummies as service advisors. Different story with the mechanics and all the other guys doing the dirty work in the shop, trained, hard working guys.

Anyway, if you come in for a checkup, they will charge you that $65 plus tax and when the dummy advisor comes back, he's gonna make this face like he's about to tell you some really, really horrible news. Then he opens his mouth and says "This car needs a tuneup, new Tranny and Motor mounts, as well as a front engine seal and a new left boot, its very important that you get this done now, we could have it done by tomorrow afternoon" The estimate comes out to be like $1300 or so and thats how they do business. The funny thing is that I've seen them pull this stuff on cars that are barely out of the showroom. Cant believe what suckers the customers are. Also keeping in mind that you always say how trusting you are, definitely stay away from the dealer. Live with it for now and if it becomes more obvious that it is infact your VTC's, just have your ex rewire them like all the other 3rd gen SE guys.

 

My VTC's are operational and I haven't rewired them, so I take offense to that last comment(I am proud that they don't tick for the time being).. (Of course I did fix them twice... ) I went to a wholesale nissan OEM parts supplier and got them for $325/piece after I just tried to rebuild them. But the cheapest way to to it if you don't mind losing some torque is to disable them.

 

hehe.......125k and no vtc problems on my max! i hope i dont jinx myself by bragging

 

I came to Staten Island Nissan service and parts department and explained the dude at the desk about my gas milage problem, and I asked if any kind of diagnosis can be done to check some of the parts that can be a cause.. He thought about it for a second and said, "I don't know what to tell ya..." then he said the car is 8 years old and I can't expect it to run like new, then he said "You should try using different gas" how is he going to tell me that being a Nissan service rep, reccomending me to go down to 87 octane or something... when the reccomended fuel for good performance and life of the engine is 91 and no lower. He then thought about it and said, that perhaps I need a tune up, I said that was already done, he was puzzled again and then after thinking about it he said "For 75$ an hour we can hook it up to a computer and check some things but I don't guarantee we will find anything". At that point I said, thank you, bye and got the F--- out of there. I was expecting to get some answers if not service but that was straight ********, the guy did not know what he was talking about and just told me **** with a straight face like he really knew what he was saying. Only thing he is good for is looking up prices of parts or different things on his labtop, thats it. I would suggest you go to a local privately owned shop, if u decide to get the VTCs done there, 90% chance that they will charge you way less then Nissan.

My 93' SE has 99k+ and no VTC problems yet, (at least I don't think so) thats the one thing that scares the crap out of me with these VE's, almost all VE people here have had the VTC problem, so I am probably bound to get it someday, and I do not have 1,200$ or so for the repair.