SkoorbMax

December of last year (or late November), I took my 00 SE with 59,200 miles into Nissan to get my engine bay rattling diagnosed. It was bad coils. No code, so a new set was needed at $655. I instead bought the set for $309 from Dave Burnette. Installed them myself, and Bob's your uncle; no more rattling.

Mid last month I decided to send a nice letter to Nissan Customer Affairs. I explained that bad coils in my car are exceptionally common and I made the argument that in fact this problem is so common that I didn't feel I shouild cover the entire cost of coils. Either they should be included within powertrain, or Nissan should have offered free replacements/recalls, because of all of the problems. I referenced the petition that somebody here made online, and also all of the problems that many of us have noticed at the forums. Finally I referred to the truthful fact that my father and myself are pretty big Nissan fans.

Guess what? A check/cheque for $309 is literally in the mail (so I'm told!). This may impress some of you because fully 23k miles past my warranty Nissan was able to cover my costs. This is a cherry on the cake that is my Maxima. Other than a bad O2 sensor right after I bought it at 37k, the car has been great.

And, it may upset some of you because I can tell you right now that most people - if they try what I did - will be unsuccessful. At least I would assume so. The lady referred to it as a one-time thing for me (not one-time in the sense that nobody else on the planet will be as lucky, but rather they aren't going to cover any more repair costs for me in the future in this way).

I know that the ratings for Nissan Customer Service are not the best, and obviously the people who post here are more likely to say bad things about nissan service than good (griping is more fun than commending), but I was rather thrilled at this. It was unexpected, and my letter was just a shot in the dark. So, in the end, Nissan customer service has been pretty good to me so far

spirilis

iTrader: (2)

Haha, nice!

fishhouse

iTrader: (1)

you're lucky...i'm jealous!

congrats and don't spend it all in one place!

kcowden

iTrader: (2)

Good for you!!! Sometimes you can get things done with a kind calm word rather than a harsh one. 80/20 rule.... 80% of us will have to resort to ranting and raving and 20% of will get what we want.

Bulldawg

iTrader: (1)

What did the rattle sound like....and when did would it happen

nick778

While I have a 2k3 without any coil issues, this is good news for those that have coil problems. Given how tight Nissan is these days with money and warranty allowance to the dealers, the fact that they cut you a check means they *know* there is a problem. Perhaps rather than a recall, they are silently adopting a position of reimbursing or covering those that complain since it effectively satisfies the relevant customer base at a much lesser cost than issuing a recall.

irish44j

iTrader: (38)

Interestingly, my local Nissan dealer just replaced a bad strut on my 2k max with 45,000 miles. I have the extended (100,000 mile) warranty which explicity states in the booklet that it "does not cover struts". But they did anyways. So not all dealer/Nissan experiences are bad!

spirilis

iTrader: (2)

My coils are definitely going... felt intermittent severe misfire earlier today coming into work. This is after the fuel filter change (though before I do it right, since I don't have the new fuel sender/chamber/filter/O-ring parts yet), but my car's been running fine since I rigged my fuel filter/pump setup, so I am positive it is the coils causing these misfires. They only happened for a brief period of time, and the car feels like the timing was retarded (unusual lack of power for a brief period of time afterwards)...

kcowden

iTrader: (2)

I HEAR THIS FU**ING NOISE IN MY SLEEP. Turn radio and fan off, roll down window. ("careful if your in the NE cause it's cold here) find good piece of road with slight increase in elevation and between 1800-3000 rpms you'll hear a ticking of the valves. You don't have to be going that fast and you can hear it better at night with if there is little traffic.

spirilis

iTrader: (2)

Keep in mind, the 2k2-2k3's are known to ping/detonate sometimes, but not necessarily related to ignition coil problems like 2k-2k1...

Ask maximadave about it

kcowden

iTrader: (2)

I know, but it is all the time. I can't imagine that it is normal to have that amount of pinging, and it's not the gas either because it was happening in the hot summer.

spirilis

iTrader: (2)

yep, I'm pretty sure it's not normal at all... or at least *shouldn't* be normal...

lowblackdub

iTrader: (1)

Goes to show you that the squeaky wheel gets the oil. I had VW of Canada actually purchase a car back from me because I complained hard enough and long enough of the quality problems I was experiencing. Thanks to that I was able to buy my 2000 Maxima.

Nathan

iTrader: (28)

Let us know if the cheque actually arrives at your door step. Congrats!

mgoralnick

This is not quite as unusual as you might think. You may be surprised to learn that I had the same thing happen to me in dealing with GMC on my 96 Yukon when we had to pay $450 to replace a fuel pump after warranty was over. We wrote them a letter and explained that we also have a 91 Maxima SE and they sent us a check for the entire amount .... but also explained that it was a one time thing.

BrandonSE

iTrader: (1)

Guys i have posted this before but am unsure of the answer and since we're talking about warranty issues, I bought my car from a third party, not nissan dealership. All these tsb's/recall issues are still valid for me? Because there are alot of things i would like the dealership to check out, i.e. my struts considering that it sounds bad. One last question was how much was the charge for them to look at your car. Or did they not charge you?

thanks alot guys

panda_1

iTrader: (4)

Well Aint That A *****