I posted last week that my 2K2 Se was making a grinding/ clunking sound only when it was cold (like under 20 degrees farenheit outside). I brought it in to Nissan and they could not duplicate or find the problem blah blah.. Well come to find out they warmed the car up before looking at it. Anyway I brought it in again and showed the service manager and the mechanic the sound and they still couldn't figure it out. They pretty much thought the sound was a suspension problem and re-torqued all nuts/bolts in the front end (at least that is what they said they did). When they were done my car handled a lot better but I still had the grinding/bumping sound when cold.
Thanks to .org member Nathan replying to my last post he mentioned to check my aftermarket "B" pipe. He said he had the same problem with his when it was really cold out. I had my "B" pipe on for over a year and never had any rattles or clunking sounds with it. I turns out one of the rubber hangers that is close to the front of the "B" pipe was stretched out a bit and allowed the "b" pipe to hit the forward metal brace that runs unter the exhaust pipe. Don't ask me why it only happened when it was cold out and when away after my car warmed up when driving. I had the muffler shop that installed the "b" pipe fix it and they were nice enought not to even charge me for it.
Thanks agin Nathan for the tip, The nissan dealer would have never found it and would probably made a big deal about my aftermarket "B" pipe.
Also, the Warpspeed "b" pipe looked as good as new after two winters, I was worried when I heard people say that it will rust in New England.

 

that must be a relief! enjoying the temps up there? im so glad im back in school in SC. it was 56 degs yesterday

 

Would you expect Nissan to fix something that another shop installed? If you were making a warranty claim, they would not have to fix any aftermarket parts that were not installed by Nissan.

 

Believe me I don't want Nissan working on my car at all. They couldn't even find out what was making the sound and they had the car for two full days. The only reason I brought it in Nissan is because the noise was going away after the car warmed up so I assumed it couldn't be the exhaust. Plus the noise actually sounded like a transmission problem and I just wanted them to diagnose the problem which they couldn't do.
Lucky for me another .org member figured this one out on his car first.

 

And why would you expect nissan to fix or find the problem since it only happned when the car was extreamly cold and you have aftermarket exhaust parts on the car. If the part was designed properly and installed properly that problem would have never existed. If this was a problem that was somewhat common on maximas i am sure the nissan dealer would be aware of it and looked for it.

 

I don't want anybody working on my car besides Nissan while it's still under warranty. After that, I will do most of the work myself. If I had the choice between the Nissan techs and the aftermarket shops (during my warranty period), I would choose Nissan every time. Not all techs are good and not all are bad. The key is finding a good one that you trust to fix your car. Whether ir's a dealership or independent shop.

 

Do you honestly think that I should not expect Nissan to be able to tell me what was wrong with my car? They could not even diagnose the problem even after I showed the service manager and the technician the sounds the car was making. They are so incompetent that they didn't even know my "B" pipe from Warpspeed was aftermarket. Besides, it uses all the stock exhaust hangerpoints and the only difference between it and stock is the fact that it is mandrel bent and 2.5" in diameter. You must be crazy not to expect the dealership to be able to locate the source of a problem with your vehicle when they had it for two working days.

According to your post the dealership can only find problems that are somewhat common and only happen when the car is warmed up . They are supposed to be highly trained techs that are experts at troubleshooting Nissan vehicles. Read through the .org some more and you will see numerous post by people with stock vehicles that have experienced problems that Nissan is clueless to fix and most times say "could not duplicate".