My car has been at the nissan dealership for 8 days now. I talked to the SM today and he said that he discussed the problem with the warranty guy and was told to go ahead and get a full estimate together on the cost of repair and then they would verify or not verify the coverage under warranty.

So I ask what exactly has happend, and he says that I will need a new engine because the dreaded screw from the throttle plate has caused damage to my engine. He goes on to say that he feels pretty confident that nissan will cover this under warranty. I ask him how he can be so confident, and he said that the warranty guy knows that these cars have had these problems before and that is why he thinks they will cover it. He says that he will call me tomorrow and let me know what they said (keep your fingers crossed). I ask if there is anything that I can do to help (like take the intake and crap off), and he says no they already know that it is on there and they are fine with it.

But throughout this entire process the SM, although a little slow to call back(we'll say he paces himself), has been very helpful and seems like he is watching out for my intrest. So everyone pray for me that nissan decides to cover this under warranty.

[edit]
***OLD THREAD***
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=280491
[/edit]

 

*BINGO* WE have a winner!!!!

Or is it loser?

Man...sorry about your luck, but hey you get a BRAND NEW engine!

 

Oh...they *HAVE* to cover it.

It's a known problem.

 

what do you mean by *have*....come on now don't be messin with my head

 

It's a KNOWN problem...no way they can weasel this one. If I were you, I would ride them like they're your b!tch.

Ask for rental car too~!

 

Also, I *PREDICT* a recall on this issue coming soon. IF people are already having this happen, I can only imagine how many will eventually with some more time.

 

I wonder if I will get an engine with the cam position sensor recall already done. and how does a new engine affect resale value.

 

honestly it probably won't effect resale value much because the rest of you car still has the same miles on it. Its considered "maintenance" because you wouldn't be able to sell the car for book value with a bad or no engine

 

If it's installed by Nissan and has LESS miles on it?

I don't see a problem with that, however someone might think you abused the car inorder to need a new engine already. Once you show them receipts or whatever that it was a factory defect, shouldn't be a concern.

 

Well I guess you should be happy that they diagnosed the issue and it's not your fault. Though the fact that this seems to be happening more frequently is a concern to us all. Ice is probably right here, a recall will come soon. The cost per failure has got to be huge to them, which means that the incident rate doesn't have to be that high before it becomes cost effective to issue a recall. I think we all realize that its got to be pretty disheartening when it happens to you though and I don't think anyone would think twice about dumping the car in similiar circumstances. Plus, who wants a car that has been dismantled to such a degree? Have you made a final decision on whether you are going to hunt for an IS or are you going to see this through first?

 

Make sure you go to NHTSA and report your problems. That is the only way to possibly cause Nissan to issue a recall.

 

Can someone explain this problem to me? I haven't heard of any 3.5 motors blowing up from a screw or a problem with the throttle plate. I check the Org all the time and I haven't heard of this before. Also, I have an '03 6sp so my concern is a little more urgent.

Thanks

 

The old thread linked to above by Bulldawg has in itself links to direct posts on this problem.

 

bixmaxxx,

Ok the jist is that there is a set screw that holds the buttlerfly valve to its pivot rod inside the throttle body, and this screw somehow comes loose and is pulled into the engine and can cause all sorts of damage. Now I don't think my damage was as severe as some others because my car still ran fine, it just had this nice little rattle(you would have to be **** to here it, like I am). So I think the problem was diagnosed in my car early, possibly before complete failure.

Now my concern is, I hope nissan has done something on this new engine to remedy this problem, because in another 40k I don't want this to happen again. And I also hope that nissans new engines aren't like their "new" radios, which are just rebuilds that are still faulty.


Y2K2Driver,

I have thought about all of those things and yes it does suck to have your pride an joy completely scewed over, all I can hope for is that the mechanic is somewhat competent. I have been hunting for an IS300 but the problem is that it would have to be a 2002 and up becuase that is when they started making manuals. And a post 2002 IS300 will run me around 24-29k for a used car(those things don't lose there value), and given that I am still a student and I will be graduating in 7 months, I see it fit to wait until I get a job to look into purchasing a new car. I don't want to get in over my head. I will probably keep the max and maybe even mod it a little more, defenitly getting a aftermarket radio. Hopefully I won't have any more problems out of this car, maybe I just had a bad engine to start with and this is what is going to take to fix it.

Remember to keep your fingers crossed because none of this is final yet, hopefully tomorrow at lunch I will have good news.

 

what kind of rattle is it i also have this rattle but i think its just pinging but not sure do u hear it all though the rpms because i only hear mine sometimes when i get on it and i only hear it at low rpms

 

also the rattle i have might be from my strut bar but not really sure.

 

It sounds like the timing chain rattle

 

This scares me pretty bad. I'm out of 3/36 warranty, and on cold starts (read: all winter) sometimes I'll get the timing chain rattle for up to like 30 seconds! I definitely can't afford any repair like this if it won't be covered under powertrain. Time to make a visit anyway.

 

You are still fine, you have a 6 year, 60k mile powertrain warranty

 

5yr. But the point is at 60,001 mi, is the screw going to fall out and ruin the engine? I'd hate to think we are all sitting on a time bomb. Time for some Loctite.

 

I have a rattle at start up and pinging when driving. Seems the pinging has gotten worse. Always use 91, dealer says its normal, bs. Whats wrong with the dam$ car? I have never had a car with so many little problems.

 

okay...now i am scared. The max is a great car, but the recalls really turn you off.'..either you get a great car(2 out of 5 times) which runs great or you get a lemon(3 out of 5)...nissan should do something to improve on quality

 

trust me nissan is doing great compare to other like honda, acura, broken tanny all the time, toyota blow up engine all the time. look at the eurpean, I even want to know. I think car these day don't last as long as the 90's period. there is too much technoiges pack inside the car. Car compaines learn they lesson by not to building reiable car, they need to make money.

 

!!!!!VQ30 BABY!!!!!

Sounds like a good time to bring back the old AE vs. 2K2 thread.

 

I have a strange rattling sound under hard accelleration sometimes....doesn't seem to do anything bad, but it's a little annoying...

Does this loose screw problem happen on the 3.0 engine as well?

 

There are two butterfly valves. One in the throttle body and the other deep inside the intake manifold. Which one is the one that is prone to lose the screws? The throttle body one is easy enough to check to ensure the screws are tight but the other one would involve removing the intake manifold if I'm not mistaken.

 

Ok here is the latest. I got a call from nissan on Friday, and they said that they are going to cover it under warranty but that they don't have the man power at this dealership to do it, so I will have to take it to another dealership about 15miles away. He also said that they are going to attempt to "overhaul" the engine first, and if they can't then they will replace it.

He also said that before I take it to the other dealership, to remove my intake. He said he would call them and give them all the information that he has gathered, does this make any sense to anybody. If he has already gotten authorization to cover it under warranty then why do I need to remove my intake?

 

I can think of two good reasons. First, unless you have a signed agreement from the president of Nissan, don't take anything for granted. Sure, your SM may be understanding and know that the intake caused no problems, but the next guy might say "Oh, the first SM didn't notice this - I need to call home office and inform them of aftermarket parts - that will make them happy with me." Second, and I know this has happened to folks in my family in the past, if you take it in with your better intake, and they try an overhaul first or whatever, there's a chance that your intake could be "lost", or "damaged" and discarded. I seriously doubt that would happen these days, but you just never know when a service tech might have a Max of his own that needs a new intake.

Besides, it's just better to be safe than sorry. You just don't want some tech saying that the screw fell out of some other part when you replaced your intake. Then YOU have to somehow prove that it didn't, after they've erased all evidence.

I guess you can tell that since my lawsuit with Nissan I don't trust them as much as I used to.

 

Yea that makes sense, I just hope that this new dealer doesn't have to get authorization. I don't feel like waiting another freaking week without gettin work done on my car

 

I dropped my car off today, and this other dealership seems to be good. The woman at the front told me that they have a tech who has been working with nissan for 18 years. She also said that they would try to push for engine replacement, which is music to my ears. They are going to have to do some preliminary checks first, and I will hopefully know something defenitive tomorrow.

 

**i deleted the other post and placed it in here as requested**

This new dealership that I am at calls me today to tell me that my Front bank Precat has broken up and that is what is causing the rattling. I believe that it was WillSE That told me this is what was wrong. This also explains why it only does it when warm. I suggested this to the first dealer and they blew me off, but now this other dealer believes it is the reason. The woman says the part is on order, and I should have a car by thursday. So it seems I have been going through all this crap for nothing. Son of A B*tch. Lets hope they are correct and I won't hear this noise again.

 

could have been your pre cats rattling like mine were.

will

 

LOL i just read the last post. YES THIS IS YOUR PROBLEM!!! very annoying rattle VERY DIFFICULT to pinpoint. i bought the stillen headers to shut the rattle up. after i had the headers installed i confirmed with my eyes that YES indeed the precats were breaking away. i could actually see a small crack down the front one and lil chunks of precat fell out when i shook it. if this is DEFINATELY the problem tell them to clear out your main cat of any debris that might have collected and clogged your exhaust flow. i found that the debris that fell from the precats clogged my high flow cat enough to cause a loss in performance. glad to hear that you can get it fixed. BUT they blaimed my high flow cat and tried to stick me with the bill so becareful. i think it was estimated $1307.60 for the precat and installation

will

 

Damn, thats a lot of money. Yea, I suggested to them what you said about checking my precats, and the quote from the first dealer was "we usually don't put to much stock in other peoples problems being related to the problem at hand", and they never checked it. I have now found out that the first dealership basically didn't do any work to my car and were just going to get a new engine to keep from having to diagnose the problem. What really ****es me off is that I could have been driving my car for the past 3 weeks with no consequenses.

 

Got my car back today, everything is fine, Plus they did the engine sensor recall without me even asking. Said my precat was shredded.