I have an '02 GLE with only 28K, meticulously maintained. I am the original owner. Last year I went to the dealership (with 24,225K miles) and had the "100-point inspection" and the 15K mile service, and there were absolutely no issues with the car. Of course, the car was under warranty- I got the extended 6 year plan. The car always had a habit of pulling left slightly.

Anyway, I'm about to go on a long trip (about 1K miles), so I thought I would get another inspection. Of course, now my warranty is done. I wanted an alignment since my car is pulling left again, slightly. So I returned to the dealership.

Here are the issues:
1. My car is pulling left because my passenger strut is bent. Cost of repair: $1079.00
2. Drivebelts are cracked, replace: $169.14
3. Brake flush: $96.99
4. Decarb with injector service: $185.00
5. Both radiator hoses: $250

Total cost of repairs:$1780.13

I think it's rather strange that I could have done all this damage on 4K miles of normal driving. I think either A: They are making up problems to screw me or B: They neglected these problems 4K miles ago when the car was under warranty so they wouldn't eat the cost.

What should I do?

Thanks in advance.

 

the only thing i could point out is that if your strut is bent, assuming its just the strut you can get it far cheaper than a grand out the door. also, you could just buy injector cleaner at a pep boys or autozone for less.

 

I've seen lots of Maximas with way more miles than that. If you really need anything more than an alignment I would be very surprised.

Don't fall for it.

 

1000$ for a strut replacement?... ROFL... way too much.

im surprised the drive belt is cracked at 28k... im still on the same one with 127k

have you driven over anything hard and fast ... like a pothhole or curb... if not.. i doubt your strut is bent... and im sure a good alignment and balance will fix your problem

and these arent things that happen over the course of 4k of normal driving...

my money is... if any of things are real issues... and not a pile of bull.... then they were existing 4k miles ago.... those things dont happen over night.

fight with someone about it.

 

I live in Houston, TX- we have the worst roads on the planet and I run over potholes on a daily basis. I agree though than not much has happened over the past 4K miles and any true problem is pre-existing- but how could I ever convince anyone of that? I would probably be beating a dead horse and get nothing out of it.

They also charged me for the alignment but the car still veers left- just as before.

 

LoL thats halarious...

get quoted $1.7k when all u need is an alignment.

i'd agree though.
with the cars track record as you claim, i highly doubt most of the issues u've listed.

don't believe the dealership, more times than not, they are hardly the 'specialists' for your car that you believe them to be. i've heard quite a few unbelieveable dealership horror stories from friends i trust enough to believe they're not making anything up.

if nothing else, at least get a 2nd opinion from an independent shop

 

Thanks guys.
I called a Firestone that's across the street- they quoted me $500 for the strut replacement. When I told them about my experience they guy was laughing on the phone.

 

a little late - but HELL YES, you're getting HOSED!
Don't go back to THAT dealership, EVER.

$500 is a little high for the strut replacement.
I can't IMAGINE how a svc. center can determine that a strut is Bent???
I think it's something else.
Bent control arm / tie-rod is way more common, and cheaper and easier to replace.
Start cheap and work your way-up to more expensive fixes.
Having an alignment is WORTHLESS is you are going to continue to pull the struts out.

I suspect you told firestone that the prev. stealer recommended replacing the strut, b4 they came to the conclusion on their own.
Going to one more place, and telling them NOTHING, other than it pulls in one direction should give you an idea of what is really wrong.

gr

 

If you pay for all of this you might as well do some stretches to make sure you can grab your ankles for a good long while.......

1. I cant imagine a strut being bent without a control arm or tie rod being bent as well as was said before. I would get a second opinion on this. Not to mention, 1079.00 is absolutely crazy. Get a new whole set of tokico blues on ebay for $300.00 any have them installed for a couple hundred at an independent shop. Save yourself $500 and get 4 new struts.

2. Get belts from Dave B and either do it your self or have an independent shop install them.

3. @ 28k miles??!??!!?!!!!! If you really think this needs to be done, get some speed bleeders and do it your self.

4. If it only has 28K in 6-7 years, it probably sits quite a bit so you may have a little build up. But if its driving fine and you havent lost any power, I dont think you need anything done. By the way, do you know how they diagnosed this?

5. Get hoses from Dave B or parts store and either do it yourself, or have an independent shop do it.

Man....the more stuff I see like this the happier I am that I have a good friend who is a knowledgable nissan mechanic so I dont have to deal with the dealerships.

 

I missed the brake fluid flush.
I ACTUALLY paid my dealer to do this last year, although I could have done it myself. $165 is about $100 too much....pay the independent guy to do this.
But DO get it done!! Brake fluid needs to be flushed once a year in optimal conditions....so you are long overdue.

Agree about the struts: i don't think it's even POSSIBLE to "bend" a strut unless you are in an accident of some kind.
Look towards the smaller susp. bits first.
If You MUST replace the strut, you can buy two NEW aftermarket TOKICO BLUES (which are better than OEM) for the same cost as one OEM.

Be smart - and go slow. Auto mechs get PAID to rip you off.

Oh - and don't buy that crap about the belts either....of COURSE it's cracked! It's rubber! -- it'll run another five years most likely, even WITH the cracks.

gr

 

they are trying to make a fool out of you. You can do the work yourself and safe some money, or take it somewhere else and be done. If you are n Orlando I'll do it for you

 

I'll attest to that . However, i, too drive on the same roads and have gone through some nasty potholes... one that was even large enough to bend my Forged rims. It damaged the rim, slit the tire but there was no other damage to the suspension or anything else connected to it. Nada. Zilch.

Which dealership are you going to? All those prices are indeed very high. I've had the best service with Mossy Nissan in the west side, ditto with Sterling McCall Nissan in the SW side, but SMcM tend to overprice. They also got me with the cracked belt bit - then again i have well over 100k on my 02 so it was time to replace anyway.

Brake flushes, i go to one of the local auto shops. Last time i did this, it was $19.95, i brought my own fluid.

 

UPDATE
-----------

I went to Firestone, and the guy there (Dave) was very cool and showed me that there was nothing wrong with the strut. He showed me that the tie-rod or some other component was the problem leading to increased wear on the interior portion of the passenger-front tire. He also showed me that my tires had dry-rot all over them (they are 6+ years old). He ordered some kit that would fix the problem for $80.
To show it was a tire problem, he switched out the two from tires- problem reversed sides.

WORST part of this is that I paid the dealership $70 for the alignment, but Dave showed me that there were no wrench marks anywhere, and that there was no alignment made. SO I paid $70 for absolutely nothing. I'm getting ready to call and RAISE FREAKIN HELL.

DON'T EVER EVER GO TO BAKER-JACKSON NISSAN.

/end rant

 

you only get ripped off....if you let yourself get ripped off.....

 

Bottom line: Don't deal with those "yahoos" ever again. They are definitely full of ****. They are lying about the condition of your car because ultimately under warranty they would have still gotten paid from Nissan for doing the warranty work. And I'm sure even the dummies that run your dealership would know that it is better to get your money now than later (especially considering that a car could wreck at any given moment on the road then bye, bye no easy revenue). So if a issue that bad existed then (when you were still under warranty) they would have jumped on it then. Get another dealership.

 

Didn't even notice this post. Well good luck with future endeavors.

 

I bent a strut (an Illumina, at that). it was bent and the control arm and tie rod were fine, after a hard impact with road debris. Struts aren't really that strong laterally, only vertically, and can bend pretty easily with hard impact.

That said, you can get a new strut for like $100 (you need to do both fronts at the same time though) and install yourself. It isn't hard.

 

btw, in case you don't believe me, here's what the wheel looked like. Strut was bent just above the lower mount bracket.

 

sweet camber!

 

I called the dealership and spoke with the manager. He said that I would have to come in and talk about it- he needed to see the "evidence". I wish I would have taken a picture of the clean bolts that had not been adjusted. I will, however, have the alignment readouts from Firestone showing that no alignment was ever done.
I'm wondering I should even bother to go in or just call Mastercard and cancel the payment now. I'm going to report them either way... unless they give me a new 350Z.

 

seriously, what kind of yahoo shops do you have down there?

If your tires are dry-rotted, GET NEW ONES. There is no way to safely "repair" tires that are all dry-rotted. I don't know what he plans to do to them, but whatever it is, it sounds like a terrible idea.

 

I hope a top dollar hooker and some blow comes with that 1000 dollar strut repair....

 

Dude, if you are getting any kind of non-waranty service at a dealer, you are going to get sodomized. Almost anyone could do all that stuff for a lot less, do it yourself. You could get all new shocks/struts and springs for a lot less and put them on yourself in an afternoon.

 

Now that would be cool . Or even better a new GTR . We can all dream...

 

Unless you believe that Firestone can prove your case you will be better off paying the piper. Trust me they will get hurt less from court proceedings than you will. I say ultimately what you are doing right now hurt them more than anything. Exposing them to an audience of loyal Nissan fan boys hurts them where it counts. In the potential customer base. Especially considering that the U.S. is currently in what could be considered the front end of a long standing economic doldrum. Trust me you don't want to risk B.S. prosecution for 70 dollars.

 

The repair is for the piece that is causing the un-even tire wear and the left-sided pull- I'm definitely getting that fixed. I will get the tires replaced... but it is not urgent.

 

Firestone has the alignment data showing that the wheels are not aligned- in the same afternoon I paid $70 for BAKER-JACKSON NISSAN to align them. I asked the mechanic who said it would be convincing enough for him.

 

if your strut is bent, check the classifieds here as there is always someone selling stock suspension. Secondly, dont fall for the drivebelt being cracked crap. When I first got my maxima and didnt know anything about the car, I took it for an oil change and the tech told me the drive belt was cracked and suggested to get a new one for around $150 installed. I got scared and went along with it but asked him to show me the old one. He showed it to me when he put the new one in and I wouldnt even call it cracked. It was "used" but definitely not cracked to the extent where it needed to be replaced. Dont fall for it ESP. with such low mileage

 

Hasn't everyone who visits this site learned to not go to the dealerships for anything unless its warranty work. I lived in Houston TX and in fact bought my first Maxima there in 99 and that was the only time I used the dealer.

Do some research, ask your friends, but find an independent shop and make them your best friend and you won't have to ask stupid questions here like "Did I get ripped off?" You already knew the answer before you typed the question.

 

I would say that asking on this site is akin to "asking friends". Yes, I suspected that it was a rip-off, that's why I didn't pull the trigger and asked for documentation. But I'm no mechanic. I now know more than I ever thought I would about cams and struts and such.

By the way, the actual part that was off was the camber. I had 2 adjusted for $130. I'm sure it was also a rip-off, but now the pull to the left is gone, and my steering wheel is straight for the first time in years. That's a difference of $949 that I didn't spend, so I'm pretty glad I posted on this site.

 

1700 wowwwwwww lol i think they saw u comeing

 

so cracked drive belts are nothing to worry about?...even on a higher mileage car? .. since when?...

 

seriously?

that is terrible advice...if its cracked it means it needs to be replaced.

the belt went out on my 00 doing 70 on the highway...it wasnt pretty

 

UPDATE II (for those that are interested)
-----------------------------------------

I called back the manager at BAKER-JACKSON NISSAN (criminals) after my father suggested that going there in person to complain would be a bad idea, saying they could find new ways to cause problems for me. The manager told me that he spoke with Lance, the service rep that I gave my business to, and that they agreed that no alignment was done. However, they did diagnose the strut problem, and usually they charge $100 to diagnose a problem. They were just being nice by charging me $69.95 for an alignment and then NOT aligning my car. But, just to be even nicer, the crook CHARLIE ROBERTS (manager) told me he would give me half my money back because he "had to pay his technicians something" for not rendering the services promised. He did, however, want to see my car.

I told Mr. Roberts that I would never allow them to see my car again. I told him he had two options: 1- refund all my money and convince me why I should NOT report him to the BBB and the Texas State Attorney General for defrauding me of $69.95 and trying to defraud me of $1700, or 2- NOT refund my money, at which time I would definitely report him, and then call Mastercard to stop the charge, given that I had A:documentation from BJNissan stating that I paid for an alignment but non was given and B:documentation from Firestone showing that no alignment was made and that a Cam and wheel alignment solved all my problems.

The criminal Charlie Roberts then told me he would give me a full refund since he didn't need my kind of business anyway, and hung up the phone. It didn't really sound like much of an apology.

 

okay - so BLANKET statement was written in haste....
C'mon Sooner.....you know as well as I do that "cracked" by a DEALER's definition means hairline AT BEST.
I can look at my belt and see all kinds of hairline cracks - it's NORMAL. It's RUBBER, it wears -- but is it TRULY in need of replacement??

Well - naturally, this is a judegement call....but given that the rest of this dealer's recommendations were questionable at best -- i'd say in 24k miles, he's SAFE assuming that it's NOT in need of replacemement.
As I said -- get a second opinion.

gr

 

hooray!

seriously?... doesnt need your kind of business anyway?.... yea... that kind of attitude will get him real far in the auto market especially the way the economy is going..

its all about kissing *** man.

 

Nice job on going-back and TELLING him he's a crook, and getting your $$$ back.
File that report to the BBB -- it will be largely worthless, but maybe it will add-up if they are chronic.

Btw --- C H A N G E Y O U R B R A K E F L U I D !!!!!!!

gr

 

I looked under the hood this morning to see what they were talking about- the belt looks literally good as new (no surprise). The hoses, other than having some dust on them, were perfectly fine with literally no signs of stress or wear. Not to mention that I have never had any leaks of any kind. Both were stated in the "inspection" to be in need of URGENT repair.

These guys need to see hard time.

 

As soon as you get your refund, i would report them just because he gave you the attitude when he hung up.

If he was nice about it and admitted they screwed up, then I would probably let it go, but when he said "he didn't need my kind of business anyway", its your turn to screw him.

 

geez sorry for your experience--i just booked a service with them--which baker jackson did u go? the one in Houston on southloop?