i brought my car in today for a bunch of thigns ( my exhaust is haning low in the back, hub bearings sound shot, struts have been making noises for months, brake light out).

the dealer called me today and are saying it appears the car bottomed out and all the damage is from that therefore not warrentied.


first of all, never happened, if there are scrape marks on the exhaust its because it was hanging low and hit driveways! second, theres a slightly frayed flex pipe from the exhuast from when i ran over someones donut on the highway, so they see that and i guess they think i drove off a bridge.


regardless of this, how can they even say bottoming out caused the struts to be worn out and make the banging noise they do??? i have to go there to "talk" to the service manager in an hour , what should i say? anyone have a link to the hundreds of people with bad struts and dealers replacing them?

 

Take it to a different dealership...You won't be able to win at this one. The struts are a known issue and there should be no question in replacing them. If you are past 36K miles then I hope you have an extended warranty.

However, case in point...why did you wait to take the car in for problems...you can only blame yourself for that. Always call in ahead of time to make an appointment. Usually you don't get hassled for issues once the car is in.

Had your car really bottomed out you would have bent exhaust pieces pretty bad IMHO.

bad struts
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=340880&page=4

 

i waited because its my only car and i have no other ride, i still got 8k miles to go.....

and i did make an appointment, and this is my second dealership.....i cant stand premium nissan so i tried out *** nissan by my house

 

You should say just that. It never happened, and the damage from rolling over the donut wouldn't have jacked the struts. You'd have to be doing some KITT jumps in that bad boy to get them to blow (unless they're the stock struts... then all you have to do is just drive normally and wait ).

As far as the other damage, if they won't cover it then check your insurance. Chances are it's covered under comprehensive, and depending on your deductible it might be worth investigating.

 

Fixxer

The same thing happened to me when I went in to get my left muffler adjusted to be even with my right at around 24000, becacuse of the problems they had with plenty of Nissan Maximas.

They tried to say I hit something in the road which I did hit as you did, a 18 wheeler's piece of tire. I told them that plenty of my friends have had issues with the uneven muffler coming off the lots and had nothing to do with hitting something.

So then they tried to say I had too many miles and that's when I stated to them that it isn't 36000. I then told them to forget about it and I will take my good buisness to another dealership which they didn't want to here.

Since they had my maxima up changing the oil, one of the SMs came and took me in the back and showed me what the problem was.

With the Maxima exhaust the drivers side muffler is crinkled more than the pass. side and the SM told me that was the problem and they would even the mufflers out for me.

Like msoemax mentioned take care of issues with the maxima asap because if you don't the more of a hassle you will get with later milage.

Just like today I called and made an appt. for next Monday to get my deck rattle fixed with no questions.

I can't think of any other issues but I will look in the TSB section to make sure.

 

i also have the air in the heating coil problem, but i just have such horrible experiences everytime i go in for service i dont want to deal with it anymore.

its my 2nd max (had a 2k1 aslo) and my 3rd nissan, but i really just am about ready to try something new because the service at all 3 dealers ive been to is horrible. not to mention i woudlnt mind not having problems at all (but god knows that wont happen with any car)

 

Fixxer, trade it in for a 05. That's what I did and it solved all my problems. Lost some money on the trade but imo, well worth it.

They had told me the same thing about my 04. I don't remember bottoming out or hitting anything but there was nothing I could do because it's their word against mine. If you don't mind traveling, you should go to Bay Ridge Nissan. They have a great service department over there. It's in Brooklyn, just off the BQE about a 15 mins. drive from the city.

Good luck! Let me know how things go.

 

and your struts have a lifetime warranty as well as the exhaust look in your maual..it is beyond the 36k

 

im running out of nissans in the bronx lol, i might have to....

i talked about "trading" and the guys said talk to me when thers a year left ill doit for you. but i dunno..... im gonna have to look into it, i dont want this POS anymore.

 

----> Happy his mufflers sit perfectly straight. Ive seen lots of maxi's with messed up mufflers.

 

Just tell me the page number of the 04 manual. I can't believe struts and exhaust are warranteed for life. Sounds too good to be true...

 

Hello, I just traded in my 04 Maxima SE last Friday for a 2005 Infinit G35X AWD sedan ( such a dream and drives like a wuality car unlike the piece of Tenn tin that Nissan allowed to move off the factory line) due alot of problems( wheel shimmy, brake rotors warping, fog light bulbs blowing, rattles inside car,etc). A day after I bought he car I noticed that my left tail pipe was hanging about 2" lower than the right and I called up the dealer. Over the phone the service manager tried to state that I hit something and I said I didn't so I brought it in and the piper hanger was replaced. I saw two others ont he lot still wrapped in the plastic with the same issue. It also seems that the dealers are very pro Nissan and not cosumer, maybe Nissan is tough on paying for certain warranty claims.

 

daddy jr, i tried to PM you but it says u cant accept them...anyway heres what i was going to write:

glad to hear im not the only one getting ****ed by nissan dealers...

you said "Hello, I just traded in my 04 Maxima SE last Friday for a 2005 Infinit G35X AWD sedan"

did you finance ur maxima and thats how u got to trade it? or was it a lease? can you give me the details on exactly how much money it ended up costing you if u dont mind. im contemplating going the same route, however mines leased and i think im limited/****ed.

you can PM me the answer if you'd like

 

Premiums was where I bought my Max. I have not delt with the service department yet. Let me know how *** service department is. Good luck.

 

*** was not any better, they told me "i must have hit something"

i'm going to have to goto another dealer now, but dont know where

 

I got a good maxima...yipee!

 

I have my Max on swapalease.com you may try to get out of it that way

 

I took my car to Stamford Nissan and had a service experience 10,000 times better than anywhere in the city/Queens. CT is so much better service-wise that I started taking my Benz up to Fairfield after the guys on 41st f'cked up a couple of times... I live in Norwalk though, but I'd rather drive 20 miles the wrong way than deal with BS service at the dealerships.

That's my #1 pet peeve with dealerships in NY though... they're GREAT for sales, but sucky for service.

As far as your problem, even if the dealership says that it's out of warranty, it might be covered by your insurance under comprehensive. The exhaust in my other car is considered a wear part after the warranty was up, but GEICO said to bring the car to their place after I bottomed out on something and they'd cover the difference from the deductible. YMMV, but it might be worth pursuing... since it's not an accident, a claim under comprehensive might not even raise your premiums... you probably wanna call your insurance agent and see what they say.

I'd try another dealership first though...

 

viguera, your claim was indeed an "accident". if you were driving the car and struck something- even if it was a pothole or just a big bump and the car sustained damage, then it's considered an accident..

The problem is that most deductibles are higher than what it would cost to fix minor exhaust damage from bottoming out. my deduct is $500 on my car and I can buy a complete exhaust from Warpspeed for roughly that much. so unless there was more damage, there would be no reason to bother with insurance..

on a 2k4 though, that's going to be a different matter. exhaust is much more $ and your deductibles are probably lower than mine.

but it never hurts to look at the options.. maybe something will work out with them and your insurance won't double like mine did when I put a no-fault claim on it.

 

If you bring the car in and they claim that its not covered under warranty do they charge you for diagnosis even if they don't fix it?

I want them to look at my transmission, but i'm worried about them not being able to reproduce the problem and charging me for no reason.

Thanks.

 

oh yea, the SOB's tried to charge me $88 for an hour work or osmething.....

i just looked at the guy and i guess he could tell the words about to come out of my mouth and he went back to his desk and said "i got it down to a half hour so its only $40"

i just took my keys and walked out