I have telephoned the Service manager at Hamilton Nissan three times starting on November 24 through December 4, 2006. Having not received a response of any kind, my logical next step is to move up the ladder.

I would like to take this opportunity to bring to your attention a situation that I feel warrants attention. I have been a very loyal Nissan customer, owning 2 Nissan Maximas, an Infiniti I30t, and a Sentra SE-R SpecV. It is unfortunately my most recent vehicle, the Sentra, that has given me more problems in the last 25,000 (of 52,000 total) miles than the more than 300,000 miles on the Maximas and the Infiniti, combined.

I purchased the Sentra, a 2003 model, as a commuter car that was supposed to be fun to drive. With 28,000 miles on the odometer at the time of purchase, I knew that I had existing factory warranty for both bumper-to-bumper and powertrain coverage. Being an informed consumer, I researched recalls, reliability, overall cost of ownership, and other factors before purchasing the Sentra. Truth be told, I wanted another Maxima, but I already had one that I planned to keep, and I drove the Sentra on a whim. I liked the vehicle, despite some warnings on the internet regarding problems with the QR25DE motor that comes in the SpecV model of the Sentra. With the existing warranty, and seeing the Nissan had begun recalling vehicles exhibiting the symptoms that I had read about on the internet, I felt confident that the problems would be resolved and that I would have a fun, reliable, economical vehicle for years to come.

At the time of the purchase, the vehicle was fine, and I was largely free of problems until approximately 50,800 miles. At that time, things turned bad quickly. My engine suffered a catastrophic failure that was later attributed to a small screw that had fallen from the butterfly valve in the intake manifold and had dropped down into the combustion chamber, basically destroying the engine from the inside. At Hamilton Nissan’s service repair facility, this was fixed under the Nissan powertrain warranty.

This was unfortunately not the end of my problems with the QR25DE, nor with the service (or disservice) that I received following the replacement of the QR25DE in my Sentra. Within several hundred miles, at approximately 51,500 miles, I was experiencing intermittent but severe hesitation and loss of throttle response. I took the car into the dealership twice, and the second time (around 52,000 miles) it was determined that a crank position sensor recall would likely remedy the problem. The vehicle was dropped off on November 22, 2006. After the service was started on Nov 24, I received a call stating that the battery had died and would need to be replaced. Given the information provided over the phone, I authorized this, despite reservations, given the fact that the car had no charging or electrical problems when it was dropped off. Somehow, over the time that the dealership had the car, the battery was so completely drained that it could not be started with a jump or a charge, and the battery could not be recharged. When the vehicle went in, it was not even experiencing hard starts. Once in the hands of the dealership, it became a useless hunk of metal. In an attempt to get the vehicle back as soon as possible, I authorized the approximately $70 for the battery, and an astronomical $35 to replace the battery. (On a side note, any automotive technician who cannot replace a battery in under 5 minutes needs to look for another profession. Nissan’s labor guide in this instance is a rip-off.) I was told that to perform the recall, the charging system had to be at 100%. If not for that, I would have bought my own battery, driven it to the dealership, and installed it myself. In the end, this was a totally unnecessary step, as the recalled components was not determined (according to the dealership) to be the cause of my problems.

Replacement of the battery was not the end, however. Two hours later, I was called and informed that the car was not ready because once the battery was replaced, it was determined that the alternator had failed. This was a nearly $400 fix, including labor. Again, I had experienced no problems with the charging system in the vehicle prior to this event, and though there is a statistically small chance of spontaneous failure of a component such as an alternator, my research determined that there are four primary causes of alternator failure.

The first is a manufacturing defect. This is a simple quality control issue, usually manifesting itself early in the life of the vehicle, because after as little as a few dozen operational cycles, one of the functional components (magnets, windings, connections, or bearings) simply fails. At 52,000 miles, it is fairly safe to say that manufacturing defect is an unlikely culprit.

The second is simple wear and tear. This is just the aging of the component due to repeated use. While this COULD be a factor in the failure of my alternator, if Nissan uses alternators with a duty cycle of only 52,000 miles, please rest assured that this will be my LAST Nissan. Like I said, my last 3 Nissans, all VQ30DE-equipped Maxima/I30 vehicles, had over 300,000 miles on them, all with original alternators. Prior to that, I had 3 Jeep Cherokees, with over 250,000 miles on them. NEVER have I had an alternator fail.

This takes us to a third cause of failure, excessive draw on an alternator. When called upon to operate in excess of rated capacity, the windings can fail. Since ALL electrical and charging components of the Sentra were 100% stock, this was not a factor. Many alternators are installed in vehicles with a rating that is 10-25% in EXCESS of the estimated maximum draw for that vehicle. In all of my Jeeps, additional components created increased load, all without failure of the OEM alternator. Given the stock nature of the Sentra, that means that the alternator was either inadequate for the vehicle (unlikely), or that this was NOT the cause of my premature failure.

The final cause of premature alternator failure is a faulty connection. Arcing (caused by a short-circuit or by irregular connections) can cause literally thousands of operational cycles in mere seconds, causing a buildup of heat and/or irregular current draws, which are a primary cause of a premature failure of the functional components. One very common cause of this is improper wiring, loose connections to the battery, and loose ground connections. Since Hamilton Nissan was the last entity to touch my alternator (re-installing it following the replacement of my long-block) this would place them in a position of fault. Prior to the replacement of the long block, I had no problems. After the replacement, a problem that is very likely to have been caused by mis-installation, surfaced. I have explained why the other 3 likely causes of failure are unlikely, given the circumstances. Logically, installation error is the likely cause of the premature failure of the alternator, and the untimely demise of the battery. While I can accept that a 3-year-old battery would be a maintenance issue, possibly requiring replacement in the near future, paying $35 for labor to do so is borderline fraud. Charging for 30 minutes of labor when it clearly took less time than that is unconscionable, in my opinion.

On top of that, to REFUSE to consider that installer error could have caused the alternator error, and then to say that that installer error would not be a part of the 12,000, 12 month warranty on parts and labor related to the long block replacement, is ridiculous. Hamilton was the last entity to touch my alternator, and within several hundred miles a component that was last touched by a Hamilton technician failed, taking with it a third component (the battery). The approximately 700 miles that it operated seem like a reasonable amount of time for one of the connections to work loose, particularly given that the first 500 miles were driven gingerly during the motor’s break-in period. On top of the fact that the car was last serviced at Hamilton, the car miraculously drove into the dealership, drove around to the service garage, and started up for the tech to do the recall. It just so happened to die- a complete and total failure- just as the idle relearn was to be performed. I don’t know how such a coincidence occurs, but I am not at all pleased with the totality of the circumstances surrounding this situation. If you warranty your work, then honor that warranty on workmanship- because alternators don’t just die at 52,000 on an entirely stock electrical system. If you refuse to honor the workmanship warranty, I will have no other course of action but to pursue further avenues to address my concerns.

I don’t want to imply that I think that anyone at Hamilton intentionally sabotaged my vehicle. I do wish to explicitly state that I believe that the cause of my alternator failure, and the subsequent battery drain, were caused by improper installation of the alternator by a Hamilton Nissan worker during the reassembly of my QR25DE during warranty work. It was not the only mistake made during re-assembly, but I will save those details for later correspondence, if necessary. My frustration is that there was absolutely NO consideration given to the fact that the most likely cause of the failures was installer error. In my mind, the coincidence between Hamilton service work and subsequent component failure is too much to accept.

What is odd about this situation is that my VIN was not affected by the voluntary recall in place at the time of the incident, nor has it been included in any subsequent recall expansions, despite the fact that this is clearly a problem in vehicles not in the recall range. Nissan has, to date, chosen not to expand the VIN range for the recall, despite the fact that there are documented reports that vehicles outside of the recalled range are impacted by this flaw. Equally alarming, there is a second recall for a failure of the emissions pre-cat in many QR25DE-equipped Sentras and Altimas, but despite similar reports of vehicles outside of the recall being affected, no expansion has been done to address these concerns. Between the pre-cat failure issue and the butterfly screw issue, many QR25DE-equipped vehicles that are out of warranty are basically failures waiting to happen.

I authorized the approximately $70 for the battery, and an astronomical $35 to replace the battery. (On a side note, any automotive technician who cannot replace a battery in under 5 minutes needs to look for another profession. Nissan’s labor guide in this instance is a rip-off.)