A post in the Gen5 forum about a poor sod who bought a used Max and whose dealer was denying a cat replacement on his car at fifty-some thousand miles did'nt feel right so I went cruising around the EPA web site where I came across the gem in the link below.

The gist of the long-winded document is that MAFs, ECU's, cats, etc etc etc -ANYTHING that might be emmissions related- is warranted up to 80k miles, regardless how many owners the car has had before you.

To be sure, I called the EPA regional office in Seattle and spoke to one of their Air Quality engineers who confirmed this document is still valid and definitely got the feeling they would be veeeerrryyyy interested in helping someone who has a recalcitrant dealer giving him or her some crap.

Of course, the whole 'you caused this by modding' issue comes into play so......dont go into the dealer with a 60k mile car with a Frankencar and a blown MAF, eh? Put the stock intake back on, etc before you go back to the dealer...

Link:
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/consumer/warr94fs.txt

 

You do realize there's a catch to that. It's written right in this statement.

You present the vehicle to a warranty-authorized manufacturer
representative, along with evidence of the emissions test
failure, during the relevant warranty period; then...[/b]

Your car has to fail inspection in order for warrenty work to be considered. If your driving along mid year and your MAF dies. You will not have any evidence that your car failed an inspection. Are you gonna keep driving it until inspection time comes along so you can get it repaired free?

An inspection station will not inspect your car until it's due. If you have an emissions system failure long before your due for inspection your S/O/L!

 

and his answer was that not passing any 'approved' smog inspection sufficed to show an emissions-related fault -meaning that if your MAF fails you can drive the car to any shop that can exhaust-analyze the car and if it fails, it fails, period.

For OBDII-equipped cars like all of ours post-1995, some states -Oregon where I live being one of them- are now passing/failing DEQ tests solely by reading codes off the ECU, not by doing exhaust gas analyses. In fact, I just DEQ'd my car four weeks ago, and they just plugged the car up to the ECU reader and voila, no codes = car passed. As more and more states adopt that process, ANY and ALL thrown codes = failure to pass emissions testing, ergo automatic 'carte blanche' to use this document to save your day and your ****...

 

Once again.....

If you choose to have a service station inspect your emissions system, (for the prof it's failed) expect to pay upwards of $100 bucks. It's not a free service. The dealers will try to use every loop hole they can to avoid replacing anything outside their warranty period. If your coming in for a CEL light, you'll be billed according to their service and warranty contract for repairs.

The loop hole is the fact that you need to have an emissions related inspection failure in order to get Federal regulated warranty service. If a dealer is not certified as a state inspection station, your S/O/L. Your car must fail an APPROVED smog test. That does not include a diagnostic check of your ECU by your dealer if they are not approved and liscensed by the state to inspect vehicles. This is a tricky one to work around, It's not cut and dry.

A call to 1-800-NISSAN1 and the document might help you out in that case.

 

I think he was saying that you could go to an authorized station to get checked, then take it to the dealer to have them fix it in accordance with federal law.

 

Doesn't it say in the owner's manual that the emissions devices are only warranted on the bumper to bumper period?

 

lie or should I say, a willful attempt at mis-information.

It would be interesting discuss this with Nissan North America...

Galo

 

I've had a dealership deny me a repair on an o2 sensor because I was "2 months out of my 3yr/ bumper to bumper warranty" and that it's "not under powertrain warranty" either.

 

the list of parts covered (see the 'fuel metering' section of the document) so unfortunately, we're screwed there unless one can convince the dealer they fall under the category of 'other feedback and control sensors'. Which they are, but now you are getting into interpretations whereas MAFs, etc are specifically called out on the document...

 

You can go to get your car tested for emissions even if they don't send you the paper. It costs $20 and you pay that in their office minutes before they run your car through the tests...