About 3 weeks ago, I start my car in the morning and I hear somthing metallic rattling around in my engine. I immediately turn the engine off and call the dealership to have it towed for warrantee work (35000miles on the car). I took it to Courtesy Nissan, being the closest dealer, but not the one I bought the car from. After 4 days without any car to get to school or work, Ken Palmer calls me up and says he's found out the problem. Aparently my engine got hungry and ate up some metal shavings, and the shavings banged up the head closest to the firewall. BUT since these metal shavings are magnetic, they are foreign objects and not parts from inside the motor that killed it. And so 'Nissan' will not cover me under warrantee. So Ken Palmer so nicely asked if I wanted to pay them $11,000 to have a new engine put in. I kindly say, no thanks, Ill have it towed home. So I get out of there with a lovely $800 bill to get my car back in a million peices (cost of tearing the engine apart and towing my car there and back).

Heres what my car looked like when I got it back:






Here's the chewed up head, mostly the middle cyclinder. (not sure why my valve on the right side is lean tho ???


So then, im not interested in fighting it, I just need a working car before I fail for the semester or loose my job, which ever comes first.

2 Days later I order a motor from a salvage yard in NJ for $900. It only had 9,000 miles on it, and it come from wrecked 02 maxima GLE Automatic. I was happy to find such a cheap motor, but I had one more problem on my hands. My car is a 6speed, and there are only engines from automatic cars to be found.
After talking to all the dealerships in the area; I concluded that no one knew if it was possible or not since they havent tried it themselves.

So I just figured Id have to remove the automatic flywheel plate, the bearing behind it and add a new pilot bushing and it should work ( and it did).



The new motor arrived in better condition than I expected. I even got the intake manifold, throttlebody, both headers, both pre-cats, and 2 02 sensors which I wasnt expecting to get.

In less time it took for Courtesy to distroy my engine into peices, I took my old engine off, transfered everything and put the new one in.

P.S. I have a ton of oem parts now, Make me a resonable offer and Ill sell ya them. Good intake manifold (great for nitrous guys that want to do directport) , throttle body, whole bottom end (excellent if someone wants to build a bottom end), stock cams (all 4), stock headers/precats, few extra 02 sensors, automatic flywheelplate, 1 good complete head, and probably a few others things I can't remember.

 

Awesome post man! Glad everything worked out well for ya.

 

nicely done man!

 

Nice work!

Any unusual problems doing the install?

 

GOod work!!

 

Damn that sucks dude. Any idea how the metal got in there?

 

Dude!!! F Courtesy Nissan!!! I'm having issues with them as well.

Now what is the deal with metal parts in the engine??? Now I'm concerned how that happened----is this something you did or did the engine self destruct? If it's Nissan's fault then they should (quite happily) pay for it!!!!

I'd be on the phone with NNA faster than you can say "f'ing Courtesy Nissan a$$holes!!!!."

Now I am concerned with the longevity of my engine :-/

 

Im trying to understand how the h.e.l.l u did that to your car. Were you rinning NOS or were you beating on it really bad. Our engines are supposedly in the top 10 engines in the world, so please explain to me how this could happen, and if it was Nissan's fault then why wouldn't they cover it under warranty. Its hard for me to believe that this just happened from regular everyday driving.

 

Dern man...that sucks.

I hope all goes well with the new one.

 

thats sucks dude. why is nissan not fixing it? were there any mods done to the car? Also, SR20DEN just put a new motor in his 02 and i think his car is a 6spd and he got the motor from an auto, so he might be able to help you out with any questions you may have...

 

If they're not fixing it, then there has to be more to this story than you heard a metallic clanking noise and that was it...(well, Nissan service does suck ***, so it may very well be that they just don't feel like covering it).

What kind of mods do you have? Have you taken the top end of your engine apart anytime recently?

 

Nice job!!

I know the feeling, I hate taking my car to the dealer...and the dealer's my father.

He thinks I'm crazy for doing all the work on the car myself. Even with the "family discount" I still don't like his prices.

 

I'll take the rods/crank.

 

I'm in Plano also, right off of Preston and Legacy, so if I run into this problem I know who to call.

 

SmokinOdum, that's cool that you know how to fix such a huge problem your self! Good Job dude... I am also curious what exactly you did to your car that caused this issue...? I mean you were way too calm with Nissan when your 2002 car engine broke. I mean most of us here are upset about little problems like paint chips etc, in your case you lost the whole f#cking engine! I am surprised that you even paid them $800 to diagnose the problem. Were you running nitrous or something that destroyed your engine?

 

Nice job

 

Guys...it's a little late for the "you shoulda", "you coulda", "I woulda"....so squash that.

I give him and SR20DEN props for what they can do in a pinch.

 

Ouch, that's a little harsh. While I myself would not stand for it and have a tow truck drop the car off through the window of the dealership showroom, maybe the guy has things going on right now that take a priority over this. Those things are beyond my comprehension, but hey, its not impossible.

 

heres a picures of the metal chips that Courtesy "took out of my engine":


I did have an intake on the car.. tho I put the stock air box on when I had it towed to the dealer. Um.. If it did indeed get sucked in, then it somehow went past my brandnew K&N cone filter, through the MAF screen (these peices look a little too big to do that) and into the engine.
The dealership claimed that since the motor is "all aluminum" that the peices had to be sucked in, and that it was my fault. Im now under the assumption that they took away all the warrantee (powertrain) while they were in the giving mood and all. I kept all my receipts. Any ideas on who I should contact to see if I could be reimbursed? Im thinking about giving my insurance a call just to see what they say.
Thanks guys.

Oh. and the new motor is just as strong as the old one. (according to the local 1/8th mile track )

 

I still don't understand how these pieces got inside your engine. There is now way that they could be sucked throungh a throttle body. Do you change your own oil? maybee when you changed oil they somehow got intside your engine I have a berk mid pipe and K&N and change my own oil and no problems here. There has to be some logical explanation. I would understand if you were running NOS or tried polishing the throttle body or somthing along those lines. If you claim that you only had the intake on and nothing else then Nissan has no right in declining your warranty work unless they can prove that it was you fault. If you were able to swap the engine then you must know enough about cars and have to have some kind of idea about what might have caused that. I dont think anyone just popped your hood and dropped these pieces in your engine.

Contanct a lawyer and see what he says. Good luck

 

Can you take them out of the bag and lay them on a WHITE piece of paper? A couple close-ups would be nice too?

What intake did you have and have you check it out? I remember reading someone had an intake that had a whole bunch of shavings come out of it.

 

First...SmokinOdum...props on getting yourself out of a hole quickly and with a level head. I don't know what I would have done in your position but I can guarantee it wouldn't have turned out so nicely.

Now, something just doesn't sound right about this whole thing. I believe everything SmokinOdum said, but it just doesn't add up. If he had no major mods to cause this wouldn't it qualify as normal usage? I don't see how an engine could "suck in" pieces that size like Nissan is trying to say. And if so, are we now responsible for anything that happens to the car while driving it normally down the road? IMO the burden is on them to prove what they're saying. Until then, I think you have a great case to get this whole thing reimbursed. I would be the biggest thorn in Nissan Corp's side until this thing was taken care of properly. Like someone above said, this is supposed to be a Top 10 engine so this stuff just shouldn't happen. Best of luck!

 

damn dude nice work! Yeah, where the hell did the "metallic bits" come from?

It didn't come from your intake, did it?

 

And your bottom end is still in-tact? I read Nissan is using the tighest tolerances they ever have for the connecting rod PIN in the VQ35, as it relates to some other factor(bore, stroke?). "All Aluminum", that's a joke. Looks like either something off the variable valve sytem or rod pins (wild guess)........I think it could account for one cylinder running so rich, and the one right next to it running so lean.........Good Luck!

 

No. I cleaned the intake out completely before I installed it. And afterwards I check it to see if any bits where missing, and it looked fine.

 

What was the condition of the cats on the "old" engine? The 2.5 Altima has a recall out now for sucking material from the cats back up into the the engine and destroying it. Not applicable right? That's what I thought too... Until a 3.5SE guy had the same problem. The 3.5SE has the same cats as the 2.5 Altima, except it has two. 10e from the Altima board said that his dealer had a 2k2 Altima and a 2k2 Maxima that had to have their engines replaced due to disintegrated cats. He also indicated that the Nissan techs had indicated that Nissan might recall the 3.5 Altimas as well as the 2.5 Altimas. This is just speculation, nothing official, so take it with a grain of salt. I just found it interesting. I would definitely take a look at the cats on the engine that came out of your car:

http://www.nissantalk.com/forum/show...ghlight=engine

 

his brother knows all to well about it. his engine took a crap this weekend and burnt 2.5 quarts of oil.

Like i said this weekend adam, call your insurance and just ask them.

and i can attest that his engine is pretty strong 9.3@78mph in the 1/8th compared to my slow 9.6@74mph

 

Check the throttle-body "butter-fly" for missing screws.

I've heard of one Pathfinder eating one with similar damage and now BlackBirdVQ is saying he's seen a couple.

 

I worked for Nissan before.... MASTER TECH Anyways... the pieces U see in your motor are butterfly screws that came out of the butterfly inside the INTAKE manifold... there is a 2ndary butterfly inside the intake that likes to loose screws like dat. I Quit Nissan 4 years ago... but I am up to date on whats up with all cars. VQ30DE-K is the most reliable VQ so far- no injector problems as of yet. I am a Acura tech now... but I hate the cars- pays good... so I can care less- see my stickers on my tool box ? Calvin ****n on Acura.

 

I forgot to say... take the intake manifold apart- or look inside go back to Nissan and ask them WTF is that ? tell them U heard of this online and demand an explanation- they know all about this problem- Recall MIGHT happen... depending on how many FWD 3.5s blow up.

 

Wow, thats comforting. Is this something us 3.5 guys should be looking for? And if so, at what mileage? Btw, you are mike Jez correct..i know you off the SR boards...

 

Job well done bro!!!

 

Yeah I'm the SR20 king of the midwest :P I sold my 600WHP SE-R not too long ago- looking at making 700WHP with the VQ once I get married and wife approves the 2K dollar HKS GT series turbo I got in mind :P Sorry for not introducing myself, I'm Mike Jez, Nissan Engine Master Technician. I roll in a 01 GXE 5spd... with enough mods to keep me away from the 3.5s

 

Blackbird- Real basic question re: debris in the intake ... my local dealer/repair shop said if I even put a K&N filter in the stock airbox (much less install a CAI) and the MAF hotwire burns out, it won't be warranteed b/c they've seen too many MAF's go out due to debris getting past non-OE filters. If push came to shove, can they make me cough up the dough for a new MAF?

 

SmokinOdum,

Nice job in a quick turnaround of getting a new engine. You think you
can rebuild the old engine and increased it's horses by experimenting
with it? If you covered every possible entrance the metals could of
come in and you didn't tampered with the engine. I would agreed with
all the other members here that you should have a strong case in
pursuing Nissan for some compensation. Good luck

Mike

 

I wonder what Nissan will do if it you can determine that the pieces are from inside the engine. If you present this to them, I wonder how they would defend themselves. I would contact Nissan N/A and see if I could at least get a reimbursment.

 

You were screwed by that dealer. Call Nissan and complain. There is no reason for anything besides air to get inside your engine period. They are responsible for repairing it. I'd give them the old engine back and just take the new one on the crate for a spare, or to sell.

And if for some reason that doesn't work out how much for the short block?

 

GOSH, what a son of the B*tch. I don't get it with Nissan not covering the warranty. It steams my calm. I was considering working for Nissan Corporate office but you know what, if I had my two cent to say about the lousy service, I would bash them up to turn the company around to give good service instead of hassling everyone loyality.

 

Good job on replacing your engine and being so calm about your whole situation.

 

Man that whole situation sucks. Definately go back to nissan with those butterfly screws and the intake manifold and watch them try to explain it. On a lighter note, you have an extra 3.5 bottom end in your garage hmmm...