Suddenly, at 75mph on the highway in far left lane my 2012 maxima's power steering pump gave up. Don't know if I pushed the rpm to 5k and was merging from far right to far left did it or just the end of life for the power steering pump. Almost crashed into the dividers. Slowly got off the highway and drove like was driving a 80's chevy caprice without power steering. Dropped at Dealership.

 

Mileage?

Is the fluid level in the power steering reservoir up to the full line?

Did you get any warning light on the dash before or during the failure?

Had you felt any difference in the 'feel' of the steering before the system failed?

This may be the first 7th gen power steering pump to fail. And we have cars here with well over a hundred thousand on the odo.

 

Fuild was within required limits. There were no signs of steering wheel being tight or heavy while driving. No lights at all. I am also very surprised by it as well as it only has 22K miles on it. I was discussing few days ago with one of my colleagues how good steering response it has and suddenly this. I dropped it at the dealership last night before they close so I will find out the outcome either today or Monday.

 

While I was driving about 5 months ago all of a sudden I lost power steering and a bunch of other ****, turns out my auto-tensioner broke and the belt was sitting in the engine bay limp not powering the alternator, power steering etc. had it towed to my boys shop and he replaced the tensioner

 

Everything else worked perfectly fine. I was able to drive it for 10 miles with hard steering to the dealership.

 

When my Nissan Frontier only had 15,000 miles on it the steering failed and the dealer ship had to replace the power steering box. Like yours only the steering was effected as I drove it to the dealership. Good thing it was under warranty as it was a 1300 dollar job.

 

The dealership finally confirmed that it was a power steering pump failure after keeping the car in for 3 days. They also mentioned that mine was the 5th one that came in with failed power steering in one week not sure if they were all maximas. The rep. blamed below freezing weather for the failure. The pump is on back order, so the car is going to sit at dealership for next 10 days.

 

today is -25C in my area of Ontario...I would assume all the recent Nissan's I saw on the road this chilly morning were just driving straight with no turns??

Something else up here, I'd not buy the Nissan Rep's suggested source of problem.

 

lol! That explains why you don't see any Nissans in Canada!

Someone at my work owns a 7th gen Maxima - I must ask them how they get home.

 

Where do you live ? What was the temp ?

 

Live in Chicago suburbs. The temperature today here is 2 and -18 with windchill. It has been a brutal winter this year. Next few days its going to dip down to -25.

 

I'm in Minnesota, actual temp has been 35 below, wind chill was -53 one morning

I moved here 9 years ago for work, if it was like this in 2005 I would have turned right around, lol

I stay for the low cost of living, booming economy and 5 years until I spend the winters in Florida.

Sorry to take your thread off track but I need some encouragement as to why I live here, lol

 

I totally understand where you are going with this and I agree with you on that as well. I never said that I agreed what the rep. said. As long as it's under warranty and Nissan is paying to replace it and I get a loaner until it is fixed then I don't care what reason they come up with.

 

I did not intend to suggest that you were blindly accepting of the Nissan Rep's Theory

Please report this problem to the NHTSA website, it is a serious problem that could have caused a crash. If NHTSA get's enough complaints of the same type they will prompt Nissan to investigate or issue recall notice.

 

It looks like it is an issue across the country because after keeping my car for over 10 days I get a call from the dealership saying that the pump is on backorder and won't be in until the first week of March, which made me really upset and I started calling dealership around Chicagoland, out of 8 dealerships only one was able to get the pump from a dealership in Colorado which also had only one in stock, rest said the same that it's on backorder. There must be something unusual that all of a sudden there is so much shortage of power steering pumps for Maximas.

 

I guess that sucks for me. My power steering pump went out in my 2012 doing 70 on the freeway as well. Car is currently at the dealership under full warranty with 14k miles. I'm in ohio and it's been pretty cold here but was also told pumps are on back order at the warehouse. Bastards gave me a Chevy sonic as a loaner

 

Wow....what's the deal with kicking a guy when he's down.

 

To make matters worse, my wife keeps laughing at me about the damn sonic

 

Mine is at dealership since 1/16 and it doesn't look like will be out any sooner but at least they gave me 2014 Altima.

 

Same problem with my 2012 Max. The pump is on back order and the dealer said that they expect a recall. The power steering pump on the Max is also shared with the Rouge.

 

So it sounds like extreme cold weather is a FACTOR in these pump failures, but to indicate (dealership) that it is the CAUSE is being a bit short-sighted. That's like saying the rain caused a roof leak!
I'm also curious as to when Nissan replaces these pumps are they just re-installing the same defective hardware or are these new pumps different in design so they won't fail again?

 

Holy sheet that's a long time! I don't want to drive the Sonic for over 2 weeks!! Yikes

 

I was told first week of March by first dealership. I hope the second dealership that I took the car to is able to get it quicker.

 

Ok was going to pick up my Max today, but the pump is still not in. They said maybe Wednesday or Thursday of this week. Sounds like it's going to be longer. This would mark one week without my car. This is a major problem for Nissan.

 

Has anyone here reported this to NHTSA yet? if not, please do!!, it won't have any negative impact to your own repairs at your dealer, but it will speed up the process to making this a recall issue if that's what it SHOULD be.

 

Mine is sitting at dealership for 3 weeks and every time I call them I hear, pump should be in by next week. I spoke to them today again, I was told they will let me know by Friday.

 

So this marks the 2 week point for me with no sign of return. dealer also still has no ETA on the needed part. anyone else have better luck than me and get their max fixed and returned?

 

Whaaaaat? The heck is going on? You could probably get the part faster through ebay at this rate.

 

you're very correct. there are a few on ebay as we speak. i need to tell my dealership to broaden their search criteria!

 

failure and door actuator both went. Power steering pumps are backordered to the tune of 400 units nation wide. My dealer didn't have the actuator either. Low parts inventory on hand are now part of my new dealer evaluation. First Nissan. I want my Audi or Hyundai back

 

Mine never failed but I had a crazy whine in my 2013 during cold starts that was the power steering pump. I had about 3,000 miles

The pump was on back order in October 2013.


Depending on how old your car is check into the lemon law which is 30 shop days in most states


Do you know if the 2014 Rogues has this same pump ?

 

Here is an article that explains the whining noise heard during cold startup




You may have heard a loud groaning/whining noise coming from the engine compartment of your vehicle when you started up a cold-soaked vehicle and noticed that it goes away as the engine warms up. That is your vehicle’s power steering pump starving for hydraulic fluid which lubricates the pump’s internal mechanisms.


Running the pump with decreased lubrication causes the pump to wear out quicker. There’s really nothing you can do to avoid the initial fluid starvation.




http://assets.clickmotive.com/custom...e/column89.pdf

 

spoke to my dealership today and this is what they told me.

they still have no idea when i am going to get my car back. there are no power steering pump units that are available, and to add insult to injury, he says that Nissan has stopped production on the power steering pumps in an effort to "redesign" the part because there have been a lot of failures on the current pump. of course im not sure how true the redesign part is, but because of that he says they could have my car another month, on top of the 3 weeks that they have already had it.

as soon as my car hits 30 shop days i am considering having an attorney contact nissan pertaining to this matter in regards to the lemon law. i purchased this car brand new to avoid these types of problems and the plan backfired

 

Contact Nissan Consumer and tell them you want the car bought back and you are starting a lemon law case.

My guess is Nissan will work with you and buy the car back charging you 10 cents per mile driven.

If you like the car call Nissan now and they may rush you a pump.

If you don't like the car wait until day 31 so the lemon law has kicked in.


Good Luck

 

dont get me wrong, i really like the car. its actually my favorite that i have ever owned and i really hope they fix this problem before my car is held captive for 2 whole months.

 

I always wait for the car to warm-up to at least 1,000 RPMs or lower, but thank you for this article as it was very informative.

 

I posted the article as it explains the whining noise at cold start up is a sign of the pump starving for fluid and eventual failure

 

If you like the car keep it and ask Nissan for a free 8 year Gold warranty as compensation

My car was diagnosed with a bad pump in late September 2013..............I traded the car in Nov 4. The pump was on back order in September. I'm hoping they saw in some data base that I know longer own the car as nearly 5 monts later they still haven't called to say the pump is in

 

What good is a Nissan warranty if they do not have the parts to fix the car.

 

I'm just giving advice to people who want to keep the car as not everyone is aware they can get this free warranty if they have a major issue with a newer Maxima

If you have an issue and don't want the extended warranty don't ask for it