That's absurd, it may have taken 6 months to accumulate. I'd drain a teaspoon or two of my used oil from the drain plug, pour it back in the plug hole and take it back in a week.

Unethical, sure, but if they are going to call you a liar, which essentially is what they're saying, may as well be one.:icon43:

"Two wrongs don't make a right." Heard that somewhere, have always tried to live by not stooping to the other guy's level. It's worked out pretty well for me.

Anyway, the oil will show up again. I made sure that this issue/complaint is "on my permanent record." Since the complaint was registered before the expiration of the warranty I expect Infiniti will cover it, regardless of when we finally "prove" it. I'll pitch a fit at that time, if they don't.

No, they don't - you have one wrong against you already, i.e. denial of legitimate warranty service. If/when there is not enough oil that the problem shows up well after your warranty is up (it may have taken 30k miles to soak the coil pack), and they turn you down for being out of warranty, that will be your second wrong. You're correct, add those two wrongs together, they don't make a "right".

The time when you should "raise a stink" is when you found the oil. If other people are getting this problem fixed under warranty they have precedent to use their discretion and although warranty comp for dealers is far from 100% they have leverage to claim the problem. They chose not to side with what you told them, and are setting you up to get screwed. If you are a truly valued customer and told them what you found, that you cleaned it out, and they choose to base their decision on what's left after you've cleaned it up, then they're not acting in your best interest.

Put it another way, if you came in with that story first time out of warranty, they would have likely said, either
Lemme think, which is more likely?:rolleyes:

Stooping to "their level" would be faking the problem from the beginning, just in case it might ever happen and duping the dealer into doing work under warranty that may not ever be needed. That's being a slimeball.

Your car has a problem, you know it, and it's covered - getting it fixed under warranty is your right, not "stooping". Raising a stink after your car is out of warranty raises the stakes for the dealer, too, as they lose their leverage with NNA getting reimbursed at least in part. If you wait until the warranty is gone, you're not doing them a favor, either. You should talk it over with them as you get closer to your warranty end period.

By the way.......If this is truly an issue, how long after replacement of the valve cover gasket can we expect to have to do the same repair again?

From what I've been told by a bunch of different Infiniti techs, the replacement covers are a higher grade aluminum that doesn't warp like the original covers.

^^^ ??? they are plastic :icon43:

Correct. And do they improve on plastic anyway?:confused2::confused2:

my post was a statement questioning his statement that the are aluminum...

Hey thats what they told me. I guess I was fooled by them. Either way, whatever they did, fixed the problem.

Oh No not the dreaded Valve cover oil leak in the plug well again.
 

This is the same stuff I ran into when I had a Ford Tarus SHO.
The engine was made by Yamaha and it was supposed to be a boat engine.
Man I loved that engine but what a PITA it was to work on it.

After 60K what happens is the rubber gets hard and oil will eventualy leak into the Spark plug well. For extra insurance you can put a light bead of RTV but you have to remember when you squish those pieces together the RTV will ooze out and evenutaly flake off into your valve area. You have a good chance that it may clog up an oil passage.

Here is my suggestion at 60k I would replace the gaskets. You seriously do not want oil in the plug wells. There were some pretty nasty pics of what happened when you negelected the 60K maintenace interval on the SHO. Spark plug wires melted, Coil packs destroyed. I lost 1 coil on my Coilpack I drove on 5 cylinders for over a year. I don't dog my cars so I never saw the performance loss.

Rubber has only so much of a lifespan. You have to realize that with all that heat and then cool down and that happening everyday for however long it takes to get to 60k the rubber will loose it's sealing properties.

Do the right thing don't chance your car to an oil leak in the Spark Plug well.
The gaskets can't be that expensive.


I believe I read somehwere on like the 8th page that the valve covers are made of Plastic? The SHO's were made of aluminum it doesn't make a difference what the material is it still leaked.

Be safe

I have 69300 Miles on my car just checked this out and I do have a Bit of oil on plug. I think I may have an oil consumption issue also funny thing is the car is Auto. Funny thing is last couple of days at very low speeds or idle the car feels like it has a miss fire no check engine lights tho. Strange dealership on monday it is.

what about for a 04 infiniti g35 coupe. It has 54 k miles and I have a problem with the belts, every time i turned it on it makes a weird noise. Do u guys think i should just take it to a mechanic or am i covered by a factory warranty? thanks all help will be appreciated because im kinda short on money lol..

Belts are wear items and by that mileage it is time to replace the serpentine belt. Not covered by warranty. I'd do it myself, but if you don't tension it right, you'll glaze your new belt, or worse.

Go to the dealer to have this thread's topic checked out.

You cannot buy just the gaskets
 

Netninja, despite your otherwise sound advice you are so missing the point:

Like hell they are not, read the thread (again?)

We cannot buy the "gaskets" separately, they are built into the VC's, which means at least $500 in parts for replacing what would be two $20 gaskets on most any other DOHC V-6. If you can't do the work yourself, and it's not covered, the job runs $700-800 or more.

They CAN be that expensive, that's why this sucks so badly. No one here is too cheap to spring for <$100 of replacement gaskets, or if they are, they surely bought the wrong car.

IIRC the earliest I've heard this happening was something in the 30-40k miles range.

The similar problem on my U13's motor comes around about once every 3-5 years, I've had the car since Sept 1994 and replaced the gasket there at least 3 times.

I'd guess unless the VC is newer and improved somehow, about on average once per 40-50k miles. That would not be so bad until you add in Brembo's about every 30k miles (rotors, pads) and a new OEM clutch in <50k mile intervals.

People who get it fixed by warranty end who don't keep the car more than about 6 years, they won't care. I tend to keep cars I like a lot longer, just in my Nissans there's a '91 SE-R, a '95 U13, and this '04. The first two have 140k and 130k miles, the '04 just rolled over 52k miles.

I expect I'll find this on my next visit. I have some other minor "dealer-only" fixes like my dead trunk latch switch, a running light bulb in the headlight assembly on the finisher stripe I can't find anywhere...I have to admit, the minor problems really add up on this car.