Jim Coleman and Infiniti have declined warranty repairs
 

I can't believe what I'm hearing from Infiniti.

Here is the long story:

2005 G35 6MT VQ35DE

Bought new from Jim Coleman Infiniti
Car has been serviced by Jim Coleman since new. Car now has 31k miles on it.

I brought the car in for an oil consumption issue when I noticed the car was down about a quart of oil back in October of 2008. The dealership took measurements and told me I would have to bring the car back after 1000 miles so they could take another measurement. The car is not driven but on nice days so obviously me being on the east coast the car wasn't driven that much. In May of 2009 I brought the car back again showing signs of oil consumption and this was prior to 1000 miles. The car was inspected again by the dealership and they went through their "72 point" inspection or whatever and I picked the car up. A few days later I'm driving the car on a nice weekend and the car goes from sounding like a G35 to sounding like a Suburu. I have to have the car towed back to my house. I run the codes and #3 cylinder is misfiring. I have the car towed to the dealership, of course checking the oil to see that the car consumed oil again with less than 100 miles on it!

My immediate assumption is the #3 cylinder is full of oil. Dealership pulls the #3 plug and calls to tell me it's bent/destroyed with no signs of oil. They tell me that they need to call the Infiniti rep to come out and take a look and tell them what to do next. The dealership takes their sweet time claiming issues with techs, etc. but I'm patient (VERY patient). Three weeks later (yes 3) the dealership calls and tells me Infiniti will not authorize a tear down because I have too many mods to the engine (you can see in my signature line what I have, try not to laugh). I then have to contact Infiniti Consumer Affairs (ha ha) and tell them that they are full of it and site the Magnusen-Moss act to them... They then agree that if I agree to pay for the teardown if they find it's not warrantable. So, what am I going to do right? I agree but only under the condition that the teardown will take no more than 3 hours and I will be billed the Infiniti rate and not their full rate. Jim Coleman Infiniti agrees and two more weeks pass. Finally they get the engine torn down and find that the piston is damaged. The Service Rep tells me that he has to take pictures and will send them to the Infiniti Rep but it looks like it's been overreved to him. A day passes and I get the excuse of my camera won't work etc. SO I go out there myself and take the pictures. My engine is torn down and pieces of my car are everywhere. I look at the engine and the spark plug looks untouched, still torqued and is NOT damaged.. hmmm looking at Cylinder 1 and it looks like a brand new plug.... I take a picture to document that.... A piece of the piston is missing down to the ring. I spend time emailing him the pictures so he can do his job and send it to his "rep". I wait another week. Now they've had my car for close to 7, yes SEVEN weeks for this. I get a call from the dealer who says that the rep has made a ruling stating that the damage was caused by the aftermarket exhaust and that Infiniti spends millions of dollars on R&D to determine the best parts for the car (this is where I almost puke) and that they THINK the exhaust caused back pressure on the exhaust valve and caused the engine to overrev. THEREFORE they are denying all warranty repairs. I call Consumer Affairs for Infiniti who tells my I'm SOL and to contact the BBB if I have further complaints.

I'm sitting here typing this in disbelief. First, how can an exhaust cause an overrev? As I understand it, an overrev is caused by the engine being forced to spin at RPMs from the crankshaft due to outside forces such as shifting at high RPMs to a lower gear or as some have called it the "Money Shift".

I don't see how the exhaust could cause this.... So I have contacted HKS to let them know that they are to blame by Infiniti, in other words they are throwing HKS under the bus... I'm sure HKS will be very pleased to hear this.

I am in the process of filing a complaint with the BBB Auto division and plan on fighting this to death. Meanwhile I have a car in pieces on the dealership floor that I've been told by Infiniti I need to remove the car in 3 days if I don't want them to do the repairs. This is laughable... I wouldn't let Jim Coleman Infiniti do an engine rebuild.... They couldn't even bleed my brakes! Mind you I have StopTechs but they called me and told me they didn't know how to bleed my brakes... And you want to be my latex salesman... (those that watch Seinfeld know what I'm talking about here).

I've started this thread so that others can comment on the situation and also so that everyone sees what Warranty really means. I will keep updating this with my progress and try to refrain from flaming Infiniti and Jim Coleman Infiniti... I'm sure those of you on this board will do enough of that for me. Meanwhile I want my baby back, I miss it greatly!!!

Thanks for taking the time to read all of this, mostly I'm doing it for therapy....

Sounds like time to talk to a lawyer.

I would read the Mangusen-Moss warranty act to determine what Infiniti must do in order to deny a warranty claim. My basic understanding is that they must prove that the aftermarket part caused the failure.

Already have gone through that. Problem with a lawyer is you'll spend 2k getting your case pulled together and the car will sit in the garage. Frankly I'd rather spend the 2k fixing it and then continue down the road with the BBB, States Attorney and ultimately the FTC since Magnusen is a federal law and Infiniti has certainly violated that act by not providing concrete proof that the HKS exhaust caused the damage.

I think I'm just going to be a squeeky wheel for a while and see what happens...

One nice part of the MMWA is that if Infiniti loses, and they most likely would, they have to pay all your lawyer expenses.

Holy crap! What a PITA! I hope it works out for you. :eek3:

I'm subscribing so I know to come back and read this novel tomorrow while I'm at work sitting in front of a computer, attempting to keep my eyes open. Sounds interesting.

Damn that sucks... Almost everyone I know with the 05-06 6mt has this problem. I have an 06 and never took it pass 5k on the rev just because.

That sucks, Infiniti here is really nice and always up to covering repairs. I hope Jim Coleman gets his sued to oblivion! In this economy theres no excuse for bad customer service.

Suck situation....=(
 

This is one of the first times I can recall where Nissan was totally wrong in declining warranty work. How do they blame an exhaust system on engine failure, that's like saying his aftermarket brakes caused it too....:OHBOY:
In the same situation I'd find a low mileage 3.7 and have a tuner shop install it, better engine and no difficulty finding the dip stick....LOL
Gary

UPDATE:

On Thursday July 2nd I made a surprise visit to Jim Coleman. I asked for a printout of all my service records from inception which they complied. I came armed with the Oil Consumption TSB (thanks to this forum for the posting).

In my records it noted the Oil Consumption test back in January of 09 that stated the car was loosing a quart to a quart and a half of oil between oil changes. In May of 09 after less than 1,000 miles where on the car they documented that it lost a half to 3/4 quarts.

I then asked the service rep for the measurements... After a bit of himming and hawing he went back to get their copies of the service paperwork. 3 or 4 minutes later he returned with the last two service records and started to leaf through them. A copy of the TSB was stapled to the January service record and he looked through it stopping at the measurement section to study it. I then asked if he had any measurements in his documentation which he replied "No, but I'll have to check with my tech and see if he has them in his notes, but he's at lunch so... If you would have called me I would have had all of this stuff pulled..." So I said, "You don't have the measurements right? Do you see where I'm going with this?" He replied, "Yeah, I see."

So, Jim Coleman did NOT follow the TSB and did NOT document the measurements!

It was at that point that we had a discussion about "seeing what they could do for me" and "comprimise", etc. IMO, the comprimise is you replace my longblock and I drop taking this further down the line... Either way I think someone owes me a new engine... Jim Coleman or Infiniti, you choose...

He told me the Infiniti Rep is back from vacation on Wednesday (July 8th) and that he had left him a message about what we could do for me... I told him I would wait until that response came back before proceeding further (i.e. BBB (joke) and the States Attorney's office)

Today, I received an email and a call from Mike Mahaffey with Altered Atmosphere and we had a brief discussion. To save reading Mike said he had seen this situation before many times and while he couldn't really tell from the pictures he told me about what this oil consumption could cause.

Basically he referred to it as "dieseling of the engine". Due to the oil consumption oil could pool around the piston, etc. and cause detonation. Pardon me Mike if I didn't get this exactly right but I think we all get the jist and it totally makes 100% sense to me.

Hindsight being 20/20 what I should have done was this:

As soon as they started down the "Modification" route before they tore the engine down and made me agree to pay for it if they found it wasn't warranty I should have told them to forget it and paid the extra $ to have Mike and his crew do the teardown and the documentation. Apparently AAM has done this before and has built a relationship with Nissan Consumer Affairs as an expert in this area. If only I had known....

Those of you with similar circumstances, I would advise you to do just this... Don't take your chances with the dealer or Infiniti, it's just not worth the hassle. I now am at their mercy and the only thing I can hope for is if on Wednesday they have a change of heart. Short of that I plan on putting the G back together and towing it to AAM to have them do another teardown and documentation and writeup on the cause.

Honestly, I wish I could get the engine from Infiniti and have a qualified professional like those at AAM to put it in after I've seen how these dealerships work AND have it covered by Infiniti... I know that's too much to ask right now all I want is my car back!

After Wednesday it'll be 8 FING weeks....

Everyone keep your fingers crossed for me on Wednesday and I'll post the news...

Damn. Very sorry to hear. I hope for the best outcome.

damn, sucks man.

Give em hell every way possible.
Make their lives miserable.


Subscribed.

jesus christ! This is a PITA!

man i hope you get your baby back and in good working condition!

Fingers are crossed, good luck!!!!

Good call on calling them out on their measurements... I'm going through the same OC-Testing run-around here in Canada...I am positive my engine is excessively consuming (DIY OC tests - lol)...When I asked the mechanic about the measurements for my car, he replied with "What measurements?". He told me he visually inspected the levels and noted that they were "low" and proceded to top it up... I had brought my own quart of royal purple (to not mix oil types) so that I could see how much exactly was added (3/4 of a quart for 1000km lol). He told me "all systems go!" and I was like :bowrofl: