Ok well after another thousand miles and god only knows how many quarts of oil Ininfiti has authorized the replacement of my short block. I'm not that pleased....

What steps should I take to either ensure that they replace the whole thing or reassure me that the head is in perfect working order? Skeleton Cru if you could point me in the direction of that thread of yours again I would appreciate it.

If I have to get my whole car taken apart I want it new. I dont want a half new half old engine. If I have to sell a car with all this work done I dont want it to be half a$$ed.

Any advice will help guys.

The dealer even said that they were hoping that infiniti wouldn't have the short block and authorize the whole thing but I don't want to hold out for that. I want it done right.

 

That makes no sense. Why would they go digging instead of just replacing the entire thing to guarantee you a durable engine. I dunno what steps to take except maybe to call consumer affairs? Maybe tell them that you refuse to not have the whole thing completed and with all the incov. its caused you its the least they can do. Good luck Nick, hope they freakin do the whole thing for you. After you've been dealing with this $hit long enough.

-Vin

 

Yeah dude I dunno what my rights are as far as what I can demand. I want them to test the head and make sure that it didn't suffer at all from the oil problems that I have been having. I assume that thats not too much to ask but I dunno.

 

Just called the dealer to see whats goin on and ask a fewe questions.

I asked if they test the Head to make sure that the oil didn't cause any problems and was told that they do a leak down on it.... Dont know what that means.

I asked if they send it to a machine shop at all and was told that they do it in house. Does any of that sound right?

I was told that they will know more monday as to if the head is going to be replaced or not. I need to go into this battle armed with knowledge.

 

From what I can tell a leakdown test has to do with the cylinders and has nothing to do with the head......

 

Most likely infiniti will replace the whole long block I would think it would be cheaper for them instead of paying a technician to disassemble the motor and reassembling it,

I hope you get the whole long block replaced cause I would not just the infiniti technicians to assemble a motor.

 

You are correct, sir!

 

Yeah thats what I thought..... Ok I'm gonna wait till monday and if they tell me then that they will just do the short block I'll open up a can of worms.

What tests should they do to test the head?

 

a leakdown test is where they put air into the cylinder and see if and at what rate it leaks out. It could leak past valves in the head.

THIS IS NOT AN ADEQUATE TEST FOR A LACK OF OIL PROBLEM!

I would suggest you find a couple of machine shops in your area that would be willing to spend 5 minutes on the phone with you. Don't waste their time with all the details, just give them the basics and ask their opinion on possible damage to the head. Let Infiniti know you have talked to these shops.

My opinion is this - and I would push this with Infiniti - oil is meant to cool and lubricate the moving parts of the engine. That is its whole purpose. Does the head have moving parts? YES! Ask them the purpose of oil in the engine. Then ask them if the head has moving parts. I think these two questions give you a lot of leverage in getting the whole engine replaced to ensure you have an engine that has not suffered excessive wear on parts due to lack of lubrication.

'04 coupe6mt
ivory premium aero

92 plymouth laser AWD
heavily modified for solo II
11.51@118 on 215/55 goodyear eagles

03 dodge ram quadcab 4X4 Hemi

 

Thats a good idea, I have a friend that has a lot of machine work done on his head so I'll call them up. Yeah I dont feel right having an engine that is half new and half worn because of a defect. Monday is really gonna be the D-day if I get word that they will only agree to do the short block.

They said today that they didn't know if infiniti would have the short block in stock and if that was the case I would get a whole new engine. Why wouldn't they have the short block in stock??

 

GforceI,

They first told me that they wanted to replace the short block, but they were going to check the heads. They sent the heads to a machine shop who verified they were damaged. They did not tell me how they were damaged, although they did say that because of the way the VQ heads were made the machine shop could not repair them. They then replaced my long block.

If you have not already done so, call Infiniti Consumer Affairs and get them involved. 1-800-662-6600. They will stay on top of the Service Mgr and try to make sure you are happy.

Good luck and be patient. They took nine weeks to repair my G. The first three weeks they tried to prove my CAI and cat back exhaust caused the excessive oil consumption (total B.S.). After that everything moved at a snails pace. Be firm, stay on them and hopefully everything works out.

Here is the link to my engine failure thread.
https://g35driver.com/forums/showfla...sed&sb=5&part=

 

To build on OmahaG's good points (hopefully not beating this to death) - the leakdown test tells you if your rings and valves are sealing. Whether valves seal or not has nothing to do with lubrication, and the test says nothing of what the impact of oil starvation is to your heads. It will not tell you what shape your valve guides, cam lobes, journals, followers, etc are in. To my thinking, the dealer needs to test that all wear surfaces are within working spec. This is tedious, expensive work to a dealer so you'll need to push it - replacement is easiest for them, if they can convince Infiniti it's what's needed.

Good luck!

 

Thankyou this is the kind of advise I'm looking for. I am going to push for a new head. I have called consumer affairs but that was before they authorized to fix the short block. I may have to make another call. I should know more tomorrow when I hear from the dealer.

 

Infiniti wanted to replace my short block initially as well. My car actually ran out of oil. I heard the head grinding and both Infiniti and the dealership knew this. I objected to the shortblock replacement. The dealer agreed to "scope the head" to look for scoring. Scoring was found. Infiniti sent a tech to the dealership to confirm the findings of the dealer w/re the excessive oil consumption and the damaged head. Infinit then authorized a long block replacement.

 

Damm Nick, hope this all gets settled fast!! Anyway when we find that PUNK who was hating on you with the engine story lol, we gonna beat him down! Sucks your car wasnt att he meet today, but we had some fun in the S2k =)


Martin
2003.5 BS G35
Nismo Aero/Sport Package
0-60 5.4 - 1/4 Mile 14.16 *GTech* and on 19's!!