I went to get Trans flush done 3 weeks back at dealership in NJ. I am not even sure whether they flushed it with the machine or just drained and put new fluid but that is not my biggest concern.

Once the car went for service I was told that my 2003 G35 sedan which is one of the eairliest one made ( withing First 7500 made in 02 ) has a broken dip stick and it has fallen in the pipe from where you check the ATF level.

They told me they have to open it up and remove the broken dipstick and than install a new one. They kept me waiting for 3.5 hrs just so they could charge me labor for that. Finally they said nothing was found and installed a new dipstick.

From what I read in Factory Service manual on AT Pg-13 the there is no dip stick in eairlier cars manufactured till serail number '099999' last six of the VIN #. They need to use the special tool J-45475 & J45475-1 to measure the ATF level as there is no dipstick provided so the owners don't mess with it and add wrong fluid to it.

I told this to service manager as I had a rough idea of it but was not sure so let them do what they wanted than as the car was in service bay. I confirmed that I was correct once I reached home and verified it.

I also opened complaint with Infiniti corporate but they are not much helpful and said that I have to deal with the dealer directly which I am going to do now.

What do you guys suggest are my options.

 

What dealership. I wouldn't be surprised if it is Holman of Maple Shade. They always lie about anything they can. I've caught them lying to me every time I've gone in.

 

that sounds like bad business but i can't say for another dealership. AT's do use a special tool but we use a whole flush system to get all the fluid out -- i don't know about 3.5 hours though

 

So, did they charge you the three hours? This is very tricky here. Problem 1 for you is that you said YOU broke the dipstick and asked them to remove it. Now, you can argue that they should have known that there were no dipstick in your Model Year. I guess it's too late now but you should have said "Hey, I think I must have broken the dipstick when I pulled out the handle, can you check to make sure I didn't damage anything?". That way, they would should have said "Oh, there's no dipstick" and you are covered. I guess my best answer would be to tell them what I just said above about pulling the handle out and there is no dipstick and that you wanted them to check to make sure it was ok.

 

da mayor - Question is that did my car have a dipstick at all if it was made in 2002 as an 03 sedan from the factory or what I derive out of factory service manual is correct and they kept me waiting just so that they can charge me the labor to open the dipstick pipe up and remove the so called broken dipstick which was never provided by the factory. I doubt that you can open that pipe up and get it back in an hour or so. Do you need to open the oil pan for doing it or it cannot be opened without getting trans down.

Your inputs will be appreciated.

 

From what I read he said the dealership told him he had a broken dip stick and had charged him to look for this inexistent piece.

 

Hero,

I never broke the dipstick. I just bought the car used 4 weeks back. Went for routine trans flush as it had 37K on it and was not flushed before as per infiniti records and they came up with this broken dipstick story. They charged me for 1 hr ($77) labor for extra work done to search the dipstick plus the cost of trans flush.

 

Oh, I think you are right. In that case, they shouldn't have charged him for that many hours, unless it takes that long to flush the transmission.

 

From the service manual it seems like up to serial 099999 requires an A/T fluid level guage with adaptor vs models from serial 300001 which already has it.

 

Just what exactly happen with ur experience with maple shade infiniti?
i live in AC and i travel 1hour up to maple shade infiniti for my services. If anyone is lieing and deceptive at doing service is the holman infiniti in south jersey in English Greek. Maple shade i have experience has always been very curtious and relyable.

 

I need to have the transm. fluid service soon and all these stories make me want to just keep driving as is

36Kmi

 

If they errered in the fact that the thought there was a dip-stick, they made an understandable mistake. I used to do R&D for a company making multi-million dollar machines, and I could never keep up to date with all the changes in hardware.

Now that you know that there was no dip-stick to be found, approach the service manager with your info from the manual, and see if he will work with you. At least give him the chance to make right on the situation.

If not, try through Infiniti CS, then try a gvt support service (AG's officer, consumer affair, whatever your state offers).

 

How do you know you need a flush soon? Every time I've gone to the dealer & ask about that, they tell me they'll check the color of the fluid, and if it's clean, then I don't need it done. I'm going to get a 60K service soon, and they told me the flush isn't part of the service, but they will check it for me

 

I understand that it might be a mistake to talk about something you are not sure of but how can you remove th so called broken dipstick if there was any from the pipe where the dipstick sits without opening the transmission. I am not very sure if that can be done but if anyone here knows for sure whether it can be done or not please comment.

I also told this to service manager and before this service was done and he read the same factory manual I did and said that your vehicle should have the dipstick. I can clearly see that my serial number doesn't fall in this range.

I want to give them benefit of duobt but my brains say otherwise and that this is not a honest mistake especially after I told them that my vehicle doesn't have dipstick and they insisted saying it always did.

Infiniti Corporate is useless where some blonde takes your complaint who has no clue what is writing and she is supposed to get you a resolution. Should we expect any miracles happening from them. No....

I will take it my way with dealer from here and see what happens.

 

well if they didnt know, they still had to pull apart the trans based on your statement and authorization for the work so you are liable for the charges