Hey all, I don't post here often, but I lurk a lot.

I have about 5000 miles on my G35 Sedan and I like it a lot. There are some small things that are starting to come up that I am going to have the dealer look at. Since this is first new car that I have ever owned, I am not sure how common it is for people to expect the dealer to fix the following problems.

1. I have a slow leak in my rear left tire (I put air in it about every 10 days). I would like the dealer to make sure that it isn't being caused by a defect in the tire.

2. There are some minor creaks and rattles in the car that bug me. One seems to be in the sliding shoulder harness adjustor right by my left ear. One is in the dash and seems to be coming from the middle right air vent. The other seems like it is coming from the rear passenger door. All three are intermittent and hard to reproduce, but they happen often enough to irritate me.

3. There is a defect in the paint on my trunk and rear spoiler. When I originally took ownership of the car, I thought that it was just a smudge that I would wash off when I washed it for the first time. When I couldn't wash it off, I figured that it would be able to be buffed out by a detail shop. I took it to be detailed and they said it was through the clear coat and couldn't be buffed out.

4. There is a ring/vibration in the engine at 39 miles per hour. It isn't huge and my wife says she doesn't notice it. This one makes me nervous. The car had 75 miles on it when I bought it. Since this was my first new car, I didn't think anything of the mileage. I assumed that most new cars had about that many miles on them. I was very careful not driving at the same speed for a long time or going over 4k RPM when breaking the car in.

5. There is another ring in the engine at highway speeds (around 80 mph) when I have my foot on the gas. It goes away as soon as I let off the accelerator.

6. It seems like I get better acceleration by not flooring it. When I floor it the car seems like it doesn't downshift when it should. Also, when it upshifts it is way past the power band and stays in the current gear for too long before shifting. Ideally I would think it would shift around 4000 to 4500 RPM. When I floor it, it usually redlines before shifting.
By not flooring it I can get it to shift around there, but that seems counter-intuitive to me. Maybe I just don't have enough experience with AT cars.

Wow. After writing all of this down it seems like I have more than a few issues. I still like the car, I am just looking for suggestions on which of these things the dealer will fix. I don't want to look stupid by taking my car in with a list of things that most people don't worry about, or wouldn't expect the dealer to address.

Thanks a lot.

 

Take your list to the dealer and ask them to look it over while your car is in for service. They should be able to address some of the rattles with TSB's. As far as the tire, it probably just needs to be patched. $15 at a local tire shop would do the trick. As for the automatic shifting points, have you tried resetting your ECU? It seems to make quite a bit of difference as far as restoring the shifting algorithms to regain performance the learning ECU has sapped from the car. Take a look in the DIY/FAQ section, there are instructions on performing the reset.

<font color=blue>04 DG/G Coupe - St. Louis, MO
Premium, Aero, Performance, Splash Guards
Tint - Grounding Kit - UItinon 6000k - Rebadged
Clear Corners - PIAA Plasmas - K&N Drop-In</font color=blue>

 

Hey,

2. Don't feel too bad there are a number of people on the forum with rattles especially those who live on the cold area and I think there are TSBs on it to pust some foam tape.

4.
As far as the vibration if it is at running speed like 39mph maybe you need to get the wheel banaced that may help.
My car has some slight vibration I can feel when i accelerate the rpm in neutral and stopped (mainly around 1500-1800 rpm range) both in AT handle and steering wheel.
The dealer told me its normal not sure now what to do I guess I will ask folks on the board.

6. Yes my car does the same although my Legend coupe was different. If you really punch the car the rpm increases immediatly with a slightly delayed torque response. I would like to be instantaneous or quicker than that. You are right if you push it slight slower you get better controlled acceleration.

Hope this helps you a little

 

No, it's not at all unusual to have some minor things with a new vehicle, I have had a lot of new cars in my time, and this one has the fewest things wrong with it of any of them! I have a rattle that also is intermittent, and not sure where it's coming from, sometimes sounds like the dash, other times maybe the door, when the car "flex's" on bumps, I'm taking it in for my first service tomorrow, and will add that to the list, if it will make the noise then, LOL! You really don't have that many things if this is the first time in 5k!


Brilliant Silver/Graphite '04 Sedan/5AT

 

i don't want to read all of the posts, but in responce to the rattles, get used to them. I had my car in for a week, it came out rattle free, and stayed that way for about a week. I'll complain again, but .. whatever. As for the tranny, I drive a 6 speed, and when drivingthe loaner car, I noticed a rathe aggressive shifting perameter the auto used. It seemed to downshift when i wasn;t expecting it to. Of course, my driving experiance is limited to an auto corola, auto contour, auto 89 240sx (a little more agressive than the latter) and then a 6 speed 2k2 maxima, and my current 6 speed G. i think the auto just takes some getting used to. Also, I think the tranny adjusts to driver patterns after a while. Good luck.

 

I guess some rattles are a fact of life with any vehicle, I mean it's brutal on the roads anymore, did the same rattles return on your car? The one I have isn't bad, just minorly (LOL, is that a word?) annoying, and compared to a my convertible, not there at all, LOL!


Brilliant Silver/Graphite '04 Sedan/5AT