Hello everyone,

I bought a 2004 G35x a few months ago from an infiniti dealership. Havent had any problems with the car until last week. I was driving in the left lane of a parkway in a light rain going about 60 when the car jerked halfway into the middle lane.. i thought thaty maybe i was hydroplaining so i moved to the middle lane and slowed it down to about 50. About 1 mile later while driving on a straight portion of the road the car jerked hard to the left causing me to do two 360 spins and smash into the concrete divider of the parkway. I thought that the G35x all wheel drive and traction control was supposed to prevent the car from losing control. as i said i was driving straight and not excessively jamming on the gas or brakes just keeping up with traffic. I purchased this in june or july from infiniti and it was precertified... Now i have roughly $10,000 worth of damage and 2 1/2 weeks repair time, reinforcment bars cracked, frame bent on passenger rear, both front and rear end passenger side were really badly messed up. Also airbags did not deploy. Does anyone have any idea what would cause this? I cant imagine what would cause this car to do this... I would like to be able to be reassured that this wont happen again as I am expecting to have a child this year and would not want this to happen again.. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

if your frame is damaged it should be totaled, you wouldn't want a car that had frame damaged.

 

The rear passenger side frame was bent and they pulled it rather than totalling it. I'm honestly not going to feel safe getting back into that car unless the mechanic can tell me why the car jerked to the side twice resulting in a violent spin out. Also after the accident the entire interior of the car frosted over on a cold night. Heres two pictures.. one of the rear passenger side damage with bumper on and with it off

 

Here's some other pics

 

Ouch, sorry to hear about that but good thing you are OK from the accident. Did you take the car back to the same dealer where you purchased for damage estimate? It sounds like the same thing I went through before with my previous car (Lexus). It was a not-at-fault front-side collision. Took the car back to the dealer to get the damages repaired on the other party's insurance bill. There was obvious frame damage but for whatever odd reason the dealer decided to pull back the damaged frame into normal shape instead of replacing the frame parts. This is clearly one example of what a dealer or body shop would do to cut corners and preserve costs and headaches when repairing damaged vehicles, and it sounds like you're going through the same scenario. You should go back to the dealer and convince them that the car will not drive the same with the damaged frame still in place. Also, it would be a good idea to bring up the issue of the airbags not being deployed when they're supposed to in the event of an accident.

 

Sorry to hear about the accident. Some things I might point out, even if you have an X if your tires and worn you will lose traction. Also you mentioned driving in the rain, lots of times there will be water collected in the lanes or near the sides and when driving through it will cause your car to pull to the side. take it in to get estimates from couple places not just the dealer, if there is frame damage the car should be totaled or total loss. Good luck

 

The tires are fine. I bought the car a few months back from an infiniti dealer, I only put 5k miles on it. The one thing that i did notice is that the rear tires are different brands/model than the front tires. This is how it was sold to me though. Also there wasnt any pockets of water in the middle lane which is where i lost control. Unfortunately Im not to sure on how to pursue this once I get my car repaired and back in my possession. I dont know if infiniti will take responsibility if there was something mechanically wrong with the car causing this accident. Any ideas on what to do?

 

You clearly don't trust this car now and probably never will. I would recommend you get rid of it one way or another. Maybe trade at the dealer for a similar car? They can't very well low-ball you because it's been crashed, since they are the ones fixing it and saying it'll be good enough to drive -- though they probably will.

 

take it with your insurance company

 

There's only a few things that can cause a steering wheel to jerk out of your hand. Those would be:

1) Torque steer at full throttle - this isn't an issue with any G35

2) Hydroplaning

3) Deeply rutted road surface

My guess is the car was hydroplaning since you said this occured in wet conditions. Just because you were keeping up with traffic flow doesn't mean the rate of speed is safe. Even a brand new tire will hydroplane in a 1/4" of standing water. If you hit a rut with 1" of standing water, it can get really nasty.

Stability control cannot save the car in all situations, especially when the spin is induced by very slick conditions like standing water, ice, snow, etc. It can help, but if the rate of speed is high, it can only do so much.

Mechanically, there's nothing I can think of that would cause a steering wheel to leap out of your hands.

As for air bag deployment, that is based on Gs, crash points, vehicle speed, speed, etc.

 

The steering wheel didn't jerk though, the car just started spinning out of control. Whats weird is that i have a 98 maxima and have driven that thing through torrential downpours on the jersey turnpike and I-95 at 75mph and never had a problem, Ive even hit 115mph on a straight through with it and hit a bump and it still remained in control. The slip light didn't come on in the car and VDC was on the whole time. It was a light drizzle that night too. Maybe its the tires? These are the tires that came with it from the dealership. Ive only put 5000 miles on them tops.

 

Which tires do you have and how old is it?

 

Im not sure which tires i have.. Ill have to check once i get my car back. Those were the tires that came with the car from the dealership. Like i said ive only driven the car for about 5000 miles or so. Is it possible that the tires on the car may have had a recall? And does anyone else have different front and back tires? Anyone know any reason or benefit there is to having different back tires?

 

I am not gonna assume anything.. but if the tires were OEM and your car has say.. ~50k.. it was time to replace them.. and tires are not guaranteed to wear evenly.. so inside of your tires could have been worn to hell.. and these will EASILY create a very low traction.. so yes, even a slight puddle will cause to you slip, even if you were going straight and at 30mph..

might wanna get that checked out.. i am tlaking about all 4 tires insides and middle.

 

diff brand tires + AWD = no no. Dealer might be in Barney Rubble