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1. The CAI was making the A/F ratio rich (too much fuel) which caused the catalyst converter to fail.

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What an idiot. An intake will increase air flow, which means it couldn't run rich.

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2. The exhaust did not have enough back presure which did not allow the ECU to compensate.

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More idiocy. The oxygen sensor in the cats will detect any mixture imbalance and the ECU will attempt to correct. "Not enough backpressure" is ridiculous. What, does the ECU use exhaust pressure like a carbuerator uses vacuum?

These people are on crack. Call a lawyer now. Tell Infiniti and the dealer they need to come up with something that has basis in THIS objective reality. Perhaps they should read a shop manual.


Rick

 

I told consumer affairs that Peninsula Infiniti and "Ron" have no evidence that my mods caused a problem. I told them that he is only speculating and that I want to see some sort of proof in writing. They can go ahead and check my rotors, they won't find any evidence of hard driving. I have been literally babying my car since the 30k service was done. Also, they replaced my brake pads and turned my rotors, under warranty, at the 30k service. There was no mention of discoloration or scoring at that time.

 

If anybody has the A/F ratio numbers for a STOCK sedan I need them ASAP if possible. I would like to compare them to my numbers from Dyno Day.

 

I agree with you. The service manager didn't make any sense nor support his claim of engine failure. I hate it when the dealership starts to give you a run around. I can relate to your experience as my Mercedes has excessive oil consumption problem, which dealership and Mercedes refuses to honor their extended engine warranty on their 98-00 models. Mine problem was due to piston ring not seated properly. HOpe everything turn out well for your car.

 

If you has deleted your cats and a loud exhaust there might be a bit of validity in the AF comment as the O2 needs some back pressure to function [read correctly] but since you didn't change cats.

Same with CAI which can upset the shape of the air flow into MAF thus causing accuracy reading changes.

The OBD2 system is calibrated to maintain a 14.7 [+-0.2] AF at cruise [non acceleration]...........how much the O2 sensors cause a shift from preprogrammed in reflected in the adaptive learn display. Long and short term trim should be 100% but 90-110% is considered normal with age as injectors are only speced accurate within +- 3% [to account for fuel deposits].

I don't see how they could measure it on a failed engine other than looking at the ecu history.

They are probably looking for an ecu reflash where ratios were changed as a cause for the previous cat failure.

You may have had a dog engine [rings] from the beginning and at 30,000 miles things are just adding up..........cat failures are rare unless the AF ratio is wrong.............misfire from a fouled cylinder/cylinders on a long trip. The spark plug look should pin point it, but the ecu should have thrown a cylinder misfire code before the cat got replaced.

Unfortunately dealerships nor regional people are not very good at thinking thru the sequences of events to determine the root cause.........dissassembly time.

Wish I had seem all the codes and test data before they changed the cat.

Had this happen on a 100k Q where the misfire was undiagnosed [intermittent coil failure] and old spark plugs eventually it melted a cat and a cascade of problem ensued.......the misfire fuel washes the cylinder rings and wears the cylinders and increases oil consumption in that cylinder.

 

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

You may have had a dog engine [rings] from the beginning and at 30,000 miles things are just adding up..........cat failures are rare unless the AF ratio is wrong.............misfire from a fouled cylinder/cylinders on a long trip. The spark plug look should pin point it, but the ecu should have thrown a cylinder misfire code before the cat got replaced.

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Interesting you should mention this. When I took my car in for the 30k service I also had an SES light that I reported to them. They told me it was just the crank sensor and they reset it. They said they found no problem.

 

There is some difficulty, but in my case, it appears that the oil is about 4/5th of the way to the full mark after 2000 miles on this oil change. I guess I should have checked it at the oil change to see where it was then.

I've done all my oil changes at the local Nissan dealership, since I'm not about to drive 200 miles round trip for just the 3 month oil changes. (I did the 7500 service at 8 months at the dealership, minus the oil change which was done a week earlier).

I wouldn't be happy with having to add a quart of oil every 1000 miles on a new, fairly expensive, car. I had enough of that 15 years ago when driving a 14 year old car.

2004 Sedan/DVD Navigation/Desert Platinum/Willow

 

UPDATE:
I spoke with consumer affairs again today and was told that at this point it didn't look like they would cover the repair under warranty. When I asked why she just repeated the same B.S. the service mgr. has been feeding her. The problem seems to be that the consumer affairs people take the service people at their word. The consumer affairs people have no real technical knowledge and rely on what the service people say. So just because this guy Ron is saying that my mods caused the engine to fail, that's what they believe.

I requested a conference call with Ron and she agreed, but she never called me back. I think I'm just going to show up at Peninsula and try to get a face to face with Ron.

 

if you need back-up

give me a call.

Golden Gate G35 Club

 

What I don't understand is why your boy Ron doesn't seem to WANT to replace your engine. It's more money for the dealership!!

--Steve

 

Zimbo:

I referred to this earlier, but was slammed because , apparently, the warranty work doesn't pay as well as private jobs, at least according to my slammer.

Sport Sedan Fan - 2004 6MT Sedan
Sport/Navigation/Premium/Aero; "Invisiguard" Bra, Madico Onyx Tint
Obsidian Black/Graphite & "Titanium"
SHE'S SILVER & BLACK - GO RAIDERS!

 

True the warranty time is set so only a superhuman can accomplish it in the time alotted..........they time and motion study an expert and assume all the dealer techs are experts.

But that's the same with all warranty work but Infiniti is much much more liberal than other brands. The other problem is the factory will send an engine so the dealership makes nothing on the parts...........kind of make work for the least productive tech. You should see all the BEST techs run and hide when big warranty work gets put on the board.
Remember these guys get paid $18-$23/hour [ATL wages] on billable shop hours...........warranty is slightly less than real hours [90% efficent] whereas customer paid is more like 150% on average...........the best techs can turn 66-70 billable hours in 44 real hours per week.

Warranty work is a serious pay cut for ones family why it is spread around so each get some. If you **** someone off you can get a few weeks of nothing but.

Important for each car owner to understand how dealerships work that way you can tweak the system to your advantage.....maybe.

The following will help you understand how bad it is at a Ford shop most domestics are only a little better and the Japanese a little better still:
http://flatratetech.com/pub144.htm

http://www.dealer-magazine.com/artic...article_id=388

If you don't know what's going on inside the dealer you only have yourself to blame!

 

skeleton, it's time to call the BBB Autoline. As soon as they're involved you'll get a speedy resolution.

http://www.dr.bbb.org/autoline/index.asp

Seriously, call them and things will start moving. Let us know how it goes.

Jase aka Doogie
04 G35S

 

OK, so I talked to Ron the Regional Service Manager this morning. He didn't seem too happy to hear from me. I aksed to make an appointment to see him and he tried to put me off by saying he had "training all week". So then I said "is that a no"? He stammered and said "no, it's not a no". Finally he offered up Thursday @ 2pm. So I guess my car sits for another four days. I could hear in his voice that he doesn't want to deal with me.

 

They [Infiniti/Nissan] have 30 days from the first "legal in writing notice of defect" to give you an answer in most states.

Be sure to give them an in writing notice at that time........all those phone calls are not valid notice.

That's what these regional guys do have visit all the dealers and meet with warranty denied claimants.