Hi all,

On July 1st (Canada Day - whoo hoo) I noticed a nail in the rear tire of my 07 G35 and decided to go to the local (NIssan) dealership and see if they were open. Got to the dealership realized it was closed and turned to go back home.... All of a sudden I hear a huge bang, smokes coming from all over even through the interior vents and the whole car feels like it's lost power and is vibrating like crazy. Thankfully no one else was on the road and when it finally stopped I got out and stood back as it billowed smoke from one of the exhausts, wasn;t too sure if it was on fire.
As this had happened just outside the dealership I pretty much pushed the car onto the lot and just left it there overnight.
In the morning I get a call from the dealership asking what i wanted to do because they see a hole in the side of the engine :'-(
I called up the 1-800 Infiniti number and asked what i should do. At this point i'll explain that the car has 126,000km on it and is 5years 2 months old. The warranty is 6years and 110,000km whichever comes first.
They ask that I have he nissan dealership run a diagnostic and report back - done.
Broken connector rod - punched a hole through the block. (more tears)
The next day i get a call asking that I have the vehicle moved to a Infiniti dealership and have another diagnostic done and that Infiniti would not consider providing assistance unless this was done.
Paid for a tow over to the dealership and paid for another diagnostic >:-|
Report - Broken connector rod - punched a hole through the block - yupp got that.

Couple days later I get a call asking that a full engine teardown be performed at MY cost.
Much yelling from me followed. At this point I will explain that since i've had this vehicle, I have had the oil changed every 6k-7k (km) and performed over $4000 in maintenance all at Nissan/Infiniti Dealerships. The car is bone stock. The previous owner was a lovely old lady who listened to Dianna Krall and Michel Buble (She left her cd's in the changer)(leased local vechile). I got the car with 100,000km on it. Anyways once again i'm told if this is not done assistance would not be provided as they need to determine the root cause.

A couple days go by and I decided to go ahead with the tear down. This is 10 hours of Infiniti labor to pull the engine and tranny out of the vehicle. $$$$
It has now been about 6 weeks since this started - the engine has been fully dismantled for about 10 days and the news is in.

The reason for the con rod failure was due to hydro locking. During a compression stroke there must have been fluid on top of the piston when it struck the top. This put a dent in the piston which then proceeded to bend and break the connector rod which punched a whole through the block. Because this was caused from hydro lock Infiniti will not be assisting me with any support. They were also kind enough to note I was 16k (km) over the warrenty.
I live in Ottawa we have been under a drought advisory so i'm quite certain water let alone excess water in the engine/bay was not the issue. Is it possible some other engine fluid somehow leaked into the cylinder, and if so am I really responsible for that considering how well I feel like i've maintained the car? This happened without any warning, no weird noises, SES lights, nothing.

I'm looking for opinions, thoughts and advice. I personally think for the type of vehicle, and how close it is to the warranty that Infiniti should be providing some form of assistance cause now i'm stuck with no car, and a $2000 bill for the tear down.

If you've gotten this far thank you reading this. I look forward to any and all feedback.

PS -This is super disapointing for me cause it took me a while to finally find this car and straight up that car always puts a smile on my face. I test drove a bunch everything in the class but nothing came close to feeling as alive and sounding so sweet. I am not giving up on this car, I will fix it and it's going to be another VQ35HR!!

 

WOW, sounds very painful. I'm truly sorry you're going through this. As far as the diagnosis, IDK, I guess it depends on how truly competent the tech who did the tear-down was. Did corporate possibly send out a hotshot tech to look at it and give his (second) opinion, or was this just the local dealership's determination? I take it they didn't offer a guess as to what kind of liquid caused it, since you didn't mention that. Going down the possibilities, there's always raw fuel, but you said it was running ok, so that's implausible, then there's coolant, as in a HG failure, but then it would have had to be sudden and catastrophic to cause that. Usually with a bad HG, you'll get a misfire and some smoke at start-up before any chance of hydro-lock. Also, they should have been able to tell if the HG was leaking, so that could be eliminated. If it was motor oil (how'd it get in first of all, I doubt you rolled the car upside-down), then there should be traces left in the cylinder (oil doesn't evaporate). Next is usually the first suspect, external water ingested by the intake. Given that you'd certainly know if you were fording a creek or driving with a really bad CAI in the rain, that also seems ridiculous. I really feel for you in this situation, as they have you over a barrel given that you're out of warranty anyway. I don't know how much more you can press them on it, and any further work done is going to be expensive. If it were mine, I'd be sure and get a second opinion on the diagnosis, then I'd pull the car and have it towed home. I'd source a good used motor from a wrecker. Then, you could have it installed at a more reasonable shop (or DIY if you're able).
Good luck with this and keep us informed as to how it's going for you.

 

From Wikipedia if this helps:

Hydrolock most commonly occurs in automobiles when driving through floods, either where the water is above the level of the air intake or the vehicle's speed is excessive, creating a tall bow wave. A vehicle fitted with a cold air intake mounted low on the vehicle will be especially vulnerable to hydrolocking when being driven through standing water or heavy precipitation. Engine coolant entering the cylinders through various means (such as a blown head gasket) is another common cause. Excessive fuel entering (flooding) one or more cylinders in liquid form due to or other abnormal operating conditions can also cause hydrolock.

Hope this helps!

 

Im sad to hear what happened to you but not surprised by the decision of the dealership/corporate, they will by default try to find a reason to deny any big warranty claims and in your case given the mileage being over was a good enough reason for them in which case i do not understand why they made you tow and have your engine torn down on YOUR expense when they had already decided that they were not going to fix it up under warranty regardless given the excessive mileage.

Had they told you upfront you couldve just spent the $2k and a bit more to get a new/used HR block ... Have you already paid them for the diagnoses?? First of i would not pay them for the tear down citing the fact that they never intended to fix the car anyways regardless of what caused it and if you are 100% certain that no water got into the block because of anything you did or cause of weather then you have good enough case to pursue and assure that you at least are not liable to pay the $2k beyond that you might be a bit out of luck just cause of your warranty having been run out and im sure infiniti would be able to highlight that legally if need be.

So basically my advice is that if corporate refuses to help you in anyway and deny covering the tear down fee to the dealership, start of by filing a formal complaint with BBB(not sure if it exists in canada or not and if it the same force as it does here) else hire a lawyer to dispute the ~$2k. Then your next move should be to try and get corporate to foot part of the bill for the repairs(VERY unlikely but worth a try) citing it was not your fault and at this mileage it has to be some defect in the block.

Once you take care of that and are able to get your car released from the dealership you can look at some reputable local shops that deal with infnitis a lot to do the swap for much cheaper than the dealership.

 

What a sad situation, definitely feel for you. Sounds like the luck I had w/ our 02 745Li, one day everything just went wrong and would have cost $12-14k to get it roadworthy
First off, $4k is a LOT of maintenance, even at an Infiniti dealer, what all have you had done? I do all my service myself so I guess I can't really relate to such a cost for upkeep.
Being out of warranty is a major bummer, the dealer really has no legal obligation to take care of you, but being a regular customer should pull some weight. It doesn't sound like you have a regular service manager you deal with, sometimes that personal relationship can go a long way in at least getting them to meet you halfway or help you out somehow. Having such a catastrophic failure may warrant more opinions from someone higher up the chain. Like mentioned your best alternative may be to find a sound motor form a salvage vehicle. Best of luck getting through this and sorry to hear that you've run into a wall

 

^ I'm not sure even a lawyer could get his $2k back. He agreed to pay $2k and the dealer didn't make any promises that the damage would be covered under warranty.

The teardown was so that Infiniti could determine the cause of failure and IF it was definitely caused by a defect, they could replace it under their ""goodwill" warranty repair. They determined that the cause was due to the user, and not Infiniti because the engine at least lasted for over 110k km.

 

^ that is correct but given the situation it is best to go down trying since he does not have much left to lose which is why i suggested BBB first(if they have it) since its free and most big companies like to stay in good standings with them. The point is that corporate didnt really seem to deny his warranty on the hydrolock issue but rather on the mileage issue imo otherwise they would be hard pressed to come up with more details of the problem such as what kind of liquid was it as VQ said and how it got in without any issue and proper maintenance given the customer paid $2k and wont be covered.

 

Hi vqsmile, thank you for the advice.

As far as I know it's only been the dealership that has looked at the car. They were sending corporate pictures of what they saw and from the sounds of it they have no clue as to what liquid was present. The head gaskets looked good according to the dealership, but I will double check that. I just realized this happened on Jul-02, not the 1st.
As for motor oil, the only thing that's different is the dealership recommended synthetic oil, but it's been running it fine for the last 3 months. One other note the Infiniti rep said the cylinder(s) looked darker, they were not able to tell me if this was all the cylinders or just the one.
Honestly i'm really frustrated with the service. It's been 6 weeks, i'm out of pocket almost $2000 for the teardown, the diagnostics and the tow and someone in an office looking at pictures is making a call on this and best part is I can't even speak to them. I am so happy I don't have a car payment or necessarily rely on a car, cause I can only imagine how much worse this could be.
My co-workers husband is going to take a look at it once I get it back. I'm hoping nothing else got messed up when the rod blew cause that engine went down loud and angry.
A friend recommended me a good mechanic for the engine swap i'm just waiting to see how this plays out.
Thanks again for the help :-)

 

It's definitely not water, i really can't think of a period of time even days leading up to this where the weather was bad.
I'm hoping they will be able to figure out which liquid got in there and caused this.
Thanks for the reply :-)

 

Hi kool_yaar,

I have to pay them, it's the dealership which did the work because I'm the one who gave them the go-ahead based on corporate saying this is what needs to be done for them to consider this as "good will" because it was "reasonably out of warranty". The guy even went so far as to say it's a "all or nothing" thing. - They either cover all costs or none at all.
Don't get me wrong I think they should totally eat the cost of the teardown and at least 1 diagnostic if not both. I will file a complain with the BBB, not sure how effective they are hear but worth a shot.

Thanks :-)

 

Hi blnewt,

Thats a shame what happened to your 745, really nice ride:-) $12-14k eeeek!!!
I didn't even realize the car was costing me so much till I looked over the records which Infiniti asked for. Odd things kept going wrong with the car - fuel sensor of sorts somehow resulted in an $800 bill, the oil pan broke caused a belt to slip and do all sorts of wonky stuff. The rest is quite seriously oil & filter changes, fuel system cleanings, fluid flushes, and brake issues.
Most of the work was done by the nissan dealership closest to my home, the car is at an Infiniti dealership which I have never used. Dad used to go there but not anymore. :-(
It's kinda funny you mention "personal relationship" because I talk a bit with the service manager at the nissan dealership and he spoke to me after dealing with Infiniti. He said they asked about me, and the vehicle but did not ask much about the damage. And next day I am asked to have it moved to Infiniti.
Dealing with them is super annoying - it took almost 2 weeks before I could even speak to a supervisor. Since getting the news today which was pretty much a letter being read by one of the customer service reps. No further explanation, or discussion. The last rep I spoke to said he could mail out the letter and that was all he could do. I really hope I can speak to a supervisor again - it's pretty sad that his is a "hope" of mine, lol.

Thanks for the input :-)

 

jeez I'm sorry to hear the bad news... I can already see all the top members posted their input. Hope you resolve the situation with Infiniti.

 

See, this is what I'd want to get a second opinion on. I guess I'm just not convinced that's what actually happened. My hunch/fear would be that they just assume that because they can't explain it any other way; sort of a diagnosis by exclusion situation. If the damage was great enough to shove the rod through the block, a lot of (potentially contradictory) evidence could have been obliterated in the process. Not that any of that helps your situation any.

 

I know some insurance companies can take care of you when engines become hydrolocked...maybe you can contact them and see if they'll pay some of the cost for a new engine?

 

I don't know if it applies in Canada,
but here in USA, if you fail to pay an agreed amount, they will not let you take your car back, and place a mechanic's lein on the vehicle whether they'd play hard ball..... that's the question