Heat Issues - front and rear temps different

[EmersonHart13]

I used the search and found this thread and I think it answered my question but wanted to ask because it is a little different: heater-issues-t596230-30.html?hilit=heat

I just had my '12M at the dealer (again, but that's a long story for another day) for no heat and they replaced the heater core and heat pump. My wife complained to me that the car heated up slowly so I drove it to work today and noticed that the air coming out of the front vents is noticeably less warm than what is coming out of the rear vents. This seems odd to me as the rear doesn't have it's own zone so I thought it would be a mix of the front two. After reading the above thread and trying to peer through the service manuals I guess they could have their own blend doors but it is hard to tell.

Any help?

Thanks,

John

[EmersonHart13]

I began digging into the service manuals to figure how how the auto heat works on this thing.

What I see is that the rear is served out of the bottom of the Heater & Cooling Assembly while everything else comes out the top. So I am guessing I am getting blended on the top and it is too cold. On the trip to work this morning it was 37 degrees out. I had the heat set at 70. I warmed the car up (after backing it out of my heated garage), verified on the engine temp gauge it was warmed before I left. I brought my own thermometer and set it on the dash. When I arrived at work 13 minutes later the heat was still blowing hard (mildly warm) and the car was 65 inside per my thermometer. I reached into the back seat and found all the heat blowing out of those vents.

It is going to be quite cold tomorrow so that will be a much better test of the system. I'll also grab my infrared thermometer and test the outlet temps too. It does blend as I am able to turn down the heat and turn up the AC. Maybe the system just needs to be calibrated..?

[Ilya]

Welcome to the forum. Did the dealer say anything regarding the issue or have you not taken it back yet?

[EmersonHart13]

THANKS

Picked it up Tuesday. Wife discovered issue last night as it has been warm until last night. I am doing diagnosis today... I'll probably call this afternoon and talk to them. It is a CPO car and I bought the long warranty, money well spent as this car has been in the shop ALOT.

[Ilya]

They aren't all like that...but as with anything that is mass produced, there is a small percentage of less stellar examples. Hope you get it fixed though and if anything report back on your findings. I love my M and loved the last one too (which is why I got another). Great cars with amazing bang for the buck, IMO.

[EmersonHart13]

I bought mine in January and unfortunately it is so bad that I calculated my down time. This thing has been in the shop almost 35% of my ownership...

I called and left a message and the dealer didn't call back yet, probably because they want my car to disappear... I don't blame them! lol

[Ilya]

That's quite bit...surprising to hear as even the ratings for this car (reliability wise) are pretty decent. Let us know what happens.

[stm37s]

Sorry to hear that, knock on wood, haven't had any problems with my M, except for a dead battery. Hope you get this fixed.

[EmersonHart13]

Well it has been a while...

The car ended up spending a total of 51 days in the shop to fix the heat. In the end they replaced the heater core, heat pump, air blend box, and trans cooler. (which is tied into the heating system see below for diagram). If I recall correctly that is $2500+ in parts alone. I had a $5500 w/ labor repair done in July and August. This warranty was the best money I have ever spent.

To date the car has spent 128 days in the shop and I have owned it for 347. I am looking forward to only stopping in for oil changes for a while!

[Ilya]

That's insane. My 2011 has been a little more problematic than my 2007 and even my 2011 has only spent like 14 days in the shop (most of which were just waiting for back ordered harnesses to arrive). Either your shop works INSANELY SLOW, or their techs are quite bad and just take forever to troubleshoot.

[mig0s]

what else was wrong with your car besides the heater? 128 days seem to be a lot just for the heat...

[EmersonHart13]

Ilya I have the same issue... Parts are always far away or backordered. My Hybrid Clutch had to be ordered from Japan and they didn't have any so they had to make it. Then the strapped it to a mule and slapped it's azz... That repair took all of July and August. Thankfully they put me in a newer Q70L for the two months. My heat parts were always located on one of the coasts so that slows it down. Another problem is that everything for the hybrids has to go through Infiniti Technical Assist, aka Corporate. The dealership doesn't get to decide what gets fixed, they submit the data, then answer follow up questions and do what they are told. That isn't a speedy process.

Here is the breakdown:

-60 Hybrid Clutch
-17 Metal Sound*
-30 Heat 1 (Heater Core and Pump)
-20 Heat 2 (Blend Box)
-1 Heat 3 (Aux Heater)

*The metal sound is a crunching metallic noise I hear when turning the car off. It developed after the Hybrid Clutch install. The dealership says the transmission probably needs replacement but corporate won't authorize the repair and insists the sound is normal operation. Trust me it isn't... It is a terrible noise that makes me cringe but I have a warranty until 05/2019.

So mig0s the heat was merely 51 days...

[Ilya]

Crazy...truly feel for ya. This is definitely not the norm as far as getting something fixed...usually it's a couple of days tops (as it was in my case even with waiting for parts twice).

[Altim8M37]

FWIW, and I hope I'm not insulting anyone's intelligence here, the rear temp is designed to match what the drivers side is set to. Was a question I asked when I purchased a month ago. Makes it an odd issue that you would get a warmer reading further away from the source...

[EmersonHart13]

Ilya, I am happy to hear most people have better luck with Infin than me. Hopefully mine will turn around now!

Altima8M37, thanks for the info. It was quite weird, turns out the blend box was not working right.

[EmersonHart13]

Thought I was out of the woods. Infiniti took care of me with a check and some free service due to the excessive time in the shop and 2016 was looking up.

Well not so much, car is scheduled to go back Tuesday because now the power telescoping feature of the steering column isn't working and I am going to have them looking at an intermittent tapping sound I have that I didn't have before they pulled the dash out twice.



*If you have some time to kill... This is the full story from looking at what car to buy up until now: http://www.thechicagogarage.com/forum/a ... inity.html

[Ilya]

Dang man...honestly, every time I open this thread I'm surprised. This car is a lemon...which happens in anything that is mass produced albeit not very often in 2016 as it did in say, 1970, perhaps. You got seriously unlucky.

[Debonair]

Rough stuff. I hope the issues subside soon so you can start enjoying your car for longer amounts of time. Unfortunately the more bells and whistles cars have the more opportunities there are are for parts to fail. And then more times the cars is disassembled to repair said issues the more chances there are for it to be reassembled incorrectly and/or for once snug fitting parts to loosen up and make noise. Viscous cycle.

And that engine shut-off noise...oh my god that sounds bad, like someone tripping over metal trash cans. Have you found any other hybrid owners that have the same sound?

[EmersonHart13]

Ilya I think Debonair has it right. The car isn't being put back together well due to the lack of knowledge on these cars. The dealership really has to lean on Corporate and they have a fairly small sample size on this car.

Debonair unfortunately due to the low volume of production on these cars there isn't much on the internet about them at all. The only thing I have ever found is the usual product reviews and information. And yeah, that noise is horrendous. The dealership cannot understand how corporate would view that as normal other than they just don't want to payout any more money than they need to on this money pit. Unfortunately for them this warranty lasts until May of 19.

At this point my goal is to leave and not have a reason to go back within a week. That would be a victory, if you can even call it that...

My friend is looking at new Infinitis and another dealer tried to sell him on the Q50 hybrid and he started telling the salesman about my car, then cut himself short and said he didn't have enough time to go into it all. LOL

[EmersonHart13]

Car was in for 8 days why the fixed the telescoping steering wheel and found and fixed 3 rattles. Fingers are crossed that I will stay out of the dealership... I do have an oil change coming up at 67,500...

[nebojsa_o]

Hopefully your luck turns around here.

[EmersonHart13]

Thanks, I appreciate that

[Debonair]

Ok, it's time to start a pool on when Emerson's car heads back to the dealer for a non-maintenance issue.

I'll see myself out.

[EmersonHart13]

Hahaha, I'm game. I find them to be very entertaining... I am guessing you read that in my other thread??

[Debonair]

Hahaha, I'm game. I find them to be very entertaining... I am guessing you read that in my other thread??

Some of it, it was long. Did they get a pool going too? Ha!

[EmersonHart13]

Yeah, we have casino cash to spend in a virtual casino and I ended up paying a lot out to the winner. lol

[sadboy]

I used the search and found this thread and I think it answered my question but wanted to ask because it is a little different: http://forums.nicoclub.com/heater-issue ... hilit=heat

I just had my '12M at the dealer (again, but that's a long story for another day) for no heat and they replaced the heater core and heat pump. My wife complained to me that the car heated up slowly so I drove it to work today and noticed that the air coming out of the front vents is noticeably less warm than what is coming out of the rear vents. This seems odd to me as the rear doesn't have it's own zone so I thought it would be a mix of the front two. After reading the above thread and trying to peer through the service manuals I guess they could have their own blend doors but it is hard to tell.

Any help?

Thanks,

John

John I am reviving this thread as I too am an unlucky soul who purchased one of these cars... As of now my car has not had as many things go wrong as yours but I am very curious as to how the car is doing now and if you kept it?

So far I have had my Heater Core replaced as per the Infiniti TSB (which was put out in 2017)
https://testing-public.carmd.com/Tsb/Do ... /ITB17-057

and some airbag issues related to the dash removal. My blend doors are malfunctioning as well by the looks of it.