VQ35HR Throttle Body Rebuild at 8300 Miles???

[Jimmy1262]

Hey, just to give you guys a heads up, installing the NISMO Air Intakes apparently voids your factory warranty. My VQ35HR Has them along with the grounding kit and the dealership in Buford, GA and North American Nissan is telling me that my warranty is void because of it. It only has 8300 miles on the engine and started idling at 1500 RPM. The dealership is also telling me that the throttle bodies have lost calibration and have to be rebuilt. $$$$

[C-Kwik]

My understanding is they warranty the NISMO parts if it is dealer installed.

As for voiding the warranty, they can't simply void the entire warranty because you have an aftermarket or Nismo part on the car. There must be some reasonable level of correlation between the failed part and the aftermarket part.

I'd ask them to be technically specific (both from a mechanical standpoint and legal standpoint) as to why they are denying your warranty claim and ask for the explanation in writing.

[Jimmy1262]

Yeah, thats what i thought too man! Now there telling me it's because I replaced the spark plugs and somehow the throttle bodies ( the butterflys inside them) lost calibration. I put the same factory plugs ( brand new of course ) back in it and the car ran great for three months! How in the hell could they lose calibration all by their lonesome? The problem that im having with the car is it started idling at about 1200 and the CEL came on. So far, the dealership already has me down for $2000.00 dollars. They decided to replace both of the throttle bodies. I cant even get someone who speaks good english at 800-Nissan1 ! Let me know if you think any of this crap sounds messed up to you. Appreciate it brother.

[Q45tech]

Did you disco the battery, or TPS connections or physically touch/move/push open the TB plate while the engine was off and battery connected? This is enough to cause the TB to lose calibration!

Did you change air filter or use an oiled unit which can disturb the TB calibtration?

The dealership has a contractual duty to inform Nissan when they see owner abuse or modifications. Nissan has final word on what they will or will not pay to replace.

The dealer only has 2 sources of income YOU and NISSAN.

Maybe you are being punished for something you said?

[Jimmy1262]

No, I dont think they 're punishing me. I think they're just trying to make a quick buck. They made this decision pretty damn fast. The Lady in service told me they couldn't cover it under warranty because of " ALL " the aftermarket modifications. I then explained to her very nicely that the only two mods that were made to the car was the NISMO CAI and Grounding Kit. Shortly after that, the mechanic over "Steve " gave me a call to ask what all had been done to my car. The atmosphere of the conversation was actually pleasant. But, it was painfully obvious they were pushing it towards out of pocket instead of warranty. I use to work for Honda before I joined the Military. I seriously doubt they attempted to run it through NIssan first. Thats how quick the decision came. I trust Steve's judgement over there though, my buddy is a mechanic for subaru and I already know that Steve has been working for Nissan for 22 years. I just dont approve of them making the call before asking me what was even on the vehicle. As for the Mods, the neccessary percautions were taken before the equipment was installed. That car has not even gone over 3000 MI w/o an oil change. Thanks for the link, they definitly may help me in the future.

Plus, If the TB's lost calibration, wouldn't the CEL and the noticeable engine difference happen right after? This didnt happen until 1200 Miles later after the mods had been made.

Modified by Jimmy1262 at 6:21 PM 3/10/2008
Modified by Jimmy1262 at 6:24 PM 3/10/2008

[aris_unlimited]

I am not overly familiar with the nismo intakes. Are the air filters on them oil based? If so it could be some on the oil got onto your maf or maybe even coated parts of your tb to mess it up. Maf is more likely though.

[Q45tech]

Most electronic TB lose calibration when an owner or mechanic makes the mistake of opening them by hand while battery is connected............the postion potentiometer and the syncronous drive motor get out of calibration.

[Sentientbydesign]

Q45tech,

So the proper way to clean them is to disconnect the battery, then clean it?

[Jacko3]

Jimmy1262:

Sorry to hear about the issue you are having. But as C-Kwik said, ask them to put down their reason for denying your warranty claim in writing, if you are sure those are the only two things you have done to the car. By the way, the dealership makes more money directly from you by asking you to fix the car with out of pocket money than they do from getting the car fixed under warranty from Nissan (Nissan pays them a fixed amount regardless of how much time they spend in fixing the problem--and sometimes, they don't get the money immediately from Nissan when compared to a customer who pays immediately in cash or credit card). Secondly, Service Managers are held to a financial standard/evaluation of how much money they are able to rake in to meet their monthly target. I have seen Service Managers get fired for not meeting their monthly target. In these tough economic times, the incentive to make the customer pay for the work outweighs the incentive to waste time trying to get Nissan to cover the part under warranty. I would suggest that you are being shafted by that dealership. Why don't you try takinig the issue to another dealership and see what they say?