CorbinM56x wrote: ↑Fri Jun 08, 2018 11:17 pm
Sorry for not getting back sooner!! Building a garage at the moment and been super busy at work!! It ended up being a broken right side exhaust variable valve timing solenoid! It broke in half, Infiniti had to remote control the car from japan in order to figure it out!! It took 3 weeks and 1200 dollars to fix the problem! I didn’t want to spend that much but happy that I’ve got my baby back!! Thank you all for the help!! Now we all will know what happens when you can’t rev past 3500!! Also found out my rack is leaking on the drivers side! That should cost me another arm and leg!!
I question the validity of them charging you so much to fix this. I'll explain...
I had a similar issue years back where one of my exhaust cam solenoids went bad. SES light flashing, car went into limp mode and restricted me to around 2000 RPMs. I scanned the code then cleared it. Car drove fine for a few then the code came back and we were limping again. Long story short $800 fix at the dealer. Then about a month later code came back, similar presentation but this time on the other bank. I was pretty annoyed and vocal about the coincidental circumstance and asked that the code be cleared and I be brought my keys (don't get me started on my opinions of this dealership). It never came back....
Fast forward to last weekend and I thought wise to add "Restore" oil additive to my crank case. Mind you I had done so in my '07 Pathfinder a few days before and despite a rough idle with misfire codes and plain s*** engine response, the Pathy eventually settled back into a smooth idle and has no issues anymore. I figured if I ran into issues with the M, they too would self resolve. Beat me now, I'll take it like a man cause I deserve it. She did not take lightly to it. Initial idle right after oil change was rough, misfires included, and that did smooth out, but I was now limited to 3500 RPMs and no more. I cleared the initial misfire and timing codes and they never returned. But it felt like I was fuel governed. And if I tried to push through it, I was put on a minute time penalty before I could get any power again. Idle was baby smooth but it's like when she says everything is OK, but you try to make a move and it's clearly not..... No codes though. An identical situation to what you described here. I did notice though that if I started the car and revved it before the RPMs settled to baseline it would rev past 3500 all the way to red line. I could sit there and seemingly do that all day. The minute I allowed it to settle though, it would not rev past 3500. Shut down, and repeat. So the solenoid was operational at startup, whatever the issue, had to do with after the car settled into a baseline idle.
I speculated that the Restore was clogging the oil channels of the cam shaft actuator and preventing the shift needed to facilitate revving past 3500. What else could it be right? So I pulled out the oil from the crankcase (left the filter) and refilled to try and thin the Restore mixture. Took a tad longer after I allowed the revs to "settle" before I was hitting that wall again. So next step was to add about 4oz of Seafoam to the crank case.
I'm happy to report that after about 10-15 miles with the seafoam that 3500 RPM limit is no more. Tip in and she revs like the banshee she is while I grin from ear to ear....again. Before I drive her next I'm going to do an oil and filter change (with some cheap synthetic and filter) to get the seafoam out, drive for about 200 miles and then do another change with my regular oil and filter combo.
My point? I think your actuator was just dirty or clogged, not actually broken. The manual does say that dirty oil can cause a malfunction with those. Who knows if they actually changed it and didn't just fleece you cause they could.