Some of you may remember a while back (2 years ago, maybe?) that I made a post about the local Nissan dealer here in Colorado Springs and how they were awful. My mom took her X-terra to them for over $3000 in work, including routine things like water pump and knock sensor just to ensure the longevity of the vehicle. What happened? The service was done, but the vehicle never ran right after. For weeks, the X-terra had several idling issues, gas consumption, odd noises, etc. After several trips back to the dealer, we at least got it in drivable condition.... drivable meaning that it no longer lurched under braking, stalled etc. It still had some strange idling problems on occasion, and made some really sketch noises. Nissan basically said we were crazy for thinking anything was wrong with the car. My mom was tired of dealing with them, so we left it be. Fast forward to now. The typical knock sensor code kept throwing (kind of didn't think much of it since it is common for this motor) but the strange noises always persisted. Finally threw a different code... for coolant temp too high. It was missing coolant... plain and simple. Filled it up, but it was time to dig into why it was losing coolant to begin with. Upon visual inspection, it looked to be leaking from the water pump. Once tearing into it, however, it most certainly was not. It was leaking from a hose which drained down to where the water pump is making it look as if it was the pump... but it was nothing more than a hose. But... what did we find when looking into it? Well, when we originally went to replace the water pump, we found that one of the rings on the harmonic balancer was completely detached. On a vehicle with roughly 80k miles on it, this was either caused by an inappropriate and excessive force removal of the part to change the water pump the first time around at the Nissan dealership... or a defective part. I'm guessing the tech used some sort of excessive force when pulling the balancer the first time around. Regardless... the second piece of info further solidifies this belief. The knock sensor that had been throwing codes was... well... replaced by Nissan... but must have been put in with with some sort of excessive force, as well. It was... essentially shattered. Yes, these knock sensors are useless and fail very often, but when does one just shatter on its own? I'm sorry, but anyone that knows car should know that these parts don't just physically break themselves to pieces.
SOOO.... what does Nissan want to do to fix all of this? Remind you... these parts that we found to have been defective/broken fully justify all of the symptoms we've been seeing. Well, Nissan wants to offer my mom a discount the next time she comes in for service. ... ........ .... . WHAT?! REALLY?! This car has been having problems for almost two years due to problems that were almost certainly caused by the excessive force of a technician when replacing parts on a job that was $3000.... and Nissan doesn't take any blame? Well, I suppose no one would want to admit they suck that bad, especially when after weeks of trying to figure out what they did wrong and they couldn't even diagnose any problems besides the fact that car now ran like crap. But... at the very least, reimburse her for the parts! Don't offer us discounts on service, we're not ever going back to your janky-a** joint! We're not asking for a full refund on the work... just give her the money for the parts that were destroyed by what was clearly not normal wear and tear and just so-happened to appear once the car had been worked on by your technician.
So... what would you do? Contact Nissan North America? Fight with the dealership itself? They clearly don't want to take blame... but, they didn't realize they were dealing with someone that actually knows about cars and happens to work for the world's largest Nissan Infiniti site in the world... Sure... my mom might believe the crap you say, but I know your tech broke these parts and that they are the reason that a flawless car started running like crap after being in your hands. She just wants the money on parts back... it doesn't seem like the biggest issue to me.
Sound out, fools!
WOODMEN NISSAN COLORADO SPRINGS COLORADO
