my 2002 QX4 with 80K miles is ticking and the dealer says two of the small screws that opperate the butterfly valves on the intake have come loose and are either ratteling in the cylinders or stuck in the head. They are telling me 3K to fix.

Doesn't make sence to me for an engine that has won motor of the year so many times to have screws that can come loose and find there way into the cylinders.

Any thoughts would be apreciated.

Thanks

Kirk

Sounds normal to me, ocassionally 1 in every few thousand get this experience. Not very common but known.You might be able to find a moonlighting tech who works on the weekend at home.

Same thing happened to me on my 2002 I35. I had 82k miles on my car and the screws totaled my engine. The dealership quoted me $7k to install a used engine with a 6 month warranty.

Sounds like an excellant reason to have purchased a 100k Nissan extended warranty..................but then again the probabilty has been low, so far.

Only Nissan knows for sure exactly how many have failed in this manner.

I would have discussed this multiple times with Nissan Corporate and Zone employees..................never take a dealer's word as 100% fact without being agressive with the actual manufactuer.

I dealt with Infiniti Consumer affairs for several weeks. They said that since I was outside my warranty, then I was on my own. I asked to speak with the regional manager, and I was told my Infiniti Consumer Affairs that they are not allowed to speak with customers (they can speak to dealerships and Consumer Affairs), but I could send a letter to their PO box to complain. They would not even give me a name of a person to send it to. So, I sent a letter to the corporate office and asked them for some assistance because I did not think that this should happen. I asked them to please respond ASAP since I was renting a car while waiting for an answer. THEY CALLED ME 6 WEEKS LATER to tell me that I was outside my warranty and said they could not help. I had already had someone else fix my engine by that time. Infiniti converted my from a very loyal customer to someone who absolutely despises them.

A company owes it to its stockholders to not waste their money.

A warranty is just that a time limited contract, they offer you the option of buying an extension, if you chose not to what should their answer be? What would your answer be if you owned the company and your bonus depended on it.

Very few cases where they self extend the warranty to the detriment of their shareholders.

I was wondering if this problem has been solved or can it still happen on the VQ35DE engines all the way up to 2009, just wondering because I have a 08 Altima SE V-6.

thanks

Since these problems occur after warranty, how would we be able to predict the future?

Considering the redesigns since 2002 I would always recommend an extended factory warranty to add a few years of assurance.