Will Infiniti run a VIN to check if Chain Guides were done?

[Q45Owner]

Just out of curiosity, will Infiniti run a VIN to see if they have a record in their database of the chain guides being replaced on a 90-93 Q? Let's say if you know or have a pretty good idea on the location where that Q was serviced. Will they give that information out or is it considered confidential to the previous owner? Anyone know?

[BCC93QT]

If the guides were done at an Infiniti dealer then yes it will show up on the vin search. 9 times out of 10 they will not do it for free or even if you do not posses the vehicle

[dnudelman]

I've had no trouble with free vin checks at dealers. I did about 6 when shopping for my Q45. The records may be archived so you will need to call infinitiusa customer service and they will unarchive the records. The parts department is your friend.

As for the chain guides, there is a a good thread here about checking the color of the RTV to see if the front cover has ever been off.

[Q45Owner]

I've had no trouble with free vin checks at dealers. I did about 6 when shopping for my Q45. The records may be archived so you will need to call infinitiusa customer service and they will unarchive the records. The parts department is your friend.

As for the chain guides, there is a a good thread here about checking the color of the RTV to see if the front cover has ever been off.

Ahh, good to know. So I don't have to call the specific dealer where the car was serviced? I can just call Infinitiusa customer service and they'll be able to tell me?

The one thing I don't understand is that if these guides were such a major issue, why were no recalls done on them? Why should we as owners have to pay the huge expense of putting in new metal guides when Infiniti was clearly at fault here. Them replacing the guides in '93 with metal guides is an obvious admittance of the plastic guides being faulty. I would think a complete engine failure due to faulty guides would result in an immediate recall. So how come the owners never escalated this issue with corporate and demand one? Also, how would any of the owners who didn't experience issues even know to replace the guides? Were the dealers telling the customers about the potential problem? Anyone know the back story on this?

[maxnix]

First, you need to register yourself as the owner with Infiniti USA.

Secondly, if you have done the correct social engineering at the dealer, he will give you a print out. Infiniti will only read it to you if they still have a record.

Thirdly, if it is a 1994, you have the metal backed guides. Keep up regular OCI and your tensioners should perform well.

Lastly, Jaguar 4L V8 had a similar problem even after the G50 was not imported here anymore. Jaguar did nothing about it, just like Infiniti, except they also went to a metal backed guide.

[Infinitiguy19]

I consider owners of a Q45 as original owners. We as second, third...."Owners" simply keeping the cars on the road because we enjoy them. These cars are worth nothing now and are expensive to maintain!

Why would Infiniti care about people who did not directly pay them for these cars other than the parts and labor to fix them?

Don't take this the wrong way but why would a brand care about a car they want off the road but we keep them going? Every day parts are being discontinued for this car or you are put on a long back order to get the parts.

[elwesso]

Ahh, good to know. So I don't have to call the specific dealer where the car was serviced? I can just call Infinitiusa customer service and they'll be able to tell me?

The one thing I don't understand is that if these guides were such a major issue, why were no recalls done on them? Why should we as owners have to pay the huge expense of putting in new metal guides when Infiniti was clearly at fault here. Them replacing the guides in '93 with metal guides is an obvious admittance of the plastic guides being faulty. I would think a complete engine failure due to faulty guides would result in an immediate recall. So how come the owners never escalated this issue with corporate and demand one? Also, how would any of the owners who didn't experience issues even know to replace the guides? Were the dealers telling the customers about the potential problem? Anyone know the back story on this?

if you know the dealer that the car was serviced at, often times you do not have to get the records "un-archived" from Infiniti USA, they will have them locally.

The fact of the matter is that very few guides failed while the car was still under warranty, and they DID fix the problem. There are only about 2.5 years of cars where they had the issue. Any failures under warranty would have been covered. Also there are probably some (not many) cars that have failed guides that are still working fine with lots of miles.

The major issue with the guides is when the guides break and little pieces get caught up in the chain causing the chain to come off the sprocket. Many cars have the guides break clean off and they drop down into the oil pan.

The secondary issue to this is when the guides break up, the little pieces can get stuck in the oil pickup.

The guide job is really NOT that big of a deal. You can get the guides replaced for $1500 or so, which is the average cost of a timing belt job on a "reliable" Lexus LS400, and you have to do that every 100k miles, versus on the Q you just replace the guides once.

No car is perfect, there are many cars out there with much worse issues, so consider yourself lucky. It took GM over 10 years to actually get the Northstar engine to not blow head gaskets. Even "reliable" Lexus engineers had the brilliant idea to put the PS pump above the alternator, so when the PS pump starts leaking it leaks all over the alternator, effectively destroying both. The good thing about the guides is you only have to do it once, once they're fixed, they're good for the life of the engine.

[Q45Owner]

I consider owners of a Q45 as original owners. We as second, third...."Owners" simply keeping the cars on the road because we enjoy them. These cars are worth nothing now and are expensive to maintain!

Why would Infiniti care about people who did not directly pay them for these cars other than the parts and labor to fix them?

Don't take this the wrong way but why would a brand care about a car they want off the road but we keep them going? Every day parts are being discontinued for this car or you are put on a long back order to get the parts.

Well, I'm not assuming that Infiniti would do the work for free 20+ years after these cars were built. But if this is such a common issue with the early Qs and even just 2 of them had engine failure, then that would have been enough to justify a recall, no? Replacing them under warranty is great, but I would think they would have been more proactive and customer service oriented, especially with their flagship model in the early 90s when they were trying so desperately to establish themselves as a major luxury brand and competing against the LS400 and others. Establishing a reputation of engine failure, especially on your flagship model doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the brand. I realize at this point, so much time has gone by that no one cares anymore about the early Qs (well, except us of course). But In my mind, it should have been an official recall at the time and these guides should have been replaced at no cost to the owner.

Still curious as to how there are so many people on here who have bought 90-92 Qs where the previous owner claimed that they already replaced the chain guides. How on Earth did these previous owners even know that the chain guides were an issue? Were they hanging out on NICO back in the mid 90s? I don't think so. So how did they know if Infiniti wasn't telling them?

[Q45Owner]

Ahh, good to know. So I don't have to call the specific dealer where the car was serviced? I can just call Infinitiusa customer service and they'll be able to tell me?

The one thing I don't understand is that if these guides were such a major issue, why were no recalls done on them? Why should we as owners have to pay the huge expense of putting in new metal guides when Infiniti was clearly at fault here. Them replacing the guides in '93 with metal guides is an obvious admittance of the plastic guides being faulty. I would think a complete engine failure due to faulty guides would result in an immediate recall. So how come the owners never escalated this issue with corporate and demand one? Also, how would any of the owners who didn't experience issues even know to replace the guides? Were the dealers telling the customers about the potential problem? Anyone know the back story on this?

if you know the dealer that the car was serviced at, often times you do not have to get the records "un-archived" from Infiniti USA, they will have them locally.

The fact of the matter is that very few guides failed while the car was still under warranty, and they DID fix the problem. There are only about 2.5 years of cars where they had the issue. Any failures under warranty would have been covered. Also there are probably some (not many) cars that have failed guides that are still working fine with lots of miles.

The major issue with the guides is when the guides break and little pieces get caught up in the chain causing the chain to come off the sprocket. Many cars have the guides break clean off and they drop down into the oil pan.

The secondary issue to this is when the guides break up, the little pieces can get stuck in the oil pickup.

The guide job is really NOT that big of a deal. You can get the guides replaced for $1500 or so, which is the average cost of a timing belt job on a "reliable" Lexus LS400, and you have to do that every 100k miles, versus on the Q you just replace the guides once.

No car is perfect, there are many cars out there with much worse issues, so consider yourself lucky. It took GM over 10 years to actually get the Northstar engine to not blow head gaskets. Even "reliable" Lexus engineers had the brilliant idea to put the PS pump above the alternator, so when the PS pump starts leaking it leaks all over the alternator, effectively destroying both. The good thing about the guides is you only have to do it once, once they're fixed, they're good for the life of the engine.

Thanks for the detailed response Wes. I agree that any maintenance on any luxury car is going to cost money and true, the timing belt change on an LS400 is a huge expense (I've owned 4). I just feel like Infiniti should have replaced the guides as an official recall. If a seatbelt snapped on just (1) Q45 back in the day, you know damn well they would have put out a recall on every single Q and replaced them because it's a huge safety issue. But yet, you could be traveling 75mph on the interstate and your engine could fail due to faulty chain guides and that isn't a huge safety issue?

[elwesso]

Thanks for the detailed response Wes. I agree that any maintenance on any luxury car is going to cost money and true, the timing belt change on an LS400 is a huge expense (I've owned 4). I just feel like Infiniti should have replaced the guides as an official recall. If a seatbelt snapped on just (1) Q45 back in the day, you know damn well they would have put out a recall on every single Q and replaced them because it's a huge safety issue. But yet, you could be traveling 75mph on the interstate and your engine could fail due to faulty chain guides and that isn't a huge safety issue?

I think again, the major difference here, is that not that many failures were seen under warranty. It's not like you had cars that were 3 years old with 30k-40k miles failing all over the place, in fact I'd say a good share of them made it to 80-100k before it really became evident what was happening. IMO that far out of warranty isn't really grounds for a recall. On the other hand, they knew it was an issue which is why they made them good in the 1993+ models. I think for a manufacturer to warranty something that far out of warranty is probably asking a lot.

Not to have a cop-out excuse, but I don't think safety recalls were as broad in 1990 as they are now. The newer BMW 335/535s have a recall on the fuel pump which is considered a "safety" issue, purely from the fact that the engine COULD lose power and stall. That seems a little far-fetched IMO. As complex as vehicles are, there are a myriad of components that could fail at "any given time" and cause a similar type of thing. I guess my point is, where do you draw the line? Something to the seat belts, airbags, brakes, or steering would necessitate a recall...