2nd headgasket blows at 81k miles, any recourse?

[Cutehumor]

This is on a 2003 Nissan Sentra 1.8L XE
First headgasket blows at 46k miles when a service engine soon misfire cylinder code appeared, Nissan dealer replaces using powertrain 5yr/60k warranty. 2nd headgasket blows at 81k with a misfire cylinder code reappears. We have 7yr/75k extended warranty. We are outside of warranty by 6k miles. Nissan refuses to pay anything on the repair! We would be happy with covering 50% of the $1100 repair bill. We negotiated, they wouldn't bulge. This OEM and replacement headgasket only lasted two years each! I have oil analysis reports that show the coolant leak that they don't want to see! anyone know of any recourse that I have here? who to talk to? We did the customer service 1-800 nissan number. Ironic, that when my dad first called Nissan about this 2nd headgasket, the first thing the customer service asked was "we see that you will have your nissan sentra paid off next year, do you plan to buy another Nissan?"

 

[refaller]

I am not sure who you have already talked to. If you can find a zone rep then they are the next step. Remember, anything they do at this point is above and beyond their responsibility. Once you are outside of warranty, then you are depending on good will. I would think that they would want to help out, but sometimes you have to be persistent.

ref

 

[Titan]

I'd go straight to the Zone Rep. BE POLITE! Believe me, the Rep is a person, just like the rest of us Bozo's. If the Rep won't fix it, or pay for half, ask if they will help you get another Nissan at a great deal...and get one without that engine.

 

[Drew99GT]

Screw getting a new Nissan........Fool me once..........

If they won't budge, get it fixed NOT AT THE DEALER, by a quality independent tech; perhaps find a place that specializes in Nissan so it's done right and will last the life of the vehicle.

Then, run, not walk by the Nissan dealer when you need a new vehicle.

I'd bet they didn't do a quality job the first time; gasket misaligned just a hair, sloppy job torquing the head bolts etc.

Start a 1.8 Nissan website where customers can gather and accumulate strength in numbers; GM customers have done the same with the intake gasket fiasco. It seems the newer 1.8L are all prone to blowing headgaskets. It's a shame, because the older 1.6L and 2.0L Nissan 4 bangers, along with the mighty 2.4L, are about as bulletproof as one can get in a car engine.

 

[ryansride2017]

At this point, Nissan contractually owes you nothing. If it were me, I would have taken the car (presuming you want to keep it as long as possible) to an independent shop, regarless of warranty, to guarantee a high quality gasket was installed. I agree, the second repair was probably not done correctly...It's not rocket science (two flat machined pieces of metal and a gasket).

The problem with these engines is really strange. I haven't had a problem with my head gasket but its constantly in the back of my mind. My sister-in-law has had two 1.8 liter Sentras without a problem (one was taken over 100K miles). Other than the head gasket issue, I think this engine is very good.

 

[Cutehumor]

Freakish luck tonight, but I work in a hospital. A patient was telling me what he did for a living and he works for Nissan! Of course, my eyes got big. So I asked what he did at Nissan. He is a supervisor at nearby Nissan plant for the past 23 years. So I go into my spiel about my dad's headgasket. Of course, he acted shocked that this engine went through headgaskets. telling me that Nissan has great quality blah blah. I asked if there was anyone at Nissan that I could talk to about this without being jerked around. He then gave me a name to contact pretty high up at Nissan and said "if you write to him, explain your situation, he will listen". He basically told me what to say. He told me when I write him not to include his name. He confided I'm not the first person to ask him about problems with their Nissan. Sure enough, the guy does exist on nissan.com website. now i got to figure out how to write this letter without sounding angry.

 

[Cutehumor]

oh ya, I forgot. when I was telling about these headgaskets. he was preaching about Nissan quality and how he just sold his 250k miles 1990 Nissan Maxima in perfect running condition. Oh, he did tell me that even the factory workers have to call that cursed 1-800 nissan customer service number like I did. They get treated the same way like I did, that's how they know who to write to. go figure.

 

[CapriRacer]

Cute:

A couple of thoughts:

First, you were very lucky to encounter that guy - and I would take his advice.

Technically, you aren't owed anything from Nissan. They got you to 81K - and while that's not particularly good, there has to be "a line drawn in the the sand" somewhere.

Second, I'll bet the reason the second gasket failed is the same reason the first one failed - and it isn't the gasket. It's the block and/or head surface that is warped. That means they should check the surfaces for flatness and deal with that. This might mean the engine blocj has to come out - and that would be really expensive. (I'll bet there are tricks that an independent mechanic might do that the dealer wouldn't for liability reasons.

So in your negotiations:

Be aware that you are probably looking at another 40K before you have to do the gasket again - unless they address the warpage issue.

Talk to an independent shop and ask him about a warped head / block and could he / would he do one of those "tricks" if it was the block.

Please note: Nissan is probably going to w3ant the dealership to do the work - and I'll bet they will only install a new gasket and not even look for warpage!

Does any of this affect your long term plans for the car?

 

[levi]

Quote:
Freakish luck tonight, but I work in a hospital. A patient was telling me what he did for a living and he works for Nissan! Of course, my eyes got big. So I asked what he did at Nissan. He is a supervisor at nearby Nissan plant for the past 23 years...


Quick, go buy a lottery ticket!

 

[ekpolk]

Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
Freakish luck tonight, but I work in a hospital. A patient was telling me what he did for a living and he works for Nissan! Of course, my eyes got big. So I asked what he did at Nissan. He is a supervisor at nearby Nissan plant for the past 23 years. . . .


So, exactly how much pentothal did you have to add to his drip to get the info out of him???

On a serious note, I don't fully agree with the "sorry, you're out of warranty" position stated here by several posters. While it will usually be claimed by the car maker that the wty is the exclusive remedy for things gone wrong with their product, there may be other possibilities (how realistic it may be to pursue one of them is another question). I would agree that you're totally out of luck if this were a random isolated failure of the sort that simply "happen" with any product, however good. If your power window motor fries itself at 90k miles, go buy a new one.

By contrast, this is an issue that Nissan very clearly knows about, and has known about for some time. And despite this, they sell large numbers of cars with this engine to unsuspecting customers. If they made a full disclosure pre-sale, I'd say the wty limits should stick, but since they plainly don't, I think there is some lingering responsibility. Now, whether Nissan's actions rise to the level of fraud (or some other cause of action) that would allow the owner to get relief in court is something that you'd have to get a local lawyer to look into for you.

 

[Propflux01]

Lemon Law?

 

[jamesn]

do you know where the head gasket leak was in either instance?

i have dealt with several diesel engines that go through head gaskets at an unusual rate. you would have to retourque the head bolts every month or so and a couple of them were always coming loose. what the problem is as far as we can tell is that one or more of the threaded holes in the block itself has poor machining or poor threads. the head bolt has to have perfect threads to mate with if it is expected to do its job and not back out over time. our solution was to safety wire the head bolts in place. problem solved. many times mechanics will put thread locker on the bolts that they think are the culprit once they are doing the head gasket for the second time. this never fixes the problem and just causes more problems. just chasing the threads to clean them will not fix the problem. have your new head bolts taken to a shop and machined for aircraft safety wire and be sure to have them retourqed as needed.

 

[Aldaris]

and in the real worst case scenario, you could fix the car yourself. easy job.

 

[lars11]

well, another thing, about the last repair. Don't they warrant their own work? Sounds strange if a shop that does a job on the last mile of vehicle warranty only have to stand by it for another mile?

 

[refaller]

It has been over 30,000 miles since the last repair. Most shops don't warranty their work for that long. The best option is to aim to get the rep to do some good will work.

ref

 

[MrCritical]

That's why they sell service contracts. Look at it this way.

Say they fix your car for free. What about the guy that shelled out 2 grand for a service contract?

If you get a goodwill repair from a manufacturer out of warranty good for you. But it's like them calling you up after you make your last monthly payment and asking you for more money.

 

[Al]

Originally Posted By: Drew99GT

Start a 1.8 Nissan website where customers can gather and accumulate strength in numbers; GM customers have done the same with the intake gasket fiasco. It seems the newer 1.8L are all prone to blowing headgaskets.

He is on a Sentra Forum. I have been trying to spread the word but to no avail.

I have no doubt that the vast percentage leak but they don't all go on to failure. I assume ignorance is bliss for Nissan.

 

[Cutehumor]

maybe he got a lemon? but yet, I see almost every oil analysis posted with this engine have a small coolant leak. I believe Nissan is turning a blind eye. The plan is to keep the car until this problem shows up again, if it does we'll trade it in. no more money coming out of our pockets for this obvious defect. right now, my dad is mailing me copies of both the dealership invoice repair bills so I can mail my letter out. since it's the holidays, I'll get them in two days. My sister is more upset about this I am. I expected the shaft the whole time. She was highly interested in buying a Nissan Pathfather next year, but she will be looking at Toyota or Honda for her next mid size SUV. I'm only 30 years old, I have a good 50 years of car purchasing to do. When my 96 sunfire kicks the bucket, a Nissan will not even be considered if Nissan doesn't step up for this.

 

[Titan]

No one will fault you for choosing not to buy another Nissan, especially if they don't treat you as you think they should. However, don't cut off your nose to spite your face (as the old saying goes). By that, I mean: I doubt there is any manufacturer that doesn't do some of these same shenanigans. I got a lemon Honda Accord V6 back in the late 90's. At just over 2000 miles, they had to replace the transmission. A couple of thousand later, the engine was to be replaced due to a failing bottom end. It took much more quiet but firm ground-holding than it should have, but, they finally were forced to buy the car back from me. Since then, I have bought a couple of more Honda's, and they have been stellar. Nissan is as good, and as bad, as any manufacturer. Just don't throw their entire line of vehicles out due to problems with one.

I am STILL leary of Chrysler products, though, as I had one that they replaced the fuel pump on more than 20 times in it's first year of service. Even I knew it couldn't be the fuel pump that was the problem so many times, but, that's all they kept doing. I wasn't educated enough to get them to buy that lemon back from me, so, I sold it. I'm still suspicious of Chrysler products, and I hear enough complaints to justify my bias...although it may be unfair.

 

[MrCritical]

Don't be too quick to say the fuel pump replaced 20 times wasn't to blame on your Chrysler.

In my too many years in auto service, we've replaced the same part numerous times, only to have it fail repeatedly. With our seasoned technicians and the manufacturers technical assistance at a loss for the cause, there seemed to be a contributing factor that couldn't be found.

MUCH later, we've found out several times that consecutive runs of the same part have been found to be defective from the supplier's assembly line. So we were replacing a bad part with consecutive bad parts.