- Aug 18, 2000
- 10,484
- 12
- 81
I am wondering if I should be responsible for paying for repairs to my Nissan.
It's a 2000 Sentra with 92K miles on it.
My wife drives the car and about a year ago the car died on her while driving a few times. She was able to restart the car immediately. We took it to our regular mechanic who couldn't find anything wrong. She noticed that the car started idling roughly as well; the RPMs would occasionally drop very low when at a stoplight almost to the point of the car dying. A few months later the car died completely again (all the warning lights came on and it would not start) so we replaced the alternator and battery. It's been running fine since then, but the idling problem always remained.
So on Monday she was on the freeway and the engine lost power again. She was able to limp to her work (the car would still run, but it chugged & died if she even slowed down). We had it towed to a Nissan dealership and they told us yesterday that the ECM needs to be replaced, which will cost over $600 in parts & labor.
Today, just to make sure, I checked on some recall lists on the 'net. Turns out that in December '03, there was a recall issued (#03V477000) that affects my car. There is a foam lining inside the box that contains the ECM that apparently created sulfuric gas during the manufacturing process. The gas trapped inside could then corrode the resistors of the ECM. The symptoms listed are exactly the symptoms my car has been experiencing. The recall was issued to replace the foam lining so the gas would not be present. The dealership conveniently overlooked this recall when they talked to me yesterday.
Now, my question: is Nissan responsible for replacing my entire ECM? I never received a recall notice, probably because they did not have my current address on file at the time. I do realize that it's partly my fault for not checking for recalls after we started having problems, and I'm prepared to pay for it if I have to. The recall technically did not affect the ECM itself, either, just the foam surrounding it.
However, this problem was obviously caused by a manufacturing error, not poor maintenance on my part, so I still think Nissan is also partly responsible.
I'm going to call Nissan's Customer Affairs division today and see what happens. Anybody have luck in a similar situation?
It's a 2000 Sentra with 92K miles on it.
My wife drives the car and about a year ago the car died on her while driving a few times. She was able to restart the car immediately. We took it to our regular mechanic who couldn't find anything wrong. She noticed that the car started idling roughly as well; the RPMs would occasionally drop very low when at a stoplight almost to the point of the car dying. A few months later the car died completely again (all the warning lights came on and it would not start) so we replaced the alternator and battery. It's been running fine since then, but the idling problem always remained.
So on Monday she was on the freeway and the engine lost power again. She was able to limp to her work (the car would still run, but it chugged & died if she even slowed down). We had it towed to a Nissan dealership and they told us yesterday that the ECM needs to be replaced, which will cost over $600 in parts & labor.
Today, just to make sure, I checked on some recall lists on the 'net. Turns out that in December '03, there was a recall issued (#03V477000) that affects my car. There is a foam lining inside the box that contains the ECM that apparently created sulfuric gas during the manufacturing process. The gas trapped inside could then corrode the resistors of the ECM. The symptoms listed are exactly the symptoms my car has been experiencing. The recall was issued to replace the foam lining so the gas would not be present. The dealership conveniently overlooked this recall when they talked to me yesterday.
Now, my question: is Nissan responsible for replacing my entire ECM? I never received a recall notice, probably because they did not have my current address on file at the time. I do realize that it's partly my fault for not checking for recalls after we started having problems, and I'm prepared to pay for it if I have to. The recall technically did not affect the ECM itself, either, just the foam surrounding it.
However, this problem was obviously caused by a manufacturing error, not poor maintenance on my part, so I still think Nissan is also partly responsible.
I'm going to call Nissan's Customer Affairs division today and see what happens. Anybody have luck in a similar situation?
My car was well out of warranty and the closest dealership has an awul service dept.
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