Last October I had the RMS and oil pan gasket replaced due to an oil leak by the Nissan dealership under the power train warranty (truck at 44K miles). On April 10th (the last day of my power train warranty) I took it back for the same oil leak. They added a die to the crankcase and told me to drive it for a week. Today I take it back and they tell me it’s the RMS again, and initially they tell me it will cost me $1100. I remind them that they already replaced the RMS back in October (5K miles ago). They say they will call me back. The service manager calls me later to tell me that until they remove the tranny, they will not know which components from the RMS needs replacing and at that point they will know if those were the original components replaced back in October. The dealer slip from October is not itemized so I have no idea what they supposedly replaced. All it says is RMS and oil pan gasket replaced.

I feel a major screwing coming around the corner. Called Nissan and initiated a file # to look into this. I still fell there are going to be some battles coming.

Questions:
1- How many components does the RMS include?
2- What legal action can I take if they decide to tell me that it is not covered under warranty? Do I have the work done, pay for it, and take them (dealership or Nissan) to small claims court?

Any and all constructive help would be appreciated.

Thanks

It seems to me that Nissan needs to do a major recall on these vehicles. I know my 2002 Xterra has a small leak right were everybody else's is leaking. I'm not sure if its the RMS or the oil pan.

Ok so here is what is going on.

When the dealer did the RMS under the warranty that repair and the part is warranted by Nissan, usually 12 months/12K miles. When they take it apart and if the RMS that they installed is defective then you will not be charged at all and Nissan will eat the bill. If it is discovered that some other part not related to the RMS work done in October of last year is the culprit then you might have to pay.

The RMS is two parts the actual seal and the retainer. I priced them at 12.63 for the seal and then 16.14 for the retainer. Most of the price for RMS work is in the labor. Dealers use programs like ADP, Mitchell on demand or others to determine work hour amounts then multiply that by their shop rate. Ask them to see the labor printout and their shop rate should be easily accesible.

The rub on this is that the seal has been in the truck for about 6 months now. If you had gone in just a few weeks afterwards it would be different. The dealer has no idea what has been done to the vehicle in those 6 months....yes they dont trust your word otherwise they would get screwed lots more.

The best approach is very simple. Sit down and have a chat with the service manager. I would wager that they will make an agreement with you. If the problem is the RMS well you have nothing to worry about. If not tell them you are willing to buy the part/parts that are defective in exchange for them taking care of the labor for the work.

6 months is a long time and who knows maybe the tech made a mistake didnt tell the boss and quit or was fired. This has happened to my wife before. Service manages now that your good business helps them out and they will help you as a result.

You always get more with sugar than with vinegar.

Good thing your venting here because it is upsetting but look at it from the other perspective. Those guys are very busy and sometimes a little pressure release valve or something stupid might get overlooked.

Relax and see what happens.

Good luck.

Tim

whats an RMS

Rear Main Seal

Since you were still under warranty when you brought the problem to their attention Nissan should honor the powertrain warranty as it is a pre existing condition prior to the warranties expiration. If it's a new problem or if its a repeat of the last rms leak the powertrain should still cover it and the 12m/12k mile warranty should also cover it.

Exactly.
I agree on meeting the service manager. Discuss the fact that you brought it in before the warr. was up so it doesnt matter whats wrong, Nissan should take care of it since its a warranty claim.

Thanks for the replys.
Last night they called me to say that now they actually are thinking it's the head gasket (WTF).
Are they just comeing up with more silly ass axcusses or am I that unlucky to have both an RMS problem and a head gasket problem within 6 months.

I am sorry but I have the same respect for dealers as I do for lawyers (sorry to any lawyers on this forum). For this reason I do all maintenance myself. Never fails, every time the truck goes in something else is fucked up.

I will just sit paitenetly and see what they say today.
Yes, I agree, being polite is always they way to go even is you disagree.

My neighbour is a service manager, sometimes they get fucked over themselves by the mechanic.

He had a customer come in and complained about a noise coming from the front driver side. Customer said it sounds like a loose strut mount. So my friend wrote on the service order, noise, sounds like loose strut mount.

So the mechanic replaced the rack and pinion likely because it takes more time than a strut, therefore it pays more.

So my friend calls the customer and said it was not a strut, it was the rack and pinion. He went with what the mechanic told him because he did not see the van.

Customer came in, paid his 1400$ and left. Customer came back the next day and complained about the same noise. They put the van back on the lift and guess what was wrong, the strut mount.

My friend went to the owner because there is no way he was going back to the customer and let him know that in the end it was the strut, so the owner made him do a warranty claim using a VIN number of a similar vehicle still under warranty.

The whole industry is screwed up.

Wow. So everyone got screwed all the way up the line. And after that, what happened to the mechanic?

Nothing of course.

Solar -

That is very weird. When my RMS was done (twice!) the work was warrantied for 12,000 miles.

I would look on the back of the dealership receipt and see what the warranty for work is.

Stone

Sigh...

My passenger-side head gasket was bad - because the head was cast wrong

Guess I'll have to look at the RMS before my extended warranty expires.

Oh, and the infamous upper air conditioning hose seems to have finally leaked on me - my AC isn't for shit right now.

At least I have a pretty decent dealer and I know my mechanic there personally. Still a PITA to get the work done. I least now I can leave the X with the dealer and just enjoy the warmer weather in the Miata.

Sorry for the late reply.
It seems the dealer looked into it further and are claiming that it is not the RMS but the driver side head gasket. They want $2k to fix it.

They say the warranty is over now so I have to pay.

I originally brought the truck back on April 10th, they added die to the crankcase and told me to drive ir for a week. April 11th my warranty ran out. Finally last Friday they came up with the conclusion that it was the head gasket.

I have a file# open with Nissan reagrding this - this is BS. I had it at the dealership before the warranty ended - why do I have to be penalized if it took them 3 weeks to figure it out?

You should not have to be penalized. They seem to be jerking you around. Just remember that in the future when it comes to buying a new truck.

Last year I took my truck in a week or so before my extended warranty expired. That is where they discovered the cracked manifold. It was on backorder though. They fixed it 2 weeks after the warranty expired. No fuss, no muss.

Try taking it to another dealership; maybe they will want your business.

Stone

So, I finally hear back from Nissan corporate. Now thay tell me that the reason they don't want to cover the head gasket is that the failure is not a Nissan workmanship issue (or some crap like that) so I guess they are telling me that I somehow caused the head gasket manifold to leak. 49K in 5+ years, babied always, original owner, how the hell they come up with that conclusion?

Can some one chime in and make some sense of this. Small claims court here I come!

Do you have 5 years worth of service records to prove that the truck was properly maintained? If so then try taking it to another dealer explain the situation and the service manager will more than likely work with you...especially if it means your continued business.

If you dont have the records well Nissan is right you have no way to prove one way or another and small claims court will be a waste of your time and money.

When the truck was in for the RMS it may have been that problem indeed. A dealership is not allowed to "upsell" on warranty repairs....things get messy during audit time. If the truck is leaking they have a set diagnostic process and if they find that the RMS was bad they fix it.

To be totally honest it sounds lilke that dealer is pretty shaddy or like was said before maybe they had a bad mechanic..let him go and now his bad work is coming back...that happened in my wife's shop before as in all other shops.

Your best bet is to take the truck to another shop and explain things and see if you can work out a deal from there. I got my tranny done that way and Yes Nissan will ALWAYS side with the dealer!!!! They just put that 1-800 number up because they legally have to. Ask if Nissan has a coupon program that they can send you to help defray some of the repair cost...I know of a few OEM's that do this.

Your last scenario is to go to the dealership that the original service was done on and rape them on a new vehicle.

Hope all turns out well for you. Let us know what turns up.

Tim

Well after playing phone tag for 2 weeks with Nissan, they are just flat out saying no it is no longer covered.
Even the service manager told them that there was no sign of any excessive heating that would cause the head gasket to leak so that Nissan workmanship crap is just BS.
So, I am contacting the office of Consumer Affairs and see where that takes me.

My head gasket fun

HandyX talked about a gasket TSB in this thread . Might be worth a search on alldata.com or some other site that lists TSB's.

Tried a few sites for TSB's and did not find any for the head gasket. Nissanhelp.com seems to be a good one but they did not have anything on the head gasket.

Anyone else know of a possible TSB for the 2002 head gasket?

Thanks

Did you try PM'ing HandyX to see if he can give you the TSB number?

I did find:

04-018 FEB 04 Cooling System - Leaks/Overheating

on alldata.com but you have to subscribe to get the TSB. I'd go down to the dealer and make them pull it up and print it out for me...

I feel your pain... good luck!

Nissan Consumer Affairs can be your best friend!!!! I have been having problems with my 01 for the last year with it eating seatbelts(7) and airbags(3) everytim i had it documented with the failure and now consumer affairs has contacted me wanting to put my X into arbitration and possibly buy back my 01 with 70000 miles so be nice and they can be your friend...They will usually get things done for you the way you want

I have been nice and polite as possible. I have reviewed the facts with them on two occations just to make sure we are speaking the same language. Yesterday I asked them to send me their decision in writing (to be used in litigation if necessary), they called today and told me I should receive a letter in 7-10 days.
In the mean time I have contacted the office of consumer affairs and they are sending me a complaint form. I talked with my brother's attorney and he said I should look up existing precedents. Once found provide those to Nissan and explain if the do not honor their warranty I will take them to small claims court and request triple damages (after I pay for the repairs) for breach of contract.
I tried the nice way - this time it seems it didn't work.

Good luck, I hope it works out for you.