Alan I do agree... I'm working on it and will report back as soon as I here more. Thank you for your post, you're totally right.

A poll at this time to see how many people have had an overheating issue and their geographic location would be helpful. Ideally it would be good to see the same for the end of June. Data talks.

Sounds to me like Nissan shot themselves in the foot by including an oil temperature gauge...

did the 350 have an oil temp gauge?

Nope. Well, my '06 didn't. Not sure about later model years. Btw, small pet peeve people (this isn't directed at you, tbone) -- it's principle, not principal. A principal is typically a person in a school whose office you get sent to after stirring the pot a little too much. ;)

^^ then what gauges were in the 3-pod cluster on the dash in teh 350s?

I just called and spoke with Nissan about this issue. Although they were very polite, the call was not helpful. The woman on the other end could only tell me that there were no recalls and that I should talk to my dealer technician about extracting "maximum performance potential" from my vehicle. She also offered that we should not experience any of the overheating issues without violating the law. I guess I'll get the Stillen unit so I can enjoy a track day.

The "violating the law" thing is ridiculous and they should be called out on it. The most obvious counter is that track runs don't violate any laws, and that this car is very clearly targeted at a tracking crowd. But more to the point on the street: in a hot and humid climate, I don't think it would be too hard to get the oil temps up without violating speed limits. It's not like speed = oil heat. Constant cycles of hard accelerating and braking are going to heat the car up, which there are no traffic laws against.

rbatton, the first person you speak too is always at the bottom of the totem pole. Ask to speak to their supervisor.... I recommend you call back once more and always ask for the superior, the first people you speak to are just gate keepers trying to get you to give up, but don't.

and if my car continues to overheat and the dealer can't fix it, because they don't have the part, they could be in violation of the LEMON LAW! lol...

So the magazines should be dubbing the 370Z as the best grocery getter for under $30,000. Maybe the 2010 update will include a 4 banger. :mad:

and it only gets worse guys, I have to be careful on what I divulge at this point.

Needless to say the progression is slow.

I have 2 track days this week that I miss out on bringing my new car to. It's frustrating because I bought the car for something I could use everyday, blend in, and take to the track. But no, my checking account is lighter, I'm pissed off, and its created more work for me. I don't even care what's available aftermarket, I am so turned off.

Nissan and Infiniti supposedly pride themselves on customer service, with their follow up calls from your service appointments, surveys, etc etc. Its all bogus... I have had 5 of their vehicles in 6 years in my immediate family. If they don't make this right then no more.

How do you miss something like this!? What they don't have a test track!? They do not want to face my wrath.

Yeah, tell that to the officer when they pull you over for "reckless driving". :ugh:

The bastards...

I agree
 

The car's engine should not have an over-heat issue with the oil under any circumstance. A good design should have accounted for that. The rev limiter kicking in under high temps is an attempt to save the engine so the engineers knew about the possibility. The fact that the car was released to the public without at least the oil cooler being available (option or otherwise) is a good question for Nissan Corp. to answer.

P. S. I love the car

By comparison I currently have a Mazda RX8 (370z not released in Oz yet) which has done lots of track days and spirited driving revving over 9000rpm all day and has no problems - in fact it loves it! And that's on some 100 degree days too.

This issue if not rectified will change my mind on purchasing a Z.

This issue if not rectified will change my mind on purchasing a Z.[/QUOTE]


The situation if not rectified might change my mind about owning a Z!

What exactly is the solution(s) that you are looking for? This is not a sarcastic question, but rather one when Nissan comes knocking to resolve your issue(s).

To come up with the parts and have them put on under warranty! I have no problem meeting them halfway and paying for the parts. I feel I'm being completely fair.

Even though, I believe this needs to be a recall campaign......

Problem is as of right now, the parts don't exist according to Nissan, they're looking into it.

Seems like 1 phone call to the factory should get to the bottom of it, but no, it's the circle jerk.

Have you contacted Nissan corporate in Japan? You can write them a letter or email in English as the majority of them are polyglots. If Nissan Japan has already heard about it then they will have started their mountain of paperwork they will produce, and have contacted their legal counsel in the States to see where they stand and the ramifications of the issue.

SOCAL370z, this is from the global site, I appreciate your ideas, but don't you think I'm doing everything I can????

At this time, we cannot respond to customer service, retailer or product inquiries received via e-mail.
To ensure that Nissan continues to provide you with the best possible customer service, if you have questions or comments about Nissan or any of our products, please contact us directly at the address below.

NISSAN MOTOR CO.,LTD
Customer Relations Office (Tokyo)

Address
17-1, Ginza 6-chome, Chuo-ku Tokyo 104-8023, Japan
Toll Free Dial
0120-315-232 (Only in Japan)
Time
9:00a.m. - 12:00 noon
13:00p.m. - 17:00 p.m.
For overseas customers, please contact your respective sales company.
Worldwide Directory and Links (National Sales Companies and Affiliates)

Yes, but being a past exec for a major Japanese corporation I can tell you that someone writing them directly will get results as the final decision will come down from, as it always does, Japan—not their Stateside offices; that's the way it works. They receive a letter in Japan, and then they will call Stateside and start asking more questions to be answered in writing. Getting owners to sign a petition will definitely help too. You must be very, very, very respectful in your correspondence as peoples heads will roll (losing face) if they determine it an issue. This is not a matter that will be taken lightly, and pointing a finger is disrespectful in their culture so diplomacy is the best and most expedient way.

I don't own a Z yet but this issue will definitely affect my decision also.

Me too. I was supposed to have made the purchase last week. I didnt take this matter lightly at first but this thread steered me away from making the purchase right now. I WILL stay away until this matter is fixed as im sure with MANY MANY OTHER PEOPLE OUT THERE. I sure hope nissan is smart enough to fix this as it will result in many more sales in the long run. Word of mouth travels FAST.

Socal370z I agree with everything you're saying. I also am aware of Japanese Culture I have been there multiple times.

I will write a letter and have it airmailed to the office in Japan. Maybe you could proof read it for me? I do respect your opinion and your background. Valuable insight.....

I'm sure until Nissan corrects this problem by putting an oil cooler on the car standard, it will most likely be the first (and hopefully the only) recall they make on existing Z's.

I'm putting one on anyway so I'm not worried about it and I would say that if you are not planning to track your car, then I wouldn't let this sway you from purchasing one right now.

The sky is not falling.

Agreed, by summer if I am running to hot, I am betting we will have a couple of aftermarket choices on oil coolers....... compared to the oil consumption issues for the 2006, this is an easy and permanent fix.

John

permanent? so you think an aftermarket oil cooler that's never been extensively tested nor warranted by Nissan NA that you installed yourself will be permanent? Dude...i've owned many high performance cars in the past both highly modded and stock which i've tracked extensively and i can tell you that the oil cooler you will install will definitely not be permanent. Neither is the one Nissan slaps on but atleast it'll be covered by warranty.

Oil pressure - not oil temp.


Edit - I was just thinking while I was in the shower - and forgive me if this is a stupid thought, because I don't know enough about the car's system to have intelligent thoughts - Is there any chance at all that this could be an electrical's issue with some cars? I mean, is it possible that a sensor is giving a false high temperature reading and causing protective systems to activate, etc? Could it be electrical? A big part of me hopes so. Probably not though.

ahhhh icic.....i agree with the guy that said nissan shot themselves in the foot by adding the oil temp....HAHA oil pressure is easy to measure without a gauge...oil temp isn't. So chubbs, r u still set on getting the 370 after seeing this thread? lol

Chubbs,

This scenario is very highly UNLIKELY. The gauge is a mere thermometer in a sophisticated format. Also, an "inaccurate" electrical sensor will PWN nissan NA with countless amounts of class action suits and complaint claims that it will end up costing the automaker a ton of money. These types of errors are very unlikely in today's lawsuit-happy world. It's way safer to have an accurate gauge that goes real hot than an inaccurate gauge that stays in normal operating temp all the time. Cheers.

Hmm - With respect, I'm not sure I can go along with you completely here, TBone. I agree that Nissan would try hard not to actually design something badly, but for example on the 350z Nissan allowed faulty window winder motors to get through their system and into the early cars, it let faulty Bose stereos get through and - biggest of all - it fitted faulty engines to some of its MY06 350z's, so I reckon that a faulty batch of some small electrical component is highly possible. I'm aware that the guage itself wouldn't be the problem!!

My real question is, could anything electrical (eg - faulty sensor) be actually causing the problem. Any experts out there?

Ohh gotcha. misunderstood your initial post. HAHA that would be a real b*tch wouldnt it....when it wasn't overheating in actuality but we and the car thought that.....lol

From what I've seen and read about the engine design the oil is continuously passively cooled by the water coolant circulating in the engine block. There is nothing electronic that controls this, just the in-line oil temp gauge that seems to read moderately accurately. The added feature that was missing from the 350's is the new limp mode that tries to slow you down by limiting RPM when the oil temperature gets too high.

I'm not a mechanical engineer and so not an expert (just have an engineering background).

In the words of the immortal Al Bundy, My Eyes - My Eyes :rolleyes:

I know that the oil is cooled in that way and not 'electronically'. With respect, that has nothing to do with my question. I want to know if it's possible that an electrical component or thermostat is malfunctioning (possibly just by cutting in too soon, or reading a temp wrongly?) on some cars and the oil temp is in fact within limits, if a little on the high side. If this were the case, it would be a simple fix.

Also (and this is a bit of a side issue), how do you know that the oil temp guage is reading 'moderately accurately'? Without wishing to appear rude, isn't this an act of faith on your part, or do you have proof?

...ps Alan, I get some of my best thoughts in the shower - don't you? :yum:

The data indicates that the first inital cut in RPM takes place at 280F degrees, and the second cut at 300F degrees (approx as the computer is acting on voltage not degrees). So yes you could theoretically disable this feature but I'm not sure if that would be a good thing.

I forgot where I saw it, might have been one of the Japanese forums (ask your buddies over there if they know) but someone did replace the sender and gauge with a racing unit as a test and the readings were quite close. It wasn't tested side by side but was under similar conditions. My ability to read Japanese is limited to what the translator spits out so I may have misinterpreted the information.

Thanks for that Chris - I agree it would be a bad idea to disable a safety feature.

I don't have the time to read this whole thread this morning (I'll get to it tonight probably). Has anyone mentioned the following?... Car magazines, publications, and TV spots are all forms of advertising for Nissan. They deliberately misled the press by installing non-standard and non-available parts on the test cars. Isn't that false advertising? These parts make the press cars and the market cars two different animals. This is the old "bate and switch" at its best. This goes beyond mechanical problems and into the realm of legal and ethical debate. The fact that they put these parts on press cars is a blatant admission that there is a temperature problem and Nissan had prior knowledge of it and released the car anyway. This could very easily turn in to a class-action suit IMHO.

And just to be clear that I'm not coming out of left field here...this weekend I did my first ever autoX event. After one 90sec run my temp was already close to 270 and continued to rise for at least 5 minutes after the run. I have no doubt that if I had done two consecutive laps my car would have surpassed the 280F mark.

I agree, their actions are dubious at best. Illegal, no ... but when the press decides to run with it it could look bad for them.

What was the ambient temperature that day?

I have my first Auto-X in this car on Saturday, ambient is expected to be around 60F. We run a 130-140 second course typically.

-Chris

I wrote Car & Driver, of course I did not get a reply. I'm guessing they don't want to offend an advertiser....