Appears to be part of the oil pan, IE this part:

OIL PAN - 370Z (Z34) 2009+ :: Nissan Parts, NISMO and Nissan Accessories - Courtesyparts.com

I could be wrong though?

Would just need to replace the upper oil pan
I would push for a new motor if you really want to be anal. They worked on it, it is their fault

Do you have the work order from when they put the oil cooler in? I would say if you do and there is nothing stating that by installing that part that they sold and installed for you would effect your warranty in any way your repair should be covered. Now that specific part may not have a warranty on it through Nissan, which I believe even though its a "Nissan Motorsports" oil cooler it's not covered by Nissans parts warranty but it should not hold any bearing on your factory warranty covering your repair bc the dealer sold it and installed it.

I'm a service advisor for BMW a we have a similar relationship with Dinan. My dealership is an authorized Dinan install facility. So if you buy any Dinan performance parts or software and we install it, it does not affect your warranty in any way. Now we won't warranty Dinan parts so if you buy a Dinan exhaust and a weld fails and leaks you have to go through Dinan for any applicable part warranty and you pay for labor for removal and reinstall. But if you come in with same vehicle and we find your factory catalytic converter flange cracked I can't say its not covered bc you have Dinan exhaust that we installed. Make sense? Which to me seems like the type of case you have here with your dealership and your oil cooler. Now if your vehicle is out of warranty it may be tougher to get done especially since the oil cooler was installed over a year ago. Either way I would still push for your repair to be covered if you were my customer if it makes you feel better.

Good luck hope all works out.

The problem was probably the extra amount of weight hanging off from the single oil filter pipe, its just to much for the pipe thread itself.

The extra weight of the alloy housing and lines should have had a support bracket.

Note if you can get the car towed to a good welding shop, any certified welder shold be able to heliarc the pipe back in place and it looks like there is enough room to get in there with a welder and you won't hurt it any more than it already is.

You should be able to get it done for around $200 or less.

That's good news.

The weight had nothing to with it.

It was simply torqued on too tight.

He's not the first Z to have an oil cooler installed this way. Do you think we will be seeing more failures like this?

Thanks Gale, Thats was going to be my follow up

I got 15k on mine and have not had any issues

30k here, no issues

I have to agree with this. Over-torqued. And why weld it when you can buy that upper pan.

Now this is going to make me check on how much tension my oil lines have on them at the plate. :(

Pulled a couple of sheets from the service manual for interest sake,

Torque spec for the oil filter,

http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4b7e708f.png

Exploded view of the upper oil pan,

http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8587b60b.png

It would be hard to apply enough torque on a oil filter to snap the alloy casting, the mechanic woud have to have been a complete idiot and the oil filter installed would show signs of distortion.

Usually when you over tighten a oil filter, the hex head edges will easily round off.

All odds are that the dealer will blame the problem on the installed adapter and deny any kind of waranty service.

PLZ keep us posted on what the dealer does....... Sorry to see this........:shakes head:

But the dealer installed the adapter bc they sold him the oil cooler. What is weird is the tech must have just barely over torqued to stretch the aluminum just enough for it to have the tinniest stress crack for it to last over a year of the aluminum expanding an contracting going from hot to cold. I'm surprised it didn't happen sooner. That's probably what the dealership is thinking. Especially if they don't service the car they may say to the OP that it could have been done by who ever does the oil changes maybe when the filter was off somebody checked the sandwich plate for tightness and put a turn on it trying to be pro active making sure the seal was good and if the upper pan was still a little hot, bam there is your stresser on the upper pan.

OP you said they did a rear main seal when your clutch was done. Did they do an oil change to??? Maybe that's how this happened. Bc I doubt over torquing from a year ago would have lasted this long.

It's not the oil filter that was over tighten. But the adapter nut that holds the adapter plate in place that was over tighten. If you ever installed an oil cooler. You would know on what I'm talking about. ;)

So the dealer is fixing it free of charge regardless of whether Nissan itself warranties it or not as like a one time thing type of deal. They still are trying to imply the added stress from the weight of the lines/connector was an issue but if that was really the case I think we would see people with oil coolers all over the forum seeing similar problems. I think its really that the thing was just over-torqued but it could have been something else as well (shoddy oil pan from the factory).

Anyway I should *hopefully* get my car back on Wednesday. This has caused yet another week without my car. Ive driven it like twice in the last 3 weeks now. Makes me a sad panda.

Glad to hear the dealer is taking care of this. Are they also reinstalling the oil cooler?

They better be. They did not say that they weren't going to re-attach it and from talking to them the oil-cooler is not damaged just the oil pan is.

Great to hear :tup:

Finally got the car back. Kind of a bad smell coming from the engine area. I think its because it was not completely cleaned. The bill ended up being $1200 (which they covered). Apparently you gotta replace valves and other **** when you replace the top oil pan (according to them).

$1200 isn't too bad. Glad you're back on the road. :tup:

Sorry to here about the nightmare of a mess. I know nothing about Riverside Nissan but I can tell you that Scott at Fontana Nissan in parts know his stuff. Ask for Gus the service advisor (really cool guy) These guys are heavily into modified Nissans and other cars.

They really take care of you.

I didn't know any of them. Bought my Nissan used from Car Max. I had a check engine light and I was an hour away. Gus got me in and checked out in bout 5 minutes.

I do my homework and have taken my car there for most of my things.

The only other place I can vouch for is Specialty Z. Sebastian is the man. He knows his stuff !

I'm really glad they fixed it for you, since they broke it.

That said, I've not driven my Z since July, so don't cry too much! hahaha! :rofl2:

I remember when my cooling system blew up... everything was orange. This seems sticker. Happy everything worked out in the end and you can drive again. I watched the video like I was watching a murder lol.