dealer denied slave cylinder warranty cause of berk's HFC
 

Last friday, while turning on the car, I noticed the clutch pedal felt kinda weird and was too low at some points I had to push it up with the tip of my foot.. I drove it home and called this nissan dealer for a next day visit.. End of day1..... Day2:Drove my sleepy azz to the dealer at 7am just for them to tell me that they couldn't replicate the problem and since the car was too low they couldn't get it on a lift.. Give me a break 1inch drop is too low??.. Anyways end of day2. Day3:Pedal was back to normal but did notice fluid was at minimum... Called a second dealer and schedule another appointment.. I take the car in and leave it. ServiceAd calls me up and says that due to the high flow cats getting to hot, having no heat shield and coming to close to the clutch lines that the slave cylinder was having a minor leak and that's why it was failing.. Nissan was not going to cover for it... What to do at this point? Sorry if what I'm writing comes out weird.. I'm typing from a phone.
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Wow that's odd. I had aftermarket HFC, and my dealer knew it was installed before. Then I went back to stock, but still had aftermarket exhaust. They didn't complain about anything and still did the warranty work.

There's really not much you can do now aside from pay out of pocket for the repair. I don't know if you'd have any better luck at a different dealer or not.

Digitonium... So if u had high flow cats before and this happened to u then the servicead was actually right about the flowcats?.. Well I have the stockies.. I can put em back on and try some other dealer?

I would have them show you where the leak occurred. If it's not right next to one of the HFCs then they need to cover it.

i'd put them back on and try another dealer.

Things like these make me think twice about modifyin a car.

If you can drive it at all; I would go to another dealer.

If your dealer already called the area nissan rep, then you are done no matter where you go.

Listen to this man.

That is some shaddy shiet.

How does a HFC hurt a slave cylinder? The explanation they gave you sounds illogical. At least to me it does. How does the heal damage it?

Also you may exercise your right to fight the claim and prove the HFC's didn't cause the issue, but that may cost more then paying out of pocket for the repair.

They could argue that the heat caused a line to fail which resulted in a leak which eventually damaged the slave.

Bottom line is if they deny warranty claim it ends up costing you a ton of money to try and fight it.

This is why, for example, if you ever have intakes and have an engine problem, you should throw the stock intakes back on before taking the car in.

do you have comprehensive auto insurance? if so, you might have Mechanical Breakdown Insurance, and maybe they will cover it. I dont see why an exhaust modification should void a warranty on your clutch.

Honestly I don't think the nissan rep knows about it..cause I given a ticket but the ticket shows zero amount meaning noone was charged for any diagnostics.. I don't think they did anything besides putting the car on a lift and that's too much.

Look, what the dealer is saying is not completely out in left field guys. I've seen composite rear springs fail due to heat from the exhaust system (it's pretty common now for older Corvettes to wrap the exhaust near a composite spring to reduce heat radiation). So for those of you asking "How can an HFC damage a clutch?", there's an example of an exhaust system damaging the suspension.

If the heat from the HFC is causing (or might be causing) the clutch lines to heat up too high - well, there's your answer as to why the warranty is being voided by Nissan.

When modding your new car, "caveat emptor" (in more ways than one)...

Exactly. Maybe it didn't cause the failure. In fact, it probably didn't. But it IS possible, which gives Nissan enough ammunition to deny a warranty claim.

no cats would have yielded a cooler exhaust flow in that area, but that is def not important here. good luck man. i had slave cylinder issues in my old IS300. went thru two of them. less than a $100, so just eat the bill.

Maybe others beside digi.. Can confirm if they have had high flow cats or test pipes and ran into this problem..

I didn't have my HFCs on very long. I want back to stock in December. My CSC was replaced last month. I just got word that abnormal bearing wear from poor design and the seal slipping and cutting itself were the causes.

I've had mines prolly for like 3 months.. I'm just gona take em out put the stocks and try another dealer.. Do you guys recommend taking off the whole exhaust out just in case? They say something else?.. This is my last try.. After this I'm just gona buy the slave from nissan and have it done at my friend's shop.

i would just pay it and get it over with. then somehow install a heat shield for future...

the more backpressure at the cat means more heat build up. HFC will be less hot than stock but still hot!!!!! so a shield might be needed. test pipes have zero build up. the hot gass fly out the exhaust.

CSC is about $100. Tech docs suggest changing the metal tube because contaminants can damage the CSC, My dealer kept the old one on. :icon14:

the replacement part in question is $100?

The labor will be the killer though.

well if his warranty is already void, he can have it done at another shop.

Yes, but what Lou is trying to tell you is that if you have paperwork, then that paperwork has already been entered into a dealer-wide network in Nissan's database. What exactly do the printouts you received have written on them?

This is one reason I have mentioned that if you are doing your own oil changes, and buying Nissan oil from a Nissan dealership, the dealership will enter this into Nissan's database for your 370Z's VIN if you ask them to do so.

Well he entered in the paper.. "Customer complaint about clutch pedal", car has aftermarket exhaust which runs too close to the clutch lines making the fluid boil to a high temperature. This is what the service sheet said.. I wasn't charged for anything though.. I don't think they even touch the car.. Fluid was at the same level as when I left the car... Dealer wanted to charge me $780 for labor and part

Just take it to another dealer and see what happens. You might get lucky.

Problem is your VIN and other pertinent data to that VIN is being collected. Maybe Lou will chime back in here, but I think you're f'd on this deal.

All I have to say is im sorry and also I HATE DEALERSHIPS (STEALERSHIPS).

Labor is like 4-5 hours to replace the CSC, just ask KillerBee.

I would argue that the aftermarket cats are no closer to the transmission than the stock cats, and that people with stock cats are having the same problem. The problem is a design flaw, not after-market parts (although the stock cats do have a heat shield).

:iagree:

The only reason I didn't take the high fkow cats off was because I thought those bastards were not gona use that as an excuse.. Seeing some people here on the forums having csc problems as well.. I thought it wouldn't be such a big deal taking to the dealer as it wasn't like I had an aftermarket clutch or a turbo kit.. This is just a nasty way of the dealer trying to make money off me and charge the warranty work as well

:iagree: No company should make a profit.

This is an excellent argument, and worth a try, but even if you were to pursue this legally and with the least expense (Small Claims Court) there is the question of the opportunity cost of doing so. If Nissan posts a TSB regarding the CSC, then this story changes in the favor of the OP.

The OP should get his done ASAP, and recorded, so that other associated or allied damage cannot be linked with the CSC and aftermarket parts for future Nissan warranty denial.

I'm not saying no company should make a profit but do it legitimately, not by ripping their customers off....

My understanding (from reading over in the Drivetrain threads) is that this is a known issue (bad CSC) even on unmodded cars.

Also, the argument that HFCs are cooler than stock makes sense. I would think they would have to supply some data to back up their claim (either now or in court).

I think if this happened to me I might see it as a sign that I need to upgrade to an aftermarket clutch (one of the designs that addresses the weakness in the CSC of course!).

Any time you guys are going to dealer for warranty work and you want to make sure they will honor it.. remove your mods. Even if you were bone stock, lots of dealers out there try to get out of warranty work.

And for good reason, flat rate doesn't pay that well while doing warranty repair.

If you can drive your car, go pick it up and drive it somewhere else.