Nissan Consumer Affairs Oil Cooler Response

ChrisSlicks

I bought this car as an enthusiast, besides the regular daily driving stuff (which it does fine at) it was suggested by the magazine reviews that this would be a great HPDE car - and that is what sold it to me.

Currently the car can not be driven at HPDE - at all. This is due to the design defect that no other car in this class has. I'm not trying to turn it into a race car, just asking to be able to run for 20 minutes on track at reasonable speeds, speeds the car was built for, without having the car shutdown.

My gripe is that the car does not live up to the expectations that were projected by the car magazine reviews, because the review cars were not the same! If we attempt to correct this short coming and install the oil coolers that were present in the review models then we've voided the warranty. This is total BS. It is false advertising.

At minimum I was to be able to install an approved oil cooler, at my expense, without voiding my 5 year engine warranty. The ideal situation is that Nissan corrects their defect, and hence meets the advertised performance, and provides one for free for those that want it.

bluzman

JMO and no flame of anyone intended but this thread needs to deal with reality and not expectations, wishes, perceived problems, etc. Design defect?? - bold claim but NO proof so far. Short coming?? - maybe. As for not living up to expectations based on car magazine reviews, the content of the reviews are the responsibility of magazine, not Nissan. Modshack has it right:

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VCuomo

Sorry, but this just doesn't fly. When Ford (or GM, or Chrysler) takes one of their trucks, modifies it for off-road use, and supplies it to a truck mag to try out for a few days and then (hopefully) publish a favorable review of what the truck is capable of (which they've done countless times), Ford is not saying that they will provide full warranty coverage to you if you make those same mods to your Ford truck and then use it off-road. That's the way it's always been - and Nissan is just protecting themselves like all of the other manufacturers do.

It's not BS and it's not false advertising. The car does live up to expectations - if you want to track your 370Z, put the oil cooler on it (just like the cars in the magazine reviews) and the temp problem is solved. But you might (most likely will) have to deal with warranty coverage issues. That's a trade-off and decision that you have to make, just like all of the off-road guys do. Or just like anyone else does who modifies their under-warranty vehicle...

Look, there's no doubt that, from a public relations point of view, Nissan should have handled this better. I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think that any of you guys who are tracking the car, and are seeing the oil temp problem while tracking the car, have a prayer legally. Just MHO...

Now, you guys who are having temp problems under normal street-driving conditions... well, that's a whole different ball game.

ChrisSlicks - I'm not trying to single you out by quoting you above; it's just that what you wrote nicely summarizes what a number of the "track" guys have been saying...

dszombiex

I don't think the point is that anyone wants to take legal action against Nissan because they went to the track and the car went into limp mode.
And I personally don't want a free oil cooler from them.

I think the point is that if any of us have an oil cooler installed and then some time down the road have a random failure/breakdown (as is inevitable with cars), Nissan doesn't then go say "Whoops, the *insert random failure* happened because you have an oil cooler installed! Give us lots of money to fix it!".

Does this really seem unreasonable? This is just Nissan being opportunistic and trying to mitigate warranty costs by pushing them on to the customer...

VCuomo

A number of people have stated that they want to take legal action, including a class action lawsuit.

Under federal law, Nissan cannot void the entire vehicle warranty if an oil cooler is installed.

If you have a tranny problem I doubt that Nissan will try to blame that on an oil cooler. Even many engine problems, such as an ignition problem, could not be blamed on an oil cooler being installed. But there are many problems that most certainly will be blamed on the oil cooler - and that's what you should expect.

ChrisSlicks

I wouldn't count on that. They are looking for any excuse to deny an expensive warranty claim, and they know because you have an oil cooler that you must drive the car hard and more than likely hit the track once in a while. They will do searches on your name and plate, looking for evidence that you were at the track even if the failure had nothing to do with that. Remember there are only 2 parts in this car that are worth warrantying, the engine and the transmission. Any claim against these parts is highly scrutinized.

dad

Sooner or later some member is going to post that Nissan won't cover his warranty because they have an oil cooler installed.

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NotmyGTR

I asked my dealer about warranty items for readily available mod parts such as intake, exhaust, headers, and cats. He told me that even if I brought a stillen product in and had the dealer change it out, it would void some parts of the warranty. Depending on what it was. Unless..........bohica (Bend Over Here It Comes Again) I was having them replace stock parts with Nismo parts. Then the warranty isnt voided.

My point is, if you can mod the car with Nismo parts, and the warranty isnt void, than why dont you guys have a Nismo oil cooler installed, and still maintain your warranty. If you get that "We dont have an aftermarket oil cooler for the 370 yet" response, call them on B.S. The car sent out for test drives/reports had a larger oil cooler on it. This should put this thread/discussion to rest as soon as someone has their dealer put one of the oil coolers on their ride.

Im going over to my dealer on monday to pick up some touch up paint they ordered for my car. I will certainly ask about this when I go over there and report back with any info.

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FricFrac

Unless I'm missing something that is a completely different story. None of the article I read mention anything about the oil cooler or that the mod had been performed. On the other hand the modified off-road truck is completely changed from stock and has had some serious modifications. The point being that the oil cooler mod was hidden whereas the monster truck modified lists all the mods done in the article. Two totaly different situations and not comparable.

This also isn't a performance mod that stresses the engine. Even if the car isn't tracked the oil cooler is benificial not only in keeping the temperature reasonable in heavy traffic, etc but also by increasing the oil capacity which dilutes contamination in the system.

I suspect Nissan is concerned about extensive agressive use of the engine. Agressive use will result in safety mode and prevent extensive agressive use however with the oil cooler agressive use can continue indefinately and the results are unknown. This is a new motor again from the 3.5l and the VVEL is really unproven still so I can understand their concerns. Regardless if this inference is true the fact remains that they were dishonest buy not disclaiming the use of the oil cooler in media vehicles. It was only discovered by accident and IIRC it was hidden in the wheel wells... but dont quote me on that ;P

NotmyGTR

I wonder how many Altima owners have this problem. Same engine on the V6 models.

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1996 Skyline GT-R LM fully tuned by Mines/2006 Nissan Titan 5.6 SE Texas Edition/2009 370 Base w Sport Pkg

VCuomo

One of the articles referenced on this forum stated that the 370Z that they were testing had an oil cooler installed by Nissan. I don't remember which one it was, maybe one of the other members will...