I have an 05 350Z Touring with less than 14k on the odemeter and an in service date of 01/23/06 so I am still in factory warranty.

For about 2000 miles the car will do strange things like not accelerate.
If I am coming to a red light and slowing down, should the red become green and I need to accelerate again the car will act as if I am not depressing
the accelerator until I let off, wait a 10th a second and then reapply the accelerator.

So I took it to one of the local Nissan dealers a few weeks back, they had the car all day and could not duplicate the problem much less correct it. No problem, I figured it would be hard to trace since it doesn't happen every time.

Well this past Sunday, sitting at a light waiting for the green, all is well until the light changes and I start accelerating. I get to about 40MPH when the RPM hangs at 2k, will not go up or down no matter if I floor it or let off the accelerator. This lasts for about 2 seconds before I pull to the curb and the engine cuts out. I try to restart it to no avail. I have it towed to a dealer (Not the same one that looked at it a few weeks ago) and Monday morning at 9am I go to their service dept. I hand them the keys and tell them what happened. I understand it was a tow-in and not on their schedule so I wasn't expecting it to be seen right away.

The Advisor said he'd try to fit it in today (meaning Monday) but most likely it would be tomorrow morning (Tuesday). The next day (Tuesday and today for those keeping track) he calls me to say it won't be until Wednesday before he looks at it. I tell him never mind, I'll have the car picked up and taken elswhere. At this point he starts getting antsy and says he'll have it brought it for a diagnosis but most likely the repair will take longer.

I hang up the phone, kind of miffed so I call the dealer that looked at it previously to ask if they could look at it Wednesday if I have it towed in, the Advisor said a Tech was right there and he was going to run the syptoms by him so the Advisor was relaying my account of what happened to a Tech standing nearby. I heard that Tech say it was probably the Mass Air Flow and the Advisor came back to say they could assure me it would be seen.

I called the other dealer back to advise them not to touch the car but the Advisor did not answer his page from the receptionist or answer his phone. I figured I'd wait for his call. Well he called me back the next day, meaning today (Tuesday) and said they checked the car, and it is the Mass Air Flow sensor. That due to my K│N air filter (the same one on the car for 13k miles) a piece of dirt contaminated the Mass Air Flow and it is not under warranty.

I told him stop, do nothing and wait for my call, or Nissan's call because I would be escalating this to Nissan directly.

One thing not mentioned in this recant is when I dropped the car off, I inquired about the Nissan extended warranty. The service Advisor walked me over to the Business Managers office to discuss terms and costs. I took the information home and Googled it, to my surprise I found a Nissan dealer in PA that offers the same warranty online for ½ of what the local dealer wanted.

I purchased it right then and there, the PA dealer said it would show up in the Nissan system the next business day, meaning today. I wonder if this "upset" the dealer that has the car now.

Thoughts?

 

If its just a piece of dirt, get a screwdriver and a can of maf cleaner in the parking lot and drive off with a perfectly fine car.

 

Nice ninja purchase..

But can you get away with that? I mean isn't that the same thing as getting into an accident without car insurance, but on the spot you quickly call an insurance company and become insured..

Anyways I hate dealerships and I truly believe they deserve it..

 

Well I assume they are going to expect me to pay $95 for their so-called "diagnosis".
If I use my other set of keys, it would cost me $100 to replace the key fob and key they have!
I want to resolve it the right way but at the same time, I don't buy the after-market air filter BS.

EDIT:

I am still under the factory warranty. My in-service date is 01/23/2006 and I am under 14k on the odometer.

 

Ninja-ness!
+5

 

Since hes using the factory warranty I don't see anything wrong with it and I would presume that the extended warranty is just insurance for the future. And yea +1 dealers try to weasel out of everything, DONT LET THEM.

 

Since you put it that way, tell them to void the warranty on any car with an air filter other than the nissan oem one. Ever count how many air filters the auto parts store down the street sells? lol And if they're not going to do that well then you deserve a new maf sensor and diagnostic under warranty.

 

I am going to call Nissan itself tomorrow, plus I will call both the PA dealer and the 2nd local dealer for the Factory Field Rep's phone number. One way or another, I am not laying down easy. I have Xenon fog lights added and LED turn signal lights. The Advisor made a comment about all of the "after-market" parts on the car. As if this has anything to do with why it was towed in.

 

Exactly, ask him to please explain how any of your "aftermarket parts" would cause your maf sensor to go bad. The magnusson-moss act prevents them from being able to do deny your warranty claim because of a part that is unrelated to the problem. Although they could come up with one of there uneducated arguments about how the k&n filter is not as good as the super awesome factory filter lol.

 

<----- Googling magnusson-moss act

 

That's one's real easy. High flow, oiled filter in place of the oem filter - if anything happens to MAF, it was obviously caused by the low filtration or oil from the filter contaminating the MAF. The sad thing is that over-oiled filters truly DO cause fouled MAF sensors.

 

You cant argue this one unfortuneatly, Only thing i think you could argue is with K&N and how they claim the filter will never damage a mass airflow sensor. Then they'll probly say u didnt oil it properly or something. I know you were stuck on the side of the road so it probly isnt possible, but you should never leave aftermarket parts on a car when you bring it into a dealership to avoid stuff like this.

 

so very true. but i would do what someoene else suggested and either clean out the MAF or just replace it yourself. and i would find another dealer since this service place took way too long to even check out your car in the first place.

 

Sounds like the dealer is working with you to identify and correct the problem. But you don’t give them the time to troubleshoot. So you are going to escalate this to Nissan?

 

If oiling the filter is good then more oil must be better.

 

This filter was new when I put it on the car, meaning pre-oiled from K│N.
I have never had to clean and reoil it in 13k miles. I check it every other oil change
(that I do myself) and it is not dirty. No leaves, no rocks, no anything. Just some
slight build up on the incoming air side at the base of where the walls come together.

I have one of these in all three cars so I know when it is dirty enough to clean and I know how much oil to add.

To davidv:

I made no predetermination as to how long the dealer would need to look at the car. I expected the dealer to examine it by the time I was told, which was Tuesday morning.
If I didn't voice my concern and tell him I was going to tow it out, they wouldn't have even looked at it until today. In the long run, that probably would have been better...actually, it would have been better if I towed it like I originaly thought to.

 

I would suggest taking the MAF sensor off and cleaning it yourself. Even though it's under warranty it is a very simple procedure and it will save you a headache.

If that doesn't work, replace the filter with OEM paper and bring it to another dealership. Explain to them that the first dealership had scheduling problems that kept you from getting the car fixed.

Sometimes it's not worth arguing with a dealer because they simply suck. Another dealer might be a different story entirely.

 

Just as soon as I can tow the car out, I'll try this but I am not going to
pay them $95 when I can't help but think they are just pissed I didn't buy the warranty from them.

I called Nissan, filed a case and while I had the Nissan rep on the phone, she confirmed that I have the top-of-the-line Nissan warranty. I think the dealer that has the car can see this and is trying to get even by grabbing at staws.

 

if the problem does not happen under all conditions, then its pretty obvious it's not the filter

could it still be a dirty MAF or something stuck on the MAF? Sure - my gf had this problem on her Infiniti - turned out there was a leaf in the airbox that got sucked past the filter. How? The last dealership that serviced the car had not used the exact correct air filter and the leaf got pulled past the side border and basically lodged on the sensor. New dealer pulled it out, swapped to the correct filter, charged her 30 mins labor + the filter cost and she was on her way. But, in this case the car gave no warning, just shut right off while driving, would not restart. That was some crafty leaf.

could also be a TPS that is not calibrated properly (unlikely but possible), a wire that is somehow loose intermittently, bad MAF, intake manifold leak, bad crank sensor (or even cam sensors)

As far as the dealer not getting to it right away, I know it can be frustrating but it is a 2 way street. Monday's I am sure are their busiest days there, and with the way things are right now, like many dealerships they might be a bit short staffed. If he's communicating with you and telling you where you are on the pecking order of things, that's about all you can reasonably expect since the car sounds like it was neither purchased there, nor serviced there previously (just reading between the lines from your post, not sure if that's true or not). I know it sucks, but be patient.

As far as the warranty issue, the service department could care less where you bought the warranty - they don't make money on the sale of the policy. They do make money by working on the car though, whether you are paying for it, or Nissan. I wouldn't really put much faith in the conspiracy theory side of things, I doubt they care or even are aware where you bought the warranty. At the same time, since your car was there already, you probably would have been well served to print the info you got off google, brought it to the proper person at the dealership who had your car, and asked if they would match the price, or come close. While the service department doesn't make the commission on the sale of the policy, it might have risen your place in line anyway - certainly would not have hurt to try.

I know it sucks to be without the car, but sometimes being the squeaky wheel doesn't help the matter along either. I think the person at dealer 1 should have been a bit more proactive with you and told you that they were backed up, or if backups happened, to contact you and inform you. At the same time, like I said, it's a 2 way street and you should give them the time to at least come back to you with the diagnosis before deciding to pull the plug and bring it elsewhere. Especially since you already spent the $ on towing it there in the first place.

 

I can't make any comments on why the car died because I have not examined the car. It was towed to Nissan because it is under warranty, it
would not be in my best interest to tamper with anything prior to the dealer checking it. It would only give rise to the exuse that I made it worse.

As for your assumptions, your correct. The car did not originate with them and I do not service it with them. It was towed there due to a lack of options at 4pm on Sunday with perishable foods in the trunk. I was thinking of time and convenience. The police officer that came to assist us was kind enough to drive my wife home while I went with the tow truck, this enabled her to get another car from the house and meet me at the dealer.

This car has less than 14k miles and doesn't require anything to be serviced that I am incapable of performing thus it hasn't seen the dealer. the one LOF done at a dealer resulted in a missing screw from the bottom engine cover and another screw tightened at the wrong angle.

The fact I choose not to service the car with them for maintenance should in no way influence the repair schedule. That bring me to the point of time, I did not ask when to expect the car, I remained silent so he would volunteer that information, this way what ever time he tells me is of his own volition and that was the time I used. He had complete control over what time or day he told me.

The service advisor walked us over to the Business Manager's office and when we came out, the first and only thing he asked was "Did we get it?"
so I can't help but think that perhaps there is an internal mechanism between sales and service that promotes incentives for products and offerings.

I am sure if we asked the service advisor to page a salesman, that we wanted a new car, he'd page someone who will offer him a "kickback".

Well, all I can do now is wait for Nissan to contact the dealer, I have other cars to drive so aside from wanting my Z back in the garage, I'm not suffering.