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Old 12-28-2008 | 08:04 PM
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Default oil consumption consequences

ive got an 06 ive had for 9 months-ish. its not my main vehicle, so i dont drive it much. ive put about 4-5k miles on it.

up until today, i was unaware of the oil burning issues in these engines. had i known about this, i wouldnt have bought this car. but noentheless, i did, and i drove it for a while. it started knocking in july, every once in a while and nothing serious. i didnt have time to take it to the dealer, and it drove fine so i let it be. the knocking went away. today it came back. alot louder. i havent driven the car since august, so i was eager to get on it. i redlined it once, and before i knew it i lost power steering, lost power, and the car stalled.

i let it cool down for a couple of minutes, fired it back up, and realized the oil pressure gauge was dangerously low. the knocking was back, only now it was a very obvious piston slap. i knew it was game over. i filled it to the brim with oil and prayed it would go away.

its horrible to listen to now, theres a very loud knock and i know theres been some serious damage. it keeps stalling out on me at red lights as well. i figure theres a few bent rods or something.

all of this because i didnt check the oil levels regularly. i checked them in august, and they were low, but tolerable. when i checked the dip stick today it was dry.

can someone list the amount of damage ive done? my guess is i messed up the pistons/rods and the cams are probably pretty bad.

i had no idea this could happen. it never leaked oil, and it always drove fine, until today. i had no reason to suspect oil levels would be this low. i know its partially my fault that i didnt check the levels, but im hoping the dealer will replace my block with one that doesnt burn oil tomorrow when i take it in. if not, they can expect a pretty hefty law suit. its all under warranty, the car has 11k miles on it now, i bought it at 7k back in march.

do you guys think theyll replace my damaged engine?
Old 12-28-2008 | 08:11 PM
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power train warranty is 5 years 50k. did you do all oil changes yourself? as long as you prove that you did regular oil changes and maintained the car well as long as its in warranty i dont see why wouldnt warranty the damage unless they could prove that you abused the car?
Old 12-28-2008 | 08:46 PM
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the "dealership for life" warranty thing i have requires i have all oil changes and service done by the dealer. the last one i had done was when i bought the car, 7k miles. the next one was due at 13,000 miles, 2k miles from today. i assumed the dealer knew when the car needed an oil change, and thus had no reason to touch the oil.

i dont understand how they would prove i abused the car. first off, i didnt. secondly, the car burns oil: nissan acknowledged this in the tsb. thats the root of all my problems, and the reason for all the damage. the car is in perfect condition otherwise...
Old 12-29-2008 | 06:37 AM
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I wish you luck. Although it was oil consumption. I would not tell them you ran it low on oil. As I wouldn't doubt they try to pawn it off as neglect. I wish you luck. I called my local dealer to cancel my extended warranty and they asked why. I have already voided the regular warranty according to them so what good is the extended. Even though those a$$holes said I have voided everything. They said the extended would cover it. Haha I just don't understand what they expect from people.
Old 12-29-2008 | 06:57 AM
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Originally Posted by clone19
the "dealership for life" warranty thing i have requires i have all oil changes and service done by the dealer. the last one i had done was when i bought the car, 7k miles. the next one was due at 13,000 miles, 2k miles from today. i assumed the dealer knew when the car needed an oil change, and thus had no reason to touch the oil.

i dont understand how they would prove i abused the car. first off, i didnt. secondly, the car burns oil: nissan acknowledged this in the tsb. thats the root of all my problems, and the reason for all the damage. the car is in perfect condition otherwise...
First off, you did abuse the car by not turning it off and filling it up with oil when you heard it knocking the first time. You continued to push the car and even took it to redline which then destroyed your engine. Good luck getting warranty on that.
Old 12-29-2008 | 07:03 AM
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The warranty requires that the owner maintain all lubricants at FULL all the time, no excuses for allowing them to run low............read warranty booklet.
Old 12-29-2008 | 07:06 AM
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I had an oil cap fall off of my engine in my 68 Camaro, unknowingly I abused the crap out of it when it was dangerously low on oil. It started to knock pretty bad..

no surprise that a 40 year old car isn't under warranty, so I paid to get the engine rebuilt.

.. kind of unrelated, just saying .. you abused it. if you can get them to cover it, sweet deal .. but passing the buck on to them will be a trick you will have to pull off. oil consumption *is* an issue, but owner not checking oil levels is a seperate issue, and this could have been avoided.
Old 12-29-2008 | 11:41 AM
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like i said, until this happened, i was completely unaware there was any oil consumption going on. ive only driven the car 4 thousand miles in almost a year, there was no reason to assume low oil levels; pressure was good, it drove smooth, no smoke from exhaust, and no leaks. in the beginning i thought it was a belt or something minor. yesterday i thought i had a stuck valve.

i understand this could have been avoided, but even if i had regularly checked oil levels, the engine would still need to be replaced: burning 5 qts of oil in 4 thousand miles is simply not something a normal engine should be doing. nissan accepts this fact, and thats why the replace engines that burn excessive oil.

bottom line is i paid alot of money for faulty merchandise. i have 2 different warranties, one from nissan and one from the dealer. the dealer requires that ALL service is done by them, and NOT by me: http://www.myhamiltonhyundai.com/?ht...es.com/DFL.htm

i bought my car to drive it, not to babysit it. i expected it to run like a normal car, not eat quarts of oil for breakfast. the damage done is the manufacturers fault. generally speaking nissan dealers are reasonable, so im not expecting any trouble. but i am willing to go to court if i have to.

aside from this, im wondering exactly what i could have messed up. can any of you 350 gurus enlighten me?
Old 12-29-2008 | 12:13 PM
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I would suggest telling them that the oil level looked fine to you. The oil level in the 06 is hard to read due to oil being slung all over the dipstick during driving. You have to let the engine sit for half an hour to get a somewhat accurate reading.

There have been people on the board with over two quarts of oil consumption every thousand miles. Had they not known about this the engine would have been seriously damaged like yours.

Nissan is under an obligation to replace your engine. It is faulty, period. Your maintenance schedule would not keep the car from consuming oil.

Print out the TSB that's on the first page of the Rev-Up Oil Consumption sticky and bring it into the dealer. If the dealer gives you a hard time about your new engine, entertain the notion of bringing it to a dealer who is familiar with the rev-up oil consumption issues.

You should not be on the hook for a faulty engine, no matter whether it's damaged or not. Good luck.
Old 12-29-2008 | 03:32 PM
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It's still your fault for not checking the oil WHEN YOU KNEW it was low and you still pushed the car to redline even when it was knocking. You broke your engine not Nissan.
Old 12-29-2008 | 03:56 PM
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Take it to the dealer and act clueless.
Old 12-29-2008 | 04:06 PM
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Originally Posted by clone19
..... i know its partially my fault that i didnt check the levels, but im hoping the dealer will replace my block with one that doesnt burn oil tomorrow when i take it in. if not, they can expect a pretty hefty law suit. .....

!

I hear your frustration, and I understand how someone could not know about the '06 oil consumption issues. Not everyone hangs out on this forum. So you can't be blamed for that.

But... you heard knocking six months ago, and did nothing. You "didn't have time" to take it to the dealer, although it sounds like you knew that knocking was not a good thing. You checked your oil in August, found that it was low, and then didn't check it again until the end of December. I know you haven't driven the car for awhile. But you did manage to somewhere in the last nine months put 4k miles on the car, and various basic fluid checks should be part of your routine more often than that.

It is absolutely true that Nissan built a bunch of engines that use oil, and yours is one of them. But you have been repeatedly negligent here. For you to threaten to sue someone when a few simple steps on your part (check oil, add oil, document oil additions, take car to dealer) would have saved your engine from blowing up...
Old 12-30-2008 | 06:08 AM
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Originally Posted by blastoff99
It is absolutely true that Nissan built a bunch of engines that use oil, and yours is one of them. But you have been repeatedly negligent here. For you to threaten to sue someone when a few simple steps on your part (check oil, add oil, document oil additions, take car to dealer) would have saved your engine from blowing up...
Regardless of whether the engine is damaged or not, it still needs to be replaced by Nissan and rebuilt.

Why should he be on the hook for a faulty engine that's going to be rebuilt one way or the other?

Adding five quarts of oil in between oil changes is not routine maintenance. I agree that he was retarded not taking it into the dealer earlier, however that is no reason to even think about denying this warranty claim.
Old 12-30-2008 | 07:58 AM
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meing ur an idiot, who redlines a car that is low on oil haha ur own fault man. dont think the dealer will replace it, they r gonna check ur driving history on ur ecu to see how you drove the car.. uhh ohh
Old 12-30-2008 | 11:22 AM
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Originally Posted by cheshirecat79
Regardless of whether the engine is damaged or not, it still needs to be replaced by Nissan and rebuilt.

Why should he be on the hook for a faulty engine that's going to be rebuilt one way or the other?

Adding five quarts of oil in between oil changes is not routine maintenance. I agree that he was retarded not taking it into the dealer earlier, however that is no reason to even think about denying this warranty claim.
It's in the manual. Warranty can not be covered if routing oil checks are not done.
Old 12-30-2008 | 01:40 PM
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The warranty requires an oil change every 180 days regardless of mileage, hopefully you have LEGAL PROOF of this occuring. Even if the car is not cranked for 6 months you still have to replace oil per warranty document.

Nissan recommends in writing: 90 days and 3,750 miles for engine longevity beyond warranty.

Hopefully the courts and a jury will find you innocent of negligence?
Old 12-30-2008 | 08:26 PM
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Wow. I do not envy your situation.

I noticed low oil levels on my Z about 8 months and immediately took it to the dealer for an oil change. They didn't mention the problem, and I didn't think anything of it. Well, I just took my 06, which I also hardly drive, into the dealer for an oil change this past Monday. I mentioned the low oil level, they ran some tests, and called me with the "we owe you a new engine" speech. I got lucky. And thanks to the forums for all the helpful info.

Not that it'll help your situation, clone19, but I'm interested in asking the dealer about your ordeal. Had I waited another month or so, or not paid much attention to the oil level, I'd be in the same boat. I'm stopping by the dealer tomorrow to check progress, and I'll throw the question at them. I'll let you know what my dealer says.
Old 12-30-2008 | 09:16 PM
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in a perfect world the dealer should warranty an obvious oil consumption motor regardless of your mistakes......in a perfect world.g/l
Old 12-31-2008 | 06:00 PM
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Originally Posted by mclovin.too
Take it to the dealer and act clueless.
Sadly, this is probably your best bet. I am not encouraging you to lie, but your motor is defective...period. It needed to be replaced, whether or not you ran it dry.
Old 01-12-2009 | 04:53 PM
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brand new engine, no questions asked, no drama or hassle. i got 11,000 miles for free
this is why i bought a nissan.


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