****!!!

oh well. the short story is the Z's burring way to much oil. approx 2 quarts for every tank of gas.

nissan dealer hasn't even opened up the motor and they are saying the procharger killed the engine.

personally, I think they killed it when the overfilled the oil last oil change. It was fine before that. And the oil light came on a week later and I was down 2.5 quarts.

what's a guy to do? replace or rebuild? or send it for a swim in the ocean? j/k

don't even know if it's worth fighting with the procharger!?!?! Despite what I've seen, they are saying the Head Nissan engineer hasn't seen any oil consumption on motors unless they've hand modifications.

but I don't want to be a ***** and roll over right away either.

****!!!

 

noah-


this is aweful

i am sorry for your troubles brother....

i wouldnt say its ATI (or blower) related just yet..... its the responsibility of the dealer to:

1) diagnose the failure
2) determine the source
3) make adjustments as/if the warranty deems.....

(the above is IMO only, of course)

maybe it can be easily seen that its not related, or maybe not.......

i wonder if you had ay fueling isses too (a/f readings okay???)

need more info to go on...

 

as for the a/f, I had the procharger installed in oct
and tuned. they had it running rich as far as I'm
concerned at a/f of 10 between 4500 - 6000.

I had it retuned in January (when I move from VA
to FL) and got rid of the rich condition,
with the exception of a small dip around 5200 rpm.

Last month I got the AEM wideband installed, tuned
it myself again and got rid of any rich / lean conditions.


Nissan doesn't even want to open up the engine
to diagnose it. They say they don't have the
facilities for that kind of work. They just want
to out-right replace the motor.

 

Personally I would get several professional opinions on the likely impact to an engine that had been overfilled and driven for the number of miles you put on it with the overfill.

 

Man, sorry to hear that. One thing I've learned is that most Nissan Dealerships are a bunch of pussies. Good luck with this, they are going to try to screw you so be prepared. My opinion, rebuild it, it's going to be about the same price as a new motor. How much oil is in the motor? Man good luck.

 

WELL heck then, let em replace the motor i guess.....

sounds like a happy ending to me!!

no?

 

There is no way in hell anyone can pin down the cause until the motor is apart. If the pistons are damaged (cracked, broken or crushed ring lands) it could be due to detonation but that may not be what happened. I would request a tear down and for a zone rep to personally inspect the parts and decide. I would want to be present when the rep is there.
Smile, act professional and talk to them as friends cus any other way isn't going to help.

 

would be except... not under warrenty. it would have
to be out of my pocket.

 

Magnuson Moss Warranty Act :

http://www.granatellimotorsports.com/magnusonmoss.htm

There are about a half-dozen engines documented on this forum with oil consumption problems. However, all of those were normally aspirated and not upgraded to FI.

Go to the most performance oriented dealership in your area before anything else. If they can't help you, contact NNA. If that doesn't work, you have to rely upon the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act. This is not a bad thing because it is the manufacturer that has the burden of proving that your modification caused the failure in the vehicle.

See if you can work things out through your dealership. From experience, I know that it is the service director's ultimate call on the engine. In my case, the service director determined that I needed a new engine. And, my service advisor contacted NNA for authorization. There was some friction but the engine was authorized in short order.

How NNA deals with your oil consumption problem after FI will give everyone an idea of what to expect if we decide to upgrade to FI. Therefore, you're going to be setting a precedent and it's important that you get taken care of by Nissan.

So, if you can't work it out through your dealership, I strongly recommend that you get a lemon law attorney.

Oh, and the oil consumption is probably due to failed piston rings.

Good luck.

 

Well if you do end up getting a new long/shortblock from Nissan, I'm sure some forum members may be interested in buying your old mill , it could help offset your cost. If I were closer to Fla. I'd consider, it since I'm looking for a shortblock to build up. Since it's probably rings, the block is most likely fine for re-build (even if new sleeves are needed).

 

^^^^ ABSOLUTELY. That is EXACTLY what the Magnusson-Moss Act is for. The dealer can in NO way deny a warranty claim unless they can prove beyond a doubt that the damage was caused by a modification done by you. Since you have the ATI kit which does not share the engine oil there is no way they can prove it was the proccharger UNLESS they pull the engine and tear it apart and PROVE that something happened to cause this. The only likely way this is going to happen is if you detonated enough to cause blow by on the piston ring (IMPOSSIBLE) Do NOT let them by on this. If they continue to resist hire legal consul and fight it. If in that time you NEED to have your car running you may have to go ahead and out of pocket it but whoever does the work make sure you get EXCELLENT documentation of what was found to be the cause. Eventually Nissan will have to pick up the tab fr it.

 

well good luck, you will likely need it. its definitely nice to be able to magnuson moss it but seeing as how you had a procharger it will be an uphill battle. with that said if it only rings/pistons needing replaced it would not be all that expensive to fix it and do it right this time.

 

Grubbs Infinity Nissan Dallas does installs 4 the ATI prochargers under warrenty. 817-318-1200 is the #. Call and ask to talk to the service manager don't get emotional and stay calm...ask him what the best way to go about getting a motor under warrenty! I haven't gone FI yet but this is the only dealer that does ATI installs under warrenty! GOOOD LUCK
Jay

 

If your Z had documented consumption problems before the supercharger you are in the clear. If the problems were only noticed after the supercharger install than you might be in for a ride. Your best bet would be to document cases where this happened to stock N/A cars and simply state that you didn't notice it when it was stock, or didn't report it.

We have had a couple FI guys with trannys and other high priced items get covered under the warranty because it was documented before the FI install.

IMO most dealers aren't bad. If you treat them this way than you will get the same treatment in return. That is not to say some dealers aren't better than others. Pick the right dealer. Not one that screwed up before.

Goodluck with your situation. I'm sorry to hear about it. Let this be a lesson to some others with F/I as we must check our oil more frequently. In my case I went with the JWT spacer to allow for a slight increase in temp and potential consumption.

My guess which means nothing, is that you had consumption problems earlier before the S/C, unknown to you. After the install of the supercharger, the engine ran hotter (the S/C aggrivated the situation) since october in the hot FL sun and the engine finally bit the dust after the rings became worn.

Please provide more details on your car... How much PSI could your car boost? Were you using the DFMU? Any timing conrtol? Type of tranny, 371rwhp on what type of gas? Your AF was at 10. That seems too rich by the way. Plus if you only have the AEM WO2 it could have been lower and the readout could have read 10. Sorry for the book of questions but this could help determine the problem. If it was tuned to 10 with the AEM that could be the problem right there.

 

I agree with most of you but in the end the dealer is the one who needs to bear the burden of proof. Under the law the party making the warranty claim should have to fork out money on the assumption the damage was caused by his modification. it is the Dealers responsiblity to investigate his warranty claim and then prove what actually happened before they can deny his claim. This is exactly why they are alotted a certain amount of funding for warranty claims. They cannot not natuarely assume that the supercharger caused the significant amount of stress to cause the falure. Furthermore if he has any documentation or statements by a qualified party that can substantiate his claim as to the prior incorrect servicing he is in better shape. If there were no documented instance of him losing oil while having the modification prior to the last visit he is in the clear. Basically if he had the ATI kit for 6 months with no problems and ONLY after the last oil change in which the vehicle was overfilled did the problem occur then he has EVEN MORE ammunition against them. I wouold definitely try the civilized approach first. But if the dealer insists on violoating the law then i would most certainly seek consule

 

I would guess that there weren't any oil issues before the s/c install. I only say this because after experiencing the issue and filling and refilling the oil, the oil pressure indicator is very sensitive to the amount of oil in the engine. I can pretty much guess how low the oil is by the pressure at idle.

PSI 6-8 lbs. It's got the 7 lb pully but I've had a dyno where it got close to 8 psi. Yes for the DFMU. Yes for timing (ecu changes since install and the J&S safeguard since Jan). 371 was with race fuel, I understand. I got 334 on a mustang dyno with 93 octane in November. A/F of 10 I agree is low, but that's where they said they liked it. Probably has to do with the lean situation at redline because of poor scaling on the DFMU.
The AEM was installed much later and I've tuned it to 11.9 - 12.1 across the board since getting it installed. I've never heard detonation on the engine.

if there is a lesson to be learned... get the wideband o2 sooner than later. These engines may not be able to handle running lean for very long.

 

This isn't an overflow issue.

 

you mean it's not a result of the engine being overfilled with oil and causing blowby on the rings?

 

HFM had a motor replaced due to rapid oil consimption. It destroyed his engine a week or two after an oil change. I doubt the Procharger could cuase this.

Over a long period of time, an improperly (detonating) F/I setup really eats away at the ring lands, and can cause rapid oil consumption and smoke.

A tear down of the engine will easily determine if it was detonation that cuase the rings to fail, or if it was just improperly seating rings from the factory.

 

Yeah, I've pm'd some of the guys that had the oil problems before. From what I understand none were F/I like me, but were early builds like me. Also, that's a point of descrepancy in the info that the service rep gave me. He reported that the chief engineer for nissan has only seen oil problems on vehicles with engine modifications. Of course, a CAI or replacement strut bar would probably be considered engine modifications with NNA.

I'm wondering, can any other guys who experience oil problems relate it back to an oil change?