My Nissan Note is unique... but costly to repair

ValPS

I've just been told that my 07' Nissan Note Timing chain has become loose. Bill can be anywhere as high as 800 euros. Nissan Ireland have confirmed that NO other Note has been affected in Europe since start of manufacturing back in 05'.
Do I have the right to claim that this then is a default, and expect it to be mended free of charge ?
Please give me your thoughts... I'm still sitting here in the garage, waiting for Nissan Ireland to give their input as to how it shall proceed.....

krissovo

How many miles? Full dealer service history?

Both are important to give any initial judgment.

ValPS

Bought the 3 year warranty at the time of purchase. then My Brother-in-law, who used to work for NCT... has been servicing it ... The garage i'm sitting in, nissan one, has asked me that question, i confirmed the sale of goods act.... where any item sold must be to the standard of its intended purpose... so anything that has been done to it has been put in or on for its intended use... so they can argue, but it wouldn't hold up in a court of law.. It's got about 63,000 miles on... But as Nissan Ireland have said.... this hasn't happened to any other note in Europe since they started to make them....

ronaneire

I'd imagine that you too can argue with them over it. But the car is out of warranty. Is it 63k miles or KM's?

galwaytt

...don't 'argue'. 'persuade'. Spouting the SofGA only gets up people's noses....

Anyhoo: you need to get the garage to contact Nissan to get this treated as 'goodwill' warranty, given that they have admitted this is the only case in Europe (their words...).

As for mileage, you could .......persuade.......them that even if out of warranty, time-wise, mileagewise, under 'normal' conditions, if the car was 3 years old or less, it would have been automatically warrantied.

What I mean is, timing chain wear/looseness has no other factor other than usage/mileage. If you didn't use the car for 10 years it wouldn't go out of adjustment or get loose, so the time element is a bit of a red herring - particularly because this IS a chain. If it was a timing belt, it'd be a different matter.

Be nice: it'll get you further.

krissovo

By the sounds of it its just a mechanical failure out of warranty, its not a known fault so its wear and tear at your expense IMO.

ValPS

Miles.... 63,000 miles... I'm not disputing my use since bought... what i'm saying is..... up till 3 days ago.... what has happened to my car... HAS NEVER HAPPENED TO ANY NISSAN NOTE IN EUROPE, SINCE THEY STARTED TO MAKE THEM... EVER... and that info is from Nissan Ireland themselves

ronaneire

ValPS wrote: »

Miles.... 63,000 miles... I'm not disputing my use since bought... what i'm saying is..... up till 3 days ago.... what has happened to my car... HAS NEVER HAPPENED TO ANY NISSAN NOTE IN EUROPE, SINCE THEY STARTED TO MAKE THEM... EVER... and that info is from Nissan Ireland themselves

NO need for the CAPS!!!

Nissan warranty is 100Km or 3 years. whichever comes first.

Protect your warranty

Nissan’s comprehensive vehicle warranty covers your vehicle for 3 years or 100,000 km whichever comes first, against manufacturing defects. As with all warranties there are certain limitations and requirements which you, as our Customer should be aware of.

• Your vehicle must be maintained in accordance with Nissan’s maintenance and service schedule.
• Nissan Ireland highly recommends that your Nissan should be maintained by an authorised Nissan repairer. Remember - No one knows Nissan vehicles better than Nissan!
• The benefits to you are that your vehicle will be maintained by Technicians who are professionally trained to the highest standards.
• As the “Experts” Nissan Authorised Repairer’s will ensure that your vehicle is continually monitored in line with manufacturer’s recommendations for corrective and preventative maintenance.
• You should ensure that the vehicles service history record logbook is accurately completed and stamped by the servicing dealer after every service.
• The use of genuine spare parts will assure you of safety, reliability and correct fit every time at competitive prices.
• Your vehicle must have paintwork and body work inspected annually.
• Nissan paintwork is covered for 3 years unlimited
• Your Nissan is covered against perforation from corrosion for 6-12 years (depending on model)
• Genuine Nissan Spare Parts carry a 12 month unlimited mileage warranty
• Your Nissan is covered anywhere in mainland Europe
• You should retain all service records and invoices in the event of a query on a warranty repair.
• You should read the Warranty Information Booklet supplied with your Nissan and be familiar with its contents.

http://www.nissan.ie/after_sales/warranty.aspx

Nonoperational

To be honest the fact that it never happened to any other Note ever is very bad for your case. It points to poor maintenance on your behalf. Incorrect oil, not keeping it topped up, not changing regularly etc. May not be the case but you'd have a much better chance of something from Nissan if it was an inherent design fault in the product.

ValPS

Ok... i've just been handed my keys... been here since 9:50am.... Nissan garage here are waiting for nissan ireland to get back from them.... so heading now for some lunch..... ok actual kms is 95,000

mickdw

Nissan had major issues in the almera with stretching timing chains whih lead to non starting etc.
Is it possible that this is more of the same and that they are just lying about there being no other cases?
I would get busy on the internet to investigate if there are other owners with the issue. If there are, fight for a free repair.

Nissan doctor

The k12 micra, N16 almera and P12 primera are all famous for stretching chains, If your note is a 1.4 then you have the same engine code as that fitted to the micra...

Vertakill

How is 'this hasn't happened to any other Note in Europe' a positive in terms of the argument?
Surely if it was a known issue, you would have more of a bargaining point?

OP, you and Nissan are effectively saying that you drive a very (allegedly) reliable car... but your one has broken... so please repair my car free of cost?

Am I being really stupid and missing something glaringly obvious that would explain this to me?

ValPS

Yes... it is a 1.4 petrol.... and i have been told that the timing chain is the same as that fitted on Micra's..... But in saying that.... i have searched online, to investigate , and came across a huge amount of other Nissan models affected by the said "chain issue".... but have not found 1 instance about the 'Note'... and it is comforting to believe this.. but i'm a little weary of upgrading to a newer model....

But to challenge the statement of miles/kms on it...
Well I bought mine in Jan 07'.... they started manufacture in 05' so I suspect there are a quantity of Notes, same as mine, out there with higher mileage than my own and to date, and till now, the chain has never proved a problem ? ...
Just had a called from garage... they require , via Nissan Ireland ... proof of the independent servicing....to proceed via NI, via goodwill, on my behalf. I did phone earlier and left a message, so I best wait for them to contact me back, and not come across as, hounding. But... here lies my problem... wish me luck in trying to find receipts !!

Apologies for the caps earlier...

Nonoperational

Hope you get it sorted.

Jonny303

You keep refering to miles, is it an Irish or Northern Irish car originally. If its from the north, I can understand why Nissan don't want to help you out.

Nissan is brought in my a distributer, not the factory direct (mazda/vw) so if you havnt bought it here, and havnt had it serviced with them, you basically want them to pay for somthing that they have made no profit on. If this is the case, you need to go back north.

Apoligies if ive picked this up wrong

ValPS

Ok.. I phoned Nissan Ireland while sitting in the Dundalk garage, left a message , and haven't heard back from them... That was last Friday(15th).. it is now Thursday (21th)...
The Dundalk garage did phone me last Monday afternoon saying they had received 'circular email' from Nissan Ireland stating that NI would cover the cost of the Timing Chain, but all other items on the estimate, to include 2 new sensors, and labour would have to be covered by myself. I told them I needed time to think it over.

Maybe I should have made you all aware as to why I had my Nissan Note checked over.

I had been driving along and when going from 3rd gear to 4th, the car lost power and stopped on a hill. At least I was able to free-wheel backwards to a safer position on the road, and there was no other vehicle behind me which could have resulted in a different experience . The car did start a short time later, but now with my orange warning light on, I did drive it home, but was worried.
I refereed to my user manual and done search on-line for possible reason, and seen 'recall for an ignition problem that may cause the engine to stop running.' I have been told by Nissan Ireland that mine is not one of the affected.
The same thing has happened again, stopping in transition, this time while driving in town traffic, luckily speed was slow, so I only managed to annoy other road user for a short period of time.

ValPS

Was bought in the Republic, in Drogheda.

ValPS

The garage gave me back my car stating it was ok to drive, but its was a matter of time for the orange light to come back on again.

Are you saying i'm driving a potentially dangerous faulty car?

ValPS

Yes, the garage gave me back my car, after doing a second check on the timing chain, last Friday.
After the problem happened, I phoned them, and went to have it diagnosed and sorted, thinking it was the recall ignition problem. Garage said it was the timing chain and possibly sensors also.
Nissan Ireland confirmed no noted problem of that sort since start of production, and informed the garage that a certain implement needed to be used to diagnosis the specific 'Nissan Note' chain. Hence the return for the second check. I do wish to say the garage did not charge me a second fee for the second diagnosis.
But needless to say, my Note is the only Note car needing this 'surgery'.

vincenzolorenzo

gpf101 wrote: »

To be honest the fact that it never happened to any other Note ever is very bad for your case. It points to poor maintenance on your behalf. Incorrect oil, not keeping it topped up, not changing regularly etc. May not be the case but you'd have a much better chance of something from Nissan if it was an inherent design fault in the product.

Vertakill wrote: »

How is 'this hasn't happened to any other Note in Europe' a positive in terms of the argument?
Surely if it was a known issue, you would have more of a bargaining point?

OP, you and Nissan are effectively saying that you drive a very (allegedly) reliable car... but your one has broken... so please repair my car free of cost?

Am I being really stupid and missing something glaringly obvious that would explain this to me?

It should definitely help the OP's case when you think about it. On the one hand you're saying that because this happened to the OP and not to any other car in Europe then its down to the OP not minding the car correctly, poor servicing etc. The flip side of the argument is that because this is the only time its happened it can be blamed on a faulty part.

Now to me the latter argument is far more believable. Even if the OP never serviced the car (not saying you didn't) I'm sure there's at least a few other owners out of the thousands and thousands that own Notes that would be equally as bad at minding the car, and if loose timing chain was a result of this neglect then there would most definitely be more than one case in Europe.

Nissan doctor

As I said, you are describing the timing chain stretching problem, you mentioned the cost of 2 sensors, Nissan recommend changine the cam and crank sensors when the chain has gone faulty.

I think they are trying to fob you off when you have suffered a common Nissan problem.

ValPS

Now to me the latter argument is far more believable

No offence taken vincenzolorenzo,
I welcome a realistic response, and I had mentioned the same scenario earlier.

ValPS

Nissan doctor wrote: »

I think they are trying to fob you off when you have suffered a common Nissan problem.

But according to NI, the 'Note' is not affected,and never has been. So how can my problem be common?

Nissan doctor

ValPS wrote: »

But according to NI, the 'Note' is not affected,and never has been. So how can my problem be common?

The note is just the name of the car, its the engine that is effected and the petrol engine in the note is the same engine code/family as the one used in the micra, and these often stretch chain.

ValPS

Well I had been told that the timing chain is the same on both Note and Micra. So you are saying the engine is the same on both also?

But why had the car to be brought back the second time to be checked with a different implement? There must be a different way of checking Micras and Notes.

But that still doesn't answer why it hasn't happened to any other Note.