| kathleenp100 |
Wanted to post recent experience w/ my 2003 murano
My cat. converter substrate came unglued , was sucked into engine and RUINED it.
The symptoms of my car was choking out, then lurching.
I was EXTREMELY lucky that I had 71,000 miles. The FEDERAL warranty program for Cat. Converters covered an entire engine replacement at the Dealership.
I did have the extended 6yr 100K warranty - but Nissan was off hook with Fed's help.
Remember the 8yr 80K fed. warranty - couldn't have thought a cat could cause such damage.
Poster (mechanic I think) had said when the substrate comes unglued it will toast the engine. more common on late model nissan - can check with MODE 6 on a scanner to verify how efficient cat is running.
BTW I had passed my emissions test 6 days prior!
Feeling very lucky today. Nissan wanted to rebuild/or use remanuf. engine - dealer helped w/justifying and now I have a new/more powerful engine.
Nervous for other shoe to drop, but so far so good. |
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| Stoker |
I am curious how the catalyst from the convertor was sucked into the engine as the cat convertor is down stream in the exhaust system.
My Mo has 116000 Kms on it and running like a top ( touch wood) |
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| njjoe |
quote: Originally posted by Stoker
I am curious how the catalyst from the convertor was sucked into the engine as the cat convertor is down stream in the exhaust system.
Stoker-
I, too, was very skeptical when I first heard of this a year or two ago, but hfelknor convinced me it is entirely plausible. The pulse waves of the exiting exhaust can cause the loose substrate in the cat to travel into the manifold and then the cylinder head.
-njjoe |
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| njjoe |
kathleenp100-
Welcome to the forum.
Out of curiosity, who told you about the Federal Program? Was it the dealer? I just find it suprising that they would be so helpful.
-njjoe |
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| Eric L. |
| The emissions warranty info is listed in the warranty booklet that comes with the owners manual - in certain states like CA the emissions warranty is even longer (8 years I think). |
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| kathleenp100 |
njjoe
I smiled at the skepticism of dealer offering up the warranty info. I have had some not too pleasurable exper. w/ dealerships & repair bills.
I did have a 6 year 100K mile extended gold warranty (I was at 5 yrs 71K) - which is what I originally thought the dealer was working on getting Nissan to p/u. Initally they were telling me and nissan that it was "ring failure" - the service rep was "nearly certain" nissan would cover it, but wanted prices on rebuild vs. new.
I think when they found it was the cat they were all happy because it was the fed warranty.
My sense is that the gold warranty isn't covering much in reality - but didn't have to find out the hard way with this back up.
I was actually very impressed w/ Victory Nissan in Chantilly VA, they are new and I think less busy, and trying to generate some business---- of course the positive outcome in my favor helped with my good impression. |
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| WrenchGremlin |
I wonder if they ever did a compression check - I have a 2003 and had the same thing happen, even the same diagnosis - new engine needed. Turned out all that was needed was a new cat. I did a compression check and the engine was still better than factory spec. Talking to another Nissan shop mechanic, he confirmed that a compression check is supposed to be part of the diagnosis. My MO was at 135K so no warranty of any sort at that point. I now have 150K and its been running like a champ.
Either way, I'm glad to hear that you got a new engine without having to spend the $.
-wg |
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| kathleenp100 |
wg
yes, they did a compression check - thus the inital diag. of "bad rings" very bad compression.
from that point they I suppose in taking the engine apart they must have seen signs of the substrate in the engine.
Crazy.
The only strange occurance prior to this, I did have an indep. shop/ mechanic replace 2 cam sensors.
also they did a BG injection flush & clean MAF meter
I don't know if this could have thrown the Cat conv. into failure???
just coincidental that it was 2 wks. prior? |
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| WrenchGremlin |
Well if the BG injector flush pushed contaminates into the injector, there is a possibility that the injected stream wouldn't atomize correctly and any unburnt fuel would dump into your cat. burning it up, which causes it to shrink and pull away from the sides.
I had a spark plug that stopped working and caused the same type of failure. I guess I was lucky that my engine didn't inhale has deeply, I must have an engine designed by Bill Clinton : ). |
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| njjoe |
quote: Originally posted by WrenchGremlin
I had a spark plug that stopped working and caused the same type of failure. I guess I was lucky that my engine didn't inhale has deeply, I must have an engine designed by Bill Clinton : ).
:21: |
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