| Cush |
| Notice my 03 Murano SE was leaking oil (a nice puddle every day). Took it in and was told that my Oil Pan had rotted. Has anyone every experienced this? I have 79,000 miles on this, drive mostly highway and live in New York (road salt). I take pretty good care of this car and try to get the road salt off as soon as possible. Also, my front struts need replacing. Seems a bit soon to me? |
|
|
| njjoe |
rotted???
Did the mechanic actually use the term rotted? If he did, then he should be taken out back and dunked in the used oil tank.
There is no way that any component or body panel should rot out on a 5 year old car. Not in this day and age.
If it is not too late I would want to see the pan and have the dealer point out exactly where it "rotted"out.
-njjoe |
|
|
| Cush |
| Yes, I asked the Service Manager to set the pan aside so that I could take pictures. I also questioned him about this. He replied that he has seen this occasionally. I also called my (foreign car) mechanic and questioned him. He has not seen this with Nissan but he has replaced a few oil pans for Hondas. I usually don't take my car to the dealer for service but I must say; they have been great so far and have indeed fixed only what needed to be fixed "correctly" the first time. This is usually not the norm (with my past dealer experiences). |
|
|
| Eric L. |
This is rather suspicious as I believe the VQ uses an aluminum oil pan. And as you know - aluminum does not corrode like steel does. My guess it was a bad oil pan seal or oil pressure sending unit, and they are trying to make some money off of you.
79,000 miles isn't unreasonable to need new front struts - these components wear out on all vehicles. |
|
|
| ekaxel |
| My oil pan looks like stamped steel... |
|
|
| Eric L. |
quote:
Originally posted by ekaxel
My oil pan looks like stamped steel...
An article from Motortrend on the 3.0L VQ from way back when the Maxima won its Import Car of the Year says its a "heavy duty aluminum oil pan."
http://www.nissanx.com/old/htdocs/1995.html |
|
|
| Eric L. |
| Something I did notice is that the oil pan for the VQ engine has two parts - an upper and lower pan. The part the drain bolt attaches to is the lower pan. Maybe the upper pan (most of the "sump") is aluminum, and the lower pan is steel? This might explain the rusting, but you'd have to scrape something for rust to start. |
|
|
| ekaxel |
| I would like to see a picture of Cush's problem... |
|
|
| Cush |
| Sorry it took "way" too long to post pictures.... but, here you go. Seems it was rusted out from the outside bottom of the pan. |
|
|
| Cush |
| sorry picture took so long. seems to have rusted from the outside. |
|
|
| njjoe |
Cush-
That is positively ugly!
There is no reason for a 5 year old oil pan to rust through like that.
Are you sure you didn't park your MO in the Hudson River for an extended period of time? Or maybe park your MO over a boiling vat of sulphuric acid without knowing it?
Nissan goofed. Oil pans do not rust like that unless they were not properly prepped and painted.
Thanks for the photo.
-njjoe |
|
|
| Eric L. |
| Looks like the oil pan took a rather strong hit which was enough to nick through the thick paint and get the rust started. All in all, terrible luck. Fortunately the part should not be too expensive. |
|
|
| Cush |
I drive mostly highway miles and run my Murano through a "hand wash" car wash (which supposedly washes the undercarriage) often through the winter. There is no reason for this. Reminds me of the old Nissan/Datsun rust problems (engines would run forever but the cars body would disintegrate).
It always could be worse. |
|
|
|
