# Yikes I got a lemon



## jcasetnl (May 31, 2007)

I was being lazy and took my 2007 sentra mtx to an oil change place (normally I change it myself). That turned out to be lucky. He said I was leaking from the rear main seal. 

Made an appointment with the stealership since it's still under warranty. Their conclusion, after lots of testing, was a poorly cast Head. So nissan is going to overnight a new engine and with luck I'll have it back by Friday. Hmm... maybe I should look into that extended warranty after all...


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## metro273 (Sep 16, 2005)

"Poorly cast head" and so their gonna replace the ENTIRE engine?
Hmmm, doesn't sound right to me...


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## jcasetnl (May 31, 2007)

metro273 said:


> "Poorly cast head" and so their gonna replace the ENTIRE engine?
> Hmmm, doesn't sound right to me...


Yeah, too true. My car is a manual trans base model, which is somewhat rare. I wonder if mine was just a bad run. 

Well, an update on the whole thing. It was one of the more pleasant dealings with the stealership, quite honestly. 

I dropped it off Tuesday to diagnose the initial leak. They did troubleshooting Tuesday, informed me that I needed a new engine on Wednesday, nissan overnighted it and the installed it thursday/friday. So I had my car back by 5:30 on friday. They gave me "new engine break-in" speech and I was on my way. Total cost $0. Though, I didn't need a rental (I can walk to work if I'm not too lazy) and they were out of loaners. The rental would have been $15/day. 

But overall, I was surprised at this level of service from nissan and the stealership on an econobox car. 

Years ago I had a 96 dodge neon, and around 1998, I found out it had the notorious head gasket problem (dodge was using a paper head gasket to save a nickel, which sent most first-gen neons to an early grave). They had a "silent" warranty on it, which basically meant you had to call dodge and call them on it, and then they would agree to fix it, even if it was out of warranty. The "silent" warranty was because the fix was extremely (6 hours labor) expensive and the neon is an econobox that they probably lose money on with every sale.

I didn't have to go through those gyrations this time, which was nice. 

And for what it's worth, that neon now has about 180k on it (gave it to my dad) and gets 40 mpg!


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## sonicgundam (Aug 15, 2007)

metro273 said:


> "Poorly cast head" and so their gonna replace the ENTIRE engine?
> Hmmm, doesn't sound right to me...


sounds right to me.manufacturers don't screw around with repairs. if the head had a flaw, they're worried about the entire engine. also, replacing the head may require dropping the engine out of the car. at that point since its warranty, replacing the entire engine is more cost effective, and they're less likely to end up with a comeback and have to deal with the vehicle again.


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