Hi everyone,


I have an '09 G37x, 34k on it. Several weeks ago the car went into a bit of a meltdown, I was at speed (60 mph), it began to jerk violently then suddenly the transmission simply disengaged from the engine, the engine revved and I coasted to the side of the road.

I threw it in park, back in drive, the car just jerked and shuddered, dropped it into manual mode, couldn't get it to go in any gear except fifth and was unable to get the car to go above 2500 rpm without it shuddering and jerking violently.

Got it to the dealer whereupon they diagnosed it as a software issue and updated it accordingly. I left for the eastern shore at 9 am that morning, 2 hours later the exact same thing happened.

I returned the car to the dealer who kept it for several days, eventually defining the problem as a bubble in transmission fluid.

Well, it happened again over the weekend, this time at 70 mph in the middle of traffic, the car lurched forward, the transmission disengaged, the engine revved, and I had to navigate the car to the side of the road.

It's back at the dealer. At this point the car is simply unsafe, I'm not comfortable driving it, and they're talking of replacing the transmission. Has anyone else experienced this?

I contacted Infiniti consumer affairs, they've opened a file and are in contact with the dealer. Here's what I've been told:

Monday the service manager at the dealer stated they discovered the MAF sensor was bad and replaced it, as well as some other ECM updates that needed to be applied, but had yet to duplicate the problem.

Tuesday night I received a call from the rep at Infiniti corporate, he'd gotten off the phone with the dealer who informed him they were 95% certain the issue was related to the MAF sensor and were able to duplicate the problem. I expressed my concerns about this, as I'd been told the MAF had been replaced without a duplication of the failure. I then called the dealer to speak with the general manager again, got his voice mail and left a message voicing my concerns regarding the latest development and subsequent conflicting info provided to corporate.

Not fives minutes later I received a call from the parts/service manager who explained there was a miscommunication, corporate had directed them to reinstall the old MAF and see if the failure could be duplicated, which they said they were able to duplicate. What was indicated, however, was the failure for them was bucking and jerking, not a disengaging of the transmission itself. I explained this to the gentleman on the phone several times, once more reiterating this is a major safety issue, that I know the difference between a hobbled car that's still in drive as opposed to one that's suddenly in neutral. Though he was polite I could tell he was unconvinced I had experienced this three times, twice with someone else in the car!!

I'm supposed to hear from both the dealer and corporate today, but I'm afraid this is going to escalate, I simply have no confidence they've accurately diagnosed anything and don't feel safe getting back in the car.

Frustrating, to say the least! Any feedback?

 

It amazed me that they didn't replace the MAF on your first visit, not able to rev above 2500 rpm was a sure sign of MAF failure, this has happened to my Maxima many years ago.

 

I understand your frustration...and concern. Obviously you've lost confidence in the ability of the dealership to properly diagnose and fix the problem...with good reason. That said, the MAF is tied to the car's computer and I suspect a bad sensor could somehow "confuse" the computer into sending some weird commands to the transmission. That said, if it happens again, you need to pursue a lemon buyback request...which will be guided by the rules in your state. I would also send a letter to all involved (certified/return receipt) expressing your safety concerns. Good luck.

 

I understand your frustration. Similar happened to my old Mazda 3, except it wasn't a defect. Mazda mechanics worked on my car a couple days prior to the incident and left the fuel line untightened. It eventually disconnected and started leaking fuel into the engine bay and I lost power. With fuel leaking into the engine bay, it probably could've caught fire. Of course when I went back to Mazda they said that I had no proof that it was them and it could've been me who screwed around with the car. I asked them one simple question of whether it was required to disconnect the fuel line to perform the work they did, they said yes. i didn't even get an apology from them.

At least Infiniti is trying to fix the issue and not accusing you for causing it.

 

Thanks f/m, it's true, the dealer has lost credibility with me. I reached out to another dealership this morning, spoke with their service manager who at least said the right things, we'll take it out for a couple hours, place it under the same load you place it under, determine the cause BEFORE replacing parts or upgrading software, etc.

I've checked with some master techs as well, they seem to be in agreement the MAF sensor can do many things, but force the transmission to disengage from the motor isn't one of them, the general consensus is mechanical failure, not computer or software.

The single biggest factor is duplication. As an engineer I get a failure can't be corrected if you can't duplicate it. I'm awaiting the phone calls, then we'll see what's next on the agenda.....

 

I tend to agree with this statement...

 

Research your state's lemon laws and use them

 

This. There is a certain set of steps to go through, document everything meticulously.

One thing that helped me prove to the dealership that I was in fact experiencing certain electrical issues was that I took a cell phone video of the behavior while it was parked but running. They definitely treated the problem more seriously after seeing it. This might be dangerous if you try to film while you are driving but if you have a passenger there they could do it so you could prove the driveshaft disengagement. Even this is not enough really but it's better than you just telling them something.

A good friend of mine ran a Harley service department for some time, and he said that ANYTHING a customer reports is not considered really true until he or his mechanics saw the evidence with their own eyes. You have to understand that day in and day out they hear things from customers that are completely misguided and wrong, so the intelligent owners become indistinguishable. Good luck with your issues.

 

This very true...I deal with highly technical and expensive equipment in the Semiconductor industry. At one time I was in Field Service and supported equipment at customer sites. Most times even the customer's own engineers could not give us accurate descriptions of what was really happening with the equipment. These were trained people...we always started from scratch in diagnosing the equipment, because most times if you followed what they told you, you would end up chasing something that really wasn't the problem.
You can imagine how many people today don't know crap about cars and take their car in and tell the service advisor what's wrong...so they are most likely inclined to not believe people.

 

I'm an IT engineer of 27 years, I too understand the difficulties of troubleshooting a fault based on someone's experience, and tougher still if you can't duplicate the failure. Both sides end up stalemating until either the dealer duplicates the problem or my transmission disengages as I'm crossing the Bay Bridge and I'm unceremoniously crushed by the semi behind me.

The dealer still has the car, I continue to express my safety concerns to the Infiniti consumer affairs rep, from now on I'm carrying a video camera in the car in preparation for the next failure that will happen.

I've been a faithful Nissan fanatic for many years beginning with my beloved 300zx (sniffle), and sad to say, this will be my last.

 

Definitely do this

 

I had a similar issue.but without the jerking ans shuddering, the transmission simply disengaged.i turned the car off and on again , every thing went back to norma...this happened to me 3 times and the dealer was unable to diagnose the cause

 

Too late in the game, the car is a 2009.

 

Why is it too late? What is the lemon law time limitation? A 2009, registered in May or later, could still be within full factory warranty.

 

Since this thread is over a year old...

Is the OP still around? What happened?