Very interesting week.
10-03-2011, 10:17 AM
#1
Very interesting week.
Ok, last week I had some time off from school so I decided to have the infiniti dealership try to take car of some rattles/squeaks/creaks. Brought the car in at 7:45am on Wednesday morning and told them that when I go over bumps, the latch area squeaks, there was a rattling coming from the headliner area, my back glass was rattling (badly) and that there was a creaking coming from under the car when i put the car in reverse/drive/make turns.
I told them I was on a really tight time table (which I was) and that I would need the car back Thursday at noon. Well, Thursday at around 11:30am they informed me that the new latch setup for the front hadn't come in as planned and that the back glass issue was because of my rear wheel being badly bent. I get to the dealership around 12:30pm and they showed me how the wheel was bent, and then informed me that the front wheel on the same time was pretty badly bent as well (i later remembered hitting a REALLY bad pothole 2 weeks prior lol). Anyway, they told me they had fixed the rattling coming from the headliner but that the latch setup was still missing and they did the TSB for the rear glass but the wheel was so bent they couldn't prevent the glass from rattling.
The service manager told me they use a company with a 3 day turnaround (this was Thursday at noon-ish meaning that i wouldn't get the car back until either Monday or Tuesday). They gave me a name of another wheel restoration company and this place told me they did their work at night so if I dropped the wheels off by 6pm, they would have them back to me before 10am. This is where the story gets more fun. I told the dealer what the game plan was and since I was waiting on the latches anyway, he let me take a loaner to Hialeah (north Miami) from West Palm Beach. (an 80 mile drive or so each way). They put the wheels in the trunk and off I went. Got miserably lost but eventually found the place around 4:30pm. WheelsAmerica did the work and since I brought the wheels in w/o tires, they charged $129 per wheel + tax no matter how badly a wheel is damaged. Picked up the wheels at 11am the next day (earliest I was able to get there) and brought them back to infiniti. The service tech mounted/balanced the tires on the wheels, and we went for a test drive. EVERYTHING in the top is now as quiet as I could really hope for in a hard top vert. The only thing is the creaking that still sounds like it is coming from under the car (which the service people said they didn't hear... i kinda believe them. It didn't really happen when I was doing test drives with them).
Regardless, as I was with the service rep. he starts doing my paperwork and I hear him go "Sh*t". I asked him what it was about and he told me that the cost of the work (including parts) was over $3,000 (that doesn't include the $300 it cost me to get the wheels fixed). FYI to all vert owners out there: Should your latch assembly need to be replaced, it is over $2,000.
The only cost to me was the $300 to have the wheels fixed since I was at fault. Dealer mounted/balanced for free (which saved me like $80 the restoration place would have charged me for 2 wheels).
BIG thanks to Infiniti of the Palm Beaches. I have gotten 3 cars from them in the last 6 years and their service department is really on point. WheelsAmerica in Hialeah also does a great job for a lot less than the other major companies charge.
Even with all these problems, they had the car back to me by 1:45pm on Friday afternoon. Only issue is the creaking from under the car but we will deal with that another day. VERY happy to have my car back and quiet.
I told them I was on a really tight time table (which I was) and that I would need the car back Thursday at noon. Well, Thursday at around 11:30am they informed me that the new latch setup for the front hadn't come in as planned and that the back glass issue was because of my rear wheel being badly bent. I get to the dealership around 12:30pm and they showed me how the wheel was bent, and then informed me that the front wheel on the same time was pretty badly bent as well (i later remembered hitting a REALLY bad pothole 2 weeks prior lol). Anyway, they told me they had fixed the rattling coming from the headliner but that the latch setup was still missing and they did the TSB for the rear glass but the wheel was so bent they couldn't prevent the glass from rattling.
The service manager told me they use a company with a 3 day turnaround (this was Thursday at noon-ish meaning that i wouldn't get the car back until either Monday or Tuesday). They gave me a name of another wheel restoration company and this place told me they did their work at night so if I dropped the wheels off by 6pm, they would have them back to me before 10am. This is where the story gets more fun. I told the dealer what the game plan was and since I was waiting on the latches anyway, he let me take a loaner to Hialeah (north Miami) from West Palm Beach. (an 80 mile drive or so each way). They put the wheels in the trunk and off I went. Got miserably lost but eventually found the place around 4:30pm. WheelsAmerica did the work and since I brought the wheels in w/o tires, they charged $129 per wheel + tax no matter how badly a wheel is damaged. Picked up the wheels at 11am the next day (earliest I was able to get there) and brought them back to infiniti. The service tech mounted/balanced the tires on the wheels, and we went for a test drive. EVERYTHING in the top is now as quiet as I could really hope for in a hard top vert. The only thing is the creaking that still sounds like it is coming from under the car (which the service people said they didn't hear... i kinda believe them. It didn't really happen when I was doing test drives with them).
Regardless, as I was with the service rep. he starts doing my paperwork and I hear him go "Sh*t". I asked him what it was about and he told me that the cost of the work (including parts) was over $3,000 (that doesn't include the $300 it cost me to get the wheels fixed). FYI to all vert owners out there: Should your latch assembly need to be replaced, it is over $2,000.
The only cost to me was the $300 to have the wheels fixed since I was at fault. Dealer mounted/balanced for free (which saved me like $80 the restoration place would have charged me for 2 wheels).
BIG thanks to Infiniti of the Palm Beaches. I have gotten 3 cars from them in the last 6 years and their service department is really on point. WheelsAmerica in Hialeah also does a great job for a lot less than the other major companies charge.
Even with all these problems, they had the car back to me by 1:45pm on Friday afternoon. Only issue is the creaking from under the car but we will deal with that another day. VERY happy to have my car back and quiet.
10-03-2011, 01:24 PM
#2
Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: New York City
Posts: 20
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Glad that everything is fixed.
Similar happened to me, my car was creaking like crazy even on the tiniest uneven road (front liner, the celing, the back at at the bottom of rear windows, etc). Brought the car to infiniti of manhanttan, they basically told me they could not fix it. Then brought the car to infiniti of greenwich, they actually took the top apart, greased and tightened everything and put it back. Now my car has been rock solid and creak-free for couple of months. Would the creak ever come back? Probably will, some price to pay for hard top vert.
Similar happened to me, my car was creaking like crazy even on the tiniest uneven road (front liner, the celing, the back at at the bottom of rear windows, etc). Brought the car to infiniti of manhanttan, they basically told me they could not fix it. Then brought the car to infiniti of greenwich, they actually took the top apart, greased and tightened everything and put it back. Now my car has been rock solid and creak-free for couple of months. Would the creak ever come back? Probably will, some price to pay for hard top vert.
10-03-2011, 05:05 PM
#4
They told me it could have happened from train tracks, speed bumps, bad potholes. I started thinking and realized that about 2 weeks before i started hearing the bad rattling from the back window, i hit a really really deep pothole. Made sense because both wheels on my right side were screwed up. Front was barely able to be balanced... they started to explain some road tolerance or some crap that maxed out at .26 and i was at .25 but the back one was beyond screwed up. Got both fixed since I was doing the back one anyway.
10-03-2011, 05:16 PM
#5
They told me it could have happened from train tracks, speed bumps, bad potholes. I started thinking and realized that about 2 weeks before i started hearing the bad rattling from the back window, i hit a really really deep pothole. Made sense because both wheels on my right side were screwed up. Front was barely able to be balanced... they started to explain some road tolerance or some crap that maxed out at .26 and i was at .25 but the back one was beyond screwed up. Got both fixed since I was doing the back one anyway.
Now you will be a bit more careful around the train tracks, speed bumps, bad pothole.
Hope all is OK now with your car.
10-03-2011, 07:05 PM
#6
Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Riverside, CA
Posts: 706
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Much of the roof creak can be fixed by simply lubing all the seals regularly by yourself. Car washes will make the seals dry and the natural expansion during cold/hot makes it easy to get lots of noise. I usually just rub some seal lube on it every month and I don't hear any squeaking.
I have had a taping noise, but if you look at the cables you can see plastic ***** that obviously can tap against bare metal Seems like a bad design to me, but I'm sure they just fix that with some felt tape.
I have had a taping noise, but if you look at the cables you can see plastic ***** that obviously can tap against bare metal Seems like a bad design to me, but I'm sure they just fix that with some felt tape.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
FlyIce
G37 Sedan
7
09-29-2015 04:07 AM
