my sl just hit 8k and i still love the look, drive,and performance. my fuel pump was replaced at 3k after the van failed to start. my trans has done the same thing as others where it starts in 3rd and wont accelerate past 10/15 mph. the dealer claims it is a traction control feature activated by my inadvertant hitting the o/d off button. My ? is 1. why can I not replicate it by pushing the button 2. why since the van has traction control would you need this.3.has anyone else found this "feature" in their owners manual? I can't seem to find it. The a/c problem is the worst. The van is now in the shop for recalls and upgrades and I asked them to check the a/c for a second time. the first time i was told it was operating according to specs. the van is barely tolerable in temps over 95. Can this be a reason for arbitration? p.s. my first year MDX had one minor issue that was resolved immediately by acura,I am beginning to regret selling it.....
I recently found that when using only the fresh air vents with the AC off that the vent air is consistently about 15 deg hotter than outside ambient. I also have noticed that if the AC is used that the vent air is close to outside temp after the the AC is turned off and will remain at ambient for some time. Recently, after turning off the AC, vent air remained at outside ambient until I slowed for a turn to another road. I know this because I have for some time been driving with a thermometer in the vent.
This suggests that there is some probably with the doors controlling air flow. I'll be checking with the dealer on this.
Also, when on AC, the vent air temp is consistently in the 40s, so no problem at all.
It took me a year (we got our Quest July 2003) to notice that there is large gap between the shelf and the window covering the gages. The gap is about 1/4-inch. Has anybody else noticed this on their Quests? Do not use the shelf for storing small objects because there is a large cavity below the shelf.
On the A/C thing, my quest had the same problem. The dealer (after days of blowing us off) discovered that there was too much freon in it (about twice as much as needed). After they adjusted it to the right level, it has been cold like alaska in my quest.
Now I am having that starting problem. Anyone verified that it is the feul pump? I am overseas now and I do not want to have to pay for the repairs over here.
My fuel pump was replaced about four months ago and the van has started fine ever since. My dealer confirmed Nissan is aware of the transmission problem but is currently unable to repair it. With over 200 engineers working on probs it seems ridiculous they are still unable to solve the issue. i filed with the BBB autoline hopefully they can intervene. Anyone had any luck with the BBB?
what kind of a rattle do you have. i have a serious rattle on the driver's side sliding door and would be interested in what work you had done. by the way....the manual said the passenger air bag indicator would light up if there was no passenger riding with you.
I purchased my Quest S with upgrade on July 31st 2004. The very next day it was running a little slugish when accelerating from stop. It progessively got worse. It stalled out twice and the check engine light came on. I brought it back to my dealer first thing Monday morning where it was in the shop for 4 days. I told them this is unacceptable for a brand new car to do this. If this was happening at 80 miles what is going to happen at 500 and 5000 miles. They agreed and replaced the vehicle which they didnt have to do. They had to order the first and second one from out of state because of our specifications with color and upgrade. I wish I would have read a site like this before purchasing. We have always had GM's and drove them to the ground. My husband did not want to go foreign. So far no problems with the new van (1100 miles) although I think it shifts gears kind of hard for a new vehicle. The funny thing is when we were buying the first van the sales guy was going on and on about how we are going to need the extended warranty and he highly recommends it. (which we did purchase) I said to him "Boy you make it sound like my van is going to break down the first day we get it" Does anyone NOT have problems with this van?????
All kinds of racket on the passenger side. Lately, however, I noticed that some of the noises were due to the seat, not the door. The dealer couldn't fix the noise. I will live with it, I guess. The van has been in the shop more than dozen times.
I understand the feature of the airbag. It is still lit after my daughter is sitting in it.
How much does your daughter weigh? I was told that the light wont go out unless the passenger weighs more than 75lbs or so. It is a safety feature so not to hurt a smallish passenger that could not handle airbag deployment. Now, if your daughter weighs 80lbs or more, I would have it looked at.
We recently purchased a 2004 Quest SLE, sometimes we notice a strong bad-egg odor. I now just connected this odor with the vehicles lack of power when accelerating (Actually TRYING to accerate). The symptoms are like the car has brakes locked or is trying to move off in a high gear. Is this a "Known" issue and will my dealer recognize the problem and fix it - I take it in tomorrow.
NO everybody does not have problems with the 2004 Quest. I have been driving mine since April 04 and have had NO PROBLEMS. I love this van!!! And we did not purchase the extended warranty and after driving it the past couple of month we don't plan on buying it.
I do not know about the odor you are experiencing, but let me ask you a question about the shifting. Myself and others in this forum have experienced the following: When putting car into reverse, backing up, then putting into drive we've experienced a dragging sluggish response from the car. If put it into park, turn off the car, then turn the car back on the problem disappears. It is unpredictable and happens sporadically ( it has happened to me 5 times in four and a half months.) Does this sound like what you are experiencing?
My post #725 explains what the technician at my service department thinks was the problem. It did happen once after he supposedly fixed the problem. Another Quest owner claims they called Nissan, they acknowledge the problem and are working on a fix. There are no official TSB's out from Nissan to correct this problem yet. A great and informative website on this kind of stuff is www.nissanhelp.com
I have had my Quest SL for a year now and have put 14000 trouble free miles. I had the door rattle issue but it seems to have resolved. I'm almost afraid to have the dealer do the customer service initiative to the doors. I haven't taken care of the power door recall, though, and my HVAC dials are sluggish to light up at night. I'm hoping it's just a loose connection.
I guess it's really hit or miss with this car- kinda like buying domestic. I hope Nissan really fixes the problems- it would be a shame to have to go back to Toyota (or worse, Honda)- I really like Nissans.
Hello Blindeye - thanks for the response. I have not yet had the problem occur enough times to figure out any pattern, but next time it does this I will try the trick you mention. In my recent case I parked on a slight downward sloping hill for a couple of hours. When I started the car I needed to back up - so yes it was in reverse, in addition because the Nissan will not hold well I had my foot on the brake to prevent it rolling forward towards a ditch as I backed up. Then put it into drive, put my foot down and it was like trying to drive a Standard shift in third gear, engine running very hard, not much forward motion. Once I got going into 4th?? it seemed OK. But then as I slowed to pull into my road, again the engine was working hard at 3000 rpm to move forward. When we stopped in my garage all four passengers noticed the nasty H2S smell from the front end NOT the exhaust. I goes into the shop fr the second time on Monday to see if they can figure this out - Do you think the Nissan Bulletin 04035 might apply here?
I finally had my arbitration hearing with Nissan & an attorney to go over my 2004 SL Quest AC situation. As my previous posts describe my history in a lot of detail, I'll net it out:
1. Nissan & the arbitrator rejected my claim for them to buy back the van.
2. My complaint was that the vents would not stop blowing warm/hot air, except when the AC was turned on.
3. Nissan confirmed the problem and admitted it was a normal feature/design of the vehicle. All 2004 Quests behave this way. The only way you can stop the hot air is by turning on the AC. I found you can also turn off all air flow with the fan being off and the recirculate button pressed.
4. The arbitration attorney rejected my claim because this problem was "not caused by a defect in materials or workmanship." Instead, the problem "resulted from the design of the vehicle." This kind of logic is beyond my level of understanding.
5. A local AC shop owner attended the hearing as my expert witness and did a good job. The heating design has no coolant valve to regulate flow thru the heater core, and that is fundamentally the root of the problem.
6. The Nissan rep was very cordial, and admitted the van would get hot without the AC on.
The BBB Autoline performed the arbitration service in very professional manner. The facility and meeting room were excellent. I was simply unsatisfied with the decision...
I stated the facts as clearly and unbiased as I can. You can reach your own conclusions.
We have noticed this problem on our SE. However, if you turn on the fan, turn off the AC and put the temp on 60, you get a good cool breeze (Of course, if its cool outside). This is the effective 'Vent' setting. But, if you turn the system off, it does blow warm air out, only at the foot vent. I assume that the HVAC designers didn't think about the system being in the 'off' setting.
While the bulliten you mention does sound like it might apply, my service advisor said it doesn't. Also, on the bulliten, next to 2004 Quest, it says for 4 speed A/T. You have an SE which has 5 speed A/T. Let us know how how things go at the shop.
I remember some time ago somebody posted the order of tires which appear in the tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS). Anybody remembers it?
I fail to understand the purpose of a monitoring system if it doesn't help me figure out which tire has low pressure. The Owner's manual doesn't help (it specifically says 'the order doesn't correspond to the actual order or tire...')
I have 34 psi in the top and bottom figures, 31 in the middle two, the second from the top is highlighted and I have a 'Flat tire. check all tires' indicator. Is there is simple mathematical formula to calculate which tire is actually flat?
On my SL model the tire pressures are listed on 1 line (i.e. left to right row, and not top down column). The order is Front Left (driver), Front Right, Rear Right, Rear Left. I'm not sure if the order changes when tire rotation is performed. So in your case I think your is an SE model, and I would guess your Front Right tire has low pressure.
I remember some time ago somebody posted the order of tires which appear in the tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS). Anybody remembers it?
I fail to understand the purpose of a monitoring system if it doesn't help me figure out which tire has low pressure. The Owner's manual doesn't help (it specifically says 'the order doesn't correspond to the actual order or tire...')
I have 34 psi in the top and bottom figures, 31 in the middle two, the second from the top is highlighted and I have a 'Flat tire. check all tires' indicator. Is there is simple mathematical formula to calculate which tire is actually flat?
Mine also goes left front,right front, right rear, left rear. I understand the frustration on trying to figure out which one is low, but I think Nissan's thinking is that it's always best to check ALL the tires if one is that low. At least it tells us when at least one is really low.
Is anyone else having rotor problems at early mileage? Dealer tried resurfacing both front and back, but to no avail. Now they are in for full replacement. Engine runs great, but rattles, gas mileage and brakes are disappointing for this van. I went against my previous experience with first year model van(Windstar) and thought the imports would be better. Bottom line - don't buy a first year model. Symptoms were extreme front end vibration when braking above 40MPH. Dealer service said composite brake rotors are too flimsy for a van of this bulk - will wear out fast.
wondering if anyone else got the "letter" recently where Nissan has extended the 3 year/36,000 mile warranty to 5 year/60,000 warranty. I received my letter today. I recently had to have the catalytic converter, engine and exhaust replaced, so I'm wondering if that's why, or if they're extending everyone due to ongoing problems. A friend looked at buying a Quest this weekend and the dealership said they would offer her a 5 year/60,000 mile warranty, rather than the 3/36. Just curious.
Now, of course, I did buy the extendend warranty to start with. Are they going to extend my extended warranty? It does make you wonder how many probs they are having.
I got my letter extending my warranty also. I'm glad Nissan is not ignoring the problems this van is having and trying to make amends. Of course, if they're going to save their name they'd better do things like this.
You can always "return" your extended warranty and they will give you back a prorated sum. You could then purchase another one to start at 5 years. I returned the warranty on my Toyota and got most if it back, even after 18 months.
I noticed I have a little vibration only when going downhill on the freeway. I was going to have the dealer check it out. My guess is it's the front rotors, although the vibration is not bad. I was wondering about the wheel balance.
Well, the frustration is even worse when there doesn't appear to be a flat (looks like the sensor blew), the wife refuses to drive the van and insists on taking my Acura TL :-(
Thanks for all the replies. The order in fact seems to be clockwise starting from the front driver's side (although once we have a tire rotation, all bets are off).
I believe my van has brake rotor problems as well. When applying brakes, some times I feel slight to moderate vibrations. Were you saying they couldn't resurface the rotors because they were totally worn out or they were designed not to be resurfaced at all?
I haven't been posting for a while. Recap: I've had the transmission, terrible gas mileage, A/C, no rattles, and yes vibration when braking. They were resurfaced and for the most part work fine. However, when we go to the mountains on the way down they start to vibrate again, maybe heat related. It is very annoying.
We received the warranty extension yesterday. I wonder if any other car dealer has ever done that. I think it speaks volumes in terms of the problems they are having with this car. I am very disappointed with this car. By the way, we went to arbritration in March on the transmission problem...we lost.
This is costing my family way too much money. I think Nissan should buy back these cars, forget the extra warranty, I want a car that is safe and reliable.
What is the status with the transmission problem? It has happended twice but I feel the bad gas mileage (11-12mpg/city) is related. Are there any fixes?
Sam, Ditto...my hearing was similar. Everyone was cordial however their conclusions simplistic. I went with the transmission problem and since I did not have 4 visits, only 2, I went with the safety clause of the lemon law. Because I drove the car to the dealer to demonstrate the problem, he concluded it was not a safety issue. For my families sake I hope he's right. You can reach your own conclusions here as well, Tara
Has anyone noticed how poorly the defroster works? Maybe it's just our car.
We live at the beach and don't use it often. However, in the morning I need it and it does not work. I have been trying all kinds of settings...bottom line is it is desiged so that the a/c comes on if you put the defroster on...that to me is crazy. After much exerimentation I have found that I must turn the temp all the way to hot...in fact when you do that you hear the air shift from the floor to the window (duh...where you need the air when your windows are fogged!!!)
So...the a/c is on and the temp is on hot and then my windows SLOWLY begin to defrost. I just hope I don't have to drive to far because it could get hot! And...I wonder how hard that is on the a/c system???
Actually, you should have the AC on when defrosting your windows. It's pretty common on a lot of cars to automatically do this when you turn the defroster on. It takes the moisture out of the air and clears the window faster.
If you keep your windows clean on the inside it helps prevent them from fogging up also.
These vans have such large windshields it takes time to defrost.
Sorry you're having such problems with your car. Believe it or not, even Toyotas have cars with problems, and some domestic owners never have any problems. Statistically you will do better with a Japanese car, but the problem with statistics is it doesn't make you feel better when you get a car that falls below the norm.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't. I hope you do better on your next car.
Thanks...but.... Buying a car shouldn't be like getting a bad deal in a poker game. At $30k plus for a car I shouldn't have to wait until my next purchase and then hope I got a good hand on that play.
I'm just upset, Nissan isn't hurting financially why should my family pay for their mistakes. I've got kids to put through college...
Nissan will pay for their mistakes. Their reputation will not be as good, certainly word of mouth is very important, good and bad. I have a feeling the Quest will be a very hard sell over the next few years (again, bad for us though as resale values won't be very good).
Unfortunately, we as consumers also pay, as we always have. I knew the risks of a first year car when I bought the Quest- I was hedging my bet though hoping Nissan would do better, but I lost. The Poker analogy is not all that far off.
I cannot recommend this van to anyone who is financially tight, as I think there are more reliable choices out there. But if you go through cars frequently anyway, it's a nice minivan to have for a few years. Now that the warranty has been extended to 5 years I might keep it a little longer than 2 or 3.
Latest on drag and odor issue - my local service center took my analysis and comments on the problem seriously. They did find out that there IS a KNOWN defect with the transmission control system that can cause the transmission not to drop into 1st when stationary, this results in the car trying to move off in some higher gear which of course makes the car "Drag", and POSSIBLY make something overheat and generate an odor. They have ordered a valve body (Part# 3170589X00 in case anyone is interested). Hopefully this will fix my problem - I will report back after a few days. Also, like others I got a very nice note from Nissan saying that they want to keep me happy with the vehicle and have extended the warranty from 3 to 5 years - I appreciate this very much, Thankyou Nissan for caring about my concerns.
Funny you should say that...I was thinking...What if Nissan took the high road, came out and acknowledged the many problems and offered something to these owners (I'm thinking buy-back). If they played those cards right they could be the "Starbucks" of car manufacturers. They could potentially build such good public relations that their overall cars sales would increase as compared to the Quest loss.
I think that might work, what car manufacturer out there has a reputation for taking the high road?
I don't consider myself financially tight but I don't waste money, if my kids go to a public university or Stanford I want to be ready.
You are right they will pay for this due to the poor customer satisfaction, as they should.
I'd be happy if Nissan just guaranteed the resale value. I think Subaru has some sort of guaranteed resale. If Nissan bought my van back I'm not sure what I'd buy. ;-(. I don't like the Sienna and I'm not about to start all over again with the new Odyssey. Forget the domestics.
Oh well, it's a dilemma I'm not likely to face though. I doubt Nissan would buy back 50,000 vans! What would they do with them?
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply anything about your finances, I was just speaking about people who have asked me for advice about buying a Quest. I don't thing many of us want to waste money, especially with kids and saving up for college. I won't make any comments about what I think about Stanford. ;-)!
Good luck again. Anytime you want to vent I'd be happy to chat!
We got our letter yesterday informing us that our warranty has been extended. We purchased our van August/2003. I know they made revisions throught the year so I am not sure if everyone gets this or just some of the first production runs. We have had very few problems mainly a few door rattles which they fixed. Only one left I have to take it back in for is the clunk coming from the third row seat bracket or something like that.
We had the car in for the "recall/Cust initiative". We will keep a close watch on this van now.
When we got in the Airbag light kept flashing, 1 hour more with the tech and I'm told this was just the system resetting itselg - notthe best customer iniitiative! We shall see what we shall see.
The wife tells me that got rid of the last rattles including the rear seat rattle (not part of the initiative, but we had it in for that as well).
We got the extended warranty letter - service dept. never heard of it. We also now have had the car in the shop for 23 days since initial purchase in jan 04. I will be contacting my lemon law lawyer as this puts us past NJ's 20-day timeframe.
I'm happy to hear no more rattles with yours including the one from the rear seat.
Just contacted Freehold Nissan yesterday to find out how long it will take for the upgrade. The lady at the service dept said only one day, although it requires a week to order the parts. I really doubt it since they need to replace 5 or 6 items on the van.
How long did it take for you? Did you get a free loaner? Besides the upgrade, I want them to check out the rotors and fix the clunk from rear seat. Thanks.
We had our first cold morning yesterday, 39 degrees, here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of VA. My wife was on her way to work and the tire pressure alarm went off. She said it frightened her because it was so loud. She said that the display was reading 29,30,30,31. In reading the manual, this warning isn't supposed to go off until 27. It warmed up to around 75, but, the pressure didn't change. So, I added air and all is OK. During the warm weather, the pressure was reading 32,33,33,34, which wasn't too far off, so, I didn't bother them. Anyone else have this happen? Good to see it is working as it is supposed to, but, weird that the pressure varies so greatly as to set it off. Maybe I need to watch that closer during the change of seasons.
I'm not sure of a car on which the AC does not operate when the defroster is turned on. This is not particular to the Quest, it is on most all cars. You just adjust your temperature to the setting you want. The purpose of this is that the AC dries the air before it enters the vehicle, which assist in defogging the interior windows. I usually run my vehicles in defrost/floor mode during snowy times so that the melting snow dries quicker. However, note that, the AC does not operate if the outside temperature is lower than 35 degrees. Running the AC at temperatures less than freezing can cause damage.
How did your service center find out that "there IS a KNOWN defect with the transmission control system that can cause the transmission not to drop into 1st when stationary"? I would like to direct my service center to the same source so that they can figure out if my symptoms are from the same cause that you have, and, thus, the fix might be the same.
Hi Cleeland - I did all the research on the web including this forum and found out about a Nissan bulletin 04035 which seemed to cover my problem. I took a copy of this bulletin to my service shop, they then used this information to search their own "Nissan technical" data base and low and behold they found a technical note about this transmission valve body problem. The mechanic seemed to think that if this component was faulty it would give the symptoms I am experiencing. New one on order, will fit next week and hopefully problem solved - will let you know.
I went through Freehold Nissan for the "initiative" and it lasted 8 days, not one. Although mine includes the airbag issue. For the airbag they had to remove the passenger seat (front) and send to Calif for re-calibration of the sensor. It took about 6 weeks for Nissan to line up the parts.
Nissan provided for a rental from Enterprise for the full 8 days. The rental was a Quest S, that should help sales! There is a $2/day charge that Enterprise wanted me to pay (I have been shown this before) but on principle I refuse to pay, Freehold paid this. I do not think I should have to pay anything for something that was caused by Nissan's craftsmanship
I had the same thing happen on Monday except my tires were at 27 and 28 psi. Luckily I took it to the dealer for the annual inspection and Customer initiative. They must have added air to the tires. All was fine when i picked the car up.
Acutally I didn't mind it varying so much. I have a slow leak in my other car and would love to have a monitoring system like this to alert me when I'm low. I can't tell you the number of times I have come out inthe morning and the tires is half empty. The temperature drops overnight really take the air out of the tires.
The last time I had the van in for an oil change (June or July) I had mentioned about the transmission, similar to what you described. The service dept. acknowledged that they ahd other complaints aobu this. And that Nissan was workign on a solution. She did indicate that Nissan did not believe it was the transmission itself but possibly a connection or control system like your mechanic found. Let us know how it works.
I also received my extended warranty. I appreciated it very much. Despite what others think, I feel Nissan is doing the best they can to solve all the issues with the Quest. Of course, nothing they do is quick enough if you are having troubles with your vehicle. But at least they are not blaming the consumer like Toyota did with the sludge and Chrysler did with their trannies in the 90's.
I bought the 100K 7 years extended warrenty which now does not carry as much value. Called Nissan to see what they were going to do for us folks and they told me nothing. That the extended warrenty doesn't change things. I also told her that there were already people talking about this issue on some forums on the web and that I am not the only one concerned about this. She calls me back the next day to ask what forums people were talking about this topic to which I told her, that she wasn't helping me, why should I help her. So there must be some concern on Nissans part about what to do here.
Nissan may not be blaming the customers now, but that's only because they spent the better part of the last year doing that and maybe they've gotten it out of their system.
I first reported the problems with the radio in September 2003. When was it acknowledged? March 2004. When was it fixed? Two weeks ago.
I first reported the problem with the transmission in january 2004. When was it acknowledged? Two weeks ago. When was it fixed? Never; it's ongoing.
It does seem that Nissan's slowly starting to "get it" on some of these things. If you've only joined the Disenchanted Quest Crowd in the last few months, then you will not have been exposed to the denial of responsibility, lack of acknowledgement of genuine problems, or the beligerant attitude espoused by so-called Consumer Affairs personnel. But I have.
In order to present a balance, I will say that in the last 2 months I've had the opportunity to work with a two different dealers, both of whom took my problems far more seriously than the selling dealer's service department. I've also had the opportunity to talk directly with the Nissan Service Rep for me region on several occasions. So, it does seem that changes for the better may be afoot. But they've got a LONG way to go before I recommend the company's products to anybody, much less become a repeat customer.
Comments
The a/c problem is the worst. The van is now in the shop for recalls and upgrades and I asked them to check the a/c for a second time. the first time i was told it was operating according to specs. the van is barely tolerable in temps over 95. Can this be a reason for arbitration? p.s. my first year MDX had one minor issue that was resolved immediately by acura,I am beginning to regret selling it.....
This suggests that there is some probably with the doors controlling air flow. I'll be checking with the dealer on this.
Also, when on AC, the vent air temp is consistently in the 40s, so no problem at all.
It took me a year (we got our Quest July 2003) to notice that there is large gap between the shelf and the window covering the gages. The gap is about 1/4-inch. Has anybody else noticed this on their Quests? Do not use the shelf for storing small objects because there is a large cavity below the shelf.
The dealer (after days of blowing us off) discovered that there was too much freon in it (about twice as much as needed). After they adjusted it to the right level, it has been cold like alaska in my quest.
Now I am having that starting problem.
Anyone verified that it is the feul pump?
I am overseas now and I do not want to have to pay for the repairs over here.
thanks
I understand the feature of the airbag. It is still lit after my daughter is sitting in it.
Is this a "Known" issue and will my dealer recognize the problem and fix it - I take it in tomorrow.
Did you ever get the problem resolved ??
My post #725 explains what the technician at my service department thinks was the problem. It did happen once after he supposedly fixed the problem. Another Quest owner claims they called Nissan, they acknowledge the problem and are working on a fix. There are no official TSB's out from Nissan to correct this problem yet. A great and informative website on this kind of stuff is www.nissanhelp.com
I guess it's really hit or miss with this car- kinda like buying domestic. I hope Nissan really fixes the problems- it would be a shame to have to go back to Toyota (or worse, Honda)- I really like Nissans.
tom
In my recent case I parked on a slight downward sloping hill for a couple of hours. When I started the car I needed to back up - so yes it was in reverse, in addition because the Nissan will not hold well I had my foot on the brake to prevent it rolling forward towards a ditch as I backed up.
Then put it into drive, put my foot down and it was like trying to drive a Standard shift in third gear, engine running very hard, not much forward motion.
Once I got going into 4th?? it seemed OK. But then as I slowed to pull into my road, again the engine was working hard at 3000 rpm to move forward. When we stopped in my garage all four passengers noticed the nasty H2S smell from the front end NOT the exhaust.
I goes into the shop fr the second time on Monday to see if they can figure this out - Do you think the Nissan Bulletin 04035 might apply here?
1. Nissan & the arbitrator rejected my claim for them to buy back the van.
2. My complaint was that the vents would not stop blowing warm/hot air, except when the AC was turned on.
3. Nissan confirmed the problem and admitted it was a normal feature/design of the vehicle. All 2004 Quests behave this way. The only way you can stop the hot air is by turning on the AC. I found you can also turn off all air flow with the fan being off and the recirculate button pressed.
4. The arbitration attorney rejected my claim because this problem was "not caused by a defect in materials or workmanship." Instead, the problem "resulted from the design of the vehicle." This kind of logic is beyond my level of understanding.
5. A local AC shop owner attended the hearing as my expert witness and did a good job. The heating design has no coolant valve to regulate flow thru the heater core, and that is fundamentally the root of the problem.
6. The Nissan rep was very cordial, and admitted the van would get hot without the AC on.
The BBB Autoline performed the arbitration service in very professional manner. The facility and meeting room were excellent. I was simply unsatisfied with the decision...
I stated the facts as clearly and unbiased as I can. You can reach your own conclusions.
Sam G
I assume that the HVAC designers didn't think about the system being in the 'off' setting.
I fail to understand the purpose of a monitoring system if it doesn't help me figure out which tire has low pressure. The Owner's manual doesn't help (it specifically says 'the order doesn't correspond to the actual order or tire...')
I have 34 psi in the top and bottom figures, 31 in the middle two, the second from the top is highlighted and I have a 'Flat tire. check all tires' indicator. Is there is simple mathematical formula to calculate which tire is actually flat?
Thanks for your responses.
I fail to understand the purpose of a monitoring system if it doesn't help me figure out which tire has low pressure. The Owner's manual doesn't help (it specifically says 'the order doesn't correspond to the actual order or tire...')
I have 34 psi in the top and bottom figures, 31 in the middle two, the second from the top is highlighted and I have a 'Flat tire. check all tires' indicator. Is there is simple mathematical formula to calculate which tire is actually flat?
Thanks for your responses.
You can always "return" your extended warranty and they will give you back a prorated sum. You could then purchase another one to start at 5 years. I returned the warranty on my Toyota and got most if it back, even after 18 months.
I noticed I have a little vibration only when going downhill on the freeway. I was going to have the dealer check it out. My guess is it's the front rotors, although the vibration is not bad. I was wondering about the wheel balance.
tom
Thanks for all the replies. The order in fact seems to be clockwise starting from the front driver's side (although once we have a tire rotation, all bets are off).
We received the warranty extension yesterday. I wonder if any other car dealer has ever done that. I think it speaks volumes in terms of the problems they are having with this car. I am very disappointed with this car. By the way, we went to arbritration in March on the transmission problem...we lost.
This is costing my family way too much money. I think Nissan should buy back these cars, forget the extra warranty, I want a car that is safe and reliable.
What is the status with the transmission problem? It has happended twice but I feel the bad gas mileage (11-12mpg/city) is related. Are there any fixes?
Thanks, Tara
Ditto...my hearing was similar. Everyone was cordial however their conclusions simplistic. I went with the transmission problem and since I did not have 4 visits, only 2, I went with the safety clause of the lemon law.
Because I drove the car to the dealer to demonstrate the problem, he concluded it was not a safety issue. For my families sake I hope he's right.
You can reach your own conclusions here as well,
Tara
We live at the beach and don't use it often. However, in the morning I need it and it does not work. I have been trying all kinds of settings...bottom line is it is desiged so that the a/c comes on if you put the defroster on...that to me is crazy. After much exerimentation I have found that I must turn the temp all the way to hot...in fact when you do that you hear the air shift from the floor to the window (duh...where you need the air when your windows are fogged!!!)
So...the a/c is on and the temp is on hot and then my windows SLOWLY begin to defrost. I just hope I don't have to drive to far because it could get hot! And...I wonder how hard that is on the a/c system???
I am so sick of BXXXXX about this car. Tara
If you keep your windows clean on the inside it helps prevent them from fogging up also.
These vans have such large windshields it takes time to defrost.
Sorry you're having such problems with your car. Believe it or not, even Toyotas have cars with problems, and some domestic owners never have any problems. Statistically you will do better with a Japanese car, but the problem with statistics is it doesn't make you feel better when you get a car that falls below the norm.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't. I hope you do better on your next car.
tom
Buying a car shouldn't be like getting a bad deal in a poker game. At $30k plus for a car I shouldn't have to wait until my next purchase and then hope I got a good hand on that play.
I'm just upset, Nissan isn't hurting financially why should my family pay for their mistakes. I've got kids to put through college...
Tara
Unfortunately, we as consumers also pay, as we always have. I knew the risks of a first year car when I bought the Quest- I was hedging my bet though hoping Nissan would do better, but I lost. The Poker analogy is not all that far off.
I cannot recommend this van to anyone who is financially tight, as I think there are more reliable choices out there. But if you go through cars frequently anyway, it's a nice minivan to have for a few years. Now that the warranty has been extended to 5 years I might keep it a little longer than 2 or 3.
tom
They have ordered a valve body (Part# 3170589X00 in case anyone is interested).
Hopefully this will fix my problem - I will report back after a few days.
Also, like others I got a very nice note from Nissan saying that they want to keep me happy with the vehicle and have extended the warranty from 3 to 5 years - I appreciate this very much, Thankyou Nissan for caring about my concerns.
I think that might work, what car manufacturer out there has a reputation for taking the high road?
I don't consider myself financially tight but I don't waste money, if my kids go to a public university or Stanford I want to be ready.
You are right they will pay for this due to the poor customer satisfaction, as they should.
Thanks for the chance to vent! Tara
Oh well, it's a dilemma I'm not likely to face though. I doubt Nissan would buy back 50,000 vans! What would they do with them?
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply anything about your finances, I was just speaking about people who have asked me for advice about buying a Quest. I don't thing many of us want to waste money, especially with kids and saving up for college. I won't make any comments about what I think about Stanford. ;-)!
Good luck again. Anytime you want to vent I'd be happy to chat!
tom
When we got in the Airbag light kept flashing, 1 hour more with the tech and I'm told this was just the system resetting itselg - notthe best customer iniitiative! We shall see what we shall see.
The wife tells me that got rid of the last rattles including the rear seat rattle (not part of the initiative, but we had it in for that as well).
We got the extended warranty letter - service dept. never heard of it. We also now have had the car in the shop for 23 days since initial purchase in jan 04. I will be contacting my lemon law lawyer as this puts us past NJ's 20-day timeframe.
Just contacted Freehold Nissan yesterday to find out how long it will take for the upgrade. The lady at the service dept said only one day, although it requires a week to order the parts. I really doubt it since they need to replace 5 or 6 items on the van.
How long did it take for you? Did you get a free loaner? Besides the upgrade, I want them to check out the rotors and fix the clunk from rear seat. Thanks.
During the warm weather, the pressure was reading 32,33,33,34, which wasn't too far off, so, I didn't bother them.
Anyone else have this happen? Good to see it is working as it is supposed to, but, weird that the pressure varies so greatly as to set it off. Maybe I need to watch that closer during the change of seasons.
The purpose of this is that the AC dries the air before it enters the vehicle, which assist in defogging the interior windows. I usually run my vehicles in defrost/floor mode during snowy times so that the melting snow dries quicker.
However, note that, the AC does not operate if the outside temperature is lower than 35 degrees. Running the AC at temperatures less than freezing can cause damage.
How did your service center find out that "there IS a KNOWN defect with the transmission control system that can cause the transmission not to drop into 1st when stationary"? I would like to direct my service center to the same source so that they can figure out if my symptoms are from the same cause that you have, and, thus, the fix might be the same.
Thanks!
-cj
The mechanic seemed to think that if this component was faulty it would give the symptoms I am experiencing. New one on order, will fit next week and hopefully problem solved - will let you know.
Nissan provided for a rental from Enterprise for the full 8 days. The rental was a Quest S, that should help sales! There is a $2/day charge that Enterprise wanted me to pay (I have been shown this before) but on principle I refuse to pay, Freehold paid this. I do not think I should have to pay anything for something that was caused by Nissan's craftsmanship
Acutally I didn't mind it varying so much. I have a slow leak in my other car and would love to have a monitoring system like this to alert me when I'm low. I can't tell you the number of times I have come out inthe morning and the tires is half empty. The temperature drops overnight really take the air out of the tires.
I also received my extended warranty. I appreciated it very much. Despite what others think, I feel Nissan is doing the best they can to solve all the issues with the Quest. Of course, nothing they do is quick enough if you are having troubles with your vehicle. But at least they are not blaming the consumer like Toyota did with the sludge and Chrysler did with their trannies in the 90's.
I first reported the problems with the radio in September 2003. When was it acknowledged? March 2004. When was it fixed? Two weeks ago.
I first reported the problem with the transmission in january 2004. When was it acknowledged? Two weeks ago. When was it fixed? Never; it's ongoing.
It does seem that Nissan's slowly starting to "get it" on some of these things. If you've only joined the Disenchanted Quest Crowd in the last few months, then you will not have been exposed to the denial of responsibility, lack of acknowledgement of genuine problems, or the beligerant attitude espoused by so-called Consumer Affairs personnel. But I have.
In order to present a balance, I will say that in the last 2 months I've had the opportunity to work with a two different dealers, both of whom took my problems far more seriously than the selling dealer's service department. I've also had the opportunity to talk directly with the Nissan Service Rep for me region on several occasions. So, it does seem that changes for the better may be afoot. But they've got a LONG way to go before I recommend the company's products to anybody, much less become a repeat customer.