Hi, was hoping to get some help from you guys. Here's the story, awhile ago i bought a 1990 zx twin turb.. love em had been saving up for ages. Anyway, it needed some work for roadworthy, oil leaks had to be fix crank n cam seals had to all be replaced, new timing belt, new oil sump etc.. Took it into my work to get fixed, i work at a Nissan dealership btw.. Spent about $3500 on the work they did over 2 week. Once i got the car back within a week a turbo had blown on me.. Took it to my new mechanic to get the turbo replaced and he found a bolt stuck in the turbo. It was one off the Thermostat housing, which Nissan had to remove to get to the crank n cam seals, timing belt n all that.. Anyway told Nissan bout all this, they reckon it cant be their fault because the pipe to the turbo was never removed. If any of you guys know how i can prove it was their fault that would be great. Any input would be great. They reckon the bolt was already in the engine, even though i had been driving the car around for about 3 months before they worked on it with no problem, and a week before the worked on it i took the Z on a roughly 250km cruise down to Apollo Bay and back.. Now i need new turbos and the engine pretty much gotta be rebuilt thanks to the shards of metal from the propellor when the bolt got stuck in it. Dont want to go to VCAT with this just yet as i dont wanna risk losing my job there. Any input on this would be great my babys just sitting in the garage until this gets sorted out.
approach a lawyer. Get him/her to draft up a letter stating that you are wishing to take the matter further. Get your Mechanic to write a formal statement as to what he did and what he found when the car was brought to him. Get advice from the lawyer as to whether to attach the formal statement. Its basically your work against nissans, but the threat of taking it further will open up further discussions for some compensation. I dont think it will get to VCAT unless you have more evidence. Sorry i cant help you prove that it was their fault. I hope this helps.
You have to remove quite a few of the turbo pipes to do the 100K so there is every possibility they dropped a bolt in it, especially if they didnt plug the pipes up while they where working on it. Dont let em get away with this. THEY DID REMOVE THE PIPE. They had to.
Totally agree, and don't be overly concerned about losing your job(even though that may be a possibility), because if you have a valid claim against your employer in regard to this issue, they would be in deep ka-ka if they victimized you for demanding your legal entitlements. You could wind up with a very lucrative "Wrongful Dismissal" case against them.
It really does sound like they have caused the problem but im trying to think how a bolt can actually get down to the turbo, none of the intake pipes are undone for a100k did they do any other work that would mean having turbo pipes off?
Maybe, But remember this is Nissan, and they probably dont really have a handle on what absolutely has to be pulled and what can be left. So they remove ALL the pipes.
Question is how can he prove it... Im assuming as a nissan mechanic you know to some degree how people approach a job they have never done before. Be this through following instructions in a service manual, or some other SOP document or whatever. If you want to prove they did undo that bolt which somehow got to your turbo, look at, or request the job-sheet that was used for your vehicle. Cross reference this with whatever prescribed actions should be carried out to do the job (ie service manual etc). Then break out the lawyers.
id be checking the thermostst bolt and see if it looks like its been replaces, there is only one the otheres are studs
A bolt could have been dropped into the air filter If they removed the radiator to get more space, then they'd hv to remove some of the charge air piping
A lesson to everybody here.......never ever take your zed to a Nissan dealer for a service.....they know sh*t about the these cars and when something goes wrong (as it will!) they run away telling you it was your fault because you deserved this for owning such a complex car. On the matter about your problem I advise as follows: a) To perform a 100k service you need to remove the radiator. b) Removing the radiator also requires removal of the turbo pipes to the throttle bodies (the inner pair of big rubber hoses) thereby exposing a path for a small bolt to fall towards the turbo. c) Because it is Nissan mechanics (they are fools at best) they probably also removed the outer set of rubber turbo hoses to create some maneuvering room to work and see what they need to do next. d) It is highly likely that these fools did not plug all exposed boost pipes with rags to prevent a small item such as a bolt falling-in, which is easily done! e) Later that day return car to customer and then wait for the bang! Cheers and good luck with your claim for compensation. PS: Lawyers cost $250/hr plus GST for juniors and somewhere around $650/hr plus GST for those with experience. Don't go to a lawyer unless you have a evidence and a 99% of winning so that you can claim costs against Nissan. BTW Nissan will have a senior lawyer on their side.
the thermostat bolt is quite big, and the only pipes that it can relaly fall into are the intercooler pipes , the turbo outlet pipe is horizontal
With regards to the risk of losing your job, as Chili said - they'd be brave to try it on you as Wrongful Dismissal could really do them a lot of damage if you chose to go all media on them. Before taking some of the bigger steps, do a lot of background research on what's happened to the car as if you are in the wrong, will be awkward at work if they come out winning. As said above, check the bolts on the thermostat to see if any are new etc. Definitely a conundrum you have there.
Hey guys, thanks for the input so far. This is Ambley's mate typing now. I've had a fair bit of experience working on turbo cars, and I agree with everything you're all saying. The turbo with the issue is the driver's side, and it was the intake side of the turbo that was shredded. And by shredded, I mean all of the fins on the impeller are broken off and the shaft is pretty much totally dislodged. The bolt that was found in there is identical to the ones used on the thermostat housing (with a few additional scratches), and the housing itself has one bolt that's different to the others. Baically, all signs point to Nissan screwing things up. Ambley has reciepts for the work they did, and therefore proof of what they would have had to do to get the work done, such as removing pipes. As was said in the OP, the work that was done requires the crossover pipe to be removed, meaning, like some of you said, the intake side of the turbo would have to be exposed. If it wasn't plugged, that would be my guess as to how it got in there. Thanks again for all the input. I think he's finally gonna take this thing further.
Yeah they took the radiator out and sent it off to get fixed. So all those pipes were removed. Trying to find out if those exposed pipes would lead to the turbo or if its possible for the bolt to make it through the engine somehow. So far their saying the only way the bolt would have gotten to the turbo is through the pipe going straight to the turbo but supposedly they didn't take that pipe off. Been going through the receipts looking at all the jobs done to see if that pipe would have had to be taken off. Going to look into some legal advice to see where i stand on this. Thanks for all this by the way guys. Every bit helps.
keep in mind, one bolt will look different to the rest on the thermosts as 2 are studs, also trying to imagine why the intake pipe for the turbo would be removed, its quite diffuclt to actually remove it and its not exactly in the way of anything
Your problem is, you took it to a Nissan dealer who have shit mechanics and are complete rip offs. Hard luck, sorry. For $3500, you could have bought a good complete engine including turbos and just swapped it and have a whole other engine of spare parts to keep or sell. I'm with stanny28 on this one. Start with a letter of demand, they take you more seriously after you slap them in the face with that one. Worked for me. If they wish to challenge that then go ahead and take it further. See a solicitor and get a reputable Z mechanic to go with you to court and explain what is required of the service. That should at least show plausability on the issue and leave Nissan fumbling for words. If they can't prove they didn't take all measures, before and after, to ensure nothing could go wrong then they are a sitting duck. Good luck with it all and I wish you all the best.
Effectively, what they are saying is that this bolt has been floating around in your engine for some period of time PRIOR to them working on the car. That is puerile nonsense and they know it. Have you asked them to suggest how it got in there(and how it ran for some period without any problems)? It's difficult to imagine that this bolt found it's way through your airfilter(a device designed to trap dust particles),so the only probable alternative is down an opened pipe. As they "opened" those pipes(and presumably also removed the thermostat housing) it's not a great leap of deduction to connect those actions as being the likely cause of your problem.
IF it chewed up the intake inducer. The bolt would have had to be the the concertina pipe that runs from the intercooler to the turbo inlet. OR has been dropped in the hard pipe when the concertina pipe is removed. Unless it is a tiny tiny screw it would never make it through the intercooler if any of the intake system up stream of the I.C. was removed. The concertina pipe doesnt have to be removed to do a 100K service. But if they looked at the Power steering pump they would have had it off. Or if they had NFI what they where doing. They could have pulled it off as well causing the issue.
