BG Auto. Truck Woes

[zoobernut]

So I am having an issue with my truck. I have only owned my truck just about 1 year. It is a certified pre-owned Nissan Frontier 4 door. It is 4 wheel drive with a 6 liter v6 engine. It had ~20k miles on it when I bought it and now it has just over 36k miles.

I live on a short dirt driveway that is dusty but well maintained enough that my moms prius and my wifes ford focus can go up and down it just fine.

Recently the check engine light came on I went to the car place and it was $125 just to diagnose the issue. I find out that the issue is that the vent control valve is not opening and closing properly and the EVAP canister is full of dust. They charge me $85 to take the whole thing apart and clean it and clear the codes. They tell me that very soon I will have to replace the whole EVAP canister which is $600.

I come to find out none of this is covered under warranty.

I call up Nissan. I talk to them and even though this is not a serviceable part they do not want to cover it under warranty. They are claiming that this was "environment caused"

My argument is that this is a 4wd vehicle it is designed to go off road it shouldn't have a non serviceable part that gets packed with dust. I think this is a design flaw in the vehicle. My other issue is that because of the design it is sucking in dust, replacing it will not permanently fix the problem and I don't want to spend $600+ a year getting this thing replaced just because I live on a small dirt road.

I did some research and I found service bulletins as well as many many complaints about this exact problem for Nissan 4wd vehicles dating back to 2001.

I have not found any TSB's for my exact year and model of truck but in 2009 a TSB was issued for the Frontiers and Xterras that year that had them install a secondary filter down stream from the EVAP canister that prevented it and the vent control valve from getting clogged with dust.

What do you guys think? Am I crazy in thinking that this is an engineering flaw and that they should cover it?

Does anyone have any experience dealing with car companies that were uncooperative?


What do you think my next step should be?


I am just pissed at the whole thing and I don't really want to eat the $600 repair only to have it happen again because they don't actually fix the core issue that is causing this problem to happen.

I also don't like getting taken by a large company because they can afford to lose a few customers so they treat you like crap.

IF you made it this far in the post thank you for reading and help/advice is appreciated.

[FNH]

Seems like a common BS problem with the Nissans, have you checked a Nissan Frontier owners board to see if someone else came up with a diy thing?

[zoobernut]

Seems like a common BS problem with the Nissans, have you checked a Nissan Frontier owners board to see if someone else came up with a diy thing?

Yeah there are DIY fixes out there that include putting an extra filter on the air line coming out of the other side of the control valve but my truck is still under warranty and I have only had it 1 year at this point it is kind of the principle of the thing. I am busy and don't have much free time to fix it on my own and I feel like they should be taking care of this. But I don't know if that is a valid point of view or if I am letting my anger cloud my judgement on the situation.

[Brill Weave]

It's definitely a design flaw. Nissan knows about it, hence why they rectified the issue in other 4WD vehicles. You're going to be stuck fixing it yourself.

[zoobernut]

It's definitely a design flaw. Nissan knows about it, hence why they rectified the issue in other 4WD vehicles. You're going to be stuck fixing it yourself.

That is what I am afraid of.

Thanks for your insight Brill.

[Senji]

This is actually a flaw with pretty much all the trucks. None of the manufactures care. Its a useless BS system that's really about filtering a pathetic amount of fuel vapor on startup or out of the filler neck.

The easiest way is to send/take your ECU to a tune shop and they simply delete the parameters like the system was never there, like adjusting bios. Many places will offer to send you a stock ECU for a core deposit to keep driving why they adjust yours, because many want other services done like adjusting for new gears/headers/mods/wheel size/etc.

[zoobernut]

For those who posted advice, thank you. An update; I ended up escalating three times in Nissan's customer care phone line and eventually the third lady listened to my issue without dismissing it. She arranged for a Nissan engineer to fly out to the dealership near my house. Now they are going to replace the entire assembly that was packed with dust and then install an inline air filter that is washable. They had this issue before with a truck that was being used for agriculture and the air filter seemed to be working for them.

The service manager at the dealership was kinda mad at Nissan and asked them why they put me through the ringer instead of just agreeing to fix it right away.

It took a lot of phone conversations but I am pleased that they are fixing the issue.