Hello I’m looking for advice. 2018 Nissan Pathfinder LS, 87000 miles, 3.5L
Sorry this is going to be a bit long.
We are the second owner but it has always been maintained when needed and has had no problems in the 3 years we’ve owned it until Jan when it needed a new timing chain. We brought it to the shop and this is what they replaced:
Pulley assembly-valve timing control x4
Bolt VTC pulley x2
Bolt - Camshaft x2
Camshaft oil seal x6
Timing chain set
Water pump
VVT solenoid
Timing cover gasket set
Cam phaser cover gaskets
Valve cover gaskets
Plenum gasket
Oil pan gaskets, filter and put some seafoam in. Grand total was $5707.15.
Now we don’t drive it far and rarely take the highway so a week later when we got on the highway for a 30 min drive by the time we got to our destination it smelled like an overheating engine, but it wasn’t overheating, and would randomly blow a bunch of smoke every 20-30 min. It was throwing a random/ multiple misfire code so we parked it and brought it in on Monday. They said they didn’t get any codes but replaced the spark plugs, the smoking was from the sea foam and it should be fine. (I’ve used seafoam all my life and this was not seafoam smoke.)
It was still randomly smoking and about 2 weeks later it had a low oil pressure warning so we brought it back again, told them it was doing the same thing and they changed the oil and still said the smoking was from the seafoam and to keep an eye on the oil. Continued to drive it short distances, still occasionally smoking some and misfiring while playing phone tag with the shop to figure something out.
Finally the end of April it made a noise and the rpms dropped to zero. We towed it home and called them again. I spoke to another shop and told them everything and it was their opinion that they made a mistake and were trying not to fix it. After a week of phone tag I told them what the other shop said and they said they would come pick it up on May 14th. They did but it sat in the parking lot for 3 weeks.
A few days later they called and basically said the lower half of the motor is gone, the camshaft (or crankshaft), pulley, and rod or rod bearing are shot and it needs a new motor. They said a used one would be $9000 or a new one $17,600 but they would give me a $3000 credit from the previous repair. The last offer was that we owe them nothing and they’ll put it back together and tow it back to our house for free. Then when I called back a couple days later because I couldn’t remember if they said camshaft or crankshaft he said it was the rod or rod bearing because I had metal in my oil pan.
Now I do know some things about cars and do most of my own repairs but generally leave engine stuff to people who know more than me. If they replaced the VTC pulley assemblies and cam shaft bolts and timing chain shouldn’t they have been able to see if the parts were going bad? Or had some indication?
When we brought it in it had no misfires, never smoked, never needed to add oil, no ticking or knocking, it drove great and the the only issue was the timing chain. It came home driving a 10x worse than when we brought it in.
If I’m wrong I’m wrong but I feel like they messed up. I just don’t know enough about engines to say for sure and I’m not sure what to do now. Again, I apologize for the long post and I appreciate any advice. - Thank you