Is there an external oil leak associated with the gasket failure?

 

the newer gasket type contains metal, not just cardboard/paper of the old one. and the gasket comes as part of the rear timing cover which is why the whole piece gets replaced, not just the gasket. i was told by the tech that "newer models" have the revised timing cover part.

it is a big job (~18hrs labor) and the whole front of the engine needs to be torn down. when i saw mine in the dealer shop it was a mess. i was actually concerned everything would go back together as it came apart with no "extra" screws or bolts. at least it is covered under warranty or you're out well over $3k.

my questions is what, if any, long-term internal engine damage was caused by the intermittent low-oil pressure operating? should i be concerned about wear caused by the lack of oil pressure? i have no idea how to quantify this, and the dealer and tech just said "not to worry". i couldn't get anything more out of them. my wife just got a '15 Highlander so i'll be driving the G for a few more years. while i appreciate the warranty fix i do have concerns about potential non-repairable damage that was done, or not done. but not knowing is no bueno.

as was mentioned above vqsmile's belt probably just has a bit of oil/grease on it. if i was thinking i would have asked the dealer to put on my new serpentine belt while they were rebuilding the engine after the repair - the belt was in my trunk! instead they just put the old belt back on and then i had to re+re the new belt a while later. doh! only cost me ~$20 in labor while i was having other work done so no big deal.

 

^ no, this is internal between the rear timing cover and adjacent oil passages - whatever they are.

 

Good stuff, thanks!

I wonder if this would be covered under either the powertrain or extended warranty....

 

Do you guys think that driving habits will have an effect on how soon this failure will occur?

I have a 2010, I will be out of warranty a year from now. Really the only thing I can do right now is just to check the oil pressure whenever I change my oil.

 

I kind of doubt it, as the normal operating pressures are so ridiculously high on the oil pump used on these motors. Just under normal everyday warmup and moderate driving, the pressure on my car routinely exceeds 100PSI (the highest my gauge will read) and stays there for some time. I read on one of the Z forums that the pressure relief/bypass setting is around 105 psi, which would make sense with what I'm seeing. Under that kind of pressure, if a gasket is going to go, it's going to go. Plus, there have been accounts of people that have posted about how they experienced the failure and yet their car was only ever driven very mildly by a timid driver that never, ever revved the engine up high.

Lastly, you're inclination is right, checking/monitoring your oil pressure is the single best thing you can to preventatively.

 

2011 is the latest model that I have ever seen posted. It would be great if anyone could substantiate it occurring on anything later than that.

 

Per this picture I posted earlier, they revised the timing chain cover in September of 2011 and replaced part 13500-EY02B with 13500-EY03B. I think this is going to be our cutoff.

 

You may well be right on that Ryne. I expect those dates in the parts listing are production dates and NOT model year dates though. It would be good if txg37x could post the actual production date of his car (or vin), since he has a 2011. It may be that a 9/2011 production date equates only to 2012 model years.

 

Build date: 02/12....wonder when my VQ was put together

 

Whose is that?

EDIT: Oh, ok, you're probably referring to Ryne's comment.

I suggest we get a list going of the latest know production date that experienced this failure. It will undoubtedly confirm the timing cover production date revision theory.

 

It might get us close, but the motors could be assessed months before the car....

 

^^^ With the advent of modern JIT* delivery methodology, I highly doubt any major auto manufacturer has any engine sitting around for months before it's slapped in a car. I would bet it could be measured in hours.


* just in time

 

I agree. Having the build dates of the cars that have been affected by this issue will help to narrow the time window of occurrence, and make it easier to match a specific part as the issue.

 

To answer a few of the previous questions:

The repair was covered by the powertrain warranty.

Given that this is an 18 hour $3500 job, it may not be crazy to get an oil pressure test done before your warranty runs out? The service advisor told me that there is a TSB out for the problem, so you might bring that up to the the shop in order to encourage them to check the pressure for without charge since you don't have any symptoms. As mentioned earlier, I had zero indication anything was going wrong with the oil pressure; I got lucky they found it when looking for another problem.

My car was build on 12/10. The dealer did confirm that Infiniti fixed the gasket on future models, but didn't say what years no longer have the weak gasket.

I recall BB saying this issue happened on his wife's car, so I'm not sure if that means anything about how driving style affects the gasket going out. I drive my car hard, but that may have nothing to do with it.