My car had been having trouble on warm start ups; not cold and not when the engine is fully hot. Many people here mentioned throttle body cleaning fixes this issue. I was hoping to have the dealership go ahead and clean the TB since it's still under warranty. However, I took my car to the dealership, and they think it's the rear timing gasket causing low oil pressure - leading to the failure to start.

I've never had an SES light come on, and they didn't mention that they tested to ensure the oil pressure was actually low. While the service manager eluded that this may not even be the actual cause of the start-up issue, there is a TSB for it and it will be covered under warranty. I believe BlackBetty had to pay around $3k to get his replaced out of warranty.

To me, this seems like overkill as other people who have had the rear timing gasket replaced had codes and other driveability issues. Should I be worried the shop is just randomly fixing something unnecessary or be happy to get this replaced before I'm out of warranty?

 

I would think the dealer would be the other way around, looking for reasons not to perform such a lengthy repair. I doubt they'd proceed w/ such a repair without verifying the need to do so. If you have another dealer nearby to get a second opinion, but I'd be thankful that they're wanting to address this problem rather than trying to deny what's going on. At any rate, good luck and hope that you get your G running properly w/ whatever turns out to be the culprit.

 

Thanks blnewt. I understand that this must be the likely cause of my problem if Infiniti is willing to pay for it, but it just seems out of the ordinary compared to what others have experienced. I wish I had another dealer nearby for second opinions, but this one has been great until today when the service advisor wrongly argued with me about items on the service maintenance guide.

 

usually a CEL is thrown for the low oil pressure caused by the timing cover gasket blowout. i know mine did, and it would go into limp mode. the repair is extensive from a labor standpoint. IIRC my workorder showed ~18hrs under warranty for the re+re.

at any rate, if the OP's dealer is performing the work under warranty it's all good. sure, i'd rather not have the front end of my engine bay torn apart, but if the gasket's blown that is the only way to get at it.

 

Got the car back and they confirmed that there was low oil pressure caused by the gasket, even though I didn't have any noticeable effects or CEL from it. I'm damn lucky this happened while still under warranty.

The original reason I took it in - not starting when the engine is a little warm without giving it some throttle - has not been fixed. The car still dies. Plus, now I have a belt squeak when I start it up each morning. When I called back to complain about the squeak, they wouldn't confirm if they had to pull off the belt to make the repair. They said that there is nothing to tighten on the belt and that the belt must be old. BS in my opinion! My guess is that they didn't get serpentine belt tensioned correctly. ?? Does that sound right?

 

How many miles do you have op?

 

Right at 65k

 

First off, I had a leaking gasket on my car that, in spite of measuring a mere 5psi at idle, never threw a CEL. Even if there is not enough oil pressure to meet the minimum operating spec of 14psi at idle, if there is still just a few psi left, the light will NOT go on. The low oil pressure sensor is really just a switch that only goes off when there is basically NONE; a very poor design!

Next, the belt most definitely needs to come off to perform the rear timing cover gasket repair (crap, the whole front of the engine comes off!). They are correct that there is nothing to tighten, as the belt has a spring loaded auto-tensioner (like pretty much ever car made nowadays). I would guess the issues with the belt squeak may have to do with the tech inadvertently getting some oil or grease on one of the pulleys or the belt during reassembly. It may yet wear off after a while, so I wouldn't necessarily get too worried about it (unless it's really screaming).

All in all, consider yourself lucky that you got this one covered. It's a ridiculously expensive repair that unfortunately will be borne by many owners in the future, AFTER they are out of warranty (i.e. you dodged a bullet on this one!).

.02

 

I agree. I'd give anything for my gasket to go out while under warranty. Or never at all would be OK too, but the replacement gaskets are now fortified with metal. In the end, I'd prefer to have one with the new gasket than to keep a ticking time bomb.

Want to trade cars OP?

 

So the new gasket is revised with a different composition?

Did they ever use the new gasket on production vehicles, or only for replacement?

 

A forum member bought the cheaper and smaller of the two gaskets and tore it apart to reveal that there is in fact a metal ring embedded inside. I don't know when the revised gasket was made or integrated into production.

I'm not positive, but I believe that all new cars being produced should have the newer gasket...not sure how to verify either and not sure when the gasket appeared.

Let me see if I can dig up the gasket test for you. Standby...I hope it's in the Black Betty thread which would make it easy to find.

EDIT:

OK, here you go. It was VQSmile who did the gasket testing.

https://www.myg37.com/forums/g37-cou...ml#post3842033

 

Hmmm... I really do wonder if my car, a 2013, would have the revised gasket kit installed...

 

After rereading that thread, I have no idea where I got the 2012-2013 number from. Maybe I was thinking that's when they redid the 7AT, and I got confused. I'm editing my post above to reflect that I have no idea when, or of these new gaskets went into production.

It would be nice to find out of they kept the same part number and changed the spec, or if they created a new part number. That may give insight to the appearance time of these gaskets. It would still not tell us if the newer ones went into production or were reserved for repair work. I hope that Infiniti would throw away the old gaskets and move forward with the PROPER gaskets.

Of everyone on this forum who has had this issue, what's the newest model year affected? Can anyone dig this up?

 

I just traced the part number of the "revised" gasket that was torn down in the main thread for this, part # 13533-JK21B and the application for that part was the EX35 and FX35 and the VQ35HR engine. It's not a new part at all. I am very confused now.

 

It does appear that the timing cover and gasket set has gone through several revisions though throughout the years. (13035+A includes the gaskets)





This makes me feel like anyone with a build date in 2012+ appears to be safe. It's likely that only one of these part numbers and build date ranges has the defective gaskets and I'm sure we have enough data here to narrow it down.