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Hello All,
This post is to let you guys know a possible fix for this issue/how it has been handled by Infiniti. I feel this is something I had to share with my fellow G owners. The issue is still not resolved as of today.
Car: 2012 G37 Sedan, Sport 6MT, ~56k miles, Gray (or graphite?)
Warranty: Elite Protection Plan (Exp. 1/2021)
Problem: See pictures below
Here is a list of facts of what is happening:
1) The car has a water leak on the passenger side right under the dash which spills onto the carpet, there is not water anywhere else, I checked that many times because I searched the forums and saw some people mentioning the sunroof drains
2) On Thursday (1/12/2017) there was a small puddle on the carpet and when I drove the car, the dashboard stopped working; no speedometer, no rpm meter, no touchscreen, no turn signals, push-start button did not work, dashboard completely off (I wish I took a picture but I was pretty pissed so I was only thinking of getting it to the dealer)
3) I drove it to the dealer that sane morning (it was raining heavy in SoCal that week)
4) My service adviser informed me that the rubber grommet/wiring harness failed and therefore as a result: water leaked onto the computer that controls the dashboard and it was shorted (bcm/ecm)
5) I purchased the Infiniti Elite Protection Plan in 2015; based on that fact an inspector was scheduled to come out and decide whether to approve or deny the claim.
6) On 1/17/17 the inspector denied the warranty claim on the basis that rubber parts are not covered (this set me off big time)
7) I called the Infiniti Customer Service Number (spoke with Gil who was awesome and profesisonal) that same day of denial and said the following: I can understand things like weather stripping not being covered but as a result of this part failing, a critical part of the vehicle failed and made for unsafe driving conditions, furthermore, there is nothing I could have done to prevent this type of failure; this tells me that Infiniti does not stand behind it's product and would make me think twice before going with infiniti with my next car purchase.
8) The next day on 1/18/17, the service adviser called me to tell me that infiniti ended up approving the work after some engineers took a look at it and determined that it was an abnormal problem ($4800 repair estimate, 16 total hours of labor); they changed the wiring harness, the body control module and engine control module. I had a DampRid bag in the car so that some moisture/smell could be absorbed (worked like a charm).
9) The car took about 1.5 weeks to fix, I got my car back on Friday 1/27, all was well until this monday morning (more rain in SoCal, the pictures above); the dashboard and electronics seem to work fine but I took it to the dealer again before any damage can be done. The dealer warranties their work for 12 months so I don't have to pay anything.
And there is my situation. I am not sure how often this occurs but this is very concerning that this has happened twice in a row after a repair that extensive. The car is extremely fun to drive, I could not be happier with that department, but it is all for nothing if this keeps on happening. My biggest gripe is how an infiniti that is not even 5 years old leaked like this and my 2000 nissan sentra never even leaked. I saw others had the same problem and they mentioned a weld seam, which I mentioned to the service adviser but they ruled that out. I am now unfortunately stuck in a barebones rental Chrysler 200 (I can see why it is being cancelled, costs covered by the dealer).
I will keep you guys posted on this issue as it gets resolved. I really want to keep the car and not sell it to infiniti if that is an option (if I ever do I would rather it be to someone here). I have been documenting everything in case I need to take this further than the dealer and infiniti.
Any suggestions are welcome.
tl:dr water leak in my car is the gift that keeps on giving, dealer will foot the bill, my head hurts from being pissed off
Can you post more details about the specific diagnosis? Was it the rubber grommet/seal behind the battery that I've read about? Versus the rubber windshield seal, vs the sunroof drain? I had the same water problem over the weekend (nothing has shorted out yet though fortunately). It was an isolated incident that happened overnight on Saturday and I discovered Sunday morning. No more water intrusion with heavy rains Sunday. My car is now parked in the airport garage while I'm out of town.
After scouring the interwebs, my first thought was that it's the fitting where the sunroof drain goes through the firewall and that was where I was going to look first this weekend. Any other specifics as to what you were told the problem is would be very appreciated.
A little nervous now. I don't have the warranty....
For NW_6MT:
It was the rubber grommet and not the sunroof or windshield seal. I would check around to see if there is water anywhere else, but the GREAT thing is nothing has shorted on you like it has me, so you are luckier than me.
For the rest:
Here are the pictures of the work orders
Workorder when I first went for the problem:
Workorder for second vist:
What the service advisor told me is that the grommet didn't seal flat. What they did was re seal the wire harness grommet with silicone (or something like that, I spoke with the adviser while at work). This was yesterday and he wanted to let the sealant dry for 24 hours so it could settle.
Afterwards, he told me that they had the car hosed with water from every angle they could think of and had it under the car wash water machine for 2 hours. They ran water again today and since they found no leaks I was able to pick my car up after work (5pm PT, and thankfully get rid of that chrysler). We will see how it goes, they warranty their work for 12 months so I will stay vigilant regardless.
I am going to pour baking soda on the floor and change the cabin air filter to be extra sure there is no smell (which there isn't). Can anyone tell me where the grommet is? I would like to take a picture of the work done, even though I have described this problem I do not know where the grommet is (I honestly only do basic maintenance on the car myself, anything complicated I go to the dealer) I figure behind the battery like NW_6MT describes?
Hope this helps someone as there is so much knowledge on this forum.
The battery is on that side, so if something like an amp or sub was installed at some point, power would need to routed through the firewall.
Is it possible that the previous owner may have installed a bass tube or similar, then removed it when they turned the car in?
I guess I have been a homeowner too long (of old houses), so whenever I see unusual problems, I immediately try to figure out what someone may have previously modified.
No worries about the partial hijack, we are all here to learn/teach.
As far as a previous owner modding the sound system, that was the first thing the inspector (for the extended warranty) looked for but found no evidence of that.
As for the original problem, it rained this past Friday and I am happy to say that there was NO leak. I had dried the floor with a blow dryer in the garage before it rained and then poured baking soda on the carpet. No leaks.
For now the issue is resolved, but being the pessimist that I am I am going to keep the carpet mat off until it rains again, if it does not leak then everything will go back to normal.
Until then I will enjoy driving her, hope fully into the ground if there are no more problems.
Thanks Gannicus. I agree.
I finally dug in on Sunday. Got the A-pillar trim off (that thing is tricky, stupid green retainer gizmo. How did anyone work on their own car prior to being able to search the internet for tips on removing things like this?) to take a look at the sunroof drain tube. Could barely see the connector where it went through the firewall (problem area from the info I found). No idea how to get to it. One of the videos I saw they had the windshield removed and were working on it that way. I'm not to that point yet... I reinstalled the trim and went on to plan B.
Went under the hood and removed all of the cowling on that side (around the battery, etc). I see the intake where the cabin air filter is. What a horrible design that is. Giant gaping hole below the windshield. The weatherstripping for the cowling appears intact for that piece so I cleaned it up and reinstalled. This could be the culprit, though the filter was dry so not sure. Looking at it, not sure why everyone doesn't have leaks every time it rains. I didn't have a long enough screw driver to remove the glove box so I wasn't able to replace the cabin filter and look in the housing for water for now. Soon though.
On to the next spot: The main wiring harness grommet feels a little loose where it sits up against the fire wall. It seemed entirely possible that water running off the windshield (as designed) would be able to get in behind it. I couldn't figure out how to remove it to get a better look though. Does it take serious force or is there a trick (spin it 90* clockwise, for example, which I tried by the way...) to remove it to inspect? Anyone know? It appears unmolested from prior owner (no holes or auxiliary wires from stereos, etc).
I reassembled everything and went through the car wash. Nothing immediately but hours later i noticed a little water on the pan (I have the carpet and pad pulled up).
In searching, some reference condensate from the climate/ac unit drain being plugged and backing up onto the floor. I don't think this is the case for me as I had water on top of my weather tech floor mat (as well as the carpet underneath and pooled on the floor pan when I pulled the carpet up). It had to have dripped down from above somewhere.
Not really sure what to do from here. I'll post an update if I get a definitive answer. Going to keep looking.
Sorry I don't have any pictures but I'd say it looked very similar to the OP when I noticed it.
Any thoughts and/or ideas appreciated.
I had the same issue on my 2013 xS. Check my Build Thread for pics of the grommet in question. My work was also covered under warranty. Fortunately for me, the water did not short out the ECM/BCM. I made sure the dealership made note to check it, in case something happens in the future.
Going to keep updating here to keep the info in one place. Had more heavy rains and I could see water dripping from behind the glove box while driving.
I was able to get the wiring harness grommet (behind the battery) out. It was difficult and from what I could tell the correct procedure is to just pry it up. It has some plastic tabs that hold it in (one broke off a small piece when I pulled it out so maybe I did it wrong after all...) but it's basically just sitting there and the rubber over the plastic housing is just resting with the force of gravity against the firewall as the sealing point. Not impressed. I cleaned it real good then reinstalled and sealed it with silicone caulking (like installing a sink basically)
In this picture picture you can see where the sunroof drain exits the body. Seems there's a lot of confusion as to the exit point of the sunroof drains on the Internet. That little concave notch in the sheet metal is a tunnel coming from the sunroof drain. It pours out there and runs across the firewall and directly onto the wiring harness grommet and down the firewall to the ground. Terrible design.
I tested the sunroof drain grommet the best I could by having my wife pour water bottles down the drain while I watched the grommet. It is very difficult to see and reach with just the glove box, vent cover and a-pillar trim removed. I pulled the insulation back from around it to watch and couldn't see any water coming out. I'm not sure the leak can be replicated sitting still though. I'm not sure if the movement of the car upsets the fragile seal or what but I think it might. I hate to half *** but I really just couldn't get to the drain grommet without removing the dash. I didn't even know if it was leaking. The insulation didn't feel wet directly below it while it did around the wiring harness grommet, but the sunroof drain is only like an inch above the entrance in the firewall for the wiring harness so I couldn't be sure. I didn't want to try and remove it and then not be able to get it back in so I tried my silicone technique with my fingertip to try and improve upon the seal. It's not the prettiest and very hard to take a picture of but its all I can do for now. I need to wait for it to rain again so I can take a drive and test it out. Basically just hoping it worked.
The sunroof drain grommet is that greenish tinted disk at the end of the drain tube. You can see a little of the white silicone along the bottom and sides. I only sealed half. From the pictures I've seen of how it works that should be enough. And it's all I could reach.
I'll report back after some testing. Hopefully this thread helps someone.
Never used the word grommet so many times in my life...
Well it was a fun fantasy while it lasted...
Two days ago it was leaking again. Grrrrrr.
Really disappointed that an originally expensive car that's been very well taken care of, and only has 17k miles on it, would have this sort of problem.
These drains and their respective seals are a joke. Whoever designed and/or engineered this system on an etch-a-sketch deserves a swift kick in the junk.
I found a hack online in my original search of this problem to improve the drain tube fitting. It's my next step. Still can't even confirm that's where the water is coming from. I'm down to just checking off boxes one at a time and it's the next most likely culprit.
My original wiring harness seal job is holding up well and there's no way water is getting in there.
For the sunroof drain fitting hack, basically you extend the tube through the firewall so that you're not dependent on the little gasket between the plastic fitting and the firewall to provide the seal. I'll be reassembling the drain tonight but leaving everything else off so that my nice car looks like a ghetto stripped POS for the foreseeable future. I'm not going to put it back together until I've completed several successful drives in the rain.
Here's my latest 'mod' (credit goes to someone else for the design, but pretty sure it would qualify for the budget mod thread...)
If you haven't seen how this part works the drain from the sunroof runs along the a-pillar and attaches to this fitting via the nipple on the away end in the picture. It plugs into a hole in the firewall and the water is supposed to pour out of the cup end into a void in the body. It then dumps out onto the engine bay side of the firewall under the battery cover. The plastic dogs you can see around the cup are what hold it up to the firewall and there is a black foam-like gasket holding back the water that is sitting at the fitting/firewall interface. With the 'upgrade' I've made to the fitting the water will be enclosed in the tube until it is at least a 1/2 to 1" past the firewall and into that void. The only downside I see is that the lumen of the drain tube will now be slightly smaller. Hoping it doesn't lead to more likely clogging but it's worth the risk. The piece should have been molded like this to begin with and there would never be any problems.
To the OP, sorry to commandeer this thread so badly, didn't make sense to start another and not keep the info in one place.
^^ Good luck. Thanks for the detailed photos and descriptions. I'm dealing with the same issue on my drivers side, trying to find a way to avoid taking it to the dealer like yourself. Definitely keep us posted!
02-07-2017, 12:27 AM
(I can see why it is being cancelled, costs covered by the dealer).
