1996 Infiniti Q45 review from North America

John M. Poythress

15 Glenwood Road

Louisville, KY 40222.

March 28, 2002.

Mr. Mark C. McNabb,

Vice President

General Manager, Infiniti Division

P. O. Box 191

Gardena, CA 90248.

Re: VIN JNKNG01DXTM.

Dear Mr. McNabb:

I am answering your letter of January 21, 2002 for several reasons. I suppose the principle reason is that via customer survey "you asked." Secondly, I am getting nowhere with my Q-45 problem of 2 and one half years. And third, my "check engine" light appeared again today.

May I state upfront that this is a product problem, not a service problem. Sam Swope Infiniti is well represented by Service Manager Michael Brown who is a professional in every way and a delight to do business with.

This is a product problem of two demensions, the first seemingly unfixable and the second a matter of reasonable operating costs.

Seemingly Unfixable.

After, say 300 miles or so of constant freeway driving speeds, a harsh grinding noise appears in the front left suspension area. I speculate that the problem may be heat expansion driven inasmuch as normal around town driving never produces the problem. A rasping, grinding metal on metal sound happens in various degrees of loudness on "undulating" and normal freeway bumps; i. e. that part of the "cycle" in a vehicle's bump trajectory when the chassis wants to keep "going up" and the suspension wants to "stay down", the result being the "grind" when they separate and when they rejoin. (a "bushing" worn out?, a bearing worn out?)

My copies of Swope Infiniti service records show that this yet unfixed problem was reported as follows:

Date Mileage.

09/09/99 56,902

01/08/00 65,425

04/12/00 68,506

01/14/00 100,836.

My feeling here is that sure and certain metal against metal has a clear fatigue point at which time some type of failure will occur. I am concerned with this as an annoyance, but more importantly a safety issue. For example, I plan to take a driving trip this spring. Since I will have guests with me I will lease another vehicle to avoid this potential problem. That should suggest the degree of my safety concern.

Service manager Michael Brown was kind enough to keep the vehicle a week and drive it himself to try to replicate the problem. He was unable to do so, probably because he didn't drive enough miles, but I appreciated his personal effort anyway. We discussed the matter of perhaps my tape recording the sound on a future trip.

I have not had the occasion for a road trip since, but in retrospect I'm not especially optimistic about the success of this operation. I can only say I think I have defined this problem with enough specificity to find a fix short of having to replicate it.

My purpose here is not to complain about Swope Infiniti. My purpose here is to

wonder if perhaps you can help Swope Infiniti with this problem. For example, has this problem happened elsewhere to a degree to get on your data base, but not to a degree to issue a tech bulletin on the problem? I firmly believe this is a product or part defect. If you do have the wherewithal to help Swope Infiniti that would appear to be constructive.

Do the sporadic intervals between the dates above suggest that the problem was ever fixed at one time? No. The situation is that my driving vacations of long distances are sporadic and 2) over various intervals I have despaired of ever getting this problem fixed and simply tolerated it despite my concern.

Can you help me?

Unreasonable operating costs.

My check engine warning light appeared on the following dates and the following expenses were on the statement: (not all expenses were related to the engine light, but you have the records).

Date Miles Total Costs.

08/13/01 92, 427 $ 805.96

11/19/01 96, 278 860.30.

Your customer service operator stated: "well, after all, it has 100,000 miles on it."

I replied, "yes, but I thought we were talking about an Infiniti Q45, not a Yugo." I could see that conversation was going nowhere, but she "graciously" offered a $200 credit on future service as a matter of "customer satisfaction."

Today is March 28, 2002 and my engine warning light has again come on. This makes three times in slightly more than 7 months. I have begun to refer to this light among my friends as the "Sam Swope Infiniti $800 jackpot light" that is set to appear at roughly 90 day intervals. In this instance, I will accept the Yugo analogy. I did not buy a Q45 expecting cheap Yugo maintenance costs. However, I did buy an Infiniti expecting higher, but still reasonable upkeep costs. If I am facing yet a third $800 engine repair inside of 7 months, my resulting level of disappointment will be hard to describe.

I should not overlook telling you that in every other respect my Q45 is a delightful vehicle to operate and has exceeded my expectations. Excepting these two problems, I wouldn't hesitate to buy or recommend a second one. Also, excepting these two instances, I am pleased with my Infiniti dealer Sam Swope Infiniti.

However, may I ask for your consideration in reviewing these two issues for solutions?

Sincerely.

John M. Poythress.