Rear A/C and heat line leaks!
My story continues. Since my last posting, I have been through hell trying to get Nissan Canada to fess up that there is a design flaw with this part and to fully pay for the repair.
To update everyone, anyone who owns any Nissan product with the rear climate control, this part will fail! I have been in the automotive manfacturing field for more than 22 years. I was a consultant for six years to the engineers at Toyota Canada's award winning Cambridge R&D and assembly plant. My job was to solve problems of this nature. The problem (this is my professional opinion only) is that they have used an anodized aluminum tube for the rear A/C and heat lines. That in it's self isn't that bad, but stainless tube would have been my choice of material. The tubes are a whole assembly and what they have done in some spots is wraped the tubes with a type of closed cell rubber like foam. One spot for example, at the rear on the cooling lines, they have this foam with a nylon tie to hold the two tubes together and prevent them from rubbing. The pressure of the nylon tie has made the rubber to flare open on either side of it. This allows dirt such as sand and salt to get trapped inside. This abrasive will wear through the anodizing (which is an electrically applied coating that penatrates the aluminum to prevent oxidization) and eventually through the tube. It is this design flaw that has caused my A/C line to fail. One could say that once the anodizing removed, the tube corroded. My opinion is that even with the anodizing removed, the failure is under the foam and the sandy paste on my part would limit the oxygen needed for the aluminum to "oxidize or corrode" . Thus it would have taken a long time to corrode through. Instead, I feel the sand that was trapped by this design or manufacturing defect has caused this premature failure. These parts will fail! It will be just a matter of time. I have seen the replacement part. They have omitted the rubber around the A/C line where my part failed. This also demostrates that there is a manufactures defect. Unfortunately the rubber is still on in other spots including the heat line as mentioned above.
My story is a long one with calls to many Nissan dealerships that keep contradicting each other. Some say they have repaired a few of these all under warranty and it is at least a two day job. Another says that it isn't covered and they can fix it in under a day. The one under a day butchered my previous Pathfinder doing the timing belt. I can't trust them with this repair.
The other thing that is happening with my situation is that Nissan Canada has offered to pay for 2/3 of the labor and for the part. This is what the industry calls a "good will offer". (my opinion it is an admition of guilt) For me this is not good enough! The manufactures must make their vehicals with parts of reasonable durability. The courts call this an "implied" warranty, which takes over and above the manufactures "expressed written warranty". . There is a list as to what is resonable druability for different parts of cars that manufactures and the courts go by. A/C systems should last about seven years.Three years for an A/C part to fail falls well short of this. Also giving the fact that you have to remove the body off the frame! I don't care even if I did the repair myself, my truck will not be the same as it is now. It is clearly unrealistic for someone to have to remove the body off the frame to repair this part every three years. That is how long my part lasted. Nissan has a big problem on thier hands. If this was a brake line, there would be a massive recall at their cost.
Everyone with this rear climate control should inspect these lines under the passenger side. You can't miss them. Look closely where the tubes have been wrapped. Drag your finger to see if there is any grit under the rubber. Stand your ground to have this fixed. When I get mine done, I'm going to get them to seal the ends of this rubber with undercoating spray before they install it. Even one speck of sand is too many because when the A/C cycles, it causes the lines to vibrate which makes the grit vibrate and act like a mini sander. Not good!
Again, for legal purposes, this is only my opioion.
Please reply. I would like to hear from others who have this part. Take a look under your trucks and post your findings. Many people are going to have this same problem. They don't need the added stress of fighting to get the repair fully paid for. It is only fair.
Sorry to be long winded.
Thanks.
