Nissan Sentra 2002 Greater Toronto Area

Nissan Sentra 2002 Greater Toronto Area

Nissan Sentra 2002

Returning Noise coming from drive belt I purchased a new Nissan Sentra 2002 GXE in May 2002 from Alta Nissan in Greater Toronto Area. Since then, a chipping noise occurred every 6 months to 1 year no matter how much efforts I have put in to beg the dealership &#161VAgincourt Nissan to fix it (where is closer to my home and where I had my oil changes done). Agincourt Nissan never keeps a consistent effort to solve the problem. In this two and half year, various technicians have tried different things and have their different diagnose. They tried to clean the belt (once), replace the belt (twice), and replace the pulley (once). I have visited the dealership more than 20 times trying to fix the problem.

Once the technician said the pulley did not work well with the belt and promised me that this situation will never happen again, but the noise still keep coming back. At my last visit two month ago, Agincourt Nissan asked me to pay to replace the belt and I refused. According to the Nissan Service and Maintenance Guide, replacement of engine drive belts is recommended when the car is at 48,000km, 96,000km 144,000km, and 192,000km. Considering my use of the vehicle is primarily for daily commuting on Highways, plus a couple of trips to the United States, the drive belts would certainly not need to be replaced more often than that. My friend drive a Toyota for 7 years and her car never make such noise. My car is at 49,000km when I talked to them two months ago and they found a crack on the drive belt (which was replaced prior to the pulley about 1 year ago). I asked them whether if I pay and get the belt replaced, they could guarantee me that the noise is not coming back (they already know it is a reoccurring problem). They couldn&#161&#166t guarantee anything. I asked whether if they have checked if it is a misalignment problem? They said the pulleys are fixed and they cannot do anything about them. Their attitude was bad- they said that they replaced the belts and pulley without charging me money was doing me a favor. However, they never fixed the problem! Is it simply a drive belt issue? IF this were a misalignment issue, which causes the belt to wear out

so quickly and thus making noise, it would be a manufacturing issue since the pulleys are fixed. I

thought this might be a manufacturing defect that I am dealing with, so I wrote a letter to Nissan Canada. After all, why do I have to pay to replace the belt every year just because of their manufacturing defect?

I wrote a nice letter to Nissan Canada with all the work order history attached suggesting that there

might be a misalignment issue, but they didn&#161&#166t address the issue at all and responded with a letter

saying that my car is out of their 1 year/20,000km limited warranty. When I purchased the car, I was told that any new Nissan Car comes with 3 year/60,000km warranty. So, what they mean is that I HAVE TO PAY FOR THE DRIVE BELT to be replaced. But, have they even bothered to look into the possibility of misalignment?

No, and from the way they responded to my letter, I can tell that they don&#161&#166t want to communicate with me and they do not even acknowledge that the noise keeps coming back. I talked to a service staff at Morningside Nissan where I now bring my car for oil change and maintenance, he was nice but even him said that I might just need to live with the noise. Why am I different from other Nissan Customers and why do I not deserve a car without noise?

I had enough in this two and half year but I am not giving it up. I will write to Toronto Star and tried

all the efforts I can to solve the noise problem. I am not going to recommend any of my friends to buy a

Nissan Car when I have a chance, I will replace this noisy Nissan with other car when I have enough money. Joyce Y

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