NHTSA Closes File On Nissan VC Turbo Recall
You may remember the massive Nissan VC Turbo engine recall from earlier this month. It was at 430,000 cars when we covered it, and the number went up to nearly 444K.
The 1.5-liter three-cylinder and 2.0-liter four-cylinder engines found in the 2019-2020 Altima, 2021-2024 Rogue, 2019-2022 Infiniti QX50, and 2022 Infiniti QX55 had issues with bearing failure.
Now the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is saying it is closing its multi-year investigation into the issue.
NHTSA says that Nissan has taken the proper steps to correct the issue. From Car and Driver:
"The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that it has closed its multi-year investigation into Nissan's defective VC-Turbo engines. The government agency's Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) said it found that Nissan has taken the proper steps to correct the problem with the engines' internal components, which was addressed in a mass recall that was issued in June. After the vehicles are inspected by a dealer, Nissan said it will extend the powertrain warranty on the entire recall population to 10 years and 120,000 miles."
If you have one of the affected vehicles and haven't had the recall addressed, get thee to the dealer.
[Images: Nissan, Infiniti]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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Isn't this SOP once a mfr complies with a recommendation to recall?
The NHTSA statement doesn't say that these engines won't fail, only that Nissan is going to "check" each one, replace the obviously bad ones, and extend the warranty on the rest. NHTSA was not established to be a consumer protection agency; their mission is to prevent safety hazards such as an engine self-destructing in the middle of traffic. Having your blown engine covered under warranty might be endorsed by the BBB, Consumers Union, and Nissan owners, but it doesn't really improve highway safety. At least you'll probably get a free oil change to go with your extended warranty.