My #@$&ing car door
December 3, 2015 11:46 AM   Subscribe

Last winter my car door froze shut and the door handle cable snapped when I tried to open it. I had it repaired at the dealership at significant cost. It broke again on the very first freeze this year. What should I do?

Car: 2009 Nissan Rogue.
Location: Hoth

Last year during some really cold weather, my driver's side car door froze shut and the cable inside the door broke when I tried to open it. The Nissan dealership fixed it, but it was pretty expensive since they had to take the door apart. I've been careful ever since, and I know to stop pulling instantly if I meet the slightest resistance.

This year, on the very first snow I gently tried to open the door, met resistance, let up immediately, and the driver's side door hasn't opened from the outside since. (It's been a week; I haven't had time to deal with it. It is EFFING ANNOYING.) Do I have any recourse with the dealership? On the one hand, it's probably well out of any warranty for the repair. It's been close to a year. On the other hand, car door handles ought to last longer than one winter, and I'm especially miffed that it bit the dust on the first freeze. Like I said, I've been gentle with it since the previous incident.

Should I take it back to the dealership? Find another repair shop? Accept that my car eats door handles for breakfast? Express my intense displeasure to the dealership?
How to proceed here?
posted by telepanda to Travel & Transportation (7 answers total)
 
Best answer: I'd go back to the Nissan dealership and say "you guys fixed this and it broke again" and see if they'll repair it for free.
posted by k8t at 11:53 AM on December 3, 2015 [9 favorites]


Recourse as in legal recourse is probably hard to know for this layman. I am sure it varies by jurisdiction. With that said, if I were you I'd call up the dealership and talk to a manager. Explain what they did last year and note that the repair broke the first time it was cold. I'd then ask what they were willing to do to make it right. If you say that in a calm, non-angry voice, perhaps they would cut you a deal or do it for free. In the mean time I'd check with other repair shop to see if they will quote you a better rate.
posted by mmascolino at 11:55 AM on December 3, 2015


Take it back to the dealer, insist that they replace it as the item is not working as designed. It's defective. If you get static, escalate all the way up to the Zone Manager. I'd also demand my original money back.

There has been a recall on this:

NTB09125 - CP 2008 - 2009 Rogue; Front Door Handles - Voluntary Service Campaign

In certain 2008 and 2009 Nissan Rogue vehicles, to assure customer satisfaction, Nissan is conducting a voluntary service campaign to install seals to the door latch assembly and apply special grease to the door cable ends to prevent freezing under certain conditions. See this bulletin for further details.

Good luck!
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 11:55 AM on December 3, 2015 [25 favorites]


I would be very surprised if the dealership didn't take care of this without cost to you. But I'd definitely look into the recall RuthlessBunny mentions above. If your car is under this recall, you should be able to get your money back (although you might have to take it above the service advisor level).

I suspect they had a bunch of handle failures like yours and came up with the recall to fix the problem. If the recall started after your fix, the tech probably didn't think to figure out the root cause of the failure and simply replaced the broken part. The recall likely addresses the reason the part failed (maybe a water leak gets into the mechanism which freezes in extreme cold and the part breaks; it's not the part that's the problem, it's the leak that needs to be corrected), or they had a batch of defective parts including the repair replacement.

Either way, you should be able to get this one fixed and be reimbursed for the last one.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 12:08 PM on December 3, 2015


The good news is, because you treated it gently, the handle itself may not be broken. Has it thawed thoroughly since the issue started up? Maybe water gets into the latch mechanism and all the dealer will have to do is thaw it out and replace the seals?
posted by aimedwander at 1:09 PM on December 3, 2015


Armor All (liberally and regularly) on the door seals and the paint that they seal against; that will help with the 'stick' that is causing the breakage.
posted by buzzman at 3:48 PM on December 3, 2015


Response by poster: As it turned out, they have a 1 year warranty on repairs (longer than I expected) so they repaired it for free. This time they replaced a part inside the door (last time they just stuck the ball joint back together). Here's hoping it stays.
posted by telepanda at 8:20 AM on January 18, 2016


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