2015 Q50 - total loss?
September 9, 2022 6:49 AM Subscribe
i'm looking for opinions on the best way to proceed..... details below...
wife's 2015 Q50 infitniti (65k miles) stalled on the highway. We managed to pull off to median. After turning off AC, we managed to start it up (just fine) & drove 5 more miles to our destination.
After dinner it wouldn't start. Cranked, just wouldn't turn over (sounded as if it wasn't getting fuel).
Towed to dealership, who after a week of diagnosis (apparently codes were all over the place, so initial thoughts were PCM). After a week of the dealer going back & forth with their technicians, they got that worked out & said that there was no oil or coolant in the car (which i have a very hard time believing).
They gave me 4 choices;
total loss.
put in a new motor - $13-15k
put in a salvaged motor - $ pricing this out - but note: NO WARRANTY OR GUANANTEES.
open up motor & try to fix ($2500-$3k)
i went with the last & he just called me saying after they opened up the motor, it's full of sludge & he's absolutely confident this motor can't be used... so now my options are (according to him) put in a salvaged motor or new motor to get it to run.
New motor seems silly to me, as i still owe $11k on this car (might as well buy a new car for that).
I'm waiting for him to price out a salvaged motor for me.
My initial plan was to fix the motor for $2500-3k & then trade it in asap for anything....
Any thoughts on this?
wife's 2015 Q50 infitniti (65k miles) stalled on the highway. We managed to pull off to median. After turning off AC, we managed to start it up (just fine) & drove 5 more miles to our destination.
After dinner it wouldn't start. Cranked, just wouldn't turn over (sounded as if it wasn't getting fuel).
Towed to dealership, who after a week of diagnosis (apparently codes were all over the place, so initial thoughts were PCM). After a week of the dealer going back & forth with their technicians, they got that worked out & said that there was no oil or coolant in the car (which i have a very hard time believing).
They gave me 4 choices;
total loss.
put in a new motor - $13-15k
put in a salvaged motor - $ pricing this out - but note: NO WARRANTY OR GUANANTEES.
open up motor & try to fix ($2500-$3k)
i went with the last & he just called me saying after they opened up the motor, it's full of sludge & he's absolutely confident this motor can't be used... so now my options are (according to him) put in a salvaged motor or new motor to get it to run.
New motor seems silly to me, as i still owe $11k on this car (might as well buy a new car for that).
I'm waiting for him to price out a salvaged motor for me.
My initial plan was to fix the motor for $2500-3k & then trade it in asap for anything....
Any thoughts on this?
Did you buy the car new? Have you experienced any issues previously with the car?
Also, is there any chance any of this work will be covered either by the dealer warranty or by your insurance? A cursory google is telling me the Infiniti powertrain warranty is 6 years which you'd be right on the cusp of, depending on when you bought the car.
posted by mekily at 7:30 AM on September 9, 2022
Also, is there any chance any of this work will be covered either by the dealer warranty or by your insurance? A cursory google is telling me the Infiniti powertrain warranty is 6 years which you'd be right on the cusp of, depending on when you bought the car.
posted by mekily at 7:30 AM on September 9, 2022
Eeesh, sorry. What can you get for it as salvage or trade-in right now? Might not even be worth putting in a motor.
posted by Dashy at 7:47 AM on September 9, 2022
posted by Dashy at 7:47 AM on September 9, 2022
Response by poster: my friend is a 30 year mechanic. He's service manager at Lexus. He knows his stuff & has taken care of all my cars. I'm confident he know the right oil to put in the car. Generally i kept up with all the oil changes. The fact that the dealer said no coolant or oil in the motor (combined with no signs/stains on my driveway), my guess is possibly on the short drive from the highway to my destination that night (less than 5 miles), it's possible something serious occurred, draining both fluids from the car, but you'd think there'd be evidence of such a cataclysm.
I didn't buy it new, i bought it about 3-4 years old (had about 35k miles). As for the dealer warranty, i had a major transmission issue about 6 months ago or so, same dealership, they told me it was still covered under the manufacturers warranty & it didn't cost me a dime. my guess if there was anything similar for the engine, it would have run out by now.
posted by foodybat at 7:53 AM on September 9, 2022
I didn't buy it new, i bought it about 3-4 years old (had about 35k miles). As for the dealer warranty, i had a major transmission issue about 6 months ago or so, same dealership, they told me it was still covered under the manufacturers warranty & it didn't cost me a dime. my guess if there was anything similar for the engine, it would have run out by now.
posted by foodybat at 7:53 AM on September 9, 2022
Response by poster: @ Dashy, i'm in the scrap metal business & the scrap value of cars are minimal (depending of course on the year, make, model, etc).... but well under $1k ...
If i spend $6k (just a guestimate) for a salvaged motor installed, then i'm $17k into the car... i trade it in, i'll get $10-12k max for it. a $5k loss.
if i scrap the car it's a $10k loss....
not sure the best course of action is yet at this point, waiting for the infiniti service manager to call me back with an estimate of a salvaged motor.
posted by foodybat at 7:56 AM on September 9, 2022
If i spend $6k (just a guestimate) for a salvaged motor installed, then i'm $17k into the car... i trade it in, i'll get $10-12k max for it. a $5k loss.
if i scrap the car it's a $10k loss....
not sure the best course of action is yet at this point, waiting for the infiniti service manager to call me back with an estimate of a salvaged motor.
posted by foodybat at 7:56 AM on September 9, 2022
It sounds like you're well-informed on car stuff, but I'm "car guy" and I'd want a lot more explanation on how they propose the car lost all of its oil AND coolant, since those are separate systems and you'd need multiple failures or something truly catastrophic to suddenly drain them both entirely. Given the money involved, I might be inclined to have it taken somewhere else for a second opinion, though a lot of the evidence may have already been destroyed.
posted by primethyme at 8:05 AM on September 9, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by primethyme at 8:05 AM on September 9, 2022 [8 favorites]
The phrase "the codes were all over the place" does not make a ton of sense. If that's literally what you were told I would see that as a red flag that I need to get a second opinion.
posted by mhoye at 8:24 AM on September 9, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by mhoye at 8:24 AM on September 9, 2022 [5 favorites]
Did you have the oil / fluids changed by your friend since the transmission issue 6 months ago?
I don't like "codes all over the place" and "back and forth with the technician". Did the dealer leave your car dry after the transmission issue and then have an "oh shit" moment when you brought it in?
You're right: where is the oil and coolant? I mean... was it engine ghosts? There would be huge evidence if both of those things leaked out instantaneously and simultaneously. On the road somewhere and on your car. Is there a giant hole? In BOTH THINGS?
posted by Horkus at 11:20 AM on September 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
I don't like "codes all over the place" and "back and forth with the technician". Did the dealer leave your car dry after the transmission issue and then have an "oh shit" moment when you brought it in?
You're right: where is the oil and coolant? I mean... was it engine ghosts? There would be huge evidence if both of those things leaked out instantaneously and simultaneously. On the road somewhere and on your car. Is there a giant hole? In BOTH THINGS?
posted by Horkus at 11:20 AM on September 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
This makes no sense and you are probably being lied to, but it's impossible to guess the details about why. Has this all happened over the phone? It's easy to lie over the phone.
If so I think you need to go there, and if you're not able to see and interpret the state of a car yourself, you need to take a friend or hired person who can, and have them show you. "Oops all the fluids disappeared" and a low mileage engine with routine oil changes being "so sludgy we're sure it can't be used" just don't make any sense. You want to see the sludge, you want to see the empty oil pan and radiator. You want to look under the car for evidence of what happened to these fluids! If they say they've opened up the engine for this sludge diagnosis, you want to see evidence of that.
Did they set it on fire? Did they drop it off the lift and want you to just shrug and write it off and not even come back for it? Is the engine actually fine but they screwed up and fried all the electronics and don't want to say so? Did someone steal the catalytic converter while it was in their lot and they don't want to cover that $4000 repair?
posted by fritley at 6:07 PM on September 9, 2022
If so I think you need to go there, and if you're not able to see and interpret the state of a car yourself, you need to take a friend or hired person who can, and have them show you. "Oops all the fluids disappeared" and a low mileage engine with routine oil changes being "so sludgy we're sure it can't be used" just don't make any sense. You want to see the sludge, you want to see the empty oil pan and radiator. You want to look under the car for evidence of what happened to these fluids! If they say they've opened up the engine for this sludge diagnosis, you want to see evidence of that.
Did they set it on fire? Did they drop it off the lift and want you to just shrug and write it off and not even come back for it? Is the engine actually fine but they screwed up and fried all the electronics and don't want to say so? Did someone steal the catalytic converter while it was in their lot and they don't want to cover that $4000 repair?
posted by fritley at 6:07 PM on September 9, 2022
"no oil or coolant in the car" is not compatible with "engine full of sludge". I get a bad feeling from most of what you've said about this dealership, I'd probably go there with a tow truck and have the car taken somewhere else for a second opinion. If your friend is a Lexus mechanic maybe they can take a look?
posted by counterfeitfake at 2:11 PM on September 10, 2022
posted by counterfeitfake at 2:11 PM on September 10, 2022
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posted by fake at 7:17 AM on September 9, 2022 [2 favorites]