Check engine light came on.. Catalytic converter

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****HUGE NOTIFICATION THAT YOUR INDIVIDUAL MILEAGE MAY VARY, AND I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY ISSUES THAT ARISE FROM TAKING MY ADVICE****

Now that that's over, I'm ecstatic to report that my catalytic converters aren't toast. I feel like i got a $3k bonus just in time for christmas.

Turns out that we aren't driving the QX nearly hard enough to clean all the crap out of the catalytic converters. It was a combination of a few factors:

1.) Short, infrequent trips - My wife drives the QX to work, 2 miles from home. Most of her driving consists of trips that are less than 15 minutes. This meant that the cats were never really getting a chance to get up to proper "cleaning" teperature.

2.) "Economical" driving - Along with heat, you need PRESSURE to keep crap from building up on the cats. We never bury the pedal on the QX because it's "not good for the environment". Too bad your need that addtional pressure to clean out the cats as well.

So I threw two bottles of Seafoam into half a tank of gas, drove the beast around to get it nice and hot, then spent 30 minutes driving like I stole it. Cleared the codes from the ECU, and have been monitoring things until right now. ECU codes haven't come back, and everything seems happy. Here's the part where I cross my fingers and hope it lasts....
 
yeah its called an "italian tune up"!

the DIG engine needs to be driven "spirited" every now and again. needs to clean the carbon build up on things in the chamber since the petrol doesn't spray down on components that a non dig engine does.
 
bigdog i hope it lasts. i have used seafoam in the past in other cars. its a good product. once again please update. i have my fingers crossed that your SES light doesnt come back.
 
Quick followup. Drove the QX from STL to Chicago over the holidays. Check engine light is still off, and according to torque and the OBDC, everything is running smoothly.
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2011 Infiniti QX56 76,000 miles BAD Catalytic Converter !

I will never buy a Infiniti again ! It has been by far the worse suv that I ever own !


-very noise
-Small fuel tank which it means bad range.
-Evaporator air conditioning flaw design it doesn't let you get fresh clean air onboar the car automatically! Car now has a very bad smell. Infinity didn't do anything about this on warranty.
-Engine Fan Clutch has been replace already.

Conclusion never again Infiniti !
 
CFM said:
I will never buy a Infiniti again ! It has been by far the worse suv that I ever own !

-Cheap made
-very noise
-Small fuel tank which it means bad range.
-Evaporator air conditioning flaw design it doesn't let you get fresh clean air onboar the car automatically! Car now has a very bad smell. Infinity didn't do anything about this on warranty.
-Engine Fan Clutch has been replace already.

Conclusion never again Infiniti !
Click to expand...


You're a freakin' moron. Mods, please delete this account. Let's just deal with the simple one. How much gas would you like to carry?
 
2012. 95k miles. OBD shows catalytic converter issue. I paid for my timing chain fiasco out of warranty. For those that got their catalytic converter replaced, what seems to be the word from Infiniti on what is covered?
 
Unfortunately, the dealership will not pay for it. I had both done within 2 months of each other. It is not cheap. There are no aftermarket cats available at this time.
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Having the right side cat replaced tomorrow. I got the extended warranty and it is covered.I glanced at the warranty book over the weekend and the cats are covered under the federal emissions list and I'll double check but I thought it said 96 months or 90,000 or 95,000. I'll grab the book later this morning and double check.

It is 80,000 or 8 years whichever comes first. That is for the cats.
 

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I just had the right converter replace on my 2011 QX56 apparently under factory warranty until 80,000 miles that's the good news ! The bad news is they can only replace one side regardless of condition of left side which it can cost $1980.00 so now I just hope the left side converter goes bad before 80,000 miles.
 
I'll chime in with my recent issues.

I have a 2011 QX56, with 84,5xx miles. I have used premium fuel for every fill-up (sometimes 87 on long roadtrips) and I've changed the oil every 3500-4500 miles. The Service Engine light came on about 500 miles ago and I had my local trusted mechanic read the code and reset it. It was code P0420, which I googled and thankfully found a bunch of info on this forum. I was hoping the code was thrown because my wife didn't tighten the gas cap enough when she filled up, but unfortunately that wasn't it. A few days later the SES indicator lit up again.

So I took it to my local Infiniti dealer (Atlantic in JAX, FL). The service adviser seemed very familiar with the issue. She said since I was out of warranty, they couldn't do anything but provide a quote, but she suggested I call Infiniti Consumer Affairs to see if they could help out. I was expecting an estimate of over $3k, but they did me one better - over $4k plus tax! *UGH* This was for both converters.

I got home and put a call into Infiniti Consumer Affairs. They took my information and promised a callback by end of next day. Next day arrives and I get a call from the regional manager. She proceeds to read the cookie cutter response of "I'm sorry, but we cannot be of assistance, as the parameters of your warranty have expired". I made it clear that I wasn't happy, but I was expecting that response from all the google results with people having the same issue.

The rest of the afternoon was spent making phone calls. Jacksonville recently got a second Infiniti dealership (Orange Park), so I called them to get a quote. Turns out the old service manager runs this place and he was very helpful with information and a quote. His quote was roughly $3250 - WAY less than the other dealer. He was miffed how the other dealer came up with that high of number, but I didn't get the parts/labor breakdown from the dealer. Then I called a longstanding muffler shop here in town (Muffler City), and they said they've started to see a lot of these and did two QX56 catalytic converter swaps last week. For $1,250, they'll weld the catalytic converters off the existing manifolds and reinstall new ones with a 5yr/50K warranty. So I guess that saves big on the labor of having to breakdown the engine bay to replace the entire manifold.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do, but I'm leaning towards the cheaper welded option. Any dealer work from here on out will be going to Orange Park Infiniti though - just based on the information I gleaned today!

Later,
pjdavep
 
I cleared my codes and my CEL came back on after ~300 miles. OBD shows P0430 bank 2 so I know it is the catalytic converter. How pressing of a matter is this to get fixed? I have a couple back-to back 200 mile round trips planned over the weekend.
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Should be OK. I just had mine done and from the time I took it in for diagnosis untill the parts came in was about 3 1/2 weeks. I put about 300 miles on it with no issues.
 
My 2011 is at the dealer now having the timing chain and related parts replaced under the very recently announced recall. Every indication is that these two issues are related, so I'm concerned about the condition of the cats. No codes yet and I am right at 100K miles, so when I get it back I plan to take the above advice and run it hard with a can or two of Seafoam in it. Hoping to avoid the cat problem for now.
 
Wow this is great news. Make sure to have them check the AC compressor before they do the work so that if it gets a crack in it you can prove its there fault a little easier.
 
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So I went through the getting denied with Consumer Affairs regarding the cats the first time. Then after the timing chain recall I called back. Denied again. They said they have talked to their engineers and the engineers tell them the two (timing chain and cats) are not related. BS. I asked the dealer how many cats they are doing and they said they are seeing more and more. Then I asked how many cats they are doing that didn't have timing chain issues and they said very few if any at all.

When I went in with the timing chain at 77k miles, I told them I expected the cats to fail soon. They said they were not throwing codes and were fine. Sure enough a year later, another $5k repair.
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Seafoam does nothing for a DIG engine...sorry...a waste of money.

Now regarding the cats...I've had one replaced under warranty at about 62k. I am now getting my timing chain replaced not due to noise but only because of the recall and I want to make sure I get it done while I still have the extended warranty. I'm not sure that the two are directly related...probably more likely related to poor design or the HPFP failing. Hopefully the issue a recall for the cats as well.
 
cheezmo1 said:
Wow this is great news. Make sure to have them check the AC compressor before they do the work so that if it gets a crack in it you can prove its there fault a little easier.
Click to expand...

Wow, funny you mention this. When I had my chains done two months ago, I had to bring it back to the dealer twice. First time because a leak in one of the valve covers, second time because they were one tick off on the timing and I kept throwing misfire codes! They had to break it all down and totally redo the chain work. When it was in the shop that second time, the service adviser called and told me that my AC compressor had a leak and was about to fail. They said because of all my issues, they'd replace it free of charge. Of course, if it failed on me the next month, I would have totally blamed them for it!

Later,
pjdavep
 
I have a 2012 QX56 bought new with all options in late 2012. Had the timing chain recall done - can't recall if there were any CEL's or if they just did the work based on TSB or what...

SES light came on recently, local dealer diagnoses with catalytic converter "clogged". I've put a call into regional manager who called me back and made sure he mentioned that he would investigate this "out of warranty claim" and get back to me next week. I have 95k on it, always premium fuel and always dealer serviced.

Anyone have any success on a >80k mile catalytic converter warranty replacement? going to be pretty ugly if they don't offer to cover most of the cost, this is not what one would expect when dropping close to $75k on a vehicle.

Anyone has TSB info on the catalytic converter or the timing chain issue? wondering if they could be related?

thanks!
Chris
 
Remember there is a Federal Warranty for Exhaust related parts up to 80K miles. Got my left bank replaced at 79k.
 
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