Welcome to the ZHP club! I just got an '04 Titanium Silver vert a couple of months ago and like you, love it very much.
Since you're a Nissan/Infiniti tech and you offered <evil grin>... Question for you. I'll try to make the background really short, then ask the question.
TL;DR: Skip to last paragraph.
My wife's DD is a 2012 Altima S. A few months ago at about 58,000 miles, the brake light started coming on. It was due for an oil change anyway, so we took it in and found out the master cylinder was leaking into the booster. On a 3-4 year old car with less than 60k miles. $650 to replace. I was a little annoyed so I told them to hold off. Went back and did some research and found out it was a common issue, there was a tech bulletin and even a
voluntary service campaign that appears to cover ALL 07-12 Altimas. Sweet!
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So, I engaged with Nissan Customer Relations, gave them all the relevant info including VIN, age, one-owner car, etc. and they called back a few days later and said my car wasn't included in the campaign. The CSR was a total robot, incapable of answering anything "off-script" about why my car wasn't included, and why none of the service campaign information made any exceptions, i.e. it was all-inclusive. I got nowhere and gave up.
So, I wrote a very polite and professional "I'm not too happy" email to Nissan, and received a call back a few days later that was nearly a carbon copy of the first, almost like we'd never spoken, informing me that my car wasn't included in the campaign. Again, totally on-script. It was even the same CSR, but it was like he had no idea we'd spoken once already. It was bizarre.
So, I wrote another polite and professional email to Nissan, but this time informing them that because I was now questioning the quality of Nissan parts and engineering, but more importantly because of how they'd handled the situation, that even though we were on our second Nissan and are considering replacing the Altima, that now it would almost certainly not be a Nissan or Infiniti product. I then received yet another call, again from the CSR, who again sounded like we'd never spoken. When I pressed this time, again asking how it's possible that the voluntary service campaign made no exceptions, that even though the service campaign explicitly talks about reimbursing for repairs done out of warranty, that somehow my wife's car was mysteriously excepted... The best he could do was suggest that maybe if I went ahead with the repairs and submitted them, that perhaps they may reimburse me for the repairs per the campaign.
I've had it at this point. We're replacing the Altima. We were going to trade it to a car dealer and not care, but it sounds like I found a nice clean X3 to replace it for my wife's driver, which means we'll be selling the Altima privately, which means I need to fix the master cylinder.
Finally... To the question...
Seems like the master cylinder OE part is around $250-300. I'm a fairly technical guy, comfortable with repairs and maintenance... Been around cars my whole life, but never messed with brakes other than replacing pads. Given that I'm selling the car, is it something I can/should do myself, or should I suck it up and let a shop do it so I have documentation and no liability? If you don't think I should do it, should I go indy shop to save some cash, or Nissan dealer?
Sorry for the long email... Feels good to get it off my chest.
Thanks!!!
Cheers,
SC
Originally Posted by ecrabb
Welcome to the ZHP club! I just got an '04 Titanium Silver vert a couple of months ago and like you, love it very much.
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