Nissan Rear Cradles Warning

[steven kiser]

just a warning here to all techs in the "salt" states. i had an altima in for an evap leak. the fuel fill head was distorted from nozzle damage. it was oblong. no biggie, replace the tube assembly. need to drop the cradle. both rear anchor pins snapped. what a freaking night mare. i had kept the customer in the loop. i looked into the cradle issue and there was a recall on it. called the dealer and was told that it was already done. i looked closely at it and in my opinion it hadn't been touched. customer was asked to look at it and he agreed with me. well not only did the pin snap but it was frozen into the bushing. bushing was non serviceable even though it showed a special tool needed to replace it along with a part number that was (i was told) discontinued. the pin was part of the frame which was part of the body. i guess it could be considered totaled because it was basically non serviceable. i kept the customer completely involved in the process. we spoke at least once a day. since this was totally unexpected and i'm fairly busy i explained that i needed to use this as a fill in. i explained that i would rather upset one customer (him) as opposed to multiple ones by putting them off. he completely understood. i ended up exposing the top of the pin by opening up the floor and drilling it out using a hole saw. it took me hours to drill out the broken pins from the bushing. i tried using a king pin press to remove them but it only expanded the pin and really seized it. i really couldn't push the drilling because i didn't want to overheat the bushing insert and loosen it in the bushing. i came in last saturday and sunday to work on it without interference. i used 5/8 l10 nuts and bolts filled the frame openings with expandable foam and sent it on it's way. i tied this car up for two weeks. i gave him a break on the labor because of this. i thought he would bust my balls over this but he explained that he completely understood and said it was solely because of the way i communicated and showed him the issues in a way he understood. if you have to drop a rear cradle on one of these warn the customer. this was added to one of the top 10 pains in the a** jobs i've ever had.

[Tim Martin]

Thanks for the tip steve. I am wondering what year Altima this was.

But you do bring up an excellent point regarding keeping the customer involved in the process. Communication is one thing sadly lacking in many shops I have contact with and then they wonder why the customer gets so unhandy to deal with. They fuss and moan and bewail the rotten ?><*&^% attitude of the customer when in reality it's the fault of the shop owner to communicate properly with them. Of course we all have that one or more customers that come in with a know it all attitude but even they sometimes can be disarmed by good communication.

Thanks for the story and sharing your experiences.

[mopwrforme]

thanks steven point well taken,