2017 Infiniti Q60 Powertrain & Transmission Problems

The evening of April 17th, 2022, I started experiencing an issue with my vehicle. My car started making a fluttering noise it sounded like someone was shuffling a deck of cards and the RPMs would get to 3 during acceleration then drop and I’d lose power. There were no warning lights present, no notification or indicators on my dash, no odors, and no smoke emitting from my car. I parked my car at home not knowing what the issue was or where the noise was coming from. The next morning, I called to schedule an appointment and I booked with Infiniti in Timonium. After scheduling my appointment, I went out to check my car and when I started it the noise was still there. It ran for a few seconds then my check engine light cut on. Looking to get a pre-diagnosis to have additional info about the condition of my car I take it to Autozone on liberty road to have codes pulled. The codes that came back were P0014 and P0024 both camshaft codes. However, there were still no other symptoms of odor or smoke just the fluttering noise and now my check engine light. On the way back home my car stalls at Liberty Road and Rolling Road and won’t cut back on. I contacted AAA and had it towed to Infiniti the same day. I was assigned to [XXX] as my service advisor. The car was at Infiniti in Timonium for close to a month when [XXX] reached out to notify me of the presence of sludge and metal shavings in my oil pan and my engine being seized. He was adamant that it came from a lack of maintenance. I was using my third-party warranty and they requested that I send proof of maintenance. I submitted my maintenance invoices to Sean, and he forwarded them to my Warranty Company. I provided invoices for my last 3 oil changes. I wasn’t due for a fourth for another 6-700 miles. I bought my car at 35,796 miles and I’m currently at 70,042 (42 miles out of the power train warranty). I followed manufactures 10k guideline. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request. INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).

I recently have bought this car. I had heard an issue with the Serpentine belt/Tensioner and the belts where making a chirp during 1,500- 3,000 rpm. I took it into the dealership 10 days after I bought it while the vehicle was still under factory warranty and they said they inspected the belt system and could not replicate the issue. Later in the year I was able to get a video of the vehicle making the noise and called and scheduled another appointment. After I made the appointment I started researching online I came across I was not the only Consumer having issues with the Serpentine belt/Tensioner and Infiniti put out a Service Bulletin # ITB17-004 in regards to this issue. Looking at the bulletin I discovered that my vin fell in that spectrum of vin related to the service bulletin. I was able to get my car fixed the tensioner and serpentine belt got replaced with my extended warranty. Infiniti would not fix my car because it was past the time period on the powertrain warranty even though my my car only had 36,000 miles when I first discovered the issue. I understand the difference from a service bulletin and a recall. But I want to report this issue because there is obviously a quality issue with these serpentine belts and tensioner in specific to the 3.0 twin turbo engine that could cause a safety issues for consumers. I am advocating for other consumers and their safety because if this serpentine belt and tensioner where to fail while in motion making the car stall and over heat while on the road this could cause sever danger to patrons of the highway and could result in death. This service bulletin issue needs to be turned into a recall.

Initial fault was no cabin heat. Service department determined coolant was low. Coolant system passed pressure test. Coolant was found to be leaking into cylinders past head gaskets. After head gasket replacement, engine broke down on highway and car was towed to dealership. Catastrophic overheat damage in lower end. Engine long block was replaced to correct. Multiple identical/similar occurrences reported on infinitiq60.org. Failure is normally failed head gasket or porous engine block. 2017 models especially affected. Infiniti consumer affairs completely unresponsive if vehicle is outside powertrain warranty. Safety at risk due to potential engine failure and vehicle stoppage at any time. No indications received at any time indicating failure. Temp gauge never indicated spike or failure. Only indication was lack of cabin heat, but coolant was basically empty. The problem was reproduced by dealer after servicing coolant and seeing subsequent engine internal consumption of coolant. Vehicle was inspected by Infiniti service department and MPP third-party warranty company. All vehicle service records since purchase are available.