2014 Infiniti QX60 Electrical System Problems

I had just gotten a safety inspection 15 days prior to this event to renew my registration. The car had been driving perfectly. Me and my wife had drove to my daughter’s school to pick her up. The school is about 10 minutes away from our home. Once we left the school we got about 3 minutes down the road and started smelling a strong electrical/plastic burning smell. Suddenly the car stalled and shut off. Then it cranked back up. Then it shut off. It did that several times. Smoke started pouring out from under the hood. I was barely able to get the car off the road and into a parking lot before it completely died and stopped cranking and stalling. I immediately got my family out of the car and had them run to safety. There was several other family’s with their children who had also just been picked up all around us. So I ran to car and popped the hood. There was so much electrical smoke coming out from driver side area. It appeared to be coming from the hybrid high voltage system under the ECM. I quickly disconnected the negative terminal on the 12v battery to shut down the electrical systems on the car. I have called Infiniti and I am dropping car off tomorrow to have a full inspection done to find out what happened. I am reaching out to you because I know that there is documented reports of this exact thing happening to other cars and that there was a recall R21B4 that they did a software update for. I believe that that update did not work to prevent this catastrophic event from happening. I don’t know if they will try to act like this was not related to the recall so I am trying to cover all my bases here by filing this complaint with y’all as well. I also have an open claim with Infiniti corporate. They are trying to just say that I no longer have a warranty for my car but this is a safety concern not just a warranty issue. I will be taking my car to Infiniti Clear Lake in Houston Texas tomorrow for them to look at it.

The vehicle constantly shudders and almost stalls when in reverse or in low gear. The vehicle seems to not switch properly between the hybrid battery to the engine or vice-versa. The vehicle has a recall from October 2021 and Infiniti has not fixed the recall yet. I feel the vehicle is unsafe. I have emailed and contacted Infiniti to no avail. Infiniti has not remedied this recall in any fashion in almost a year.

I took it in for recall R21B4 to be reprogrammed and problem fixed. The problem still persist as I’m driving the vehicle loses all driving power which is dangerous while it has happened to me while driving on the express way. Infiniti is telling me i need to bring it back in to have my vehicle checked out and wants to charge me 186$ when the recall clearly states that the problem is the recall

PURCHASED NEW 2014 QX60 HYBRID EQUIPPED WITH TECHNOLOGY PACKAGE, INCLUDING INTELLIGENT BRAKE ASSIST WITH FORWARD COLLISION WARNING, AND DISTANCE CONTROL ASSIST. INITIALLY THE ONLY ISSUE WAS THE VEHICLE HESITATING WHEN STARTING FROM A STOP. THE DEALERSHIP CLAIMED THE VEHICLE NEEDED A BREAK-IN PERIOD TO OPTIMIZE THE ENGINE AND HYBRID SYSTEM. TWO WEEKS LATER AS I WAS DRIVING THROUGH A PARKING LOT LESS THAN 15 MPH, THE DRIVER SEAT BELT SUDDENLY PRE-TENSED TIGHTLY AS I APPLIED THE BRAKES, SUDDENLY PINNING ME TO SEAT UNTIL VEHICLE WAS COMPLETELY STOPPED. IT HAPPENED AGAIN THE NEXT DAY WHEN GENTLY APPLYING BRAKE WHILE DRIVING AT LOW SPEED ON RESIDENTIAL STREET. TOOK VEHICLE TO DEALERSHIP AND EXPLAINED EACH TIME IT HAPPENED WHEN APPLYING BRAKES AT LOW SPEED WITH NO VEHICLES OR OBSTACLES IN VICINITY. THE DEALERSHIP SERVICE CHECKED THE VEHICLE OVER 24 HOURS AND COULD NOT DETECT THE PROBLEM, RETURNING THE VEHICLE TO ME. AFTER A WEEK IT BEGAN AGAIN, EACH TIME TIGHTENING QUICKLY AND PINNING ME INTO MY SEAT UNTIL VEHICLE COMPLETELY STOPPED. OCCURRED RANDOMLY AT SPEEDS LESS THAN 20MPH AND NO CARS, PEDESTRIANS OR OBSTACLES NEAR VEHICLE. NO ALARMS, NO WARNING AND NO REASON. NOW AFRAID TO DRIVE THE VEHICLE AS IT OCCURRED AS OFTEN AS 3 TIMES IN LESS THAN 24HRS, I LEFT MY VEHICLE AT DEALERSHIP FOR SERVICE AGAIN. AFTER SEVERAL DAYS, BOTH SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE AND SERVICE MANAGER STATED THEY WERE ABLE TO DUPLICATE THE PROBLEM AND THE SEAT BELT IS NOT COMMUNICATING WITH AIRBAG/SAFETY SYSTEM OR RECOGNIZE THE HYBRID SYSTEM. SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE CONFIRMED OTHER QX60 HYBRIDS DETECTED SAME SEAT BELT MALFUNCTIONING DURING MANUFACTURING LINE TEST. MY QX60 HYBRID IS STILL IN DEALERSHIP SERVICE AFTER TWO WEEKS AND THEY CANNOT DETERMINE CAUSE OF SEAT BELT MALFUNCTIONING. *TR

AFTER 4 DAYS WE BOUGHT A NEW QX60 2014 THE PASSENGER FRONT DOOR DOES NOT OPEN FROM OUTSIDE OR INSIDE A FEW DAYS AFTER THE DEALER SOLVED THE PROBLEM BUT NOW AFTER 8 MONTHS THIS HAPPEN AGAIN. HOW MANY TIMES HAVE TO REPAIR IT? *TR

PURCHASED CAR 11/2013 NEW FROM DEALERSHIP. WITHIN THREE MONTHS, FRONT PASSENGER SIDE AIR BAG LIGHT BEGAN COMING ON EVEN THOUGH A PASSENGER WAS IN THE SEAT. THIS HAS OCCURRED ON & OFF EVER SINCE. THERE HAS BEEN NO PATTERN DISTINGUISHABLE -- NO CORRELATION BETWEEN WEIGHT OF PERSON, IN CAR WHEN/WHEN NOT STARTED, NOR HOW LONG LIGHT HAS STAYED ON OR IF IT DID GO OFF AFTER >3MIN. WE HAVE BEEN TO THE DEALERSHIP NUMEROUS TIMES, FOUR OFFICIALLY ON THE SERVICE HISTORY, AND AT LEAST TWO OTHER TIMES AS A "DRIVE THRU" TO CONFIRM THAT INDEED MY FAMILY WOULD BE SAFE IF IN AN ACCIDENT (VERBAL REASSURANCE GIVEN BY SERVICE MANAGER FOR EACH OF THOSE "DRIVE-THRU" TIMES). SERVICE MANAGER SAID SYSTEM IS WORKING PROPERLY PRIOR TO INITIAL OCS REPROGRAM COMPLETED 6/5/14 (RECALL NUMBER 14V138000). LIGHT REMAINED ON WHILE PULLING OUT OF DEALERSHIP ON 6/5/14 AND THEY REPROGRAMED IT AGAIN BEFORE LEAVING. DUE TO THE FACT THAT THE DEALERSHIP IS OVER 30 MILES AWAY, AS WELL AS THEIR INSISTENCE THAT THE SYSTEM IS "WORKING PROPERLY", I HAVE NOT TAKEN IT IS MANY TIMES WHEN THE LIGHT HAS BEEN ON. IF TAKEN IN EACH TIME, THIS WOULD BE PROBABLY EVERY TEN DAYS - TWO WEEKS. IF THE LIGHT HAS NOT GONE OFF, I HAVE MADE THAT PERSON GET INTO THE BACK SEAT. OVER 90% OF THE TIME, THESE HAVE BEEN FAMILY MEMBERS, WEIGHING BETWEEN 90#-200# AND ALL OVER 5' TALL. ADDITIONAL SERVICE HISTORY TIMES FOR THIS ISSUE ARE: 8/20/14, 8/25/14, 3/24/15. SERVICE MANAGER FREQUENTLY UNABLE TO DUPLICATE CONCERNS, INSISTS SYSTEM IS FUNCTIONING APPROPRIATELY. WHEN ASKED IF HE WOULD CONSIDER PLACING HIS LOVED ONE IN THIS SEAT WITH THE LIGHT ON, TRUSTING THE FUNCTION WILL PROTECT THOSE IN A HIGHWAY ACCIDENT, HE STATED, "I UNDERSTAND YOUR CONCERNS." *TR