I was driving my 2013 Nissan Altima on a side road when off a sudden the traction control light came on and my steering wheel pulled to the right. It felt as if I was driving on snow and ice and felt very unstable. I wasn't sure what had happened since I hadn't hit anything and was driving down a smooth road at 35 miles an hour. I figured I would take it straight to my mechanic which was less than 10 miles away from me. It started violently shaking in the back, and thought my back end was going to fall off. I managed to make it there but he couldn't even get it into the bay. He called me over and pointed to my drivers rear tire - it was leaning in towards the rear of the back. He called out to the guys working to come see my car. They were all shocked as this was something they've never seen before. He had told me that the rear control arm was so rusted that it snapped right off and I was lucky I was only on a back road. I was very lucky since the night before I was driving home on the freeway at 65 and extremely relieved it didn't snap at that speed.
Since I have extended warranty I had it towed back to where I bought it. However, I was informed today that my warranty doesn't cover this part and it will cost me almost $2220 to fix. I have read about the control arm failures in 2013 Nissans - where we use salt on the roads in the winter, the salt is apparently causing the control arm to rust and break away. I called Nissan who told me that since I brought it into a Honda dealership (where I bought it) that they couldn't do anything so it now needs to be towed to a Nissan dealership where I have to pay for the cost of tow and probably won't be reimbursed.
It is now sitting at a Honda where it will be until Tuesday (6 days away) because the Nissan dealership is too busy to look at it until then. It is the night before Thanksgiving and I was supposed to be leaving tonight but now I'm stuck at home because I don't have a car! I'm not sure why Nissan hasn't done anything to fix this issue for people, since they're under investigation for this very problem. I hope Nissan does the right thing and recalls these vehicles before someone is seriously injured.
click to see larger images
I was driving my 2013 Nissan Altima on a side road when off a sudden the traction control light came on and my steering wheel pulled to the right. It felt as if I was driving on snow and ice and felt very unstable. I wasn't sure what had happened since I hadn't hit anything and was driving down a smooth road at 35 miles an hour. I figured I would take it straight to my mechanic which was less than 10 miles away from me. It started violently shaking in the back, and thought my back end was going to fall off. I managed to make it there but he couldn't even get it into the bay. He called me over and pointed to my drivers rear tire - it was leaning in towards the rear of the back. He called out to the guys working to come see my car. They were all shocked as this was something they've never seen before. He had told me that the rear control arm was so rusted that it snapped right off and I was lucky I was only on a back road. I was very lucky since the night before I was driving home on the freeway at 65 and extremely relieved it didn't snap at that speed.
Since I have extended warranty I had it towed back to where I bought it. However, I was informed today that my warranty doesn't cover this part and it will cost me almost $2220 to fix. I have read about the control arm failures in 2013 Nissans - where we use salt on the roads in the winter, the salt is apparently causing the control arm to rust and break away. I called Nissan who told me that since I brought it into a Honda dealership (where I bought it) that they couldn't do anything so it now needs to be towed to a Nissan dealership where I have to pay for the cost of tow and probably won't be reimbursed.
It is now sitting at a Honda where it will be until Tuesday (6 days away) because the Nissan dealership is too busy to look at it until then. It is the night before Thanksgiving and I was supposed to be leaving tonight but now I'm stuck at home because I don't have a car! I'm not sure why Nissan hasn't done anything to fix this issue for people, since they're under investigation for this very problem. I hope Nissan does the right thing and recalls these vehicles before someone is seriously injured.
- allie43, Westford, US