My 2008 Nissan Frontier has been carefully maintained since new. The first owner (17,000 miles) owned a Nissan dealership. I live in a different town and have taken it to our local Nissan dealer exclusively for all its regular maintenance issues. I have all the service slips since new to prove it. Today I took it in for its 60,000 mile maintenance. I have been hearing a whining noise from the engine for a little while and asked them to look into it. I expected to hear that a bearing had gone bad somewhere. Instead, they just told me that the timing chains were failing and that it would cost $2,140 to repair. Timing chains are something that should last the life of the car and should be covered by warranty. While looking into this tonight, I discovered that there is an ongoing class-action lawsuit for this very issue.

high pitched whining noise in the front part of the engine replace 1 primary and 2 secondary timing chains/tensioners 1) $1473 to replace timing chain system @ 53,610 miles 2) Nissan had issued a Service Bulletin NTB09-128 revealing a knowledge of the issue on at least 3 models over a 5 year period of time 3) Called Nissan Consumer Affairs to check on reimbursement since Nissan knew it was a problem. In fairness, they responded within 24 hrs. only to take less than 1 minute to deny the claim 4) Wrote 3 letters (1 per month) to Nissan Consumer Affairs until they contacted me again today 1/13/2016 only to deny the claim once again.

I've owned only Nissan trucks since 1984 and been very happy with their products and quality. I bought this truck new in 2008 and only had 53,610 miles when this issue came up. I'm thankful I heard the noise and had it fixed before the chain(s) seized and caused major engine damage or even a wreck. I would have thought I had an uncommon problem (bad luck) if it hadn't been documented via the Service Bulletin. Nissan acknowledged the issue via the service bulletin that covered at least 3 models over a 5 year time span. They now refuse to accept any type of responsibility. A quick internet search reveals several class action lawsuits concerning the timing chain issue. I'm very unhappy with Nissan's lack of product support on what was clearly a quality assurance problem. I will most likely not buy (nor recommend) a Nissan product anytime in the foreseeable future.