Nissan's variable-compression engine once held so much promise. The so-called VC-Turbo uses a complicated mechanism to allow operation at a low compression ratio for performance, and a high compression ratio for better fuel economy. But, reliability has been a concern, prompting a NHTSA investigation, and now, a massive recall.
CarBuzz brought our attention to the recall, which covers 443,899 Nissan and Infiniti models listed below:
The two Infiniti models and certain trims of the Altima use Nissan's 2.0-liter four-cylinder VC-Turbo engine, while the Rouge uses the 1.5-liter three-cylinder variant. As we've reported before, the problem stems from bearing failures due to a manufacturing defect in the "multi-link mechanism" that varies the compression ratio. Nissan has introduced manufacturing updates over the life of the engine, which seems to have helped, if not solved the problem entirely, hence why newer Infiniti models and Altimas, plus the new Murano, aren't covered in the recall. But, it's still a huge amount of engines.
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