NHTSA Complaint #10190719 — 2001 NISSAN PATHFINDER

I PURCHASED NISSAN PATHFINDER 2001 ON MARCH 2001, AND THE IN-DASH 6-CD CHANGER DEFECTED FIRST TIME LESS THAN A YEAR WITHIN THE WARRANTY. IT WAS SENT TO FACTORY TO BE REFURBISHED. AFTER THAT IT MALFUNCTIONED AGAIN TWICE. AFTER I BOUGHT THE SERVICE MANUAL FOR THE CLARION UNIT I FOUND THE PROBLEM WAS CAUSED BY PLASTIC GEARS THAT CONTINUED TO BREAK. THE PLASTIC WILL GET BRITTLE OVER TIME AND BREAK OR STRIP OUT. KNOWING THIS, CLARION CONTINUED TO USE PLASTIC GEARS THAT WERE KNOWN TO BREAK DURING NORMAL USAGE. THIS WAS POOR ENGINEERING ON CLARION'S PART. IF THE GEARS WERE MADE OF SOMETHING STRONGER , SUCH AS TEFLON? THE GEARS WOULD NO LONGER BREAK OR STRIP OUT. I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED THAT NO ONE AT NISSAN/INFINITI OR CLARION ADMITTED TO THIS PROBLEM. THE PROBLEM MENTIONED HERE COULD BE FOUND IN MOST ALL OF THE CLARION 6-DISC CHANGERS INSTALLED IN NISSAN/INFINITI VEHICLES. A SMALL GROUP ACROSS THE U.S. WAS NOW SPREADING THE WORD NOT TO BUY NISSAN/INFINITI PRODUCTS BECAUSE OF THIS SINGLE PROBLEM. THE DISSATISFIED GROUP WAS ONLY GOING TO GET LARGER AS THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE FIND OUT HOW NISSAN/INFINITI AND CLARION WERE DENYING THIS PROBLEM. *AK