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Comments
The guy is not a Joker, because he knew exactly what is was, probably seen it hundreds of times before. I would have done the exact same thing. This is a known issue with these cars. The price you got for the head gasket repair is a very good price, BUT it will not do you any good if the engine is damaged and using too much oil. If you have to add a quart of oil in less than 1000 miles, it uses too much, and it will need a new engine. Tell the mechanic when he pulls the intake manifold off to be sure to check the power valve screws, it is best to remove them and put locktight on the threads and reinstall new screws. Also have mechanic check the bottom of the head and the top of the engine block to make sure they are perfectly flat and straight. The heads usally warp and need to be milled flat. Very important to replace or hollow out the Pre-Catalytic Converter (it is in the exhaust manifold). See previous 582 posts about all of this.
Good luck to you. Let us know how you do.
Regards,
E.D.
2. Shortly after take off from the curb, the automatic door locks clink on, and shortly therafter, I have a " clunck clunck clunck clunck with vibration"noise coming from the underside of the car toward the back. All of my passengers in the car have experience these noises with me.
Any ideas what these may be related to? The car is brand new, only has 4000 km on it.
Dixie
That's called the engine breaking. You will feel more when you go down the hill.
2. Shortly after take off from the curb, the automatic door locks clink on, and shortly therafter, I have a " clunck clunck clunck clunck with vibration"noise coming from the underside of the car toward the back. All of my passengers in the car have experience these noises with me.
That's the ABS activation. I'm not too happy with the noise as well but that's how it's. You only hear that first thing in the morning after the car has been stopped for a couple hours.
What are my options ..? Have I any options..?
this may make me reconsider the car. Also, has the Maxima had this type of problem?
The problem now is can air flow meter make a car not to stop??
Down here they sell the stuff inside the casing and not with the casing and to lose the stuff is not easy as it doesnt use the regular allen key.
Need your response fast as the car has been parked for 3weeks now.
Thanks, Chuma.
you can either hollow it out, or replace it with a racing header. I opted to replace mine with a header / manifold the part looks like this
http://www.yourhotcar.com/prod/Spyder/Exhaust/Headers/Nissan_Altima_Spyder_4-1_C- hrome_Header_Exhaust_-_TS-HE-NA93-C/637902/
but any brand is okay. The shop will have to install two "cheaters" which are small 2 inch spacers for the 02 sensors, so the SIS engine light does not trip. The first one goes into the new manifold, and the second one goes right in front of the back cat.
These spacers put an extra inch of air flow in the cat, so it doesn't realize there is no pre cat upstream. The car will make a touch more polution but only when its warming up, once its warm the back cat does all the work anyway.
You will notice about 15 hp increase in power, and about 10% better milleage - I did a new cold air intake with mine, and I'm very impressed with the power and mileage gains.
My Altima had 80K on it when I did this mod, it now has 100K with ZERO problems.
I had all the work done for less than $300 (including the cold air intake). Get it done ASAP as those pre cats can fail at any second. And your engine will be toast.
Hope some people would have benefitted from this that is if you read the earlier post on mass ait flow meter.
Chuma.
So if you use an aftermarket stock filter, or a cold air intake, make sure the cone filer or box filter is NOT OILED. (Most K&N's are oiled)
The oil somehow gets on the mass airflow meter and kills it.
So use stock air filter OR if you have a cold air, make sure the cone is not oiled.
K&N claims that the oiled filters do not affect the sensors
http://www.knfilters.com/news/news.aspx?ID=422
But I have heard otherwise from mechanics I trust
Two cents - for what its worth.
Thanks, Chuma.
I loved the car for the first 80,000 miles but it has been a complete nightmare since if started burning major oil and engine cylinder misfires (at about 80K miles conveinently just after the warranty expired).
If you own a 2002-2003 Altima 2.5L with under 100K miles, REMOVE the precat or sell that sucker ASAP. Nissan has lost this lifelong customer and anyone else that is willing to listen to me!
I also purchased this car new (from said dealer) and have babied the car over the last 7 years. Nissan is now dead to me....
Has anyone had an luck taking on Nissan in small claims court? My car has 108K miles on it so I think my legal grounds are shaky. Hopefully they would just settle and I can get something back for my pain.
Lots of discussion of class action lawsuit but no sucess from what I can find. I guess there is too many other lower hanging lemons out there??
:confuse:
Best thing we can do is encourage everyone you know not to buy a Nissan EVER!
Good luck!
My local dealer really jerked me around as well and had my car for a total of 2 months while I was fighting Nissan. I believe the dealer ultimately had my claim raised to a claims manager at Nissan who approved the New Engine since they really felt sorry for all I had been through.
In my case, the car has 107K miles on it, I bought it new from the same dealer and I had all of the service records for the car (all scheduled maintence was done at the dealer). I believe having he dealer put continued pessure on Nissan is ultimately what got their attention.
My best advice is to be persistent! Good luck!
Good Luck to All of You,
E.D. in Sunny Florida
Which one to get? Just find one that suites you. They are all good, it just depends on what you need & what you want. Im not particular, as long as mine can haul all my tools and ladders and I can listen to AM radio, I'm fine. It does everything I need very well, including how the back glass opens up (most important, since I work out of my car, reach in to get tools out of the back).
I, too, am going through this experience. :lemon: I have started a blog detailing every bit of contact I've had with Nissan, as it happens.
I would love for you to comment and share your stories. If you could comment and follow the blog, perhaps we could pressure Nissan to do SOMETHING.
http://2003altimablownengineexperience.blogspot.com/
If you would like to share any details with me about your experience for posting on the blog, please email them to me at jennylgl@cox.net
Thank you!
I will not buy another Nissan product because of the way I was treated. I was a die hard Nissan car guy, my wife had a maxima, I had a 300ZX twin wurbo, my son had an Altima, and my daughter had the murano. Nissan spends a lot of money on commercials to attract new buyers to their dealerships... all that money is now wasted on me.
D
I live in FLA where there is no inspections. I took my catalytic converter out. Issue solved. My 2002 Nissan Altima with 190,000 miles on it runs superbly. But if you're having issues with the engine do one or two things. Replace the engine with an used used 04 or 05 altima engine or dump it.
Good Luck everyone
With that said, let me also tell you that yesterday we had a really bad storm that caused flooding everywhere. I had to drive in water that was deep. Not up to my window deep, but above my undercarriage deep. Would that cause the problems I'm having? Someone please HELP!
Sounds like the engine is going into some kind of protective "default" mode.
If you bought the car new from a Nissan dealership go back there and make them aware of your problems. Call them , Email them, make them aware that if they do not; in some way, rectify, or make some concessions that you deem appropriate as a consumer, then you too will be a EX Nissan customer. Good Luck with your quest. Some people have been re-imbursed by Nissan . I was not one of them.. if you fight long and hard enough maybe they will do the right thing and pay for a new engine ..D
After reading other forums, I really didn't have much hope for help anyway. I had to take that $95.00 chance. We had our Altima 2.5 engine rebuilt, and replaced the cat. The total cost was around $3100.00. Looking back on it now, I should have scrapped the car. Tha AC quit about 3 mos. later. Another problem these cars seem to have. The findings were the cylinders were out of round, 4 vaves were broken up on their perimeters, 1 cylinder had no compression at all. When I purchased the new cat, they charged me a $140.00 core charge. I questioned this, stating I had never paid a core charge on what is supposedly a new part. The parts guy couldn't give me an answer why. When I went back to dealer to return the old cat for the core charge, I made the same statement to a different person behind the counter and asked him how long Nissan had been doing core charges on their cats. He said they started in January of this year and that it started out as an $80.00 charge. I told him that the cat is what ruined the engine. I made another comment, that in my opinion, this was a way for Nissan to get these defective parts back. He said "it wouldn't surprise me". He said he was told that Nissan was running tests on them. I figure I have about 70,000 miles before this cat starts taking its toll on the rebuild. Hopeully my financial situation will improve so I won't have the car any longer than that. In 34 years, this is only the second new car we have ever purchased. I will never own another Nissan (this was our first) and would never recommend one to anyone.
I also replaced several sensors, including the mass airflow sensor. When I went to pick the car up, it still wasn't quite right and it sounds like there was water running through the glove box (kind of like a fish tank). Since then, I have had the thermostat changed, the water control valve and radiator changed. They have so far refused to acknowledge that there is somethign wrong with the engine or that they caused some kind of damage to the coolant system when changing out the new engine. They claim that the head gasket is fine, but that air has to be getting in from somewhere. Also, I never had this problem until they put the new engine in, so it stands to reason that they have caused some kind of problem. Right now, they claim I need to drive it get the air out. It's been over 300 miles and it's still trickling intermittently. I'm starting to regret not dumping the car when I had the chance. I erroneously thought I'd at least get a few more years out of the car with a new engine and new cats since my failure didn't occur until 90,0000 miles (though I had problems with it before then, it was still driveable). Any thoughts on what could be causing air to get into the coolant system? It is most prevelant when pressing the accelerator, though when there's lots of air, it will do it upon starting the vehicle.
:lemon: :lemon: :lemon: :lemon: :lemon:
Two weeks before the 1-yr warranty expired, the new engine started burning lots of oil. Nissan required an 'oil consumption test' that I had to pay for, before admitting the engine was defective. Engine #2 now installed, but Nissan would not cover labor since they did not install it. Looking back, I would have got rid of the car if I knew what junk these engines are.