2002 Nissan Altima S review from North America

I noticed that the anti-freeze in the overflow take was disappearing. Once the car cooled off I checked the radiator and found that the radiator was down to just above the internals of the radiator. I topped off several times and it disappeared. I noticed the car was making some banging on start up and was having a rough idle, but it cleared up after just a few minutes. I guessed that I must have a small head gasket leak. In addition, the check engine light was returning a code of miss-fire cylinder one. I pulled the spark plug on cylinder one and did not see anything to indicate water was getting into the cylinder head and I also checked the number 4 cylinder just in case I had them backwards. Both appeared the same. I also checked the oil and again nothing to indicate water in the oil. I than decided to get a can of Bar's Leak and put it into the radiator. I followed the procedure completely. The check engine light went out about two days later and has stayed out. The rough starting problem is gone and the car fires right up. So it looks like I have a small leak probably when the radiator is fully pressurized that goes into the number one cylinder head. Once the pressure gets low enough the leak stops or really slows down. This is probably why the radiator never appeared to get below the internals of the radiator, but the rough start never appeared to stop. I will continue to follow this car and any lawsuits that may arise, as Nissan appears to have problems with the head gasket in this car and the Pre Cat that appears to the destroy the motor, as it self-destructs. So far my car hasn't shown any signs of the Pre Cat issues. However, I did find the car down nearly two quarts of oil one day. Since that time the car has had oil changes over about 12-15 thousand miles without using any oil. The only thing I can think of is that I used two partially filled containers thinking they were full. However, I have observed this bizarre behavior in other cars over the years and than everything is fine for years. It just doesn't make sense. Otherwise the car has done well. The car belongs to my wife, who I shouldn't have ever told about the possibility of head gasket leak and the repair. Just about suffered a nervous breakdown over the whole problem. I assured her that I would keep an eye on the problem and if need be replace the head gasket. She has one more semester of school and is stressing about the money needed to fix the car. The comments on the Internet indicate that the head gasket replacement runs about $800-$1500 dollars. Based on the Internet comments it certainly appears that Nissan should be offering to fix this problem under the warranty.