Head gasket blew with engine only at 48k miles. crankshaft seal leak at 18k miles. Engine suffered damage from leaking head gasket. now it takes a little longer to start the car.
The car was bought as a commuter vehicle. I read reviews of the Nissan sentra with the 1.6l and reliability was strong. However, those vehicles were built in Japan with the 1.6L. Nissan shifted building the sentra in Mexico and an updated 1.8L. boy things have gone wrong with this!
I agree with the crankshaft, but did you get a letter for recall regarding this matter? I did and Nissan changed it for me at no cost, but my service engine light has come on and won't go off at all despite being looked at by different mechanics. No one can diagnose it whatsoever.
Oh, Oh, first VW & now Nissan. Here we go with more Made in Mexico controversy.
The nissan sentras with the 1.6, years 1995 to 1999 were made in mexico also, and they have been a great problem free car. it dose not matter where their made.
Well, at least the Crankshaft was repaired free of charge like mine. One thing I want to point out to ALL of you 2002 Sentra owners is a warning about their faulty EMU. Before I gave mine back to the dealership, mine blew out of nowhere!
It would have cost around 1500$ to replace it, but luckily Nissan repaired it under warranty. Sentras have to be redone in my opinion with better reliability like the older ones.
My 2001 Honda Accord v6 is made in mexico, and now it has more than 120,000 miles with no problems. just all scheduled mainenance, that's it.
The highly reliable Sentras sold in the US from 1991-1999 were made in Nissan's Smyrna plant in Tennessee. This plant is now dedicated to making Altimas while Sentra production was shifted to Mexico in 2000. Reliability of Sentras made since then have dropped.
In my family we own 2 sentras, mine is 1997, my fathers is 1999 and they are all made in mexico, if you don't believe me, if its in mexico, the VIN starts with the number 3. by the way, mine has 250,000 miles with its first clutch, and it still runs like new.
I'm the original poster. now at 82k miles, we just got our second headgasket replaced. this time our our dime for $1100 at the dealer. we have one more year to pay off this junk. after that, we'll keep it for another year to save money for a down payment for a toyota corolla! NISSAN SUCKS!!!
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