2005 Nissan Altima SE from North America - Comments

Today my wife experienced her Nissan Altima stall for no apparent reason. Took car to dealership and was informed by service tech that there was a recall for the computer "ECM". I also explained that when going from first to second gear, the car feels like it jerks into gear "yeah we get a lot of those complaints for that year vehicle" the service tech said. It's your transmission and it's pretty expensive to repair I was told. Mind you.. the car only has 60k miles on it.

I thought I was making a good decision by going with Nissan over any other manufacturer; guess I was wrong. I know one thing for certain.. with gas being so high and the cost of living going up everyday, we don't have money to put into this vehicle. I hope the car lasts.

Hey everyone I have a 2005 nissan Altima as well and after reading everyone's post, started to do some research (too bad I bought the car in Dec. of 07' before finding this out:

2005 NISSAN ALTIMA Recall

NHTSA Campaign Number: 07V527000

Vehicle/Equipment Make: NISSAN

Vehicle/Eqipment Model: ALTIMA

Model Year: 2005

Mfg Campaign Number:

Mfg Component Desc: ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING

Mfg Involved in Recall: NISSAN NORTH AMERICA, INC.

Manufacture Dates: 07-14-04 through 10-23-06

Type of Report: (V) Vehicle

Potential # of Units Affected: 653,910

Date Owner Notified by Mfg:

Recall Initiated By: ODI

Mfg Responsible for Recall: NISSAN NORTH AMERICA, INC.

Report Recieved Date: 11-07-07

Record Creation Date: 11-07-07

Regulation Part Number:

FMVSS Number:

Defect Summary: ON CERTAIN PASSENGER VEHICLES EQUIPPED WITH A 2.5L ENGINE, THE CRANKSHAFT POSITION SENSOR CAN OVERHEAT CAUSING A BRIEF INTERRUPTION IN THE SIGNAL OUTPUT FROM THE SENSOR.

Consequence Summary: IF THE INTERRUPTION IN THE SIGNAL FROM THE CRANKSHAFT POSITION SENSOR IS SO BRIEF THAT THE ELECTRONIC CONTROL MODULE (ECM) LOGIC DOES NOT HAVE TIME TO DIAGNOSE THE CONDITION, THE ENGINE MAY STOP RUNNING WITHOUT WARNING WHILE THE VEHICLE IS DRIVEN AT A LOW SPEED INCREASING THE RISK OF A CRASH.

Corrective Summary: DEALERS WILL REPROGRAM THE ECM FREE OF CHARGE. CERTAIN MY 2006 ALTIMAS WHICH HAVE BEEN PREVIOUSLY REMEDIED UNDER RECALL CAMPAIGN 06V223 (NISSAN R0606) ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THIS RECALL SINCE THE REPROGRAMMING FOR 06V223 ALSO INCLUDED THIS REPROGRAMMING. THE RECALL IS EXPECTED TO BEGIN ON OR ABOUT DECEMBER 10, 2007. OWNERS MAY CONTACT NISSAN AT 1-800-647-7261.

I hope this helps the Altima owners that are having the "stalling" problems. This may explain a lot.

Yep. So here it is 3:05am and obviously I'm disturbed enough to be making an entry.

I have a 2002 Nissan Altima 3.5l SE. Yesterday, well technically two days ago as it is now Saturday, my transmission FAILED! Two days prior to an "internal" transmission failure I had my A/C fixed. Which is probably unrelated to the transmission failure, but the timing is odd to say the least.

This car of mine had approx. 83,000 miles on it. I thought it was quite odd that the transmission would go out so early on a Nissan. When I bought my car I figured it would likely go for 140k to 200k miles without any need for a major repair.

My problems began what seems like a year and a half ago after some major winter storms here in Colorado. The first problem arose out of a very cold winter. Though I wouldn't come to find this problem until the hot days of summer. When I noticed the A/C didn't blow cold anymore.

So, every year since 2005, I've simply had the A/C recharged at an annual cost of 125 dollars. I thought having the A/C fixed this year would be an end to the recurring expense. The problem was a low side pressure hose had a leak; after repair and recharge the total cost was 424 dollars.

Two days prior to the A/C repair, I purchased factory rear brake pads and installed them myself. The car was making some noise, and upon investigation the pads were worn down to the warning stick.

The front end was seemingly permanently squeaky. A problem that was either not recognized or heard by the Nissan technicians. As it was always dismissed as brake noise by the dealership. I was certain it had nothing to do with the braking system. But, I must admit this was my first notion as well. But, after putting in new brake pads the noise still didn't go away. Well I had taken the car in for new tires at a tire place around two to two and a half years ago, and they told me at that time that my driver side front wheel had a bad bearing. So I had Nissan replace the ball bearing.

The noise went away for about two weeks, and then came back. The noise was a high pitched squealing noise that has a bit of a semblance to the noise conjured up by the bayou bad boy in the movie Deliverance. Wreet wreet wreet. So, I let the noise go again for about six to nine months.

I took it to the Nissan dealership twice after the repair and within the warranty time span, but was always sent away empty handed as they could never hear the noise. So I took the car to the tire place for yet another ball bearing replacement. Well these guys did quite the number on my car. The repair job was nearing completion, and then all of a sudden the CV Joint Axle was stripped and needed replacement. At the time, I figured the guys over at Nissan didn't do a good job and had likely caused the damage. But, eventually I figured out that the tire place had likely caused the damage.

So, when I took the car in on Tuesday July 23 2008 (think A/C fix!) I told the Nissan dealership service guys hey I had this stuff done at the tire place, and ever since then the steering wheel shimmies and the car is pulling to the right. Diagnosis was they installed the wrong CV Joint Axle.

Of course this story was supposed to be about a failed transmission. But, after doing some research on a failed transmission, I've learned that the front end squeak may have been the transmission failing, and not the braking system and not the ball bearing.

What also comes to my attention now, is that for several months the car was slow to engage as I would attempt to back out of whatever parking spot I was in. But, given enough gas it would back up just fine. Perhaps this was an early warning sign that the transmission was en route to failure. And, perhaps the failure is in part my own doing. But, I've never had a failed transmission on any car I've ever owned, and I certainly didn't ever expect it would happen to my beloved Nissan, which I always believed was a superior product.

This was first and only brand new car. I was probably going to be a Nissan lifer. But, as of this writing... I WILL NEVER OWN ANOTHER NISSAN!!!

I own a 2006 Altima 2.5S and had been noticing transmission problem since I bought it. I owned a 91 Accord before that and its transmission shifted so smooth.

The first thing I noticed with Altima was when I get on an ramp and speed up to get on the highway, the gear shifts up and down couple of times as if it was no sure which gear to use.

I took it to a dealer, and a technician took a test drive with me and he agreed on the problem. The dealer told me that there was a error code on the transmission computer, which tells that the turbine revolution sensor has failed. They replaced it and it was all free since it still had warranty (under 36k). That problem is fixed now, but immediately I started noticing the 1-2 hard shift. May be it was there before and was not paying attention to this issue.

My car is now at 45k miles. Is this some problem which will break my transmission in future, or should I take my car to the dealer right way. If so, any idea on how my will it cost me?

I own a 2006 Nissan Altima 3.5SE, as of about a month ago I began to hear what sounded like a loose plate from under the frame. I had no check lights on and was not experiencing any shifting issues or loss of power or performance. I let it slide for about a month before it became louder and more frequent. I placed a call to my local dealership to try and setup service, but my reply was..."Sir, our technicians do not have the time to road test the vehicle, please bring it back when the noise becomes more regular." Now, I am a service writer for a local auto repair shop whom has an outstanding reputation for customer service and mechanical skills. So, with the comment I received from the Nissan dealer, I recruited one of our own Master A techs and had him road test the vehicle and he did have the noise duplicate for him. We brought the car into the shop, placed it on the lift only to discover in my technicians 20+ year experience that it sounded like an internal transmission bearing had come loose and was now rattling around where it wanted. I replaced the call to the dealership and finally received proper service and now have an appointment scheduled to see what it really is. I will keep you all posted on the outcome. OH, the car only has 24K on it, sorry, forgot to mention that.