Comments: 1-15, 16-30, 31-45, 46-53
Well, it's good to see everyone is still voicing their disgust with Nissan. I have been around for some time now dealing with these issues with the Altima's engine & cooling.
Point is... if you haven't had your Cam & Crank Position sensors... you will continue to have poor performance. And it will gradually get worse! Remove that pre-cat from the car completely!!! It will deteriorate and cause unrepairable damage!!! Engine replace will be a must.
The issue is well known by all... there seems to be the attitude, that it will just go away.
My car after countless trips to my nearest Nissan dealership for service... 1 cylinder replaced... my car has finally died! Today, July 13, 2007 5pm. Head gasket must have given out finally. Oil & Coolant leaking from exhaust. I am not looking to Nissan for support. I have a mechanic, and he is very aware of Nissan Engine problems.
Save yourselves and replace those sensors! And then replace the stock headers, downpipe... exhaust system.
Me... I am looking at major repair at this point. But I have tried so hard to put performance into a vehicle that may be should not be on the highway. Especially after 70K miles on the engine. It seems to go downhill, and fast.
Good luck to all.
I also own a 2002 Nissan Altima 2.5SL. It is a hunk of junk! The car idles rough when it first starts, there is a water rushing sound under the dash, and my check engine light has been on since 70,000 miles. I have 75,000 miles on the car and it has already blown a head gasket. I am constantly refilling the radiator with coolant. My private mechanic, who is a family friend, notified me of the problem and he also stated that the catalytic converter was also bad. I did not want to pay for the repairs after reading so many negative comments of the common problems with this crappy car. I reported the problem to Nissan Consumer Affairs. Mark Worley a specialist told me to take the car to a Nissan Dealership to have it diagnosed. Now the dealership wants to charge me $95.00 just for looking at my car and telling me I have a blown head gasket, Thanks a lot Nissan for stepping up to the plate. Oh yeah, now they want to take apart my engine and look at my car to find out what is causing the problem, and charge me for it with no guaranteed reimbursements. I am now trading my car in and going to try to get whatever it is worth for a more reliable vehicle. I have vowed never to by a Nissan Product again. There should be a class act suite against these thieves. I paid 21,000 for 75,000 miles. Nissan SUCKS!
Holy Crap!! I should have looked here first before buying my 2003 Altima 2.5S. The car runs great (105,000 miles), but gas mileage is a whopping 19 mpg. I do notice a slight hesitation at 0-20 mph. Oil is up and full after 500 miles. PHEWWWW. What should be my first preventative step?? Change cats? Change sensors?? Prepare class action suit?? I've read poor gas mileage may be from clogged cats. Help before $$$$$ spent!! ANY HELP WOULD BE GREAT.
Awesome posts,
Phil
fildrill@yahoo.com.
P.S. my front struts are gone; previous owner said he installed new 20k ago.
I have an 02 Altima 2.5S with 86K. I had it in the shop because it has been making a terrible noise for about a second when it starts after sitting for a couple hours. One mechanic says the chain before the tensioner is bunching and another said it was the lifters. Has anyone else had a prob with this? Is there a related recall or TSB? This is going to cost me a lot isn't it?
2002 Altima with Cat Converter Problem...
We bought the Altima in 2003 with 25K miles on it. It was a great car, decent space and good ride. But after 80k miles we got "check engine" sign every other month. We had extended warranty till 86k. We took it to dealer several times and they said nothing is wrong with your car. Then last week the car just started to stall and jerk and loud noises from the engine. We took to dealer and they said the Cat Converter is bad and needs to be replaced. Then also mentioned that Cat Converter caused engine failure thus resulting in oil burning in engine and needs new engine at the cost of $5000. Nissan says they Cat converter is covered till 80k miles and the exteneded warranty won't cover it. Extended warranty won't cover engine failure. We are totally stumped by nissan engine issue. We always had honda's and we like the look of the Altima and the price... I learnt my lesson the hard way to not buy nissan or infiniti products. I will go back to a honda or toyota.
Is there fix for this problem? Please reply to khanhammad@hotmail.com
I am in the atlanta, georgia area and looking for decent reliable mechanic to get the Altima fixed... any suggestions..please reply to above e-mail address.
I liked my 02 Altima 2.5s a lot until a few weeks ago. Long story short: Leased it new, crushed the mileage, and bought it used with the 'Extended (but not on cat's!) Warranty'.
Have always had, but could deal with the squeaky doors, frozen doors, reluctance to start in the cold, windshield fogging and stank. (It's only Pittsburgh and it's a pretty car with the wheels and such that I have done to it... and I've had to put up with more when dealing with 'pretty things' before.)
Last year (67k miles) had the rough running coil, plug, O2 issue. Warranty covered... I'm OK.
This year (89k miles), I picked it up today!, with the cat story. And broken AC not touched, but I was welcomed to pay for the Ac repair along with the exploratory teardown... NO THANKS.
Next step is to break out the cat all together and fill'er up with oil and antifreeze while I check the gas. It is getting remarkably better gas mileage... go figure.
So my take on it is... genius marketing (if the crooks can get away with it...) Bolt on a component that is almost guaranteed to fail, is a non maintenance part, has no failure detection system, that is federally regulated, and if it breaks it grenades the motor. Have it happen just after warranty, or don't cover it.
Somebody went to college! (jail seems more appropriate than college... just sayin!) AND then DENY ALL RESPONSIBILITY.
Good game if you can pull it off... until it bites you! So I have joined http://www.thenissanfight.com.
Sorry to here everyone's plight, but in some ways I'm glad I'm not the only one... but it sucks for all of us.
After reading everyone comments, It's unbelievable Nissan has not been struck down.
I purchased my 2002 Altima SL standard in 2001. A few people mentioned that Nissan did not complete all the testing as they were in a rush to push out the product. I should have listened. Long story short, I've changed all the sensors, Cam Shaft, catalytic converter replaced - I have the same problems, the service engine light continues to stay on, my AC is not working, and the worse part my car turns off while I'm on the freeway going 60 - 60mph.. it's been very scary and the car once again is in the shop.
We need to begin a class action lawsuit - if interested, please email me at wendy-alvarez@sbcglobal.net (location, CA)
I have a 2002 altima and It is using a great deal of oil. The engine light came on and Nissan said they have to update my computer (this is to reset it and turn the engine light off). They said I had a catalytic converter code which made the engine light come on. They checked the cat. out somehow and said it was okay. They said they will monitor my oil use and to bring it back after 500 miles or so. When I brought the car in the next time they said the cylinder walls were scored because of a bad catalyic converter and that my warranty dosn't cover it. Nissan's own site says that a problem with the engine is causing damage to the catalyic converter which is damaging the engine. My local Nissan people won't help at all.
I brought my 2002 Altima in 2004 with 14,000 miles. In 06 with 31,000 miles, I couldn't switch the heat to a/c. The dealer couldn't find the problem. I ended up taking it to someone else and they replaced the front panel of heater control unit. Since then I noticed that at about 38,000 miles I had to add oil between changes. I added some oil. When I took it to dealer for a oil change and told them they said if it happen again bring it back to them. That was at 40,965 miles. Now today I took it in to dealer as oil was low it is now at 42,305. This is what the invoice said it was 2 1/2 quarts low. Converter intact, no visible leaks, Perform crank case pressure test 27KPA, out of limits, Internal failure in engine nec to replace $4216.00 plus taxes, parts and labor. Advised customer no guarantee on life of current engine. I had to pay $96.57 for that report. So tomorrow I will call Nissan. Will post back after I receive a reply. I live in Baltimore MD
I haven't had any problems with the cat. on my 2002 altima yet. I've read about this problem on other forums.. apparently it's a design flaw with the car. The cat. is too close to the engine, thus the heat of the engine causes the internal parts of the cat. to deteriorate and eventually get sucked back into the engine causing damage to the cylinders and the inevitable replacement of the engine. This isn't a matter of IF your 2002, 2003 altima will be affected, but WHEN. So even after getting a new engine replaced its only a matter of time before it happens again. I'm not an expert on cars, but wouldn't it be sensible to replace the stock headers, downpipe and cat. with aftermarket ones?
I have too been experiencing problems with my 'O3 Nissan, such as the heater issue. I replaced the crank sensor myself, which was quite a pain, may I add. I just recently saw on the news a recall for the same part; how convenient! After reading all of these concerns, I decided to sell my wife's car and I have no plans on purchasing any Nissan product ever again. My wife likes the car, but the heat system is a problem with the cold. Truthfully, I never liked the car anyway.
That's exactly what I did, sold my 03! I did that after being FED UP with hearing nothing but complaints about these 02 03 Altima's! The cats and the starting issues are these car's favorite thing to give up! NO MORE NISSANS for me... EVER! Suggest you ALL sell your Altima's before the "cats" starts to crawl in your wallets!!
Oh by the way, there is NO such thing as parts of Catalyst getting sucked back in engine! No such thing! I'm the reviewer of 03 Altima - Sold my 03 Altima... Yes! on this site
I bought a 2002 altima and I was really unhappy with it. i had to have a new crankshaft position sensor and I had to pay almost $200.00 to get it fixed. then 2 days later I seen that they had a recall on that same sensor.but when I called the dealer they told me that mine was changed already in that car back in 2004.so then I called the nissan 1800# then I was told the same thing. but the next it was on cnn news that they had another recall on the same part that I had just replaced and the recall will be coming out on december 10th 2007.so now I'm waiting to see if I will get my money back. but I was so unhappy with my car that I went and traded it back in on a 2007 malibu and I'm loving it. i will never ever again own another nissan. not only because of the dealership. but also the cars isn't worth the headaches.
Very upset customer in texas.
Just purchased a pre-owned 2002 Nissan Altima, last night. WOW!
You guys are scaring the hell out of me. Thank goodness for the " Cooling Off Period " I think I'll take advantage of it. Tho ot will cost me $500.00. Still better than $5,000.00! Guess I should have gone for the smaller and less comfortable Honda Civic. I have arthritis "all over" and the Altima is so easy to get in and out of. Oh well, I'd rather not deal with the kin of pain that will come with that car. Thank you all, for saving me that "Pain in the Nissan".
I had the same problem with my 2002 Altima 2.5 liter engine. I bought the car used from Nissan in 2005 with 40,000 miles on it. It started using oil at an alarming rate. No leaks, no smoke. Finally causing engine damage. Fortunately, I had purchased a 100,000 mile extended warranty and at 72,000 miles Nissan replaced the Engine and catalytic converter at no charge. They say the defective converter caused the engine damage. Doesn't make sense to me, but I'm glad to have a brand new engine.