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Sedans Nissan Sentra Nissan Sentra 2006 and earlier
2040 messages, Last post on Dec 01, 2009 at 6:44 PM
You are in the Nissan Sentra Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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...might as well get my .02 worth! We're looking at a new 2001 SE Sentra to replace my wife's 1995 Sentra GLE with 111K on the odo. She had two minor, but still annoying, problems with her '95 and the Nissan dealership. First, at about 15,000 miles or so, it developed a terrible belt squeak. We drove it for a while, but it began to sound like a bush full of hungry, rabid, chirping sparrows...like the type that scurry the local McD's parking lot. That was it, I took it in. They replaced the belts. About 5K to 10K later, the sparrows were back, wanting some food. I was pissed. I took it back, and I got new belts again (mind you...belts are "normal wear" items, so we paid for the belts, not Nissan). Well, she's had a continuous belt problem that we tried to get Nissan Motor to do something about, but they never did. We finally took the car to a local mechanic, and he changed the belts from the OEM Nissan brand to the "Gates Rubber" brand, and they seem to be much better now. He found the OEM Nissan belts to be very hard & dry and the Gates are softer rubber and more resilient. Makes sense, and it seems to be working. Gates and Goodyear are the most common replacement belt brands, why didn't the dealership think of this? Oh, yea, she had some front brake pads replaced at only 20,000 miles, too. The originals were shot, and that's pretty early to change them. Then, at 60K, we had to replace the pads and rotors both. That was a bit premature. Overall, we didn't get much help from our local Nissan dealership for warranty items, and we felt like they were "blowing us off". I wasn't used to that treatment since I had an Acura and Infiniti. I never had any real problems with the high-end dealerships, although Acura was better than Infiniti overall in my experience. Still, Nissan, in our experience, is not the greatest with customer satisfaction when it comes to warranty and service items. But, it really depends on the dealership's philosophies on taking care of customers. There are some dealerships that will go the extra mile. With Nissan trying to "come back" from their lack of sales in the last half of the 90's, they should try a little harder when it comes to service. It's a bummer to hear they haven't learned their lessons. Their products are good, though. We only had the nagging belt squeak, the premature pad and rotor wear, and then the alternator failure at 90K. That's it besides normal maintenance. No one should have to put up with crappy treatment from a dealer's service, though. They love to sell, sell, sell, but hate to service. Flarearrow, if I were you, I would've threatened Nissan that you were going to go "postal" on them. Not like that would help (I dunno, it may), but it'd be fun to see their faces, hehe. Seriously, you may need some legal representation, and you need to become aware of your state's lemon law in depth. I'd tell your Nissan dealer and Nissan Motor Corp. that you're seeking legal representation and will settle in court ("light threats" sometimes get you places), since they're not doing their share to keep you [rightfully] happy. If Nissan were to give you a fresh engine straight from the factory, you may have to settle for that. That should give you the new car you deserve, but you may not get an entirely new car. You may want to have another Nissan dealer do the warranty work for you (I would), if you can get them to give you a new engine. I would not settle for anything less than a new engine myself, and I'd be such a pain-in-the-arse to them, they would have to do it. |
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The replacement of all the defective parts in the engine and the 7/100 warranty seem to be a fair remedy to the problem. Drive the car and if you continue to have problems then lemon law may apply. Professional level of reassembly of the engine will yield a car that is as good as from the factory. I sympathize with your desire to have the car replaced, but this is not a part of the warranty on the new car, allow some time to pass and see if the car is a lemon or not. I have had engines disassembled and parts replaced twice before and the cars (non-Nissan) were problem free after the work. Best of luck on whatever course of action you take. |
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How do I figure out my gas mile on my 2001 Sentra GXE? Based on what someone told me, I figured it to be about 12/mpg after filling the tank at 3/4 used. Also, does any one live in NJ and know of a really good dealer? The dealer where I bought the car is not opened on Saturdays and so isn't convenient for me to use. Thanks |
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| Using shims to adjust the valve clearance is standard procedure on many cars. Other cars may have a screw and a nut for such adjustment. Then there are cars whose valves are "self-adjusting". | |
| Well. Tell us how you came up with 12 mpg. I suspect the tank was not full when you started the measurement. | |
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Well, I divided the miles drive by the size of the tank. that is 210/13.2x.75 = 12 Thanks |
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| I assume the 0.75 was used because the gas gauge showed 1/4 empty. The gauge is not accurate enough for this purpose. You should use the amount of gasoline that you purchased. In addition, you need to make sure the tank was topped to the same level at each fill-up. There will always be some errors but after looking at the gas mileage figures for three to four fill-ups, you should have an idea. | |
| yes-- what you do is -- fill the gas tank to the top-- then set the trip odometer to 0--- then drive until the low fuel light is on again or you need another fill up... fill the tank to the top again... then divide the number of miles on the trip odometer by the number of gallons you needed to fill the car....simple...don't be figuring out gas mileage by looking at the needle, holy cow, is that wacky or what? | |
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3/4 tank means 13.2x0.75= 9.9gal Your mileage should be 210miles/(13.2x0.75)gal =210miles/9.9gal =21.2mpg |
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Thanks for all your help guys and gals. I really appreciate it. I'm trying to stir something up and get noticed by Nissan. Some of you want to know of the details. I figured writing this would also benefit me to help me remember dates and events that I would need to know to bring it up in arbitration or court. I'll apologize beforehand for the length of this posting. November 18, 2000 Saturday My 2001 Altima SE in Titanium Frost/Dusk was home delivered to me in the morning. I bought the car from Carsdirect and the car came from Freehold Nissan on Rt. 9 in Freehold NJ. (I have another thing with Carsdirect, but I'll save that story for another time.) The car was driven over. (I was hoping for flatbed service, but again that goes back to my whole Carsdirect experience which I'll save for later.) I made sure I tested everything, ie lights, switches, radio, A/C, windows, sunroof, and everything was working before the delivery left. Besides from having 79 miles on it already from the trip over, the wheel alignment being slightly off and the tire pressure in all 4 wheels being over 40 psi(!!!), everything was fine. Nov 18, 2000 - Dec 3, 2000 I was really excited about my new car. I couldn't wait to really feel how the car performs after the break in period. Going easy on the gas and keeping the spedometer under 55, I was able to log 1000 miles in 2 weeks (making trips out to LI, NJ, and Conn for Powerball tickets). I would take my Altima out when ever I got the chance to get miles on it to finish breaking the engine in. During this time, I noticed a coolant leak. The green stuff left a streaking mark on the front of the iron block next to the tranny. I thought nothing of it. I thought it was something as silly as a loose hose clamp. I mean, it's a "brand new" car, and what could possibly go wrong. December 4, 2000 Monday I bring my Altima in for service to have the wheel alignment adjusted and have the coolant leak looked into. I took it to Star Nissan in Flushing, Queens. Later that day I get the phone from the assistant service manager saying that I'm going to need a new engine.... that the coolant leak is coming from the block. I'm not sure what it's suppose to be called, but it seems like at the shop "cracked" and "pourous" are used synonymously. So then, the assistant service manager and service manager were explaining to me that they can't procede with any repairs until a Nissan technical advisor(?) can inspect my vehicle and advise on the proper remedy. They were explaining that Nissan has some sort of technical advisor/ engineer/auditor going around from dealership shop to dealership shop to investigate new cars with oddball defects, and is the one who has the final say on the remedy for the problem. The assistant service manager said this person was coming from New Jersey, the service manager said this person was coming from California, and the people at 1-800-NISSAN-1 Nissan (does not) Care line said something on the lines of, "What engineer? If a dealership shop says the engine is cracked and it needs a new engine, we believe them and give approve to replace the engine, no questions asked." December 5, 2000 Tuesday The supposed technical advisor from Nissan pays a visit to Star Nissan service, inspects my car, and gives the go- ahead to replace the defective iron block of the engine (just the iron block). The work is begun to remove everything from under the hood of the car. A new iron block is ordered from Tennessee. December 11, 2000 Monday The whole engine compartment is gutted. The new iron block arrives. Service begins to disassemble old engine and prepares to replace the iron block. December 12 or 13, 2000 Service discovers a problem with the aluminum head assembly while disassembling it from old engine and putting on the new iron block. As stated on my service receipt: "...while removing cylinder head found camshaft sprocket bolt striped..." New aluminum head assembly is ordered from California. December 15, 2000 Friday Aluminum head assembly arrives. Work is complete on rebuilding the engine. Car is kept for the weekend because "fine" tuning needed to be done on Monday. December 18, 2000 Monday Finally after 2 weeks I get the car back. Dec 19, 2000 - Dec 27, 2000 During this time I'm breaking the engine all over again. I was able to get in about 500 miles before some of the problems got serious enough that it had to be brought back to service. Some of the things that happened were: 1) An oil leak this time is making a streaking mark on the same spot as the infamous coolant leak. 2) The engine is very rough at a stop. Feels like the engine is going to stall because it's like struggling to maintain a minimum idling RPM. 3) The idiot lights on my dash were coming on and off. And the interior and exterior were dimming. 4) When the car hits a sharp bump, like a expansion joint on the highway, it sounds like something is not bolted down tightly, and there's this rattle in front of the driver position. On Dec 27, I called the 1-800-NISSAN-1 number to voice my complaint to the company about my Altima. And I demanded a replacement. The rep was no help saying that my car does not fit the definition of a lemon... that the car is cover under the warranty... that I'm not paying for the repairs... it's not Nissan's policy to replace or buy back cars... The rep did take note of my request for a replacement vehicle and forwarded my case for review by their review board. December 28, 2000 Thurs I bring my Altima back to the shop for the problems above. December 29, 2000 Friday Star Nissan service gives the car back to me. The electrical problems (idiot lights and lighting) was because of a loose wire to the aternator. The oil leak was from a loose tranny hose clamp. They couldn't duplicate the rattling when the car hits a hard enough bump. And the engine idle problem is because of the valves not opening and closing properly, and their positioning needs to be adjusted using shims. The shims are ordered, and service tells me to bring the car back when the shims come in. Jan 2, 2001 Tues I call the 1-800-NISSAN-1 Nissan (does not) Care line again to voice my complaint, reiterate my request for a replacement, and try to find the status of my case. The rep told me that the review process takes 5 business days. Jan 4, 2001 Thurs I call the Nissan (does not) Care line again just to annoy them and find status of my case. No status. Jan 5, 2001 Fri I received a message on my home answering machine from Star Nissan service that the shims arrived. Jan 8, 2001 Mon The 5th business day and Nissan (does not) Care does not call. What a surprise. (sarcasm) |
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