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Sedans Nissan Altima Nissan Altima Engine Failures
500 messages, Last post on Nov 29, 2009 at 8:42 PM
You are in the Nissan Altima Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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Replying to: southerncomf (Jan 31, 2008 6:08 am) The crankcase vent hose (the hose that carries clean intake air into the engine crankcase) on the drivers side end of the valve cover, is shown in photos #07364, 07365 & 07366. Remove the spring clamp as shown, and pull the hose loose from the valve cover. You might have to take the other end of the hose loose, to get enough slack to pull it off the valve cover. The PVC suction hose (the hose that carries the dirty air, fumes or smoke from the engine crankcase to the intake plenium) connects on the back of the valve cover, is shown in photo #06958, you loosen that spring clamp and pull that line off the backside of the valve cover. When you pull the hose off, the hose should have suction when you start the engine, plug the hose. Look to see if any smoke comes out where you unplugged the hose from the valve cover. Having both hoses disconnected will expose the crankcase to atmospheric pressure, and it any smoke or pressure is created by blowby, it will come out one or both of the openings. A very small amount of blowby is acceptable, but a large amount is not. Having someone rev the engine may increase the smoke, if any is visible. If you do get a lot of blowby gas coming out the valve cover opening, it is an indicator that the piston rings are worn out, but confirm with a compression test. You can also do a vacuum test, but the clyinder compression test give more reliable results. I would not tear into or rebuild the engine without making a thorough diagnosis first, to be sure of what is wrong with it. If you are going to rebuild the engine, you will have to remove the engine from the car. It may be best to buy a remanufactured engine and put one in. A remanufactured engine from Jasper Engines with a 3 year warrenty is $3,411.00. You said "My intentions are to rebuild if possible or to buy another engine, but in doing this should we expect the same problems in the next 100,000 miles. Has Nissan done anything about the top cat, or should we all expect it to malfunction again. If not, it seems a fresh rebuild or new engine would be a complete waste of time and money", and you are right, you will have the same problems again, because the problem is NOT the engine, the engine is a fairly good engine, The problem IS the PRE CATALYIC CONVERTER failing and contaminating and destroying a perfectly good engine. Nissan has not done anything about the pre-cat as far as I know. Listen closely, read all the messeges in this forum so that you know what is going on. If you are really looking at spending that much money and that much inconvenience, it is certainly worth doing a days worth of research so that you can avoid this problem in the future. I gave you the solution in messege #190, read the BOLD TEXT again, and this time read between the lines. The catalytic convertors are required by law, so I can't legally tell you to change, alter or modify them. I can only tell you what I did. What you do is up to you. But I have permanently solved the catalytic converter problem on my daughters 2002 Nissan Altima 2.5S. It is running perfectly fine now. She has drove it about 1500 miles since I put the engine back together, and it is smooth as silk, no smoke, not using hardly any oil (she said the oil was barely down from full on the stick). Also, it is important to go back and read messege #75, and pay special attention to the part that says: "When I felt the 2nd catalytic converter, it was still cold, even after the engine ran for several minutes. That means it was plugged up! I unbolted the pipe and 2nd catalytic converter and took it off and unplugged it, put it back on, and the car ran perfect again." I fixed the converters, and I don't expect to have any converter problems or oil burning problems with it. Her converter problems were not as bad as yours, and I caught the problem in time BEFORE it destroyed the engine. Her car was starting to use about 1 quart in 1500 miles, but now it seems a lot better, will know by next oil change. I was fortunate that the Cat Plugged up the exhaust system, which brought the problem to my attention. I then unplugged the cats and the problem is gone. The reason her engine had to come apart was because the head warped and the head gasket began to leak. I removed the head, did a valve job on the head, milled the head flat, put on a new head gasket and put it back together. Take a look at the pictures of the pre-cat, photos # 06930, 06931,06932, 06933 & 06934. The inside of the pre-cat are gone, they blew down the exhaust pipe to the second cat and plugged it up. She is taking the 2002 Altima 2.5S on a 400 mile trip tomorrow, mostly interstate driving, so I will see how it did when she gets back. The following link is to the album on the photo site that has the photos of how the cat (second cat, the one under the car right before the muffler) was unplugged: http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=215914481/a=85874609_85874609/t_- =85874609 Photo #06065 shows the the second cat, the one under the car, the one that plugged up. Photo 06064 shows it in front of the muffler. Photos 06068 & 06069 show a lot of water draining out of the muffler, it was FULL of water because barely any exhaust gas went through the converter, and what little did condensed into water in the muffler, because the muffler never warmed up. Photo 06082 shows a close up of the second cat off the car. Photo 06087 shows the inside of the second cat before it was unplugged. Photos 06096 & 06097 show the stuff that came out of the cat when it was unplugged. Photos 06098, 06099 & 06100 show the inside of the second cat after it was unplugged. I have gone into a lot of detail in explaining these problems, because in this open forum setting, many others will read these messeges and hopefully many will benefit from them. Good Luck, E.D. in Sunny Florida |
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Replying to: electricdesign (Jan 31, 2008 7:12 pm) 
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Replying to: pat (Feb 01, 2008 4:54 am)
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Replying to: mpd2434 (Feb 01, 2008 4:54 pm) If I were you, I wouldn't worry about it. Though the problem does exist, its not affecting anywhere near a majority of altima's. The chances of lightning striking twice would seem pretty rare to me. but, if your not comfortable with it, I'd sell now rather than waiting. |
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Replying to: kannadiga (Jan 11, 2008 8:46 am)
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Replying to: powerfulbag (Feb 02, 2008 11:48 am) |
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Replying to: southerncomf (Jan 31, 2008 6:08 am) |
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Replying to: pure_hp (Feb 11, 2008 8:20 pm) I also am somewhat anxious about some of the posts written here but of the millions of Nissans on the road, I think it is worth the gamble to buy the vehicle. We are reading about such a small cross section of Nissan owners that the number may well be well under .01%. The car drives great, fuel economy promises to be very good, the seven year warranty we purchased should pick up most of the problems, and you will look good in the car. Check out all the threads involving the Altima and then go look at them at the dealers with any questions you have. Also check out the reviews on the 2008 Altima just to the right on this page. Lots of info there. Hope this helps and good luck in whatever you purchase.
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Replying to: pure_hp (Feb 11, 2008 8:20 pm)
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Replying to: ken75 (Feb 12, 2008 6:51 am) |
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