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Sedans Nissan Altima Nissan Altima Engine Failures
497 messages, Last post on Nov 21, 2009 at 8:01 PM
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Replying to: altilove89 (May 24, 2009 10:25 pm) I had that problem but it was fixed after do that steps and install new radiator cap from Autozone or dealer . My previous radiator cap was swelling caused by oil residue from the head gasket replacement. Your car has TIMING CHAIN (no need to be replaced until 300k miles), If the car go straight on the FLAT road and the tires have no unusual worn, you don't need alignment. You may need to replace the front struts, passenger side and rear side engine mounts if you race the car a lot and the brake pads at arround 80k miles city driving.
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Replying to: rondhol (May 25, 2009 11:01 am) never race my car, i care about it too much to do something like that, i never go any faster then 70 mph anyways because my car would start to guzzle gas (my average mpg according to the trip comp is about 25.5 mpg) tires are ok, the right front tire is almost bald, the other 3 are very good, havent bought a tire due to serious lack of cash at the moment |
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If your front tires are match (same brand and date installed) but only right side is worn, then you need alignment. Change the tires in pairs 2 or 4 at once. The pulls to the right effect caused by lower (worn out) right tire. You can buy good brand (Micheline, Good year, etc, NOT CHINA tires) used tires in pair for less than $35 each. but read this first: http://www.carbibles.com/tire_bible.html By the way, check your radiator cap , coolant level (both on radiator and reservoir), and the hoses after the engine is cold (if it is collapsed). |
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Replying to: electricdesign (Jan 30, 2008 8:06 pm) Sincerely, Sara Keil keilse01  verizon.net
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first of all, Don't bring your 02 to that Dealer again. 3.5L VQ engines rarely have pre-cat problem. Since you have new engine and cat, may be the culprits are MAF sensor, ECU update, or EGR system. If it runs too lean/rich, your engine and cat will be bad faster. Check the sparkplugs to confirm rich/lean mixtures. Buy header instead of breaking your head finding the leak.
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Replying to: keilse (Jun 02, 2009 11:37 am) The 3.5 SE v6 engine is a much better build then the 2.5 S, i actually wish i had spend the extra $1100 for the 04 altima with the v6 engine then the 03 2.5 S. Im suprised that the V6 has this problem as well, considering most V6 altimas are virtually problem free. My advice to anybody buying a Nissan Altima made between 2002 and now, spend the extra money and sacrifice the gas mileage for the v6, you'll have much less issues then with the 2.5 v4.
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Replying to: altilove89 (Jun 05, 2009 9:59 am)
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Replying to: reddeyez (Oct 27, 2007 8:36 am) |
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I have a 2002 Nissan Altima 2.5 S which I bought new. It has always has all recommended maintenance performed and all maintenance has been performed by the Nissan dealership. The other day the check service engine soon light came on soon after I started the car. A couple of times in the last few days I had noticed that when I first started the car in the mornings it ran i little rough (not much) for about 5 seconds immediately after starting but that was barely noticable and almost immediately stopped after which the engine ran perfectly. I decided to drop it by the dealership and have it serviced. The last maintenance (oil change) had been done about 3000 miles ago, so it was time for scheduled maintenance, so I was also having the oil changed and the tires rotated. After about an hour the service guy came out and told me that the code on the service engine soon was a "cylinder 2 misfire." He said my antifreeze was a little low and they were doing a compression test as it could be a head gasket problem. He said the slight roughness for a few seconds when the car was started in the mornings was probably because antifreeze had leaked into the cylinder and once it burned off (a couple of seconds) the roughness went away. Because it was going to take them a while to do the test I told them to just call me when the car was ready and I left and went on to work. Serveral hours later the service guy called and said it was a head gasket problem, but he really thought I needed a new engine ($5300). They had found a little coolant in the cylinder and he said my oil was 1/2 quart low and although the catalytic converter didn't show as bad, he was afraid that if I just had the head gasket replaced ($1800), the engine would still probably need to be replaced and the head gasket replacement would be for nothing. This car only has 66,300 miles on it, has always has all recommended maintenance performed by the dealership, and has never been driven "rough" as I am a very conservative driver. I have read about other problems with this engine and the catalytic converter (or pre converter) failing and resulting in engine damage requiring engine replacement. This has really bummed me out. I bought this car because I was told, and had read, much about Nissan's reputation for solid cars that ran a long time. Now, here I am with a car with only 66,300 miles (it should just be getting broken in good) and I'm being told that I should replace the engine. If a well-maintained, conservatively driven car has engine failure at 66,300 miles, that sure seems like a manufacturing defect to me. I have read that the catalytic converter is warrantied for 80K miles and if this is true, and it had anything to do with the engine problem, it seems to me that this engine should be replaced by Nissan, especially now that I have read that this is a somewhat common problem with the 2002 Altima engines. I picked the car up and told them I would have to decide what I wanted to do. He said when the light came back on to bring it back so they could see if it gave the same code and he wouldn't charge me for that diagnostic. He also told me to check the oil about every 3 days and if it went down, don't fill it but bring it to them and let them see how much oil was being used (oil comsumption test). It's been five days and no service engine soon light, the oil level is fine and the car runs fine; there is not even any roughness when I initially start the car in the mornings as I had noticed a couple of times previously. Does all of this sound right? I'm not sure what to do and the thought of having to spend over $5K on repairs has me sick. FYI, I went back and read all the posts on this forum and it seems as if some people have been able to get Nissan to cover the repairs and others have not. If I do have to pay for a new engine myself, would I be better off price wise trying to find a good independent mechanic to do it? If I have to pay for all of this myself, my faith in Nissan will be destroyed. |
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Replying to: brossr (Jun 07, 2009 4:55 pm) Why exactly did he say you need a new engine? You need a new head gasket - but why? What broke in your engine to cause the gasket to become fouled? These cars DON'T burn oil and have gaskets go bad out of the blue - and I would bet money that if you only replace the gasket - your engine will experience a catastrophic failure that can only be remedied with replacement - either of the car or the engine. I would also bet money that the gasket is f-ed up because catalytic converter material has gotten sucked back to the engine....this is an event known as "BLOW BY". (It is a physical impossibility for the 3.5 to experience blow by because of the 'Y' shaped exhaust...I called 4 Nissan dealers and asked and all of them said this.) I don't want to bum you out even more, but if I were you, especially given the info from Nissan, I would file suit under the lemon law (what state are you in?) and get a full refund for the car, because I can guarantee that these issues will continue. The only way that you can avoid these issues if you can't or don't want to get rid of the vehicle, would be to make some modifications to your vehicle yourself. There is a guy that has postings for the same vehicle as you that did this and I pasted his advice below... Well people, I think I have a handle on this oil consumption problem with the Nissan Altima 2.5S. Maybe not a solution, but at least a good understanding of what is happening and why. My daughter has a 2002 Nissan Altima 2.5S that she bought in December 2003 with 29,730 miles. It is starting to exhibit excessive oil burning at 97,000 miles. At the last oil change service, she came in with the engine oil very low, so low it would not even touch the end of the dipstick, the dipstick would pull out dry. I told her to check the oil frequently now, at least once every two weeks, and she now keeps a spare bottle of oil in the trunk. I have done all the service on this car since she has had it, so it has had excellent service. It always receives full synthetic motor oil and synthetic motor oil filter. We are monitoring it now to see what rate it is using the oil. There are no oil leaks at all, so it must be consuming the oil. I guessing right now about 1 quart in about a 1000 miles. I have a good idea of what could be causing this to happen because of several events that have happened. First, I heard and read about the TSB and Recall on SOME of the cars about the problem with the precatalytic converter. My daugher took her car to the dealer and asked if this precatalyst recalled applied to her car, They looked up the VIN, and of course they said no. My understanding is that "under certain conditions", material from within the precatalyst can get sucked back into the engine, and the small particles can damage the cylinders, rings and plugs while bouncing around in the engine. I always thought this was very odd, as exhaust gas is supposed to be coming OUT of the engine, and INTO the precatalyst, and then OUT the precatalyst and DOWN the exhaust pipe and OUT the tail pipe. SO, how could this material go back up into the engine when all this exhaust gas is supposed to be coming out? It would seem that there would have to be some kind of pressure or force from somewhere to push the material back through the engine exhaust ports into the engine, but from where? So I thought about this for a while, then my daughter calls and says her 2002 Alitima 2.5S is making this strange sound, like air whoosing, when she steps on the gas, and the engine had very little power. But she kept driving it for a while until she could get by my house for me to look at it. When I did look at it, it did indeed make a strange whoosing sound, like a sound of rushing air when I stepped on the gas, at idle it sounded almost normal. So I looked underneath the car and I found exhaust gas was gushing out of the point where the bottom of the exhaust manifold/precatalyst is connected to the exhaust pipe with 2 springs and a gasket. It makes kind of a flexible connection so the the engine can rock back and forth a little bit. So I said that there must be quite a bit of pressure in the exhaust pipe for it to be leaking out like that with such force. So then I went to the back of the car to see how much gas was coming out the tail pipe, and when I checked I could feel none! When she revved the engine, I could barley feel a bit of exhaust gas. The exhaust was plugged up! So I got underneath the car and found that the exhaust pipe continues under the center of the car until it gets to this 2nd Catalytic converter before the muffler, it looks like a double cone, narrow at each end and fat in the middle. I felt the temperature of the exhaust pipe, and it was hot near the exhaust manifold, but got cooler as I felt closer to the 2nd catalytic converter. 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. The gasket at the flexible connection was still perfectly good. The exhaust gas had been allowed to leak out at that point due to the spring connectors, when the pressure in the pipe got high enough the springs would compress, allowing the joint to open slightly, and allow the exhaust gas to leak out. Therefore, the pressure was high in the exhaust pipe all the way from the engine exhaust ports to the 2nd catalytic converter. This section of precatalyst/exhaust manifold and exhaust pipe has a volume and acts like a pressure tank holding high pressure when the engine is running, having higher pressure when the engine runs faster. So this is what happens, the exhaust coming out the engine exhaust ports is not a constant flow, as the exhaust valves are opening and closing very fast, so the gas comes out pulsating, pushing against the already high pressure in the precatalyst. At the end of a strong pulse, the high pressure in the precatalyst can actually push some gas back up into the exhaust port, because of the high gas pressure in the precatalyst. So, the Exhaust gas is exhausting into high pressure, and some of the high pressure can push back up into the exhaust ports in between the high pressure pulses of exhaust gas coming out of the exhaust ports. Under "certain conditions" it is possible for material to blow from the precatalyst back into the engine causing engine damage. Continued in the next posting.... |
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