Car would idle roughly and gas miliage dropped almost 30 %, finally went to nissan in newburgh ny where I purchased the car and they stated the intake manifold gasket would have to be replaced, along with a tune up and them telling me my valve cover gasket was leaking as well, which was replaced just 18 months ago in july of 2008 with only 9,000 miles on it. I argued the gaskets are faulty and they credited me $90.00 for labor on the valve cover one. The total bill was a whopping $1521.00 dollars and I still fighting with the manager for additional compensation. I will contact the attorney genaral's office in New York

I bought a Nissan Altima 2001 on Jan 4,2010. With all the excitment I had because my son and wife wanted a car so badly, I did not notice this problem until next day and I said nah...can't be...I am just being apprehensive. Next day my son reported the same problem. Next day my wife reported too. This is the problem: Whenever the car is a any intersection it idles rough, like it the engine is going to stop working (never happens). If I put in Neutral there is no problem, or when I am driving it. Called my good friend mechanic, check it, and said it was the accelerator cable, it was too tight he said ($45 gone). It worked fine for the next day, then the CHECK ENGINE sign appeared. He came back next week and checked and found a PO171 code and told me he would investigate more on this code since it could be anything from manifold gasket or CO leaking gas mix. Then I researched on Google and found this site and many more that report the exact same problem just read this link:

http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/Reliability.aspx?year=2001&make=Nissan&model=Altima

I bought this car from a private party ..if there is a class action against Nissan can they fix my car?

I am a licensed mechanic and just finished replacing the intake gasket on my nieces 2001 2.4 Altima. i checked a bunch of different things first including changing plugs. I read this web site and was convinced this was the problem and it seems to have fixed the problem. what a nightmare to replace although it was my first because i don't fix cars much anymore (different job now ha ha) there is no way you would do this without a hoist which i have. it probably took me 12 hours )3 days took breaks in between) good luck

OK, so I just took my Nissan Altima to a repair shop and was told that the Intake Gasket needed to be replaced along with the throttle position sensor. A whopping $900 dollars to fix it. I could not believe it! I asked for my keys back and left extremely frustrated. When my car is in idle mode the RPM would jump from 2 to 1 and act as if it was going to shut off. It wasn't really bad at the time just annoying. What is so weird is that it actually drives great. I know cars need repair from time to time, but this is apparently a very well known problem with this particular make/model. The price tag to fix it is not something everyone can afford either. I don't understand why Nissan would treat their consumers this way.

I always said that I would buy another Nissan too, but I won't make the same mistake twice. Another thing that really stinks about this is the auto repair shops know these "common" issues with these cars and could just be ripping you off. In fact, that's just what the guy said to me when he came back: "Very common malfunction with this car." I wish Nissan would do a recall on this, I just don't need this problem right now.

Noticed a "rumble" in the engine when accelerating from a stop. It would only last for a second and only occurred when accelerating from a stop. Otherwise car was driving fine. In August I noticed that when I was idling in Park the RPMS would drop down and the engine would rev up and down a little. When the car was in drive and I stopped at a red light the same thing would happen only worse. The engine would idle really rough and the car would start to shake a little.

I searched the internet and boy am I glad that I did. I discovered a ton of people describing the same thing, a bad intake manifold gasket. I took the car to my mechanic (small private shop that's been in business locally for 15-20 years). He checked it out and agreed with my assumption. Now I was worried because it seems the average repair cost is around $800. My mechanic quoted me $400-500. Said it would be about 6 hours of labor unless he found other problems once he took the engine apart.

The intake manifold gasket was indeed the problem. Work started first thing Friday morning and he didn't have the car done until late Monday (shop closed over the weekend). He admitted that he grossly underestimated how tough the job was going to be. I ended up having to rent a car for three days at $160. To my mechanic's credit he honored his original estimate and actually only charged me $380 and the problem is resolved.

After reading all the complaints about this problem it seems to me this should have been a recall. I don't think I'll buy another Nissan. I'd like to hang on to the car for two more years but if I get another "big" repair I'll more than likely trade it in for a newer used car.

this is the second intake manifold gasket that has went out in this altima. The same problems sitting at an idle and at stop lights. This has to be fixed via Nissan or we will have the same situation on these cars. this car has 91000 miles and yes again two intake manifold gaskets. the codes are misfire in cylinder four and once again i replaced distributor, rotor, spark plugs, fuel filter and not to mention the sweat and time that went into this. in the last year the radiator and water pump have been replaced as well.

Nov 2007 at 80,300 miles - loud noise at idling and check engine ("service engine soon") light stays up. Non-dealer chain auto repair said tune-up and spark plugs should resolve it, and cost about $650. The check engine light was fixed.

Mar 2008 at 83,100 miles - loud noise at idle still going and check engine light came back on. Same chain repair diagnosed it as catalytic converter and O2 and knock sensors, cost about $1,400. Check engine light was fixed.

Apr 2009 at 94,500 miles - loud noise still there, now it's so bad it seems engine is going to cut-off when I am at a stop, and check engine light comes back on. Still contemplating if it's worth spending another $700 to supposedly fix this problem.

What's the next to give out? Extremely unhappy with this car!

In Oct 2003 we replaced the intake manifold gasket under warranty. The cost was $647 including a 10% senior citizen discount. The dealer stated that it was not covered by our warranty. We contacted the regional office and were refunded our cost.

Now we have the problem of very high idling when stopped at stop lights and it appears that we need to replace that gasket again. We will if we decide to keep the car which also has developed a transmission problem (See under transmission problems).

Intake manifold gasket replaced; cost $561.00.

Everyone else is writing about the intake gasket, I'll join the club.

It started shaking when stopped at a light or otherwise idling back in December. I finally gave it a tune up about a month ago, then the check engine light came on and it still shook so I sucked it up and took it to a shop. They originally wanted to change the fourth fuel injector, and after doing so told me it was the intake gasket that was most likely to cause. I thought they were full of crap until I found this site, so now they are replacing the part, but yea it's expensive ($900) and it sucks. I'm glad they didn't give me the runaround like some other people with this issue got, but no one's happy to spend that much money on their car for what sounds like a common defect.

Grrrr... I need a beer!

In May of 09 i will have owned my nissan for 5 years. Never ever had a problem with until about a month ago, it started with the check engine light coming on and staying on for a few days.Then out of the blue it started to buck when in the stopped postion. Almost like my car was dancing to the music in my car. Took it to the auto shop 3 times and they replaced wires, filters, cap and rotor, spark plugs and it ran good for about 2 days. Now they are saying it's the intake mainfold gasket which can run me a good penny, that i don't have. I am scared to drive the damn thing. With the price of the car and all the work that i have put into the car, your talking close to $20,000, if not more. I am a single mother of two children and can not afford another car muchless anymore towards this car. I THINK THAT NISSAN SHOULD REPAY US ALL OR GIVE US NEW GOOD WORKING, PROBLEM FREE CARS! Or at least tell them to read these complaints by all that have been screwed by them.

I have just opened case # 10251072 with NHTSA. My car started having the low idle problem in June 2008. The Check Engine light is on most of the time, but occasionally goes out. I had a "friend" who was going to fix this for me, but all he did was take my car for 3 days and break some bolts trying to disassemble everything. He promised to try again but I have not heard from him in 5 weeks now. Not answering my calls or text messages. I guess I will have to suck it up and take it to shop where I expect my cost to be over $800. Who knows what my "friend" messed up. I am hoping there have been enough complaints by now for Nissan to consider something, but that may be wishful thinking.

GRRR, I really am starting to hate this car!! In Aug 08, car was in shop for rough idle when stopped. Diagnostics came up with Mass Air Flow Sensor. Cost---$695.22 just for the part. Two weeks later, same thing started again! Unfortunately, Hurricane Ike hit us and most of us were without power for a long time included my repair shop. Finally, (after my crazy life settled down) got this car back to the shop this week. Guess what, Intake Manifold Gasket. Cost---$759.78.

Hopefully this takes care of the problem. This car was bought brand new in Jan 2001, we've put over $5k in repairs (not maintenance) into it in 100,000 miles. (Includes A/C, MAS, MIG, O2 Sensor, cracked radiator, Valve Cover Gasket, part I can't remember and we still need to replace the leaking power steering pump and a bad motor mount) Hubby's truck was bought brand new in June 1995 (Ford Ranger XLT), we've only spent $1,700 in repairs and it has over 300,000 miles on it!!

Hubby and I take very good care of our cars and have all regular maintenance done regularly. As far as the radiator, I did not forget to check/replace hoses and it had never overheated. I'm not a typical "girl" with a car, I used to do ALL my own repair work until these computerized systems took over.

Should this tell Nissan they are making a bunch of crap and passing it off to the public???