I seem to be headed down the road in the same direction. It began with my engine shaking at idle and then I went through oil (oil nearly empty when I caught it) but could find no leaks. The MIL (check engine light/service engine soon light) began flashing on and off, which usually indicates a catalytic converter problem. Now my heater blows cold air at idle. I suspected a thermostat or coolant problem but not a blown head gasket and cat. convrtr problem. I considered buying another Nissan but not now. Having reviewed the internet, my 2002 Altima problems seem common. What can we do?! It is my opinion that: DO NOT BUY A 2002-2006 NISSAN!! If you own one, trade it in for a Honda, Toyota, or Subaru.

I have a 2002 Nissan Altima which was a pleasure to drive for awhile. After the 80,000 reading I had misfiring problems. We replaced the spark plugs and the ignition coils; now the mechanic says that the gasket blew off. How in the hell did that happen if I never noticed any overheating? The temperature gauge never went past the middle so how in the world was my car running without water to the point that it overheated? We must keep complaining and make Nissan pays for all these abuses and lack of recall for temperature gauges that don't work.

This Nissan has been nothing but trouble. There should have been a recall on the Head gaskets.....it starting missing, so bad, when the car was started, it began to shake and jump. Hooked up to computer and showed a #3 misfire. Turns out the head gasket was leaking water which was standing in around the spark plugs....it was a pain to replace....and costly....not to mention the heater not working unless you are driving at high rates of speed.....If you stop at a red light, the heater blows cold air.....now there is problems with the fuel pump.....I only bought a Nissan because everyone said it would last and last.....apparently I got the newer body style that has several issues that the company will not acknowledge.....I will NEVER buy another Nissan!!!! Oh, and the Cadillac converter is also know to suck oil back in to the engine, we can blow the motor..(we haven't had that problem yet, but several others have!!! We constantly keep a watch on the oil levels to make sure we are no having this issues....went to dealership to have a replacement catalytic converter, and they will replace with the SAME exact one....way to fix the problem, huh????

I was driving and I noticed that my car kept getting "hot" and then I was driving to school and the fumes started coming out of the hood. I stopped the car and there was a loud explosion. We got out and waited for the car cool down. Then, the car was towed and the radiator was replaced with two thermostats. After I was told that I needed to replace the head gasket and that it was about 1000 or more. I said no because I had gone to a couple different mechanics and all of them told me different things. I stopped the car from running because I had already about 2500 in the car and no one was really giving me the same. We had to get another car because my oldest son refused and cried about going inside the altima. He was only six years old. Hence, it is traumatizing when one hears a big explosion with smoke coming out of the hood and is the back of the car, with a seatbelt on.

I read a lot of complaints with the same problem. Is there something we can do so that the company stops making cars with this problem. I think the company knows that this going to happen.

Okay I read the exact same thing that I am going through. At first they thought it was the radiator, no leak in the radiator so they replaced the thermostat. That did not worked kept losing oil and water, wouldn't crank. Mechanic thought that it was the throttle, fixed that stopped working the same day. They towed it back in and found gas and oil in with the plugs. Referred me to an engine specialist and yes it was the dreaded BLOWN HEAD GASKET! Ok $1336.76, so I was thinking ok that was enough of an nightmare, but the third day the oil light comes back on , check no oil in car, yes my head is spinning. Call engine specialist he say pour a quart of oil in and drive it over in the morning. This is a very scary situation, I work hard and cannot afford a rental car to get me around, I am still paying for this car. The car only has 117,000 miles on it. I use to sing the praises of Nissan when I had my Quest Van, but this is leaving a nasty taste in my mouth for Nissan. Please offer me some recourse, this is killing me.

What a saga I thought I would never have, concerning a vehicle I trusted. First thing to happen was that dreaded " check engine light" came on for the first time, found it was plugs (or something ) misfiring, had that fixed, one more time - misfiring, fixed that. Light on again in March, 2009, went back to independent repair shop and was told it looked like there was a serious engine problem , would need to pull heads, which would cost 2,000 and then if that was the problem, it would cost me addition money for a motor. Took it to Nissan to make sure this was the problem, No, it was a busted radiator, Cost: $500 (reconditioned, not new!) NO other problems, whew, was I releved !! Come August, guess what - the light is back on.

Take it to the Dealership, the Engine has to be replaced........ OMG! The guy at the first place I took it to was right, he knew more than the Nissan dealership! Sensors gone, everything screwed up $6500.00 to replace/repair! NO THANK YOU, service cost= $150.00 for the info. Why didn't you see this coming back in March when you said it was only a busted radiator (go figure, why would I have a busted radiator in the first place?) The lights were not on so we could not check - Not what you said then, said "we checked it all out and didn't see anything."....... Now, I call Nissan North America, Inc, e-mail Nissan, get a call back from someone that will not give her last name, just Amanda "P"! Are they afraid to give their name, hey, it's a Corporation- how professional. Their response was, as you might guess, sorry but we can't do anything for you since it was pre-owned and we do not have the service records from the dealership. What could I have possibly done to cause all of these problems, I had it serviced, but not at Nissan- which would have cost 2X-3X more than what I had my oil, filter, etc.etc. serviced for. It is not a new car under warranty. To add insult to injury, she says, "you may take your vehicle and have it repaired at the Dealership", at MY Cost of course !!!!!! Thanks Nissan !!!! Anyway, I have surfed the web and the same problems show up over and over and over- but it's not Nissan's fault, right?!

Now I am forced to rent a car until I can get another, how would I ever get anything out of it now to sell or trade? Can't even trade it as a Clunker !! The service manager said , the mileage was too good to be considered a clunker. In other words, I'm screwed! The best thing I can hope for is Nissan Corporation will bite the dust - PLEASE PEOPLE, DON'T buy a NISSAN !

I am glad that I found this site, for a while I blamed myself for what I have been experiencing with my 2002 Altima 2.5. At first it started with the check engine light coming on and the engine running a little rough, like it had a bad plug or ignition coil that went bad, had it checked by the dealer and that's what the test came back as, a random misfire, so I had the car tuned up. It worked for a little while, then a new problem, I heard funning bubbling noises behind my dash board and coolant smell, added to that my coolant level was always low, so low at one point that I was running on nothing but straight water. Shortly after all this, then the oil loss begin, at first I could not figure out what was going on or where the oil was going, because there where no signs of any leaking from the engine. Then it got even worse, not even counting all the oil I purchased, the engine started randomly starting, leaving me stranded many days. I took it back to the dealer and got many of the same responses posted on this site. It was a blessing to find this site before I spent any money to have it repaired, seemingly for no reason but to end with the same problems I had in the beginning. I see that there has been a class action suite file against the Nissan Corporation, can anyone give me any feedback on what stage it is in? My e-mail address is: dingle0862@yahoo.com. Something needs to be done so the consumer can get some type of restoration for a problem that had to have been known about by the manufacturer of this vehicle. I had always heard good things about Nissan, but after this experience, they could not give me one.

It sounds like I have the same problem as the others in this category. My only regret is that I didn't know about this site before I bought a 2002 Altima this past August (2008). The car gave out while I was out of state so I had to travel back home in a rental. Now I'm told the gasket is going to cost $1100 and Nissan won't have anything to do with it. Even worse I will have extra expenses and need time off work to travel back to pick up the car, or make some type of arrangement repaired or not. After tomorrow the mechanic charges storage fees...It sounds like my headache is just beginning.

Back in November of 2008 I spent $1,200 to have the heater core fixed on my 2002 Nissan altima. Three months later the head gasket goes and cost me another $1,400. Whenever you see engine code P0303 don't aussume that it is a bad spark plug like I did. That has how I found it was the head gasket. My question to Nissan how does the spark plug code make the head gasket go and do you get away with this crap?

Now it is not over because I still need a cat which is going to cost me $800. That if the pieces aren't already going into the motor. Shame on Nissan for putting out a big piece of sh*t. Nissan needs to relearn how to build car. This is as almost as a bad as a ford.