CarComplaints.com Notes: Here's a disturbing trend for the 2002 Nissan Altima: the engine starts burning oil like crazy, the catalytic converter goes bad, the head gasket blows and eventually the entire engine needs replacement. Sound familiar? Like a script from a horror film, these Altimas seem doomed to fail around 95k miles.

3.6

definitely annoying
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
35,000 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.

So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.

2002 Nissan Altima steering problems

steering problem

Find something helpful? Spread the word.
Get notified about new defects, investigations, recalls & lawsuits for the 2002 Nissan Altima:

Unsubscribe any time. We don't sell/share your email.

2002 Nissan Altima Owner Comments

problem #1

Mar 102005

Altima 4WD 4-cyl

  • Automatic transmission
  • 35,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

Steering wheel began tightening making it extremely difficult to move. Turning became arduous, slow and scary. We went to the Nissan dealer for service. They told us they corrected it. But, the problem returned shortly thereafter. So we returned the vehicle for repair. They told us that the original repair didn't solve the problem (obviously). They needed a new steering part. The Agency called that the part arrived. The vehicle was returned again and left all day only to learn that the part delivered to them was wrong. They 'jerry-rigged' it and told us they would call when the new part arrived. The steering is ok but they warned us that it needed to be correctly repaired. The Agency has not yet called back. It is odd that a vehicle with only 35,000 miles would have serious, severe steering problems. It is dismaying that we paid to repair a problem only for it to immediately return. Then it is annoying to wait all day to learn that the delivered part was the wrong part. And, I am suspicious that maybe the part wasn't wrong, but that they didn't know how to correctly fix the problem. Is it enough for them to tell me that the problem isn't correctly fixed" should I have to pay several times for a problem to be correctly fixed"

- Tarrytown, NY, USA

Not what you are looking for?