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.
Car was hard to start about 10 months ago (44000 miles). The check engine light came on the same day, so I checked the codes and it showed bad crankshaft sensor.I bought the lowest price sensor that I could find Autozone ($28.00). It was possibly the most aggravating part that I have ever changed. It is located about half-way down the firewall on the bell housing. The only way I could see it was to slide my digital camera down the firewall and take pictures. The locking plug was the biggest pain in the butt. You have to do it all by feel. After wasting half a day to put it in I was back together and running again. The sad thing is now it is doing the same exact thing. I ordered a more expensive sensor today from Advance Auto hoping that it will last longer than the last one. An interesting note is that the camshaft sensor and crankshaft sensor are the same part. The camshaft sensor takes 5 minutes to change, and the crankshaft sensor is a jack the car up all day affair. Also interesting is that when the crankshaft sensor goes bad it sets off the speed sensor code as well. In my opinion this should be a full fledged factory recall.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
Car was hard to start about 10 months ago (44000 miles). The check engine light came on the same day, so I checked the codes and it showed bad crankshaft sensor.I bought the lowest price sensor that I could find Autozone ($28.00). It was possibly the most aggravating part that I have ever changed. It is located about half-way down the firewall on the bell housing. The only way I could see it was to slide my digital camera down the firewall and take pictures. The locking plug was the biggest pain in the butt. You have to do it all by feel. After wasting half a day to put it in I was back together and running again. The sad thing is now it is doing the same exact thing. I ordered a more expensive sensor today from Advance Auto hoping that it will last longer than the last one. An interesting note is that the camshaft sensor and crankshaft sensor are the same part. The camshaft sensor takes 5 minutes to change, and the crankshaft sensor is a jack the car up all day affair. Also interesting is that when the crankshaft sensor goes bad it sets off the speed sensor code as well. In my opinion this should be a full fledged factory recall.
- Gig S., Huntington, WV, US