CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2005 Nissan Altima has two fairly significant problems with the floor pan rusting through & motor mounts breaking.
Altima owners report that up to a basketball-size hole develops under the floor mats where the floor pan metal rusts through. Average repair cost is over $1,000.
The broken motor mounts are less of a problem - they break at ~75,000 miles average & it's $400 to fix. Still, motor mounts should not break!
as reported by others, the heater does not blow hot air at low rpm, when on high rpm or on highways most of the time it blows hot air but at times it stops. the problem is more evident when the temperature drops below 5C or 41F.
Update from Jan 13, 2018: i had my mechanic check this issue and it is fixed to an extend now. there was a leak in the coolant pipe joint somewhere and he fixed it and topped up the coolant. he mentioned that the fix is partial, it do give better heat but what he found is that the heater is clogged. it will take a lot of labor to remove the entire front panel and clean it up. this is to restore it completely. but I guess for now fixing the leaky pipes has helped.
I bought my 2005 Nissan Altima used with 175,000 miles (terrible mistake). However, I had my mechanic check the car out all together to make sure it was good. One week in I go to use the heat and nothing but air came out. Never got the heat to work in the car. Week later the radiator is busted.
The heat only works when I get up to 2,000 RPM. If I am in traffic, stopped at traffic lights, or idle at all...no heat at all whatsoever. Feels like the AC is on.
The a/c failed to blow cold air. It was 1:30pm and very hot. I got drenched in my sweat. Took it to garage next morning and by evening car was fixed. He said the coil needed replacement.
Heater use to work fine but recently went out. It blows out extremely cold air. When i start my car, it sounds like there is water swooshing around somewhere. There is no leak anywhere and all of the fluids are in the car. Another thing that is happening now is that when i accelerate the vehicle, the cars temperature meter goes all the way up to hot and cools down when i slow down. i do not know if it is related.
I've been told so far it may be the water pump, will find out soon if that's the case or not once I take my car in. It also makes a water "swooshing" sound from inside the car when I take off.
Update from Dec 11, 2012: The auto tech flushed my heating system to make sure nothing was blocking it. Otherwise, it would have came down to changing the heater core due to a possible crack in it. THANKFULLY, flushing it out did the trick and it save me a lot of trouble and money!
Even if the car runs for 20-30 minutes, the windows are still frozen up/foggy on the INSIDE and won't clear up until you have been accelerating approximately 15 minutes.
When the car warms up and the fan blows warm air, if you stop in traffic or at a red light and are no longer accelerating, the air goes cool again.
Well, heating and A/C simply sux on this car. A/C is never cold enough and heating is never warm enough. Went back to the dealer to claim the warranty, and got refused 4 times - tried to fill lemon law claim against them and Nissan Customer Service never helped and nothing happened. After a while my lawyer charged me $400 and did nothing about it. I am suspicious he acted in their favor.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
as reported by others, the heater does not blow hot air at low rpm, when on high rpm or on highways most of the time it blows hot air but at times it stops. the problem is more evident when the temperature drops below 5C or 41F.
Update from Jan 13, 2018: i had my mechanic check this issue and it is fixed to an extend now. there was a leak in the coolant pipe joint somewhere and he fixed it and topped up the coolant. he mentioned that the fix is partial, it do give better heat but what he found is that the heater is clogged. it will take a lot of labor to remove the entire front panel and clean it up. this is to restore it completely. but I guess for now fixing the leaky pipes has helped.
- R K., Halifax, NS, Canada