Well I have not had to replace a head gasket like the other complaints I have read. I got my 2005 nissan sentra back in March of 2012 from Dave Hallman Chevrolet in Erie PA, now need I mention I have never bought a car from a dealership before so this being my first time buying a farely new used car I was extremely disappointed.

I got to take the car for the weekend to drive it and see if its what I wanted to lease. Not even 3 hours of leaving the lot went to work for a four hour shift came out ready to go home the car wouldn't start wouldn't even turn over. When I finally got it started it just putted and I couldn't come to a complete because I was afraid the car was going to die on me in the middle of the road. Come to find out the dealership that I went to had figured out that the cam sensor I believe had to be placed in backwards otherwise the car would not start. Now this was the problem the dealership supposedly told me they had fixed before they would even let me come and look at the car along with some other things they supposedly replaced. Over the next couple of weeks I had nothing but problem after problem, I swear I think the car spent more time on the back of a tow truck or sitting at the dealership than it did on the road.

Every time I told the dealership about the issue they looked at me like I was stupid and of course being a woman I really had no idea what I was talking about. It took my dad, grandfather and boyfriend to threaten the dealership for them to finally listen to me. When it broke down the final time, we took it to an actual garage instead of the dealership and they went over the car with a fine tooth comb. Come to find out that the cam sensor needed to be replaced and so did the timing chain due to the cam sensor being placed in the motor backwards. The garage had to call nissan to order cam sensor from them because you can't buy a brand new sensor due to nissan making sure you had to go through them to get an expensive refurbished sensor from another nissan vehicle. The dealership only paid for the refurbished sensor, but would not cover any of the other expenses even though I believe they should of had to. All in all I spent over three grand for this piece of s**t, that only has 86,000+ miles on it and is now burning oil out the exhaust, jerks in and out of gears when shifting and does not get the gas milage that it did the first day that I had the pleasure of getting to drive the turd.

Never again will I ever, ever, ever buy another nissan of any sort nor will I go to Dave Hallman's and I make sure to let everyone I know not to ever go there.

My 2005 Sentra, was until December 2010 driving nice and still drives nice. However last year it started shaking for about 5 seconds at start up, (the SES came on). The car smooths out after 5 seconds of shaking & puttering and drives very nice. I took it to a mechanic shop for diagnostics (codes 0300, & 0302, Random multiple miss fire) and they replaced the spark plugs (plug # @ was seized and came out by force, that some threads from cylinder head come out with it), they asked me to come back if the light comes back again. After about two weeks the problem started again, I took it to the same mechanic again, and told him also I missed some coolant as well,(each oil change they fill out the reservoir). They tested it again and told me that they did not find any coolant leaking in the cylinder chambers, but they found combustion fuel fumes present in the radiator, that means a blown head gasket, and they needed $1,500 to fix. I did not have the money to fix it right away. I have been driving the car since then, I turn off the SES light, and each couple weeks comes back again when it starts shaking (it does that about once or twice a week). By the way I saw where the coolant is leaking from (the left side of the engine under the water temperature cage, exactly behind the alternator), i can see the green stuff traces there, ( I used two different head gasket sealers through the radiator {Steel Seal, Blue Devil-Twice, and that small leak is not fixed). I did open & clean the throttle body,the engine filter compartment, and all the air hoses, it helped, but the shaking and the SES came on again after about two weeks, I replaced the thermostat and also the light went off and came back after two weeks again. what is causing this code? I replaced the coils. The light went away for a while but the trouble light is back now. same code 0300. It doesn't happen often but when it does the engine has about a 5 second shake when you first start it. If the head gasket is blown out, the car would not be driven for about 6 months now and is still running the same, the car after it starts drives very nice, does not lose power or shakes wile driving, it shakes only at start up and that is it. I do not care what these dealers are saying about blown head gasket, I think the problem is one of the air hoses is cracked or lose and loosing some pressure at start up, and that is what is causing the shaking, however, we might one day get lucky and find out which air hose is the problem. Untill then, I will keep driving the car and looking around to figure out the main problem or when the car will stop starting and I have to spend that $1,500 to fix it.

Thank every one for posting there thoughts. Good Bless BJ

The car was idling rough and wouldn't start on the first try. Then one day it wouldn't start at all and the engine smelled like it was flooded with gas. I decided to take out the spark plugs to have a look and to see if I had any fire on the plugs at all. The spark plugs were extremely hard to get out, too tight. The #2 plug wouldn't come out. I had to use a breakover bar to get it out. The top 3 threads in the head came out with the spark plug. It was galded up from factory. Very upset with that! Took it to shop and they managed to fix the damaged hole without pulling the head. They only charged me $70 dollars to fix the hole but could not figure out why the car wouldn't start because after they got finished it started for them. They told me the next time the engine light came on to bring it up there so they could put it on the computer. The car still runs a little rough and the light has come back on a few times but I never have the time to take it back to the shop.