Faults:

We're very late to this discussion. Maybe you're not even checking it anymore. Our 2002 Altima also needed a new engine. It was covered under some recall. If you paid for it, check into it. Maybe you can get your money back.

My husband loves the car and plans to get a new one. We're trying to keep this one going for our son, who is going to college next year.

The heater doesn't work anymore. Our mechanic says it's not the heater core, which is fine, but some gears that open and close a vent under the dash. Says it's a $500 repair. There has to be another way.

Faults:

My engine loses a lot of oil, and makes a horrible lawn mower noise when it gets low, every 2,000.

My thermometer has been replaced within the past 4 months, and my heater hasn't worked correctly in the past two months, and before that it didn't work for awhile.

General Comments:

I will never buy another Nissan Altima. I own a 2002 2.5 SE Nissan Altima, and here recently I took it to a Nissan dealership, to find out why my car sounds like a lawn mower every 2,000 miles, but the noise stops as soon as my oil is changed. Well, the dealership replaced my head gaskets, belt tensioner, and thermometer because when my vehicle is parked or I tap my brakes, my heater blows cool air. Well 3 weeks, later my problem isn't fixed, and I have put $2000 into fixing the problem.

Well the "NISSAN" dealership, says it just burns oil fast. Please. They got an ear full and so did the company.

Why is it everyone has problems with 2002 Nissan Altimas?

Faults:

Well when I first bought this car, it was a sweet deal. It has a brand new motor with 500 miles, I have replaced both cats, all four fuel injections, on its 2nd set of tires, new struts all the way around, brakes were bad, had one two recalls for the subframe and the ECM sensor, rusty floor pans replaced.

General Comments:

This car I thought was a good deal from surviving a car exploding in my other Altima - can provide pictures as proof.

This car, as I was not aware, has the precat engine issue, so before the precat thinks it's gonna go bad on me, I went ahead and put a racing header and a different exhaust system, as I cannot afford to replace cars every year.

When I first got this thing, the fuel injectors went bad. Lucky this still had the 100k warranty, so 1500.00 a piece at Nissan's expense was fine with me.

I've had to get the butterfly screws replaced, as Nissan won't tell you they will come loose and fall into the cylinders, and will score the walls.

I have yet to replace the 2nd motor, just been watching the oil closely.

Nissan will also fail to tell you about your 2002 Altima, with the rusty floors. I found out the hard way when my foot went through the pan to the ground when I was traveling at speeds of 75mph. It's a common issue from research I've done with the models 02-05, but some people may not know about this issue till it's too late, and Nissan will say it's something they have never heard of.

If I was you, stay away from this car! Buy a Honda or something, I'm surprised at 125,800 miles I haven't had to get the motor replaced once again for oil cat issues. I really wished I would have bought this Honda hybrid I found. It was a bit more, but wouldn't have had issues like these.