2002 Nissan Sentra SER Spec V

Summary:

The car is OK, but nothing beats a Honda

Faults:

The problem with the RATTLING is the timing chain tension. There is a part call a timing chain tension. You have one on the bottom and one on the top. I needed to change the one on the top and the sound is gone. No rattle on start up or at 2000rpms.

Head gasket at 113000.

General Comments:

The car is OK, but I will go back to Honda.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 17th July, 2007

2002 Nissan Sentra SE-R 2.5L

Summary:

I hate this car. It's the best way to be on a first name basis with your mechanic!

Faults:

First, was the crank shaft position sensor..which was a recall. That was done in the first month of owning the car.

At about 35K miles, the mass air flow sensor went bad and I had to have it replaced. It was covered by my warranty, but left me without a car for 5 days due to problems with the dealership.. which wasn't Nissan's fault b/c I bought the car from a Honda place.

Then, the car started rattling every time it started from a cold start. The dealer couldn't find any problems because it didn't do the same thing for them. When they finally heard it, they just said the drive chain was a little loose, but it was nothing to worry about.

The cover for the visor mirrors have both broken off.. that occurred in the first year of owning it.

In general, the car HATES starting in cold weather. It's very hesitant even in the summer and I have to crank it a few times to get it to turn over.. but in winter... it may take 15 times to get it to start.. then it'll shut off if I don't give it a little gas.

My trunk latch also broke.. no idea how and I basically had to take it apart to fix it. It's like the bolts weren't tight enough and it slipped down into the opening so there was nothing for the trunk to latch to. It was on there good and tight and then a week later.. it did it again. So.. I had to buy a whole new latch mechanism.

Most recently, while driving to work, the car lurched and the check engine light came on. I kept hitting the gas, but I kept slowing down.. so I shifted into neutral and tried revving it.. but nothing happened, so I pulled over and turned off the engine. I restarted it and that seemed to fix it. Another mile down the road, the same thing happened. Turns out, the accelerator sensor went out and they also discovered that I have a leak in my EV AP unit (part of the A/C).

I'm also having problems with the moon roof. I'm not sure if it just needs more grease in the tracks or if it's the motor going bad... but it's reallllly slow.

General Comments:

When this car is working, it is a lot of fun to drive, but the problems it's had just isn't worth it.

It's fairly comfy for a small car, but could use some lumbar support on long trips.

The maintenance on this piece of crap is constant. My Honda could go every 6k miles for oil changes.. this one has to be every 3K miles or it starts having problems.. the rattling at start up gets worse unless you have the oil changed, which makes no sense since they told me it was the drive chain.

There's no room for anyone's legs in the backseat, so if you're behind a driver who's tall, you're screwed.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 6th July, 2007

2002 Nissan Sentra ser spec v 2.5

Summary:

Lemon!!! never again Nissan

Faults:

Brakes, catalytic converter, O2 sensor times3, been to the shop too many times to count now the engines blown, electrical problems, dash lights out, burns oil between oil changes as much as 4liters.

General Comments:

This car spends more time parked then running.

It's been one thing after another.

This car is 300.00ing me to death.

Factory tires lasted 25,000km.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 25th February, 2007

25th Feb 2007, 20:14

I'm not at all surprised by this review. It sounds typical of late model Nissans. A friend of ours bought their son a new Sentra a few years ago and it had so many problems they literally parked it at 40,000 miles and bought him a Chrysler with 100,000 miles on it, which he is still driving as far as I know.