5th Jul 2008, 12:05

I have an 04 SER Spec V and love it! I bought it new and it's got almost 43,000 miles on it. I rec'd a letter about 2 years ago for that recall for that "engine failing" thing, I brought it right in to get it fixed and never had a problem. I throw my steel wheels w/snow tires on in the winter and it's great in the snow too!

4th Aug 2008, 09:58

Well I have a 2002 SE-R. My engine light came on, so every time I stopped at a red light or for traffic, the car would start to idle really bad and turn off! Anyways... I hooked up my scanner and it told me it was the camshaft sensor, so I replaced it.

After 3 weeks later I check Mitchell on demands TSBs and it said that the cam sensor was a recall! and I didn't know. anyways... anyone that has Altimas, Sentras, check with your dealer for recalls.

Oh yeah, also they just recalled my car about 1 1/2 month ago for the computer (ECM) (PCM) whatever.

3rd Nov 2008, 23:39

I have a 2002 Spec V, and just like everyone else, burning a lot of oil. Any idea how to fix this and how much? Have had car for about 2 years, gone through pads, rotors, starter, my trunk won't open anymore, parts on the doors coming off. Wish I would have seen this website before I bought it.

16th Nov 2008, 22:02

I got rid of my SER 2 years ago, I have a couple comments on here about the lemon of a car, and I can't believe people are still buying this piece of crap!

It really sucks that even after all the problems that Nissan caused with this car and all upset people, Nissan still wouldn't admit they screwed up. And still people keep buying them. It makes me laugh, and this is whats wrong with the world today. A company like Nissan will continue to make crap and people will continue to buy it because 75% of the world is lemmings. If you know these cars have had issues and Nissan has been sued and everything else, why in the world would you buy one after reading the almost 100 comments about how bad this car is? We need to start holding these companies responsible for there garbage. Unfortunately I think the imports get the benefit of the doubt. People held Ford, GM & Chrysler responsible for all the crap they built now they are going out of business. But what about the imports? Honda from 1999 till like 2004 made crap recall after recall. Even now the new Civics have tons of problems, but people will continue to buy them.

This is a joke I am true to my word and will never buy a Nissan ever again. I may be only 1 person but I hope others follow. When they begin to lose money because people just won't buy there crap anymore then they will wake up.

Good luck to those of you who claim you're still going to buy a Spec-V Sentra.. you're going to need it.

13th Feb 2009, 11:28

I'm sorry to hear that a lot of you are having such extensive problems. I bought my 03 Sentra SER Spec V in September of '03 with 120 miles on it. It now has 106k. I've had all the recalls done, three I believe, heat shield on exhaust, ECU (something about the engine shutting off at high speeds), and the third I can't seem to recall at the moment.

First incident was my own fault. Not use to the car at all (96 Dodge Avenger previously), I hit a curb in a weird Wendy's drive thru, ripping a hole in the tire. Tire is a Continental Contact Extreme. I took it to the dealership to have it replaced and it took over a week to get the tire. No dealer in SC (Nissan dealership or Tire Specialist) had the tire in stock. It was shipped from Montana. Not really a problem, just a little confused as to why they put a tire that is not readily available in a particular area on a car.

The first problem I noticed at about 15k miles was that the shifter had gotten noticeably louder when shifting gears, making a clunking noise. They replaced the bushings and eventually replaced the entire shifting mechanism but it still does it today.

Also, it sometimes seemed to not be securely in First Gear and when you would disengage the clutch the shifter would sort of "pop" out. I mentioned this to the dealership and it was also never fixed, although now it hardly ever does it. Must be worn in.

It does take a bit of work to get it into reverse. Sometimes I need to slowly engage the clutch before it will pop into gear. This could be that I have been very hard on the car, especially as I became more comfortable with it. I've also been guilty of mistiming my shifts and grinding gears a bit, which definitely could be a contributing factor. It also doesn't help that those people that drive your car that are not familiar with the gear box accidentally try to put it in reverse instead of 5th. So this problem, which is more of an annoyance than anything, can be blamed on me so I don't really consider it a fault of Nissan.

At around 80k miles the check engine light came on. Dealership said it was a faulty vacuum valve in the air interchanger? Something like that. Cost me about $600. Engine light went away and the car seemed fine.

The next problem was a faulty grommet on the emergency brake line. It allowed water to get inside and then freeze (PA here) causing the emergency break to lock up. I took it to the dealership and they couldn't reproduce the problem, but they tightened the cable. It happen again, during the next freeze, ruining the brake. Took it back and they could not reproduce the problem. They wanted me to replace the brake though. I argued that was ridiculous. Why would I want to replace a brake that continues to lock up? HELLO!? They wanted me to leave it overnight, with no "loaner" and no compensation to get me to work.

I filed a formal complaint with Nissan. They instructed me to visit a new dealership and assigned a case number. I visited a new dealership, and within 30 minutes of the car being there, they knew exactly what the problem was and had me replace the grommet, casing, and wire assembly, about $130.

The starting problem. I have it too. Haven't taken it in for service yet but sometimes the car will not start on the first try. It makes a good effort, even stuttering sometimes, but does not start. The 2nd try always works. It's been doing this for a while now, but doesn't seem to be getting worse. I'm due for a 100k mile service so I'll mention it to them and see what happens.

The interior of my car, other than being cheap with a bit of scuffs on the door portion that is painted silver, is fine and in great condition. I took care of the interior and it shows. I recommend all weather floor mats. They are awesome! The CD player will heat up during long interstate drives during the winter and sometimes causes the disc not to play (driving from SC to IN). Now that I live in PA some mornings it will say "CD ERROR" when I start the car after turning the car off while listening to a CD. I have to eject the disc and reinsert it for it to work. I should have gotten an aftermarket anyway but never did.

The car has 106k miles on it now. I've had it for 5 years and it's been in the hot heat of SC to the frigid cold of IN and PA. It's been all over the east coast and I've never really had any major problems out of it. A few annoyances here and there, some stupid dealerships with bad service technicians, but nothing major. On a day to day basis I love the car. I love driving it fast, I love taking off at red lights, and I love knowing that there is a bit of power there when I need it. It's like a relationship. There are some things about it that get on your nerves, but nothing that makes you want to breakup. It's been there for me as I've been there for it and I will be sad to see it go when that time comes.