26th Jan 2008, 21:24

I have heard quite a bit of problems from this car, but I love my 02 spec, its given me very little problems AND is the one of the fastest in its class ;) I still love Nissan as well, with my 94 altima still going at well over 200k miles.

2nd Feb 2008, 09:15

Hey, all.

It's not just SER Spec V's that suffer the leaking trunk thing. I have a 2002 Nissan Sentra XE that suffers the same problem.

Anyone found a solution to this? Replacement of weather stripping? Anyone?

10th Feb 2008, 19:37

Just bought 02 spec v with 44000 miles and now it is starting to grind between 2nd and 3rd at high rpms. Will this be under warranty? After reading all these I hope nothing else goes wrong. I will keep an eye on the oil now for sure.

11th Feb 2008, 22:51

I bought a 2002 Nissan sentra se-r spec v one month ago the car is only 56k and the computer failed I just used 15 days Nissan sucks they have to retire all this cars of the street.

19th Feb 2008, 00:55

I own a 02 Spec V and it is a bad ass car! I've smoked plenty of cars... I wouldn't trade it for any other car.

20th Feb 2008, 10:55

I bought a 2002 SE-R new from a dealer. Worked fine expect for a short stint die to a recalled item. Then in Jan. '08 I heard a small rattling noise at low engine speeds. On 20 Jan. '08 while passing another car the rattle grew a great deal and the car died. I was able to restart it and nurse it home.

Spent ~$225 to have ti towed to a dealer 60 miles away. Tech (without opening up the engine, just checking the oil pan and computer) said it needed to be replaced. When I pressed for details, eh said looks like the bearings failed and were chewing up the engine, since he find metal bits in the oil pan. Replacement cost $3500 W/O labor and engine delivery. Umm no thanks, the cars worth only $10k in mint.

So hopefully I can get a good deal on salvaging it. Regularly maintained, failed. Never again.

24th Feb 2008, 18:12

I told my son, when he graduated from high school, that I would buy him the car he had always wanted (a Nissan Sentra Spec V, 2003 model). I found that he would graduate, and located a reasonably priced Sentra Spec V, and drove approx 500 miles to see it, and then bought it. The car had approx 62,000 miles at purchase and lasted until 64,000 miles, when the obviously well-known problem of 'pre cat failure' happened and destroyed the engine.

I have absolutely nothing good to say about Nissan, because they knew of this problem and would not fix it. If I had known, I never, ever would have bought this piece of junk! Just luckily, I had the knowledge to replace the engine (still at a cost of nearly $2000.00, and that was a used engine, and me doing the work), so to make a long story short I bought a car with a known problem (known by Nissan) and got stuck BIG TIME. But I am going to call Nissan and try to get some assistance, and if they blow me off, they will lose 2 diehard Nissan fans (me and my heart-broken son) and I will never own another Nissan vehicle and will "throw Nissan under the bus every chance I get."

11th Mar 2008, 13:12

My update from Feb 20th. Today March 11th. The car is still at the Nissan dealership. No update yet. I'm paying for a car that hasn't moved in a month. Great. Lucky me, one guy actually picked up my call today at the dealership and told me I might need a new engine. It's a 3 year old car. Damn. Nissan. I mean come on. Gasket blew out so I need a new engine. How does that make sense? While the car drove fine, and the next day it stopped without warning or even an SES Light.

24th Mar 2008, 11:03

Bought my 2002 SE-R Spec V just over a month ago, and replaced the stock manifold, lock tighted the butterfly screws and still the car sets in my front yard with a loud tapping in the top end when it is at idle. So excited to take it to the dealership to hear them tell me I need a new motor. Plan on doing it all myself and I've looked into motors. About $1,500 to get a used one that is tested or I get get a rebuilt one for about the same. Not sure which route I want to go. I've had a bunch Nissan's and never had a problem like this. I should have researched it more before I bought it to find all these problems. I never would have bought it.

1st Apr 2008, 17:38

I've had my 2002 Nissan Sentra for several years and didn't start having problems with it until this past year. It seems to suck coolant like there is no tomorrow. The check engine light goes on and off. Also, the main problem is that it doesn't like to start sometimes. It will be just fine for awhile and then all of the sudden it won't start. Has anyone figured out what the problem is?? I'm tired of taking it to the shop and the mechanics telling me they don't know what's wrong or fixing something only to have the problem start all over again???

6th Apr 2008, 17:31

I bought a 2002 Spec V 2 years ago with 47,000 miles on it. It was great at first! Love the power band. Great torque. That is all I can say positive about this car.

The pre-cat failed and of course Nissan wouldn't cover it and I had to pay for a new engine. Ever since the new engine, the car seems to have a problem delivering power to the front wheels in 1st gear. Seems to be a lot of drag and it seems like I am pulling a 2000 lb trailer. But once I shift to 2nd gear, the power hits and the car is fun to drive.

My sunroof got stuck on OPEN today and it is pouring down rain.

The torque steer is becoming almost uncontrollable since the install of the new engine as well.

My front left wheel fell off while driving. No major damage but scary.

My A/C compressor went out.

The light/sunglass holder is falling down.

When the front wheels spin, for any reason, they bounce up and down violently and very loudly.

The trunk leaks.

The gas cap lanyard broke.

It sometimes simply won't start - I will go disconnect and reconnect the battery and then it will start. WTF? I am scared to drive this car. It has failed in traffic before. I am just very careful.

BW.