2003 Nissan Altima: engine failure

Filed Aug 6, 2020 · Engine · 147,500 miles · PA

I bought this car last year may 2019 and within a month the engine blew. I replaced the engine and now it has issues with the catalytic converter. It says it needs to be replaced.

Filed Jun 10, 2019 · Engine · 122,875 miles · ME

Tl* the contact owns a 2003 nissan altima. While driving 45 MPH, the engine seized and the vehicle powered down. The vehicle could not be restarted. In addition, the engine made an abnormal wrapping noise. The vehicle was towed to the contact's home. The contact called darling honda nissan (114 sylvan rd, bangor, me 04401, (207) 941-1460), but the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired because the VIN was not included in a recall; however, the contact stated that the vehicle was included in the federal safety agency campaign number: 03v251000 (fuel system gasoline). The failure mileage was 122,875.

Filed Oct 18, 2016 · Engine · 152,134 miles · FL

I have had my car shut off on me while driving down the road causing it hard to steer almost causing other cars to rear end me. Then the car wouldn't start. Every year I have had to buy a new cam shaft sensor since the install of the new engine that was put in by nissan. There is a recall on the cam sensor but my car is not under that recall.

Filed May 21, 2016 · Acceleration, Engine · WA

I purchased a 2003 nissan altima with 106,000. As is no warranty. Within the first month it blew the head and needed a new engine which I paid for out of pocket. They supposedly replaced the enigine with a new crate engine once again the car lasted about 3 weeks before it was smoking so bad and will only drive at idle speed.. I dont think the place I bought it has a very good mechanic and I really would rather take it to a nissan dealer.. But I dont want to pay for another engine I feel like ive already bought the car twice.

Filed Apr 16, 2015 · Engine · 105,000 miles · MO

2.5l engine s model nissan altima. 2002-2003 has well documented blogs and complaints of excessive oil use. Causes are any thing to poor design valve seals to dust kick back from overheated catalytic convertor into piston/cylinder area causeing ring failures as well. This current vehicle has to been diagnoisised by a nissan dealer. It burns 2 quarts of oil per 160miles. The dealer recommends a new engine and new catalytic convertor. The regional nissan manager chris states nissan will not assist in any way to replace/repair these items because we have not owned the vehicle long enough. The car is worth $3800. The engine +convertor+ labor is over the value of the car. Some one high up somewhere dropped the royal ball on recalling this engine.

Filed Oct 13, 2014 · Engine · 151,000 miles · RI

I had just bought my vehicle in march 2010 for $4200. A few weeks after I started to notice that the vehicle was burning through oil every few days. I took it to my mechanic and he stated it needed a tune up. A few days after the tune up I noticed it started to run rough on the highway on my way to work. While on the highway the car stopped running everything shut down, no power steering. I had to glide to the breakdown lane hoping and praying I would make it and not get hit. So I had the car towed to the mechanic who then told me that the motor was blown. I didn't have the money to fix it seeing as I had just bought the vehicle 6 months earlier. So I then parked the car in my driveway until I had the money to replace it($2000). Once I was able to replace the engine 2 months later the check engine light come on again. I take it back into the mechanic and he tells me its the radiator. I replace the radiator ($200). A few weeks later the check engine light comes on again. The mechanic tells me its the catalytic converter and that he's done atleast three nissans in the past month with the same problem and that there is a recall and to contact nissan. He also told me that if I to drive the vehicle like that it would blow the motor again because that is what caused it to blow initially. After taking it to a nissan dealer they told me that there is not "open" recall on the catalytic converter just an ECM reset and the halogen light recall. They did tell me the catalytic gone due to a cylinder 2 misfire but that was not covered by them. I then called nissan directly and they told me that there was a recall previous for the engine and catalytic converter but it was not an open recall and they were not allowed to send me that information. If I wanted that information I would have to go through car fax. This was from their upper management.

Filed Feb 25, 2013 · Engine, Transmission · 133,500 miles · NJ

While driving on the highway, engine began to make rattling noise and lost a significant amount of power during acceleration. Due to location and time of night, I coasted (barely using any acceleration) to a safe location. Turned engine off to look under the hood- could not find any problem. Tried starting car again and would not start. Had it towed the next day to mechanic- he found shards of metal in the engine oil and stated that the valves screws had came off and ruined the engine. I had always put in synthetic oil every 5k miles, and did a complete engine flush every year/25,000 miles ever since I bought the car 6 years ago. This occurred at 133500 miles and the engine cannot be salvaged. To replace the engine, the estimates I am receiving are between 2,000 and 3,000 usd.

Filed Dec 31, 2012 · Engine · 78,500 miles · RI

Recently the engine blew on my altima. It had been function properly and received regular maintenance since its purchase date roughly 6 months ago with about 74,000 miles. The catalytic converter failed and overheated at around 78,000 miles. Currently it is burning through about 3 liters of oil a week. Because of the damage caused by catalytic converter, the engine is no longer serviceable.

Filed Nov 29, 2012 · Engine · 130,000 miles · CT

Suddenly starting using 1 qt. Oil every 600 miles. No leaks, no smoke, no check engine light ever came on. Took it to my local nissan dealership. They said oil consumption was from catalytic converter breaking down and getting sucked into engine absorbing the oil and scoring lower engine (cylinder block walls), thus causing oil blow by. They recommend catalytic converter and engine replacement at $5,000 dollars. There is a history of these converter failures from 2002 in nissan products. My local dealer said my vehicle wasn't on recall. The biggest concern in this matter was that check engine light never came on and had I'd gone another 1000 miles this car could have seized up on the interstate.

Filed Sep 27, 2012 · Engine, Steering · 96,000 miles · CA

Tl* the contact owns a 2003 nissan altima. The contact stated that while driving 13 MPH, the vehicle stalled without warning. The failure recurred numerous times. On a separate occasion while driving 35 MPH, the steering wheel seized after the battery warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic for diagnosis but they were unable to determine the cause of the failure. The failure mileage was 96,000 and the current mileage was 97,240. ....updated 12/20/12 *bf the consumer stated the crank sensor malfunctioned, the motor mount was cracked and the A/C stopped working.

Filed Jun 1, 2012 · Engine · MA

Due to faulty cat converter which nissan failed to replace the engine is burning oil excessively due to debris from cat converter going inside the engine. Roughly at around 100k miles car needs new cat converters and new engine block. This issue is very famous among 2002-2006 altimas and nissan is well aware of this. The oil indicator fails to inform the driver of pretty much zero oil in engine and this creates a catastrophic damage to engine which can result in fire.

Filed Jan 9, 2012 · Engine · 99,608 miles · CA

We have a 2003 nissan altima, we had problems with the catalyic converter, we changed it, in aug 2011, we learned about the problem on-line. What we did not read about is how the converter goes bad and throws parts of it into the engine and has the engine burn oil and eventually throw a rod. We took the car into the dealership for an oil change in nov 2011, traveled 500 miles and the engine goes out we told the service advisor there was a knocking noise in the engine, he said this could be due to low oil, if the noise continues after oil change we will diagnose the noise. Well, the noise stopped, after the engine gave out, the dealership is telling us that we are at fault cause we did not get the diagnosis done on the vehicle. I asked them is the test would determine that a rod was going to blow, he said no, then why pay for the test. I have been reading on line and see there are several people who have had the same problem with the vehicle, and nissan corp will not do anything about this, people are talking about filing a class action law suit, but there is no record of anyone filing one. I recently talked to a friend, who's daughter has the same vehicle, they just went thru the same problem with the blown engine, we got estimates to replace the engine, $3500-$5500 for another engine and labor, this is crazy, I called several used or rebuilt engine places and this engine is hard to come by, guess lots of people are blowing the engines for the same reason, yet nissan corp can not file a recall or help out with the costs, especially where they knew about the bad catalyic converter and blowing debris back into the engine. That is a shame, nissan is known for good strong dependable vehicles, and for them not wanting to help the consumers is going to hurt them in the long run. I honestly can say I would never purchase another nissan again.