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I too have one of these 100k mile wonders (2002 Altama).  I have experienced the exact same set of problems identified in the other posts: radiator burst, various and sundry problem too numerious to list, and finally chronic oil shortages starting at about 90K.  I have owned five Nissan/Datsuns over the past 25 years (from a 1978 mustard yellow b210 to 1991 hardbody pick-up, the latter is still going strong by the way) and have come to expect 200,000 plus miles out of each car with normal care.  I can't belive what a total lemon the 2002 Altama has been.  I have easily spent 15K in various repairs over the past 5 years.  Furthermore, what re-sale values do I have, as I can't, in good faith, sell this vehicle to anybody, and I imagine dealerships know that these cars are junk.  I think we all have grounds for some kind of a class action suit, given the consistent pattern of problems. After reading all of the posts and I'm writing my State and Federal Reps. as well as filing a complaint with the approprate Governmental agency.  We we do this in mass we might all get somewhere.  I'm glad I have all of my service records.  

I have a 2002 Altima and I have the exact same problem as everyone in the group!  I think that we need to organize and approach Nissan as a group.  Please, e-mail me at vanwine@aol.com if you are interested in doing something about our problem.  

I have a 2003 Altima with 35K on it.  Just bought the car used in Dec 2006.  About 1 week ago, it just stopped running.  Had it towed to a Nissan dealer and was told it needed an engine.  There was not a drop of oil in the car.  No drips, no leaks.  Told them it was impossible, car had an oil change less than a month ago.  Needed a new engine. Today I got a phone call from the service writer who proceeded to tell me that the cat converter blew up and did something to the engine.  The engine is covered under warranty  because of the cat converter problem.  Thank goodness this guy is a straight up guy...............  

2003 Nissa Altima 2.5 excessive oil consumption. 90,000 miles on car bought used for daughter to drive to college .nice car but uses way to much oil.sent emails to nissan consumer affairs no response after 1 week. called dealer he said 2003 - 2006 have a problem with valve guides and piston rings and to call consumer affairs and nissan may split the price of a new engine . i have not been able to contact them yet.i bought a 3 year warranty when i bought the car so i'm checking out my options.i had a 96 toyota camry and was told i had engine sludge and needed a new engine it seems toyota has this problem with lots of their cars no recall but there is a lawsuit and toyota will quietly replace lots of motors quietly because they don't want to hurt their reliability history.  

Exactly the same problem here.  Just happened this week at 109,000.  Converter went bad and I'm using a quart of oil a week.  I will be starting with Nissan costumer service on Monday.  Email me if you have any suggestions.
David
jeffersd@gcschools.net  

I have an 02 Nissan Altima 2.5S and had to replace the engine in November 2005 at 66,000 miles. The clutch also had to be replaced as well as the airbag sensor. They made me pay almost $2000 for the engine giving me some good will towards the engine since I only had passed my 60k warranty. I just found out that there were Recalls in 2003 for Engine/Engine Cooling Concerns...as well as a recall for the airbag sensor... I feel Mossy Nissan in Escondido screwed me over by charging me for service that should have been covered by the recalls!  

I currently own an 02 Altima.  I just had a new engine put in my car this week, it had 83,000 miles on it.  The part I am the most angry about is the lack of concern on Nissan's part.  I am a single mother of 2 in school full time, living off of student loans.  My children and I have no money since my divorce.  I bought this car 4 years ago, hoping for a reliable car that will last me for a long time.  I took very good care of it (oil changes every 2K miles)because I was hoping it would run for a long time.  The dealership called Nissan for some financial assistance, explaining this to them.  Guess what?  They wouldn't pay a dime.  It was to be paid off the first of the year, but I had to refinance it for another 5 years to pay for the engine (with a much higher interest rate due to my ex husband ruining my credit!).  The car could not be driven or trusted, so I had no choice. 3 different mechanics could not figure out what was wrong with it!!!! Before I went to the dealership,  my friend  called his friend at another local dealership, and he knew right away what was wrong with my car and he didn't even look at it.  So, I took it to the one close to my house, and guess what?  Same problem the guy at the other dealership told my friend.  They KNOW this is a major problem, but Nissan is not doing anything about it.  I, too, will write Nissan and hope if enough of us complain to them (and to others like Consumer Reports, etc), they will recall.  A class action suit is not a bad idea, either.  

Before my 02 Altima, I had a 98 Toyota Camry that had an engine go bad because of sludging.  It had almost 100K miles.  Toyota paid for a new engine, I didn't even have to ask. It wasn't even a recall, they said that they are aware of the problem and are compensating people that are having issues.

Now THAT is good business practices.  What Nissan is doing to all of us is absolutely horrid.  What goes around comes around, though.  

Hi, I am also having the same problem with my 2002 Altima. I can't affort to buy a new engine and spent $$ just to find out what is wrong with it. I agree with you about making a mass compaint, but I am not sure who or how to go about doing so. Can you give me info.
Thank you - frustrated Nissan victim  

I am sort of sad and sort of relieved to be a broken record here...but I have the exact same car, the exact same problem and the exact same diagnosis.

I don't drive my car on a daily basis (I luckily live close enough to work) so my garage floor would tell the tale of a leak. I had been away on business for about 3 months (returning and driving it atChristmas) and shortly after I returned (the car sat the entire time) the car was making that dreaded noise...only on acceleration (is that the same for the rest of the group?).

So I took it in. At that point I was told that the catalytic converter needed to be taken off and likely replaced. I was also told that if a piece of the CC was missing when they took it off, I would need a new engine because the piece had likely been driven into the engine.

I was returning to my "remote work posting" and left the car at the Nissan dealership. I got a call about 10 days later with the "good news." The CC was off and it was all in one piece. They installed a new one (just under CDN $1000), changed the oil and the sound was gone. I returned about a month later (my house sitter had picked up the car and driven it home).

She ran like a champ for some time. Then, there it was again. Terrible clatter upon acceleration. So I took it back in. That's when they noted that the oil has pretty darned low even though I hadn't even hit half of the mileage between recommended oil changes.

So they've put me on the infamous monitoring program. I just went in for my first check last week and it was below the L line. They topped it up and I guess I go back in another 1000 kilometers (I'm in Canada). Burning through oil isn't a good sign.

Has anyone had any success identifying a solution that doesn't involve a new engine?  

I have a 2002 Altima and the same story as the rest of you, but everyone listen, I have a solution that DOES NOT REQUIRE A NEW ENGINE.

I had the catalytic converter fail at about 81000.  Had it replaced. The CC was totally emtpy when it was replaced so mechanic believed some or all of inner material was sucked into engine.  Same result as rest of you, engine light on, oil consumption off the chart after that point.  Starting making engine noises when oil got low but got better after oil added.  At about 91000, engine noises were getting worse and happening all the time under acceleration.  Thought I was facing engine replacement or just getting rid of car.  Took it back to my mechanic (who is a good friend of mine) and he was convinced it was not an engine noise.  I thought he was crazy and I was convinced my engine was about to explode the next time I accelerated into traffic.  

He had the car for a few days and found that IT WAS NOT AN ENGINE NOISE. The noise was being caused by the exhaust system resonator being totally plugged.  This caused the spring loaded exhaust pipe union to accually begin to separate to attempt to allow exhaust gases out of the system.  The coupling spread apart enough to allow the exhaust pipe to hit the bottom of the car and make all that "engine noise".  It was not the engine it was simply the pipe hitting the bottom of car.  I honestly did not believe him, but he said that all he did was knock out the plugged internals of the exhaust resonator and the problem went away.  When I picked the car up, he showed me a piece of the resonator internals and it was 100% plugged.  I drove the car out of the shop AND IT WAS RUNNING GREAT!!!  I could not believe it.  It sounded so bad when I dropped it off for the repair I would have bet a lot of money that it was the last time I would see that car running.  

What appreared to happen is that when the CC failed some the internals got trapped in the resonator.  Over a period of time it got worse and then completely plugged.  Now here is the amazing point, OIL CONSUMPTION PROBLEMS HAVE GONE AWAY!!  I do not have a great theory for this one but I have to believe that the extra back pressure from the plugged exhaust was somehow affecting another system that is related to the oil like crankcase ventilation.  My mechanic is somewhat stumped on this result but all I know is that I was consuming 1 qt every 350 miles and now I have not consumed any in the 1000 miles since the problem was fixed.  I know all this sounds too good to be true but I can assure you this is honestly what has happened in my case.  I can only hope that maybe some of you can use this fix as well.  Good luck.

Ed G.  

I too bought a 2002 Altima in 2001 after falling in love w/it's new design.  Soon after I bought it, the "Check Engine" light would come on or I would have problems with a clicking noise that would force me to manually unlock the doors.  I didn't have many miles on my car but in 1/06 the "Check Engine" light came on again.  A mobile technician came to my house & told me that I needed to bring the car to Mossy ASAP because the engine & catalytic converter needed to be replaced or the engine would eventually blow up.  I did as he instructed & left my car there for over 2.5 weeks.  I was then told that the car was misdiagnosed & only needed a catalytic converter.  Not 4 days later, my son was driving my car & he called to tell me that the car had just broken down in the middle of on-going traffic.  He said it sounded like the engine had dropped & he mentioned running over some of the debris.  I called a tow truck & while he was loading it onto the truck, he noticed all of the oil that had spilled onto the asphalt.  The driver said that the situation did not look good.  It was hauled to Mossy where I had to leave it since they were just about to close.  The next morning I receive a call telling me that the engine would have to be replaced.  Mossy wanted to cut corners by not replacing the engine which almost resulted in human injury..my son!! I did not have to pay a dime for the engine or catalytic converter but I have lost all confidence in Nissan.  It's such a shame because I have been a faithful Nissan owner for over 15 years...this being my 4th purchase!  

http://www.thenissanfight.com  

loritaienao:
I too bought a 2002 Altima in 2001 after falling in love w/it's new design.  Soon after I bought it, the "Check Engine" light would come on or I would have problems with a clicking noise that would force me to manually unlock the doors.  I didn't have many miles on my car but in 1/06 the "Check Engine" light came on again.  A mobile technician came to my house & told me that I needed to bring the car to Mossy ASAP because the engine & catalytic converter needed to be replaced or the engine would eventually blow up.  I did as he instructed & left my car there for over 2.5 weeks.  I was then told that the car was misdiagnosed & only needed a catalytic converter.  Not 4 days later, my son was driving my car & he called to tell me that the car had just broken down in the middle of on-going traffic.  He said it sounded like the engine had dropped & he mentioned running over some of the debris.  I called a tow truck & while he was loading it onto the truck, he noticed all of the oil that had spilled onto the asphalt.  The driver said that the situation did not look good.  It was hauled to Mossy where I had to leave it since they were just about to close.  The next morning I receive a call telling me that the engine would have to be replaced.  Mossy wanted to cut corners by not replacing the engine which almost resulted in human injury..my son!! I did not have to pay a dime for the engine or catalytic converter but I have lost all confidence in Nissan.  It's such a shame because I have been a faithful Nissan owner for over 15 years...this being my 4th purchase!

I'm glad that your son wasn't injured!!  I've had the same repair problems with my 2002 Nissan Altima, even though my husband has been faithful in changing the oil and maintaining the car as instructed by Nissan.  It has cost us over $5,000 in the past year to keep it running:  new engine at 82,000 miles, new catalytic converter at 89,000 miles, new 02 sensor, and other parts that I can't remember the names of.  We are sick and tired of being told by the local Nissan dealer that because the warranty has expired, we're out of luck. Has anyone out there had any luck being reimbursed for excessive expenses for this model?  Is there any hope in a class-action suit against Nissan?  

I have an 03 altima with 80,000 miles on it. It also made this clanking noise when the oil was ready to be changed. I thought is was nothing. The oil in my car is always low. I can top it off, but the next day it is low again. I don't know what to do anymore. I brought it to the dealership and they told me there was no recall on my car, but for $100, they could run an oil consumption test. That won't fix anything. Is there any way out of me buying a new motor? Should I just wait it out and keep putting oil in my car hoping Nissan will finally put a recall out? Is there a complaint list i can get on so Nissan will address this problem?