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I have a 2003 Altima that is losing oil quickly! I started out at a quart every thousand miles and now it's a quart every 200! I fill up the oil and check the gas. It's fouling the plugs but no obvious leaks so it is interior. There is no obvious blue smoke unless I really "gun" the engine and then there is a cloud that would make a smoke screen for an army to come through! Driving at 60 the engine seems to hesitate and runs rough slightly. Other than this, it's been a great car!

There was a post that Nissan replaced their engine when this happened to them. Did they do it free? How did you go about it? Who did you contact? How much hell did you have to raise?  

i have not run across one of these failures yet....

do you live anywhere near los angeles.. where i might take a look at it???

check the data stream for codes.. and proper data....

check for vacuum leaks...

check for clogged valve cover drain back holes where sludge is preventing the drain back of oil and would fill the valve covers with oil until the PCV system is sucking oil in directly into the intake...

a compression test is needed...

checking the EGR system for proper operation...

why the EGR..   the egr system dumps a controlled amount of burned gasses back into the intake...  this reduces the oxygen content of the intake charge... less oxygen content .. less fuel needed.. and lower combustion temps..  the lower combustion temps creates less NOX emissions that the converters have to handle..   when the EGR system gets blocked..  and the ECM does not know it..   during hard acceleration the fuel control system drops out of closed loop and into open loop where it relies on Preprogrammed values for the fuel control...  this takes the oxygen sensor data out of the fuel trim calculation..  so if the EGR system is blocked or disabled.. the oxygen content will be higher and the engine will run lean when it really needs to be rich.. this causes the pistons and rings to be damaged by lean mixtures and detonation..

many mechanics that do drive-ability might have a fiber optic scope that they can stick down in a spark plug hole to examine the top of the pistons for damage..