CarComplaints.com Notes: Here's a disturbing trend for the 2002 Nissan Altima: the engine starts burning oil like crazy, the catalytic converter goes bad, the head gasket blows and eventually the entire engine needs replacement. Sound familiar? Like a script from a horror film, these Altimas seem doomed to fail around 95k miles.

8.0

pretty bad
Typical Repair Cost:
$1,800
Average Mileage:
134,300 miles
Total Complaints:
3 complaints

Most Common Solutions:

  1. replace catalytic converter (2 reports)
  2. not sure (1 reports)
2002 Nissan Altima exhaust system problems

exhaust system problem

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2002 Nissan Altima Owner Comments

problem #3

Apr 072010

Altima SE 3.5L V6

  • Automatic transmission
  • 106,876 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

Just started throwing money in the car, bought it with 87,000. miles and was loving it but the car but lost my air 6 months into owning around $1500./ Brakes/ but this year with 104,000. its been cam sensors/coils and now my Catalytic Converterssss yes on the Dual exhaust there are a whole bunch of these Cats and they are COSTLY.. would love to sell it but what to do ,...................

- Steve M., West Palm Beach, FL, US

problem #2

Sep 012009

Altima 2.5S 4 cyl

  • Automatic transmission
  • 125,000 miles

Contacted nissan. They told me to go to my nissan dealer and get the engine codes scanned. Then they might help me under a hardship case. I still owe 3100 on this piece of crap. I told nissan I had a 4500 dollar yard ornament it will not run. The converter has stopped up, came apart ruined the motor. I called the dealership & they told me that nissan was just giving me false hope because they never help anybody if warranty has run out. I told nissan my toyota has 312000 miles and still runs like new. The dealership told my to buy an extended warranty over the internet. because I can get a warranty for 2100 then tell them in a few months my motor was bad. Placing responsibility on the extended warranty instead of nissan doing the right thing and fixing the problem themselves. Might let them just come and take it back instead of paying 3100 for a car that will never run like like my toyota.

- deal, Taylorsville, NC, US

problem #1

Aug 072009

Altima S 4 cyl

  • Manual transmission
  • 171,000 miles

I have a Nissan 2002 Altima and I took the car the the Nissan service department because the check engine light was ON and the engine was acting rough and sometimes struggle to start. After diagnosing the problem, the dealer told me that the Catalytic converter came apart and cylinder #2 had oil plus I had a misfire on cyl #2 also.

So, I decided to research about this problem online and came across with this website. if there is anybody outthere who can give me an advise on what to do, i will appreciate it.

the dealer told me that the cost to fix all these problems is going to cost me about $3,833 dollars. after reading the comments on this website, found out that there was a recall on the catalytic converter and i didn't know about. i know it has been several years now, but i am wondering if Nissan would still take care of this bill.

What do you recommend i should do?

- Omar B., Sacramento, CA, US

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