No more Nissans for me. Long post.

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As one of the previous posters alluded to, hypothetically speaking a cleared precat, being as it's the one very close to the engine, 'might' avoid the issue. Personal experience, can't say if that is true.
 
My sister's 2002 Sentra was a complete turd. Even the hood liner fell down and got all tangled with the belts.

Obviously Nissan didn't put much money in the development and execution of that car. On the bright side my wife's Infiniti FX35 has been rock solid reliable. Even after a couple accidents were my wife was hit by other drivers. I'm always amazed at how well that thing has aged and how smooth and strong it still runs.

That said I try to stay away from any brand's bottom end cars. I know the price's are always attractive, but those cut corners always chew away at reliability and durability.
 
Yeah to add insult to injury, the cheap plastic hood based prop rod holder broke in the cold weather as all this was going on, lousy $8 to replace.

Son owns a new G37S, hopefully he will have a better experience than I.

But this is the first, and last Nissan I will own.
 
All new Nissan whose vin does not begin with J have inferior quality of the past Nissan vehicles which were assembled in Japan. I've owned both and there is a difference in quality.
 
I once had a nissan pickup that had severe piston slap. Not a durability issue I was told. I completely believed that it was not a durability issue during the warranty period. Sold it and bought a Mazda 626 with no such problems.

I would at least have an attorney send a letter to nissan about the inadequate recall repair. Maybe they will get more reasonable on the repair cost.
 
I'm a little confused how a precat can come apart and end up in an engine since it's on the exhaust side. Wouldn't the bits/chunks/shrapnel all move away from the engine and down into the converter due to the flow of exhaust gasses? Also, one these pieces do get into the engine, why does it increase oil consumption?
 
I remember your post from 2yr ago. Sorry about that.

Valve lap from VVT action is what sucks the chunks backwards.
 
Sorry to hear about your car. I understand your frustration, but commend you on your good attitude and not just outright bashing on here!
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I don't know the physics/mechanics (perhaps others can comment on why) but, it does suck the broken/failed precat material back into the engine. How it causes increase in oil usage is eventually the material progressively scores the cylinders sometimes to the point of no oil before the owner is aware.

I found these two links particularly enlightening. It's not "if', it's when.

Link#1
Link #2

AJ above gave reason for material being sucked back.
 
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I don't remember the particulars either, but it does indeed suck the cat material back in the engine.
 
This happened to a friend's Sentra last year, a few months after he bought it. I had a palm-to-forehead moment when he told me it happened because I had heard about this issue on the Altima but just didn't make the connection when he showed me his new (used) ride. He would have had it gutted for sure if I'd have told him about it. It's even legal to go cat-less here, so any muffler shop would do it.
 
Nissan are getting a rep down here as the 1%er...just can't do that extra little bit.

ZD30 engine failures (lots of them) we were told were Patrol specific (no real reason why, other then they were different), and wouldn't extend to the Navara, and BTW, they aren't Nissan's failures, but (unspecified) owner negligence...Now there's not a mechanic I know who hasn't done at least one, and are busy doing EGR blanks and butterfly mods to hopefully protect their customers.

Mine swallowed some water crossing a largeish, not deep puddle. Air intake in the passenger wheelarch, right where the tyre throws water. Observation on rainy days was that there was always water dripping from the air cleaner housing in any rain. Lots of locked engines in the Norhtern states, where standing water is a fact of life for months of the year. Nissan claims it's not a design issue, operators shouldn't be driving (their 4wds) through kilometers of 3" standing water at speed.

Fitted a snorkel (power and economy improvements I should have done it years ago, but I wasn't expecting standing water to get me unstuck, had no reason to go fording streams), and it increased the interior noise to the point that the stereo needed to be too loud up front in order for kids to hear Katy Perry in the back.

Knew that in my top of the line Navara, the "speakers" in the back were fake grills, for looks only. Fade the 4 channel stereo to rear, and there's nothing). Pulled off the door trim, and found that the speaker wires were there...beauty. Needed some really shallow speakers, as the grills site directly over window rail.

Trial fitted the speakers, still no dice...the wires in the door run as far as the B Pillar...still need to run them from the B Piller to the (4 channel) stereo.

Just niggly annoying stuff.
 
How does something which is in the exhaust path ends up in the engine? i never have understood the cause here. Anybody willing to explain it?
 
Man - I know manufacturer's try to stay on top of the game and keep leaping forward to stay in the competition, but as many vehicles as they make, one would think they know what works and what doesn't work by now. It doesn't always help when EPA has them pushing emission mandates.

"How does something which is in the exhaust path ends up in the engine? i never have understood the cause here. Anybody willing to explain it?"

I'm with Vikas - would like to know.


So if I am understanding this, then the pre-cats should have been somewhat further down the pipeline - being to close it somehow gets junk back into the engine?
 
Passive EGR is exhaust reversion by design. The exhaust valves are kept open in order to draw exhaust gasses back into the cylinders at lower RPM. It's done to reduce emissions, but as this shows, can have unintended consequences.
 
OK, the pre cat sits just below the exhaust manifold very close to the engine in the 2.5L engine, Obviously it was not designed properly for the application. My understanding now, when the precat breaks up, back pressure results, sucking the parts into the engine.

There is a very decent youtube explaining and showing the results. While there is no banned spoken language, there is illustrated language that doesn't meet Bitog standard. So, rather than post the direct link simply google: How can pre catalytic converter parts get sucked back into an engine , no quotes. First choice should say "CVTC Altima engine shot due to Pre-Cat break up and clogging exaust" (sic), click on it. Click on video, it is worth more than 1k words. See if you don't agree.
 
Originally Posted By: sayjac
I probably should add that afaik, this particular issue precat issue is confined to 02-03 Nissans with 2.5L engines. Crank angle/camshaft position sensors also tends to be common issue with this and some later model 2.5L's


So if you had the V6 option, there would have been no issues?
 
Happened to someone at work. I had to give her the bad news when I tried helping her get it started... she couldn't believe it. I think she traded it in on a new Ford. Seriously who had their head up their hindquarters when they designed that?
 
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