Gas Recirculation Valve (egr Valve) problems of the 2000 Nissan Altima

Service engine light coming on. Car constantly jerks when idling and sometimes cuts out. Spent $55 on a system diagnostic test. Intake valve gasket failure. Causing idle to fluctuate, intermittent stalling 2000 Altima with 37500 miles, this is a manufacturing defect due to the egr pipe running to close to cylinder 4 area of the manifold. This is happening to all Altimas 1998-2001. Nissan should repair as recall, this could cause accidents due to stalling. This should be investigated. Repairs are est. At $850. 00. According to the Nissan advisor the lifetime of the gasket should exceed 100000 miles. Nissan has a program to correct any unusual defects after the warranty is expired but they refuse to honor their agreement.

Okay I don't know what the deal with Nissan and their recalls, but they definitely need to make a recall on the 2000 Altima intake manifold gasket. My car started idling at varying rpms under 1 grand and started vibrating in a strange way. When I give my Altima some gas to take off, it comes to the verge of stalling. I did some research on the problem and read a few hundred separate cases where this exact same problem occurred. This is obviously a manufacturing error where Nissan has placed the egr pipe too close to the intake manifold gasket, causing it to heat up and eventually leak. Numerous consumers are paying nearly $1000 to correct this mistake that Nissan engineers have created on countless cars. This is a serious engineering problem on Nissan's part and needs to be addressed and corrected.

The intake manifold gasket around cylinder #4 failed 2-3 years ago (~65,000 miles), causing rough idle/stalling as well as poor gas mileage and triggering fault code p0304. The dealer replaced the gasket for ~$650. Within the past couple of weeks (~85,000 miles), the symptoms have returned, accompanied by the same fault code. Spraying carb cleaner around the gasket area cause a smoothing out of the idle when applied near cylinder #4, indicating a recurring failure of the gasket. Searching the internet indicates that this is a very common issue particular to this engine model, leading to recurring expense to owners due to poor engineering. The most likely cause of this failure seems to be the routing of the egr gas lines too close to the intake manifold, causing premature degradation of the seal. A likely, and cost effective fix would seem to be the addition of a heat shield in the affected area between the egr gas lines and the manifold. The high incidence rate of this failure and the cause of poor engineering, would seem to indicate a recall issue to fix the poor fuel economy and excessive emissions it causes.

A long time ago I started hearing some rattling sort of noise in the front. Took it to carmax, as I have the extended warranty. They said it was a loose belt and charged me $80 since belts aren't covered by warranty. The problem didn't really go away and only got worse. Around 89,000 miles it began to shake when idling and the noise was worse. The check engine light would come on intermittently. My husband found the info on this site, I printed it out and took it to carmax and told them to fix my manifold intake gasket! they wouldn't refund my $80 from the first visit, nor would the pay me $80 for diagnosing it myself. Ha. Oh well. They did $600 worth of repairs, which was mostly covered by my extended warranty (which expires at 92,500 miles). They discovered that the problem had also caused premature wear of my spark plugs, however, and the warranty would not cover that. Based on my online research, it is my understanding that this is due to heat around the cylinder 4 area from the egr pipe which bakes the gasket into leaking and that even though I got it fixed this time, it will likely have to be replaced again in the future. See #10167168 #10145161 #10100639 #10163901 also, see carcomplaints. Com where you will find 36 complaints on this issue.

In may of 2006 I was driving my 2000 Nissan Altima and the sel light came on, I got out of the car and checked the gas cap and it was tight. I called Nissan and mentioned this and they told me to check the cap again. After a week I had a diagnostic test done that revealed the egr sensor was bad. I took the vehicle and had the egr cleaned and the light went off for less than 24 hours. This light has been on constantly for about 2 months now and I think that Nissan should replace this at no charge. I called Nissan in nashville TN and the tech told me that they have been replacing a lot of egr sensors over the last couple of months.