Neighbors purchased a headache car.

[Father Of Giants]

I decided to investigate coolant loss on my E300, when I happened to see my next door neighbors trying to jump start their car. Being a gear head I was interested .

They got a Nissan Altima 2007+ gen.

First thing I noticed was devastating edge wear on the tires, the front left tie rod is shot, loosey goosey. That's causing their edge wear. Three tires are worn to hell, one tire is showing cords, YIKES!


No oil on dipstick (automatic walk away for me) .

Battery dead at 9 volts.

Worst part was the battery cable was extremely corroded, warped, and hacked (ANY hacks on a car is a walkaway for me).
Hacked, because in between the two battery cable and battery post where two tiny screw studs. Found out without those studs the battery cable are warped and loose as hell. With studs they fit snug.


Which brings me back to the corrosion, the previous owner was such a knuckle dragger that they tightned the cables instead of cleaning the crust, they then over tightned them fubaring them, and then inserted the screws for damage control and a quick fix.


Feel bad for them, a PPI would of saved them thousands. Or someone who knew how to scout used cars.

I REFUSE to touch the car beyond inspecting it, they can borrow my tools and I'll teach/guide them general maintenance if they're interested.

[Diseasel300]

All those problems pale in comparison to the lump of scrap metal between the engine and front wheels.

[engatwork]

^yep

[Father Of Giants]

Wow, I totally forgot about the abomination CVT. Well, that's a hard pill to swallow.

I just got done helping them install the new battery, the engine has a misfire but that's the least of their worries.
After I was done they asked how much do they owe me, I told them nothing at all and not to worry about it.

Looking back I probably helped them avoid the parts shotgun, even with the new battery it wouldn't of started due to the corrosion. They where oblivious to it. I cleaned the insides of the terminals.

[vwnate1]

? I know little about modern cars ~ is there anyone who makes a good and reliable CVT ? .

TIA,

[engatwork]

They may all be good for up to 150k. IDK. Based on research from a few years ago it seems that Nissan does not sell rebuild parts for theirs and during servicing they "sample" the cvt fluid after which time they tell the owners that they are "good to go" for the life of the car. If it goes out the repair is to install a new high dollar unit from Nissan. Honda on the other hand does have a routine service integral on them. Time will tell about the Honda units.

I look at the Nissans as throw away cars.

[cmac2012]

Originally Posted by Father Of Giants

Wow, I totally forgot about the abomination CVT. Well, that's a hard pill to swallow.

I just got done helping them install the new battery, the engine has a misfire but that's the least of their worries.
After I was done they asked how much do they owe me, I told them nothing at all and not to worry about it.

Looking back I probably helped them avoid the parts shotgun, even with the new battery it wouldn't of started due to the corrosion. They where oblivious to it. I cleaned the insides of the terminals.

The no oil on the dipstick is the scary part. Did you find out how far it was down?

[vwnate1]

HOLY COW .

I've had a few really cheap cars over the decades but I thought all modern cars were designed ot last more or less until they rust out .

[Diseasel300]

Nissan/Renault decided that the "life" of the car was determined by the trans with their POS CVT cars. When the CVT kicks the bucket, the engine and body isn't far behind. The cheap purchase price reflects the crappy spit+kleenex build quality. The only thing worse than owning one is driving one. If you enjoy the driving experience, you won't after driving one of those turds.

[Zulfiqar]

The tire issues are easy as pie on those because Nissan used two donut bushings on the lower control arm - its hilarious. The battery cable is also a special comical case as the positive cable has a multifuse pack hanging off it, weights about a pound, the actual terminal is sheet metal like all japanese ones, and it corrodes if you even sneeze on it, Its pretty cut and dry service, but hilarious.

The CVT is a special stupid. I tore one apart just for fun, repaired a few bits and pieces (unstuck them) - replaced its pump, luckily the sheave assembly was ok - packed it back and it worked again, but its built so badly that any gearhead will laugh at it.

This was also a 2008 altima that my freind loves to practice on, its a sort of test mule to satisfy his "gearhead fix" on how stuff works.

oh btw - the engine oil missing is because the engine ingests ceramic dust from the cat converter and kills itself (Nissan used the same EGR system that toyota used in their old 2.4 camry engine) - somehow Nissan's vendor is also a flea market special.

[iwrock]

Originally Posted by vwnate1

? I know little about modern cars ~ is there anyone who makes a good and reliable CVT ? .

TIA,

Toyota in the Prius.

[engatwork]

When I first started dating the current wife she had an 05 Nissan whose cat had come apart inside, dumping debris into cylinders causing issues as stated above. That sucker sure did use a lot of oil.

[Zulfiqar]

Originally Posted by iwrock

Toyota in the Prius.

That is not a vandoorne belt CVT. Its a housing with 2 motor/generators. Which act like a CVT - the ATF in there is primarly a cooling fluid.

[Zulfiqar]

Originally Posted by engatwork

They may all be good for up to 150k. IDK. Based on research from a few years ago it seems that Nissan does not sell rebuild parts for theirs and during servicing they "sample" the cvt fluid after which time they tell the owners that they are "good to go" for the life of the car. If it goes out the repair is to install a new high dollar unit from Nissan. Honda on the other hand does have a routine service integral on them. Time will tell about the Honda units.

I look at the Nissans as throw away cars.

Its quite funny inside, it has a ROM that you have to remove and replace in your replacement transmission otherwise it wont work - Nissan will glady sell you a new one for high 3 figures. (a tiny 1.5 inch square)

They built it so cheaply that the counter gear before the diff has different ratios on different units, To get around expensive machining, nissan just stacked washers under the sensors on units that had larger gears in there. (how much money did they save with that?)

the sheave pulleys ride on ball bearings in grooves and we all know what ball bearings can do to sliding grooves - specially when you apply torque on them (the transmission applies all its torque on 6 ball bearings) - its pretty silly to be honest.

[vwnate1]

Originally Posted by engatwork

When I first started dating the current wife she had an 05 Nissan whose cat had come apart inside, dumping debris into cylinders causing issues as stated above. That sucker sure did use a lot of oil.

I'm at a loss here, how do the debris flow backwards into the engine ? .

Even those wretched Chrysler Co. catalytic converters directly mounted to the exhaust manifolds couldn't manage that feat .