NAC: Nissan Problem, Brand Reliability Thoughts

[mboucher70 hotmail.com]

Other than looking after my Audi, I inherited the job of looking after my 
mother's Nissan Altima.

It developed a really bad idle when in drive, and warmed up. Couldn't find 
any vacuum leaks. Thought it might be the equivalent of the ISV. Her 
mechanic thought so too and changed the ISV, but the problem persisted, and 
then he said it’s the intake manifold gasket. Needs to be changed which is 
roughly $20 in parts and $1200 in labor.

Funny thing...she bought that car as a safe, reliable, cost-effective drive 
for a senior. She’s maintained it religiously and never driven it hard. It’s 
a 2000. What’s more, in 2006, at something shy of 160,000km (100,000 miles), 
it needed a completely new (rebuilt) engine. Don’t recall what the problem 
was, (possibly a bent camshaft)?

Other than the idle problem, car drives great. Lots of power, good mileage, 
comfy ride. In fact it’ll even idle ok with the A/C compressor running since 
the idle is adjusted. Problem is that its got to pass emissions testing next 
May, and with the current idle and resulting check-engine light, it won’t.

1.) Any thoughts on whether its worth fixing, or scrapping
2.) Any recommendations for a garage/mechanic in the Toronto area
3.) Is this the kind of repair that a DIYer with a good set of instructions 
and enough time would be advised to attempt...A DIY'er who's never pulled 
apart a complete engine.  I found a quote on the internet, "Chilton's says 
"Out of all makes and models that Chilton's has published, no intake 
manifold gasket is harder to replace that the 1996 Nissan Altima.".  The 96 
to 2000 shared the same basic engine design, with a major redesign in 2001 
or 2002.


and
4.) I guess this gets me thinking about the larger question of quality 
engineering, and brand reliability. Apparently intake manifold gasket 
failures were such a common problem on that era Nissan, and also on many GM 
vehicles in the 80’s, that there were some successful, or attempted 
class-action suits.

Owning a 1990 Audi, I’ve certainly been through my share of repairs, but 
they’re things you’d classify as “small” or “medium”. I can’t conceive of 
any Audi’s I know developing such a major problem when it was 6 years old, 
that made the decision to fix-it v.s. scrap-it a close call. And then again 
6 years later. Every car has problems, but I’m curious to know which, if any 
Audi models had reliability issues where something major would often fail 
and require a complete engine teardown or replacement, thus rendering the 
car almost not worth fixing. Also hoping there’s nothing lurking deep inside 
my I5 that I don’t know about.