Nissan Problem, Brand Reliability Thoughts

[mboucher70 hotmail.com]

I asked the same questions Huw, which is one reason I'm looking for an 
alternate mechanic.  The fellow in question was trained and worked as a 
mechanic at a Nissan dealership for many years, then went on to open his own 
garage specializing in Nissans.  The theory is that he's very experienced 
with Nissans.

Problem is I'm in another city 500 km away, so I haven't been able to get 
directly involved.

When I first saw the problem, my instructions, relayed via my mother was to 
pull the codes and report back.  Apparently he did pull the codes, wrote on 
the bill "multiple misfire fault codes".  So then he proceeded to a full 
"tune up", including flash decarbonization, and 4 NGK platinum spark plugs. 
None of this made any change.  I was a little surprised at this, because in 
my non-mechanic's view, I didn't see how spark plugs would cause this.

I spent some time in Toronto and saw the problem myself.  I did the test 
using flammables (propane, carb-cleaner) to spray around the manifold when 
it was idling poorly.  Sure enough, the idle smoothed right out.  The 
problem is that I wasn't able to pinpoint a single spot.  The idle smoothed 
out when propane was introduced anywhere along the length of the intake 
manifold, but also, it seemed, around the injectors.  I concluded that 
something somewhere was drawing unmetered air into the engine, but I 
couldn't say if it was directly along the intake manifold gasket.

-----Original Message----- 
From: Huw Powell
Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2012 3:06 PM
To: quattro at audifans.com
Subject: Re: NAC: Nissan Problem, Brand Reliability Thoughts



On 10/13/2012 10:48 AM, mboucher70 hotmail.com wrote:
> 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.

Did they diagnose the IM gasket the same way as the ISV?  That is, wild
guessing?  Did they smoke test it?

> ...  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

I'll ask the obvious question.  What codes are being stored?
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