A friend of mine just got a 02 Sentra GXE used with 9k miles on the odometer.
He drove it to Conneticut. He now has 13k miles on the car. Here is what has gone wrong with it so far.
Brakes not working
Clutch slipping(intermittent)
car turns off while going 70mph down the freeway
he said tonight something about some shaking in the steering wheel that has made the car undriveable.
That is all I know so far. I don't know details unfortunately. I can't imagine this would all be caused by one problem. Did they just get a lemon?
Does anyone have any clue to the nature of this or has anyone heard of these problems?
Well a slipping clutch isn't a defect, chances are he's just very hard on it. Brakes not working? Could you be a little more descriptive? The car turning off could be a loose wire, someone had some problems with it before and I believe one of the connections under the steering wheel had gotten loose. Is the shaking in the steering wheel all the time or just while braking? If it's all the time it's probably an unbalanced tire, and he should go to a tire store and have them balanced. If it is just while braking it could be a warped brake rotor. Normally the gxe's are very reliable cars, it's weird to hear of something like this. Then again he really only has 2 problems, because a slipping clutch and unbalanced tire are his fault, not Nissan's.
can't say I've ever heard of anyone with problems on a GXE like that......or even problems in general.
I beat my car, and I don't have any problems, however, that stuff sounds like he beats the thing to death and back.................brakes bad already? what does he do.....wait till the last minute to brake? Tell me.............how much wear is on his tires? That's also a good sign as to how he drives it.
Thanks for the replies. This guy who is driving the car is a friend of a friend. I don't honestly know what is going on. My friend just asked me to see what I could find out and that is what I've done. The car is in CT right now. This guy also said that he smelled something burning; I'm thinking clutch, brakes or catalytic converter. AND he said the headlights turned off by themselves the other night; but they work fine now.
We did a carfax and the car seems to not have any promlems with it's past. The Nissan dealer it was bought from got the car as a trade in from an individual. That right there alone scares me a bit like they traded it in because of a lot of problems.
The car was seen by a Nissan dealer this morning though. The service guy noticed that the inside edges on both front tires are severly worn. They recommended new tires. The sales manager at this dealer down here said they would pay for new tires. But, how could they be worn down that bad on a car that now has 13k miles on it? I thought the B15 had fixed camber on it and it isn't adjustable? I know it's like that on the back but don't remember if it's like that on the front.
The dealer did an alignment on the car and charged the guy 60 dollars as a diagnostic fee. Apparently he paid it for some reason.
As can be expected; every other problem was "could not be duplicated".
Here is an update on that GXE. I just copied this from a post of mine at another board.
A friend of mine(Brian) just bought a car and it is being driven by someone else out of state and is currently experiencing a multitude of problems. It's a 2002 Sentra GXE. It was bought used with 9000 miles from a local Nissan dealer.
Brian asked me last week to accompany him to a meeting with a sales manager so that I could be a witness. Brian also thought he'd need me there because he doesn't know a thing about cars. The meeting last week went great and the sales manager said he'd do anything to make my friend happy.
Today, I went with Brian to another meeting with the sales manager. After talking for about ten minutes; the sales manager took us to the office of the Service Manager since he thought he could be of more help. The first thing Brian says when we sit down is that I'm there because I know "everything" about Nissans. Brian said that; not me! I barely know shit about them IMO; but probably still more than the service manager. Before I even have a chance to respond; the service manager says in a smart ass tone "then you know what is wrong with the car". I told him; no, and that I obviously have no idea. Brian carries on a conversation with him. He says something about the "camshaft sensor" and I corrected him and said "crankshaft sensor". I eventually tell the service guy about the "common" problem of this crankshaft sensor thing failing. He then starts to lecture me about how that is a "blanket statement" and that you can't troubleshoot a car with blanket statements! I was just in amazement. I said; of course it helps out knowing common problems; you know what part to check and replace first. He then raised his voice and said; "well, what if the car still breaks after the customer has left with it". I said; that's why you check to make sure that replacing that part fixed the problem. He said something to the tune of "that's just not how you troubleshoot cars". I then said; "I was a aircraft technician on 35 year old airplanes, I know how to troubleshoot". He then says; "really, what kind of airplane?" I said "C130's", he said "oh, I was a crewchief on F-15's". I told him I was "electronic warfare and that when troubleshooting an airplane; the first thing you always do is check the parts that break the most. I even gave him an example; "if you see an error when turning on a system and that error is usually caused by a cannon plug on one of the safety switches being loose; you automatically go and unplug and plug back in each of those cannon plugs till the problem goes away". He still didn't believe me after I said that, he even said "what if the airplane is still broke? how do you know you fixed the problem?" I then said that is a what an operational check is for. ANYTIME you fix something on an airplane; you do a full ops check afterwards to make sure your fix works. I was pretty freaking pissed off and nervous by the time we were done with the whole conversation. When we were done; I laughed and put out my hand to shake his hand. He got this goofy look on his face and reluctantly shook my hand. I said I was glad to meet him even if we did bump heads. He said "oh no, we didn't bump heads".
A few minutes after we left; I got to thinking that no way in hell is an employee at a dealership going to talk to me like that. I called the dealer's General Manager. I was honest and told him what went on; he said he would reprimand him and then asked what I'd like. I said; I wouldn't mind an apology. I also told him that I'm a big Nissan fan and will nevAr buy a Nissan from his dealership evAr!
Ten minutes later; this service manager called Brian and told him that the dealership is going to buy back the car! They had just told us in those meetings that they DO NOT buy back cars. I'm pretty sure it was my phone call that did it. The GM called me another ten minutes later and repeated that they were buying the car back. He was nice and said it isn't a good idea that the service manager and I talk again. I agreed 100 percent.
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