Nisaan Sentra and blown head gasket

Should the dealer have caught this??

About 2 weeks ago, I brought my car in to a nissan dealer for its 90,000 mile service charge (2002 nissan sentra). The check engine light had also just come on, so I asked for that to be checked out at the same time. They did the service and told me my check engine light was on because there was a misfire in one of my spark plugs. I decided to have them replaced elsewhere, because the price they quoted me at was unreasonable for the amount of time I was told it would take from a family friend who is a mechanic. Well, a few days later, this person was replacing the spark plugs for me, and they told me that my antifreeze was below the "minimum" line. They filled it up for me. A couple days after this, I checked the antifreeze level to make sure it was still ok, and it was once again below the minimum line!

I called the nissan dealer to make an apointment to have it checked out, since I was told this could be serious if it wasn't a simple leak. WELL, they did a pressure check and told me I had a blown gasket.

My question here is: SHOULD the dealer have known about this possible gasket problem when I brought it in for my 90,000 service charge?? I have been told that two telltale signs should have warned them that something was up: the fact that my antifreeze was below the minimum line, and the fact that one of the spark plugs misfired. NO one there told me that my antifreeze was below the minimum line (supposedly they check fluid levels...) and no one told me there might be more serious problems besides a simple spark plug. Had it not been for the friend who noticed the low antifreeze level, I could have done more serious damage to my engine!!! I am a woman and do not know much about cars... and I feel that I get taken advantage of alot at car repair shops because of this...

Just would like at least one person to tell me I am justified in complaining before I go ahead and make myself look uneducated about this!

Sentra Head Gasket

I just went through the Sentra head gasket nightmare on my girlfriend's 2004 1.8L Sentra. She had the same symptons I've read everyone else having at 73,000 miles: No heat, low antifreeze, over heating, SES light #2 misfire, etc... I changed the simple things first, thermostat, radiator cap, checked water pump, flushed cooling system with hose, nothing fixed it. I then ripped into the engine in my garage with a FSM on hand. The pistons all looked about the same. #4 had more carbon build up than the rest. I thought the head gasket didn't look too bad until I had a new head gasket from Nissan to compare it too. The sealing material around #2, #3, #4 cylinders was completely blown out in some sections (I have pictures). I took the head to a machine shop in Scottsdale. They said there was a little head warping but not too bad. They removed 0.007" off the head surface. I also had them remove 3 stuck spark plugs. They had to drill and tap #2 & #3 cylinders to remove plugs and install helixcoils. So I got the head on and slapped it all back together. The engine fired right up and now runs like it is new. It cost me about $200 in Nissan parts from the dealer and $200 from the machine shop. My question now is when is it going to fail again? I thought about doing the timing chain while I was in there but I didn't. That chain is 5 links thick. It should last a lot longer than 60k miles.

Well if done well then you should be good for more than the first go round, say another 100k miles. Head is seasoned now, and flat !!!

I have not read why this engine has a head gasket problem.
Any body know ??

From other cars I have had with head gasket problems, failures can be avoided by:-
better head gasket
better bolts or studs, and torque down at higher spec.
gasket compound... it does seem to work !!

If doing a stock gasket and re-assembly torque down to the max the bolts will take.
If you don't know then spec max + 10% and hope.
the thing to avoid is nominal spec with a torque wrench that's inaccurate on the low side!!

Please remember my advice is based on my experience and is worth what you paid for it !!

I had the engine misfire codes too. Is your coolant reservoir boiling after about 15 minutes of engine running? Is your thermostat gauge bouncing around? Do you have heat from your vents? I did a pressure test on my engine. It held 22psi without issue. Pressure testing is only good for external leaks I think. The head gasket job took me 9 days working on it at night and on weekends. I waited 4 days waiting for the head to get back from the machineshop. The worse part is removing the catalytic converter bolts (hard to get to/rusty) and pulling the intake camshaft sprocket bolt out. That takes two people because Nissan puts the bolt on so tight and it is hard to get good leverage. As far as removing the intake cam sprocket do it exactly as the manual states using compressed air. I taped the allen wrench to the intake sprocket using duct tape. I was apprehensive about it too but it turned out to be pretty easy. Some other good tips: 1. Use nail polish to mark the camshaft sprocket teeth and timing chaing links. I used a grease pencil and it sucked becuase it would rub off easy. 2. Do not let the timing chain droop and come loose from the crankshaft sprocket. I used zip ties attached to the hood to keep the chain taught as soon as I removed the camshaft sprockets. Have another person hold the chain tight when removing and install the head. 3. After the crank is at top dead center, do not spin it at all after the timing chain is disconnected (duh). 4. After the new gasket and head is installed, turn the engine over by hand with the spark plugs removed. The engine is very easy to turn over. If you feel hard resistance (like a valve hitting) stop and examine your timing marks. Use a wooden dowl in the spark plug hole to see exactly where top dead center is. 5. When filling coolant you don't need a special tool like the manual says (nice venturi design Nissan...not). Park you car on a incline if you have one. Jack up the front of the car as far as you can at the crossmember (Be careful and use wheel chocks/jackstand). Remove the air bleed plug on the thermostat housing (very important!). Begin filling with antifreeze. When a solid stream of antifreeze is coming out of air bleed hole insert the plug. Fill rest of system with antifreeze. Drive car around and let engine cool. Check antifreeze and refill. Repeat a couple times until antifreeze level is stable.

My car started having the same issues last week:

SES light came on
Code P0303 (Third Cylinder Misfire)
Replaced Plugs and Third coil
Light went off for two days

Replaced the rest of the Coils
Stopped having hot air (freezing cold)
Realized I was out of coolant
Replaced Coolant
Coolant drank
Replaced again
Coolant drank

Saw white smoke out my exhaust, smelled antifreeze.

Found this, saving up for a trip to a good mechanic.