NHTSA Complaint #10821704 — 2003 NISSAN ALTIMA

LOOSE POWER VALVE SCREWS - WHILE DRIVING MY 2003 NISSAN ALTIMA 2.5 S BOTH ON CITY STREETS AND ON THE FREEWAY, THE VEHICLE ARBITRARILY RAN SUPER ROUGH TO THE POINT OF ALMOST COMPLETELY CUTTING OFF IN MIDDLE OF TRAFFIC LANES. ONE INSTANCE WAS PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS BECAUSE I WAS MAKING A LEFT TURN ACROSS TRAFFIC LANES, AND THE ENGINE STALLED IN THE MIDDLE OF OPPOSING TRAFFIC LANES AND I WAS ALMOST T-BONED BY ONCOMING CARS. FINALLY THE ENGINE WOULDN'T START AT ALL ONE DAY, SO I HAD THE CAR TOWED TO THE DEALER, AND THEY IDENTIFIED A PROBLEM WITH INTAKE POWER VALVE SCREWS THAT NEEDED TO BE REPLACED AT A SIGNIFICANT PRICE. I HAD TO GET THE CAR TOWED ONCE BEFORE, AND THE DEALER DIAGNOSED THE PROBLEM AS A DEFECTIVE CAMSHAFT POSITION SENSOR, NOT COVERED BY ANY RECALLS, BUT OBVIOUSLY A SIGNIFICANT PROBLEM FOR 2003 NISSAN ALTIMA OWNERS. AFTER DOING MY OWN RESEARCH, THERE SEEMS TO BE A LARGE NUMBER OF OWNERS OF THIS SAME CAR EXPERIENCING THE SAME POWER VALVE SCREW PROBLEM ALSO. I ALSO BELIEVE THERE IS A RECALL ON 2004 AND 2005 NISSAN ALTIMAS FOR THIS PROBLEM, WHICH HAVE THE SAME ENGINE AS MY CAR.