# Rough Idle



## tothemaxima (May 16, 2007)

Hello everyone This is my first post :newbie: and I know to search the forum before asking a dumb question, which I have done. My 01 Altima with 89,000 miles has the rough idle problem. My question is: does the intake manifold gasket have an upper and lower gasket? I am about to buy a Felpro from Autozone and I just told the guy I need the Intake Manifold gasket, he said no problem we have it. He did not mention two gaskets, or is the Felpro a set of two? Just curious, I dont want to show up to a shop with the intention of paying labor and find out I didn't buy BOTH gaskets.... 

Also, I did the wires and plugs last summer and the #4 cylinder was full of oil when I pulled the old wires out. Since then I had the valve cover gasket replaced. Does the oil help concrete the problem of the Intake Manifold Gasket leaking, or was that the valve cover? 

And finally, I was going to order a dist. cap and rotor from Courtesy Nissan of Texas | Home and both are under $20 total. Is that normal? From previous posts it seems to me that they are made out to sound expensive. Sorry for the long post and thanks! Bored at work in FL....i love my nissan


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## Kraut-n-Rice (Jan 10, 2007)

It has both gaskets . Go to the Advance autoparts website and they have pictures of the items when you web shop by your year ,make and model. Why not do it yourself .Its not real difficult just time consuming . The valve cover leak and the intake leak are non-related. The intake gaskets go from long term heat exposure and cheap gasket material. While the intake is off ,make sure the PCV valve is replaced . The $7 PCV valve if bad can increase crankcase pressure and force oil into the distributor ,which would cost you about $500 to replace. The PCV if done by itself takes as long as the intake job does because its hidden under the intake on rear of engine.


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## Ryan's Altima (Aug 29, 2006)

Good call on the pcv valve. I wish the Nissan dealership would of done that on my car while they were replacing the manifold gasket. Lucky me


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## Kraut-n-Rice (Jan 10, 2007)

*Why would they suggest it?*



Ryan's Altima said:


> Good call on the pcv valve. I wish the Nissan dealership would of done that on my car while they were replacing the manifold gasket. Lucky me




Its their chance to sell you a much more expensive repair later . I work in a fairly good GM shop, where in most cases this type of prevention is recommended on our cars. The case is that sometimes people won't take our suggested maintenance suggestions and then they pay us later for the larger repair. The Nissan dealers that I've had a chance to deal with (and I have a friend at one) , seem to ignore suggested maintenance items such as this and just go with the by the book suggested items at the certain mileages. They sort of have an attitude, it makes me sort of pissed since I'm good to my customers and get repeat business because they know I'm straight forward and will tell them what to watch out for.


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## tothemaxima (May 16, 2007)

Well THANK YOU TO THIS BOARD! I did my homework and knew what the problem with my car was before I took it in. The mechanic wanted $80 for diagnostic and then the full works: plugs, wires, cap, and rotor AND intake gaskets. Little did they know I did the wires and plugs last summer and knew at this point I ONLY needed the intake gasket. They were upselling me by $300. The PREMIUM wires were $90! I almost $%*^ myself... I was like this is not a 'premium' car, but a tough and dependable NISSAN, NOT a sissy BMW OR MERCEDEDS! I bought my wires last summer for $35?!? I knew from this board that many people had done the rotor and cap first, but it did not help. Well I skipped that and went to them and paid $468 for the gasket, install, and PCV valve. Anyways, 2 days later my car purrs like a kitten! I drove around with the bad gasket for months and the surging of the car while idleing at lights was almost dangerous on hills! Anyways thanks for saving me tons of dough! p.s. I am going to the do the cap and rotor myself in a couple of weeks and this car will be set for a little while. Although I need to have the rear brake drums done, at 90K they are squeaking some. Oh and my little original Nissan battery is doing great, it still starts like a champ here in the sunny FL! I'd like to put in an interstate battery though. P.P.S. I have a good theory on changing my oil if anyone has thoughts....Change the filter every 3k and put a little less than a quart of Mobil1 10w-30 in. Rotate the filter and add some oil.....worked for me the last 20,000 miles or so...any thoughts? I got this idea from the oil change shops OWNER, he does the same for his truck.


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## Kraut-n-Rice (Jan 10, 2007)

With the heat and weather in Florida I would be inclined to do a complete oil change . Oil even synthetic gets contaminated and has some break down . The 2.4 engine uses less than 4 qts . Try this if you want to save money use 10w30 ,10w40 or 5w40 oil and use 1 quart synthetic to the remainer in regular oil . With this mix extend your changes to 5000 to 6000 miles . In the past everyone was using 3k changes as a rule but even regular motor oil has improved greatly in the past decade . I've moved away from Mobil 1 lately because they've been playing with the additives and if you do your research ,it isnt as good as their oils in the past . Havoline or Castrol , both in synthetic or normal oil ,are great oils and in the heat in Florida will fight sludge buildup better in the higher heat and have great wear characteristics.


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