# My '04 Sentra is a LEMON



## jbh26 (Mar 21, 2004)

I bought a brand spankin' new '04 Sentra at Glick Nissan of Westborough, MA 2wks ago.

After 8 days of operation (at 495 miles), the check engine light came on and I lost engine power on a busy highway.

After the rude service guy at my dealer told me I didn't put the gas cap on right (having not even looked at my gas cap). I insisted on a diagnostic test. It came back as a bad ECM module (computer). They replaced it under warranty.

4 days after I picked it up, now only 715 miles on it - engine light came on again and again lost power at a bad intersection.

Made it to the dealer and was told they can't help me until moday - offered no apologies and refused me a loaner car - made me drive an unsafe car home.

At this point I consider it a lemon, tho legally the computer has to die once more first.

I won't ever buy anoher Nissan! And am trying to get out of owning this one (which I haven't even had the opportunity to make my 1st payment on).

Wanted to share my story. A report has been filed with the NHTSA.

Anyone else have similar problems with their Sentra???

One more thing. When washing it a few days ago - I notice a big yellow car crayon "S" written on the front plastic piece under the grille. Whats up with this? This tells me it has been replaced... ?

- Joe


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## chimmike (Oct 17, 2002)

I think your problem has more to do with the dealer than the car. Most have had nothing but good reliability with the 1.8s.

the S mark is probably just a manufacturing mark. Very common. tells you it has been replaced? how do you know this.


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## Chuck (Nov 19, 2003)

You got some serious issues... never buy another nissan because you get 1 bad one?.. dude, there is some lemon law that you can return it in 1 month, and say you never wanted it.. hte dealer has to avide..


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## NismoAmy (Jan 9, 2004)

i haven't heard bad things about the 04's. i have the 04 spec and so far after 6 months and 13,500 miles it has been a great car to me. the only issue i have had is with the brakes making noise almost all the time since ive owned it, but thats not Nissan's problem. 

and almost every car i have owned has had writing on the plastic. dosent mean its been replaced.


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## YELLOWV (Mar 4, 2004)

My ECM just went bad as well but I have had mine for a year and a half. You need a new dealer. Mine gave me a loaner (after a little bitching) but they took care of the problem A.S.A.P and wouldnt let me drive the car that way.


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## davejay (Feb 20, 2004)

Is this perhaps related to the Sentra ECM recall? Perhaps the dealer has a stack of older (but still new) units in his parts bin that he's throwing in, or worse, he's taking used units that he pulled from other Sentras under recall and throwing them in as replacement units. Hmm.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that I just bought an '04 SE-R, having traded in my 2001 GXE, and I still have my wife's 2000 GXE -- and al three cars have been virtually trouble-free. So don't give up on Nissans just yet.


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## YellowSpecV34 (Feb 20, 2003)

Welcome to the club...My Spec has been a lemon almost the whole time I have had it. I am selling the car or filing for the lemon law...whichever comes first. This is the worst car I have ever owned. Good luck!


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## ittamaticstatic (Nov 5, 2003)

Dude You can bring it back. I bought my 03 and the dude before me had to bring it back because he couldnt aford it and his moms went up there trippin or something about his credit. The Nissan here said they took it back after 3 days I think so go raise some hell if ya want. Or you could try to milk them for free oil changes for a year, I did. Fuel cap ....I died ...lol


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## 03specticalv (Feb 28, 2004)

take it to a new dealer (if its convenient) if the service guys are asses, then they treat the car the same was, he probably just unpluged the ecu and pluged it back in and was like "works for me", or like everyone else says raise a whole lota hell till they will take the car back just to get you off their car lot, i dont blame ya for wanting to be rid of it at all


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## NismoSileighty (Feb 26, 2004)

If your gunna not buy a nissan cause youve had a bad experience with one... and with that one particular dealer... then damn I dont wanna see how you approach anything else. Im sorry that you got a "lemon". Dont let one bad experience dishearten you though. Nissan is a good company. If the car is bought why not just throw alil but of $$ out and get a JWT Ecu or something i honestly dont think you should give up on Nissan because of one bad experience. if you declare it a lemon just get another 04 sentra but hey if you really dislike nissan that much then i guess all i can say is buy a honda or something?


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## Harris (Nov 11, 2002)

That's why I say, "stick with the B13s/B14s".


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## chimmike (Oct 17, 2002)

the thing is, the car isn't the big problem, its his dealer. He can't cry lemon when the car had a minor issue that just wasn't solved by the dealer.


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## FadedKM83 (Jan 27, 2003)

i sure as hell would cry lemon if my car died after driving it for one week.
my advice: if your not getting anywhere with the service department, take it up the ladder. if you make enough trouble, youll get what you want. (it just takes a hell of a lot of energy)


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## 04'1.8S (Mar 25, 2004)

i have own a 04' Sentra and it has been great.


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## chimmike (Oct 17, 2002)

FadedKM83 said:


> i sure as hell would cry lemon if my car died after driving it for one week.
> my advice: if your not getting anywhere with the service department, take it up the ladder. if you make enough trouble, youll get what you want. (it just takes a hell of a lot of energy)



Go read the lemon laws in your manual.


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## 1Newmexneon (Mar 26, 2004)

Sell it and get an srt-4


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## FadedKM83 (Jan 27, 2003)

chimmike said:


> Go read the lemon laws in your manual.


the owners manual is one of the many things my dealership promised and never delivered on. (see this thread.) 
they are snakes.... all of them.


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## NismoSileighty (Feb 26, 2004)

Search the lemon laws online if you dont have a manual in your car.

they should be online.


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## caveman (Dec 20, 2003)

Okay, I can't imagine why you wouldn't have the owners manual, but from now on, never sign for and take delivery on a car that doesn't come with everything you want with it.

A lot of this is your fault for buying from such a lousy dealer. You knew the car was wrecked and you still bought it?!?!?! 

You should be able to get the car bought back through the lemon law, but you will have to do a lot of work. Keep taking the car back to the dealer for the AC (or anything else that doesn't work right). I would even suggest the lousy one you bought it from. They will probably blow you off and not think twice about it. If they can't fix it in 4 tries, contact a lemon lawyer and ask them to help you get the dealer to buy back your car. Keep all the paper work. Even if the dealer says they couldn't duplicate a problem. Make them give you paperwork each time and keep a file along with the sales contract. Proof that you bought the car.

Next time use your head a little.


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## droppinbottom (Jun 30, 2003)

come on now guys lets think about this for a minute. 1. each state has different lemmon laws. 2. here in nc my best friend is going through a lawsuit with Big Dog(motorcycle company). even with proof that the bike spent 9 months out of the first year at the dealership, he has had to hire attorneys($200 per hour). he has close to 4,500 in lawyers fees so far and hasent gone to trial yet. make a long story short lemon lawsuits are long and costly. 3. not all nissans are bad just because you are having problems with one. and when would you rather get the buggs worked out under warranty or no warranty? :cheers:


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## caveman (Dec 20, 2003)

Lemon lawyers don't charge you anything. They won't take your case untill they think you are a sure win. That is why it will take a lot of work.

Lemon lawyers get money from a car company. I don't know who Big Dog(motorcycle company) is, but they probably don't have the same forced bumper to bumper waranty that major car manufactures have. The bikes might not even fall under the lemon law. A nissan car does.


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## nismoguy (Mar 26, 2004)

Ahhh... The Bigdog Pitbull is siiiiick! The Mastiff is nice too but I aint much of a soft-tail kind of guy. Ya know. They have a shop downtown..... Anyway, good luck on the suit.


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## chimmike (Oct 17, 2002)

the fact is, this guy's 04 is no lemon, he's dealing with a crappy dealer. This is all.


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## droppinbottom (Jun 30, 2003)

the bike is a pitbull series and the warranty is just like a bumper to bumper warranty on a car. the problems he has had are rediciouls stuff breaks due to vibration. even big dog thought it was a good enough to send the mech who built the bike all the way to nc to work on the bike for a week. when they repainted the frame in a few places they got overspray all over the chrome rear rim and brake calliper. he has very good reason to get a buy back. see what kind of luck you get with a lawyer that says we dont get paid untill you get paid.


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## FadedKM83 (Jan 27, 2003)

caveman said:


> Okay, I can't imagine why you wouldn't have the owners manual, but from now on, never sign for and take delivery on a car that doesn't come with everything you want with it.
> 
> A lot of this is your fault for buying from such a lousy dealer. You knew the car was wrecked and you still bought it?!?!?!
> 
> Next time use your head a little.


a) i made the mistake of assuming the car already had a manual with it when i signed the papers. (seriously... what kind of business sells cars without the users manual??) it wasnt until after i had the car that i realized it wasn't there. i hounded the dealer a bit about it, and they never delivered. (because it was never in writing before i signed.) lesson learned on my part.

b) i assure you, i did not know the car had been in an accident before i bought it. they did a pretty good job of covering it up, and of course, they said nothing about it when i was buying the car. it was the first time i washed and waxed the car when i noticed it had been pained, cracks in the wheelwell, etc. 

c) the dealership is farley new in town, and didnt have a reputation for being untrustworthy. i am not blaming them 100%, because i should have been a smarter, more informed consumer. in the end, ive learned an expensive lesson about dealing with car dealerships. 

sorry, this is all way off topic. about the lemon law... you guys are absolutely right. i never realized the laws are so specific regarding a "lemon." i retract my previous statement about "crying lemon."


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## Mr SEntra (Oct 7, 2002)

chimmike said:


> the fact is, this guy's 04 is no lemon, he's dealing with a crappy dealer. This is all.


That's a good call there Mike. I agree with you.


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## davejay (Feb 20, 2004)

I'm confused by something, and if someone could clear it up, I'd appreciate it.

This "lemon" Spec-V (and I use quotations not because I don't think it's a lemon, but just to indicate the colloquial use of the word) -- was it a NEW purchase or a USED purchase? And is this actually a Nissan dealer? Also, if used, did it come with the balance of the manufacturer's warranty, or was it sold As-Is? Also if used, was it sold as a "Nissan Certified" used car, and does it have a salvage title?

Please be thorough when you answer, and please only answer if you really know the facts (original poster, now would be a great time to reply -- heh.) 

I'm asking primarily because I had gathered from the thread that it was a new car, but a wrecked car being sold as new without an owner's manual would raise a serious flag with the folks at Nissan North America, not to mention the local government -- on the other hand, a used car (sold with a salvage title, or sold as-is) would not be covered under any lemon law I know about (but I'm hardly a know-it-all).

Thanks in advance for the information.


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## FadedKM83 (Jan 27, 2003)

davejay said:


> I'm confused by something, and if someone could clear it up, I'd appreciate it.
> 
> This "lemon" Spec-V (and I use quotations not because I don't think it's a lemon, but just to indicate the colloquial use of the word) -- was it a NEW purchase or a USED purchase? And is this actually a Nissan dealer? Also, if used, did it come with the balance of the manufacturer's warranty, or was it sold As-Is? Also if used, was it sold as a "Nissan Certified" used car, and does it have a salvage title?
> 
> ...


i think your mixing up 2 different cars. i didnt buy a spec, i bought a 5 year old b14 200sx. (JBH26 is the user who is having trouble with his spec V)
i cant speak for JBH26, but the car i bought (from this thread ,) was at an actual nissan dealer. the car was sold as is, but the dealer did not disclose to me that it had been in an accident. (and the accident was not severe enough to warrant a "salvage" title.) 
i didn't mean to confuse you, nor change the subject of the thread. i was just trying to make the point that dealerships need to be approached with extreme caution, (and that i had no idea what the lemon laws were because i never recieved my car's owners manual.)
i hope that clears things up a bit. i dont know if what happend to me was illegal, but it was horrible business, and enough to make me think long and hard before i buy another car at a dealership.


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## Scissors (Mar 24, 2003)

My '03 is a POS as well. I'll be trading it in on a GTO as soon as I can. It's pretty bad when I have to give up a Nissan in favor of a Pontiac because of reliability. I'll give Nissan a decade to clean up their act and I'll try again. They were fine in the early 90s, WTF happened?


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## chimmike (Oct 17, 2002)

my 01 gxe has been nothing but great.


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## 0341TODD (Nov 15, 2003)

Off Of A Cliff....la Raza!!!!!!!!!!


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## chimmike (Oct 17, 2002)

this has gone way off topic.

ORIGINAL POSTER HAS an 04 1.8, not an SER, or Spec V. If you have problems wiht your spec v, it doesn't have anything to do with his 1.8.


CLOSED.


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