# 2019 Sentra SR Problems



## DWreck1995 (Jul 17, 2019)

I'm a first time Nissan owner. I'd like to post about my discoveries within the 3 or so weeks I've had the car and get your opinions on them. Before I get to the good stuff I'd like to say that I've been to the dealer nearly 10 times regarding what I'm about to say. So far I've demonstrated the problems (since I can replicate a lot of them while they watch) to 5 sales reps, 3 service reps and 2 "master techs" that all tell me my complaints are considered "normal" for my car and there's nothing they can do about it. Some have told me "unofficially" that they agree it shouldn't do what is doing, but I can't get it on record. I also have a Consumer Affairs case open that'll probably close with the same conclusion. Without further ado, here's my findings so far:

Stereo:
1.	Using Bluetooth to play music, if a specific song is selected using the touchscreen display (with shuffle enabled), the song that plays will differ from the selected song. The only way to play the selected song is to disable the shuffle feature, then select the song, then reenable the shuffle feature. Happens every time.

2.	Using Bluetooth to play music, when the car is first started, the “BT Menu” selection can sometimes gray out removing the ability to select songs through the display. Disabling/reenabling Bluetooth sometimes restore it. Happens randomly.

3.	Using Android Auto to play music and the car is shut off, when restarting the car without Android Auto, the Bluetooth fallback is used. This can trigger the play/pause button to no longer act as a play/pause button. It will instead restart the song from the beginning when pressed, like a restart button, or simply do nothing. Skipping a song sometimes restores it. Happens almost every time.

4.	Using Android Auto to play music, the audio will cut out randomly in the song. The track is still playing, just no audio is coming out. This will occur with streaming music or playing local files. No work-a-round other than using Bluetooth since it does not happen with that. Happens randomly, often enough to reproduce.

5.	Using an FM radio station, the information displayed under the channel number can cycle incorrectly. It skips words randomly, freezes on them and can cut off letters at the beginning or end of the string. There is no work-a-round I’ve discovered yet. Happens randomly, depending on how many words it has to cycle to complete the string and the length of each word.

6.	When taking the car out of reverse and the rear camera screen attempts to go back to the main menu, it can stay at a black screen and just show the clock. Sometimes using the buttons on the side of the display can restore it. Happens randomly.

Mechanical:
1.	The car has no Eco mode button. It does include options in the settings to control Eco mode and the dash has an Eco mode light cutout. See the official "All 2019 Nissan Sentra Models Explained" video from Nissan on YouTube to confirm, goto 2:27 for the SR features. Sorry, it won't let me post the link here.

2.	The cars A/C will always run, whether it is turned off or not, if the temperature in the car is higher than the set temperature on the climate control display.

All in all, I wasn't really planning on having them "fix" anything. I was more hoping that they'd acknowledge the problems exist and possibly report them in order to get fixed eventually. But the problem is they don't, they just say because they can replicate it in another Sentra then it's supposed to do all of those things. I've tried to leave the car with them 4 times and they always refuse to take it. Let me know what y'alls thoughts are!


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## DWreck1995 (Jul 17, 2019)

UPDATE:

So clearly not many people had much interest in reading my post, much less commenting on it. But in case anyone ever has a similar problem to me I'm going to post the conclusion to my experience with Nissan for the particular problems in my original post.

Consumer Affairs informed me that, like I guessed, there was nothing wrong with the vehicle and there wasn't anything else I could do. Well I figured that was probably not true so I went back to the dealership to speak with the sales manager. At some point in the conversation I happened to mention that the service department had refused to log my vehicle in from day one multiple times, and still haven't in the 3 times I tried to get them to. This peaked his interest because it wouldn't make sense for them or Consumer Affairs to come to the conclusion that nothing was wrong with the vehicle if it was never logged in to have a repair order done. He informed me that wasn't how it's supposed to work and went to speak to the service manager about it. He came back some while later telling me to bring the vehicle back and speak to him directly so he could make sure they actually follow their policy of getting a repair order before closing the case.

I brought the vehicle back a 4th time to have that done, the sales manager wasn't there even though I showed up at the time he requested. Someone else took me to the service department and they told me the same things they did the last 3 times. So the vehicle was not logged in once again.

I called Consumer Affairs again and requested something I saw on the internet, a DTS (Dealer Technical Specialist). Hopefully if the sales or service people at the dealership couldn't help, a DTS could. I met the DTS at the dealership and replicated all the concerns related to the stereo and A/C for him.

He commented on the stereo issues right away saying there really isn't much he can do about it because it's the phones fault. It didn't matter that my phone was certified to work with the vehicle and that I even bought a new one to confirm it would happen on multiple phone models.

I moved on to the A/C problem. He was baffled on that one, even bringing the schematic for the button that's supposed to turn it on/off. He couldn't get it to turn off either. According to him, the compressor is supposed to turn on with the system regardless of the A/C or heat setting. What the A/C on/off switch does is open/close a valve that controls the refrigerant flowing through the compressor. When you turn the A/C off it is supposed to prevent refrigerant from flowing and simply "free spin" the compressor. This would allow air without A/C. However, that is not the case. When you turn it off nothing happens and cold air is produced until you turn the whole system off completely, allowing no air. This occurs on "fresh air" and recycle modes with the Auto button on or off. We tired for about an hour to get it to turn off

A similar "known good vehicle" was brought in to see if any of the problems could be replicated on it. I was able to replicate the stereo and even the A/C issue on it too. Forgetting the stereo and just looking at the A/C, clearly there is an engineering problem. The DTS agreed! But, as it turns out it's not a good thing that it happens in more vehicles than mine. That means there really is nothing they can do about it and that it's considered "normal" because that's the way it was intended to function. So why does the A/C never turn off you ask? No one knows. But apparently because 2 cars have the same problem then it's all good and they have no responsibility to fix it.

The DTS was a nice guy though and said he'd go ahead and report it to the engineers, but not to expect anything from it. He also offered me an extended service contact to take care of general maintenance for the remainder of my lease. A repair order was finally created with the following message: "duplicated all concerns with same like vehicl." (Yes, vehicle is actually spelled incorrectly on the repair order.)

My Consumer Affairs rep called me back a couple days later informing me that he got the report from the DTS. He also said that Nissan would not be in a position to consider replacing or buying back my vehicle.

So that's that. I did speak with his supervisor to give my feedback on the experience and ask what my next steps would be since I wasn't happy with their decision. She told me aberration, that's what I'm working on now.

TL;DR:

Nissan verified with a specialist that the problems with my car are legitimate. But, because they occur on more cars than just mine there is nothing they can do to fix it and is considered the way they were intended to operate. The next step is arbitration.


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## DWreck1995 (Jul 17, 2019)

UPDATE 2:

I'm posting the updated progress on moving towards arbitration. The lease agreement states I need to contact the BBB Auto Line first, so I did. They notified Nissan and a Nissan arbitration representative was assigned to me to go over the complaints.

After multiple days of Nissan considering all the complaints again they have still declined to replace or buy back the vehicle. However, they did offer me a $2,500 cash settlement. I'm considering taking that. But I'm currently speaking with Lemon Law and Class Action attorneys at the moment on other possibilities.

Here's an interesting piece of information the arbitration representative gave me. He reviewed the video about the car being advertised with ECO mode and said that it was wrong. But, at the very end of the video Nissan put a disclaimer that absolves them of any incorrect information stated in the advertisement. So basically they're saying that they can advertise whatever they want to and if they're wrong it's okay because in tiny letters at the end it says they don't guarantee the information is accurate about their own car.


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## smj999smj (Jan 1, 2006)

Sorry to hear all that you are going through. The Sentra used to a great small car for Nissan; they were dependable, great on gas and not too bad to work on. IMO, the Sentra declined gradually after the 1999 model was replaced by the B15. The current model has a nice body and good room inside, but is saddled with an engine without enough power, a CVT transmission which has had a history of problems for Nissan, mediocre handling and other issues. You mentioned it was a lease, so it might be worth taking the $2500 and dealing with it until the lease ends. At that point, you can move to something else. If I had a choice of the small cars currently available, I would be looking at the Toyota Corolla and the Honda Civic. The Mazda 3 and Subaru Impreza are also strong choices.


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## DWreck1995 (Jul 17, 2019)

smj999smj said:


> Sorry to hear all that you are going through. The Sentra used to a great small car for Nissan; they were dependable, great on gas and not too bad to work on. IMO, the Sentra declined gradually after the 1999 model was replaced by the B15. The current model has a nice body and good room inside, but is saddled with an engine without enough power, a CVT transmission which has had a history of problems for Nissan, mediocre handling and other issues. You mentioned it was a lease, so it might be worth taking the $2500 and dealing with it until the lease ends. At that point, you can move to something else. If I had a choice of the small cars currently available, I would be looking at the Toyota Corolla and the Honda Civic. The Mazda 3 and Subaru Impreza are also strong choices.


I totally agree with you about the older Sentra models. A lot of my family has owned various models and that's why I thought it would be a good buy. To be honest, I wasn't going to get a Nissan originally. My local Honda dealer had a 2019 Civic for $100/mo with $4,000 down that peaked my interest. I started looking to see if others could compete. I could've gotten a Corolla for about $120/mo with $4,000 down. So I was bouncing back and forth between them Honda and Toyota a lot. Then I decided to stop by my local Nissan dealership one day just to see what they had. After learning that only the upper level trims had the same safety features that both Honda and Toyota come standard with, I figured they couldn't do anything for me unless I got a car that cost way more. But that's when the sales guy offered me the Sentra SR with Premium Package (basically making it an SL) for $140/mo and the same $4,000 down payment. It had way more features then the Civic LX or Corolla SE that were being offered, so it easily justified the extra $40/mo. Other than the fact that Honda and Toyota both have a higher resale value of course. But it was a lease, so I figured what the heck.

I'm definitely considering taking the $2,500. But at the same time I kind of want to get these problems out there for others to know before they buy. I think potential buyers should be aware that if they buy a 2019 Sentra like mine then the A/C isn't gonna turn off, Android Auto isn't gonna work right, and they're gonna need a phone mount to control music because the Bluetooth control is screwed up. It's the principle of making sure they are held accountable for selling cars that don't work as advertised, then saying they aren't responsible for fixing them, that's driving me to possibly continue arbitration or class action. Of course I'll continue to post updates on my progress and the ultimate conclusion to the whole thing. I have to go back to the dealership to get another repair order before continuing since the last one is just a single sentence that doesn't mention any of the complaints that were actually duplicated.


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## DWreck1995 (Jul 17, 2019)

UPDATE 3 (last one):

After speaking with multiple attorneys and going back and forth with the Nissan arbitration department, a decision has been reached. All 4 attorneys I spoke with were very confident that the current evidence collected was sufficient enough to warrant a lawsuit. However, I've decided not to pursue Nissan. The only reason being that all I could do is force them to repurchase the vehicle. I submitted a counteroffer to the $2,500 settlement Nissan offered me prior, for over $3,500. That was accepted. Given the fact that $3,500 is literary 40% of the total amount in lease payments I'd be making over the 3 year lease, I'm getting an ready good lease deal even better if I keep the car. So I've made the decision to take the "shut up" money and live with the always on A/C and broken stereo system for 2.5 more years. I'm only spending a total of $6,000 on the whole lease at this point now anyway.

The primary framework for the lawsuit was going to be the false advertising of the eco mode and the backup camera staying black. Apparently those two problems out of the bunch made the attorneys mouths drool a little more than the A/C issue. From my experience, all the 2019 Sentras have the same problems as mine. So if anyone has a 2019 Sentra and wants to return it, then by all means contact a lawyer and go for it.

Nissan has fought me from the start. The level of customer service I've received has been some of the worst. No doubt people have had positive experiences, but mine has been horrible. I for one will not be looking at Nissan for a vehicle again. To bad they couldn't make a simple working air conditioner...

TL;DR:

Nissan gave me an offer I couldn't refuse. I took the shut up money and allowed them continue to manufacture a poorly engineered vehicle without a lawsuit. But I learned my lesson and won't be purchasing another.


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## smj999smj (Jan 1, 2006)

Thanks for the update.


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## MartyB1978 (Jul 19, 2021)

DWreck1995 said:


> UPDATE:
> 
> So clearly not many people had much interest in reading my post, much less commenting on it. But in case anyone ever has a similar problem to me I'm going to post the conclusion to my experience with Nissan for the particular problems in my original post.
> 
> ...


I read your post... which Sentra trim level did you get? Is it a base SR without premium? I'm in a 2019 loaner right now and all it has is Sport and normal and has a faux button over where ECO is supposed to. According to Nissan they should be able to tell you that ECO is not option on select vehicles unless equipped. You should check the various trim levels on your model. As for the AC not turning off and dealer can't help you that's absurd.


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## TheResearcher (5 mo ago)

I know this post is very old and you probably don't own a nissan anymore. I just would like to say that the AC problem can be solved in a tricky way. I have the same problem and tried all what I can from day one. The compressor always stays ON. The only way to get around this by:
-Turn the climate control off
-Press the air inlet button that opens the in gate
- Now you can do whatever you want and the AC button works perfectly. 
Whenever the AC does stays ON... Just do this trick and it will go away


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