# Help! Altima with trouble codes the day after buying???



## Michelle2016 (Mar 18, 2016)

Hi there! I will try and be brief with my situation. I have googled this all to death but I am not familiar with cars and I could use some advice. Ill start by saying my car is a 2010 Nissan Altima 2.5s with 169,000 miles. I paid 4k cash for it on 3/4. My specific trouble codes that appeared were P0449 and P1778. If you don't feel like reading my novel lol my basic question is where to start. Do I go to transmission shop? Does the light have to be on or car acting up to get a diagnosis? Cut my loses and sell it?

So I bought this car from a family friend who is a dealer. He knew my situation of little money and needing something dependable for my kids. He searched for a while and came to me with this car. He had stated a little old lady drove it blah blah. The typical used car story but I trusted him 100000% knowing him his whole life and he assured me its a solid car, the lot inspected it and they wouldn't have taken in a broke car for trade.... I test drove it, it ran fine everything works it looks in nice shape etc. So I buy it. I get home and notice there is paperwork in the glove box. It had been traded in that morning. And the owners names are listed. I find them on facebook. NOT A LITTLE OLD LADY! So clearly family friend or not I have been lied too. The next day I take a hour long trip and my RPM's rev like I am out of gear. 4-5K and I am only doing like 60. I let of the gas and keep the RPM'S low driving maybe 40 mph to get off the highway. I turn my car off and put in park thinking maybe I hit the gear shift into the manual mode. Once I restart my Service engine light is on. I drive down the frontage road and the RPM's are fine. I get on the highway they are fine. The next day I go for an oil change when I realize the sticker on the window says its time. The lube place pulls up the previous owner and prints off the work that has been done. Turns out on 2/19 they came in and asked for a transmission flush. This sounds suspicious with what happened the night before. I call the owners and ask if they will discuss the car with me. They tell me they had the same trouble just once, resolved on its own but it scared them and they traded it in. They were told it was going to auction. Whew... Sorry to ramble, My BIG question would be where to start? Transmission shop? Should I assume the worst and get rid of it? It's not acting up at all now, does it have to be acting up with a light on to diagnose a problem? Thank you all so much for any help you can offer. I have read these boards up and down and I am just not sure what to do


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## 05nismogurl (Jul 24, 2015)

Take it back where u bought it, there's a lemon Law


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## jdg (Aug 27, 2009)

K.B.B. says a "fairly decent" one of these should go for around $7K. Sounds like you got what you paid for...A $4K hunk of [email protected]#t.

A) P0449 - EVAP malfunction. Could be something as simple as a loose gas cap. Could be bad solenoids or broken vacuum lines. Whatever the case, it won't hurt the transmission, and likely won't hurt the performance of the engine either. It'll just light the check engine light forever and keep you from passing any emissions tests until it's fixed. Ignore it for now.

B) P1778 - Transmission Step Motor function, basically the "shifter" inside the transmission. The computer is telling the transmission to shift. The transmission isn't shifting. Could be a number of things, ranging from maybe needing just a transmission fluid/filter replacement to the transmission needing to go the way of the DoDo bird.

Lemon Law - ya, not so much. A lot more goes into qualifying for the "Lemon Law" than just buying a piece of garbage. And unless there's something on paper to back up the consumer, it surely won't apply to something with 6 years and 169K miles on it.

Gather your facts. Notice I said FACTs. Not "well, someone told me that...". Not guesses, etc. FACTs. Take some video of the car messing up. Go back to the dealer. When he fails to rectify the situation to satisfaction, try small claims court.
Either way, the car has 169,000 miles on it, 6 years old, used, bought 2nd/3rd hand from a dealer. Unless you have "100000% trust" and "he assured me its a solid car" and "the lot inspected it" all on paper, you're out $4K. Words mean nothing. Words in a recorded video mean nothing. Paper is everything. Even if it is on paper, unless it's in the form of some sort of binding contract that "its a solid car" or the like, you're in for some $$$$.


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## quadraria10 (Jul 6, 2010)

Doesn't seem like there is much consumer protection in Texas, compared to my market where you would get a 30 day warranty when buying used from a registered dealer. Moreover, the car is way passed the extended cvt mileage warranty. That is the scary thing about used cars with CVTs, as Nissan does not provide aftermarket parts for repairs to them, but rather require the whole thing to be replaced. And in this case it will probably cost the same amount she payed for the car. What is troubling is that the previous owner got rid of the car because they knew it had a transmission problem, and that they had it serviced at a quick lube place which ''flushed'' it. Did they use an appropriate system? Did they use the right fluid? Was the level properly checked? Wrong options in any of the previous can destroy the transmission. Might also be appropriate to ask if the fluid had ever been changed? Its great to buy an off lease used car, but in my experience people who lease do not invest in better servicing for the long term, but instead try to spend the least amount possible by only having the bare bones minimum service requirements done-- which does not include such ''luxuries'' as changing coolant and transmission fluid 
What is unclear from the original post is if the dealer is a Nissan one, some other brand, or a used car lot? Hopefully its Nissan and your family ''friend'' was passing on lies told to him. If so maybe they could be nice and run a diagnosis. If you could find out if the quick lube place used the wrong fluid, you may have recourse against them, but that may be a complicated case legally as you were not their original customer who suffered the harm from the action. I really think your only course of action is to pressure your dealer friend to help you out here. First thing you need to do is to find out if the proper fluid was used. If it hasn't been driven much since the change, assuming the wrong fluid was put in, there is a chance that replacing it will help things. Good luck with it. Let us know the outcome.


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## Michelle2016 (Mar 18, 2016)

I would have said yes I trust him 1000% percent prior to this transaction being a family friend and all but that was not a good judgement call on my end clearly. I have never bought a used car without a mechanics full inspection first. I was told solid car, they inspected it, they wouldn't take in a trade if it weren't good blah blah. But NONE of this except " I will take care of you and I wouldn't sell you junk" is in writing. In my case text message. As far as it being so cheap, again told I was basically getting it for what they paid for the trade in so supposedly he made nothing on the deal. Again, can't believe that for sure either. The car is acting perfect with that one incident of the code and RPM spike etc. Service lights are not on either. So I should wait and document when it occurs again? Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. I fully realize this is on me blindly trusting a friend :/ Praying it's not a 4k dollar lesson


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## Michelle2016 (Mar 18, 2016)

quadraria10 said:


> Doesn't seem like there is much consumer protection in Texas, compared to my market where you would get a 30 day warranty when buying used from a registered dealer. Moreover, the car is way passed the extended cvt mileage warranty. That is the scary thing about used cars with CVTs, as Nissan does not provide aftermarket parts for repairs to them, but rather require the whole thing to be replaced. And in this case it will probably cost the same amount she payed for the car. What is troubling is that the previous owner got rid of the car because they knew it had a transmission problem, and that they had it serviced at a quick lube place which ''flushed'' it. Did they use an appropriate system? Did they use the right fluid? Was the level properly checked? Wrong options in any of the previous can destroy the transmission. Might also be appropriate to ask if the fluid had ever been changed? Its great to buy an off lease used car, but in my experience people who lease do not invest in better servicing for the long term, but instead try to spend the least amount possible by only having the bare bones minimum service requirements done-- which does not include such ''luxuries'' as changing coolant and transmission fluid
> What is unclear from the original post is if the dealer is a Nissan one, some other brand, or a used car lot? Hopefully its Nissan and your family ''friend'' was passing on lies told to him. If so maybe they could be nice and run a diagnosis. If you could find out if the quick lube place used the wrong fluid, you may have recourse against them, but that may be a complicated case legally as you were not their original customer who suffered the harm from the action. I really think your only course of action is to pressure your dealer friend to help you out here. First thing you need to do is to find out if the proper fluid was used. If it hasn't been driven much since the change, assuming the wrong fluid was put in, there is a chance that replacing it will help things. Good luck with it. Let us know the outcome.



No there really isn't much in the way of protection accept I did find deceptive trade laws. The key here would have been documentation. But I didn't think to protect myself and have the car inspected since it was a family friend. It was not a Nissan dealer but a Kia dealership. And in regards to the fluid flush. The previous owner said the car acted up on him( he described what happened to me) and said he panicked and took it for a flush. So the fluid replacement was after the fact. So you have the trouble acting up once last month and with me once. I am so sorry for so many questions. I am clueless about engines and my husband says this one is too new he wouldn't know what to do with it. Kinda wishing I just kept my old suburban now... I will contact my friend again and see what I can have done in the way of diagnostics to ease my mind and figure out where to go from here.


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## quadraria10 (Jul 6, 2010)

Okay getting a better understanding of the situation. Firstly, even if you had had a pre purchase inspection done, there is no guaranty they would have caught the problem. A Kia service department won't have much experience with cvt transmissions. It's also not unheard of for quick lube places to screw up and put automatic transmission fluid in, when it requires a specific cvt fluid. You need to find out what was used in February and you will need to have a Nissan service department analyze the fluid. Best case scenario would be that a proper cvt fluid change will fix the problem, worse case the cvt transmission requires replacement.
You did get a good price on it, and I do think it's possible that it was close to the trade in price. If you have to spend 3 or 4 K for a new transmission it should be worth over 7,000 according to my reading of its blue book value. Mind you that involves a lot of extra expense and trouble. Maybe your best bet would to speak to your friend and see if you can return it for a credit against another vehicle you could purchase from his dealership. An older Kia Rondo may not be as nice as the Altima, but it's technology won't be as pricey to repair either.


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