2007 nissan altima hybrid- while driving at highway speeds (approx. 65 mph) the car shuddered and vibrated. the shuddering affected my ability to control the vehicle. i pulled over and had the vehicle towed to a nissan dealership. the problem was diagnosed as carbon buildup in the engine. part of the engine (including the entire cylinder head) needed to be replaced. apparently nissan is aware of this problem- since they gave the dealership instructions on how to replace the damaged engine parts- but has no permanent solution to the problem. the dealership expects the carbon buildup to reoccur in the future causing shuddering/vibrating while driving and possibly requiring the engine parts to be replaced again. the vehicle is currently 3 years old and has less than 45000 miles on it. *tr
In march 2010 while in florida the engine in my 2007 hybrid altima developed a "knock" or "rap" when cold. i took the vehicle to the nissan dealership in venice, fl and after keeping it overnight the dealer stated that the vehicle indeed has a problem that sounded like valves, but the dealership refused to work on hybrid vehicles. i contacted the selling dealer in maine and through the nissan rep for ne found a dealer in ft myers florida who would look at the vehicle. after having the vehicle overnight the service manager said that they had examined the vehicle and talked with nissan and believed the noise was a buildup of carbon on the exhaust valves. nissan was aware of this problem and was coming up with a solution and we should continue to drive the vehicle. when we returned to maine in may the dealership in bangor maine said they could find no problem other than normal noise in the engine. they could find no nissan record of similar problems. after contacting nissan i was told to wait for the florida nissan factory rep to contact me. *tr