I have seen so many post with the same symptoms that I know exactly what is the problem. I had a Toyota before and so like Japanese car. Nissan however is a disgrace to this category. I swear I'll never buy a Nissan again and would not recommend it to anyone. The built in problems are so many and then this rough idling. Magically your car cross 50k miles and the problem starts. Its like a deliberate bug Nissan has put.

This should be a definite recall by Nissan. I would like to take this to consumer court and will appeal everyone who has faced this problem to do the same. Carlos Ghosn (CEO Nissan : http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Carlos_Ghosn) should rethink with what strategy Nissan want to be in this market. The current strategy is to supply pathetic cars and then earn by providing costly service.

Even layman like me can deduce that is a major design flaw in the engine and produces exactly the same symptons of shaking when at idle with Engine light coming on and off. I wish Nissan had even one engineer who can say the same that "yes this is our problem and we should do something about it". In a country where customer service is the most important thing, not sure how this kind of attitude is being ignored by authorities and foremost why people even buy Nissan cars.

Its good that Nissan is taking its operations to country like India as well, there this company can service but not in US.

I wish luck to all Nissan owners who are still below 50 k and hope that they do not have to see this day. However, if you do please make a point to raise this in right forums.

In October 2007, car started sputtering as I accelerate. (This is March 2008) When I stop at a light or intersection, or going to a ATM, car turns off unless I catch it and work with the brake and gas to work the RPM up. This only occurs after driving for a while. Very dependable mechanic just kept the car for over a week to try to figure out the problem. He finally replaced a set of plug wires, a distributor cap and a rotor button. I will take the other 47 complaints list out to him and see what he thinks. I know I can trust him and unless Nissan has the balls to recall it, the dealership will never see my face. I will however call and write Nissan. My wife just bought a Hyundai and gave our daughter a Honda accord with 125K miles on it. Maybe I'm headed back to Honda....

I have had the same problem as the others. The engine light came on a few times. Rough idling when the car was stopped (but not while in drive). The mechanic did a tune-up but that did not cure the problem. It was coming up as as misfire of cylinder 4. After bringing it to the mechanic 4 times (they could not seem to find the problem), it finally got fixed at the cost of $700.00 the car seems to run great now. Just wonder why Nissan has not recalled this part with so many people with the same exact problem.

Well as much as I hate to admit it, because its true, Nissan does have good cars, but, there are exceptions or loop holes. One is definitely the intolerable shaking and embarrassing look people give me when they see my car act like it will turn off.

The car is good, it drives good, it has put up with my careless mind but there is only so much. The car, lately its been really bad, shakes so uncontrollable when I am at a stop light that I came up with some small solutions for the less embarrassing looks. While you are at a stop light, keep the AC running, hold the accelerator and brake at the same time, since you don't want to drive off, and the last thing is to let the car heat up before leaving the parking lot.

There are set backs though, you will definitely spend more money on gas because its more expensive and you have to keep it running longer and you have to be careful that you don't speed off and hit the car in front of you. I took it to my mechanic for a whole day but they couldn't figure out what was wrong. He told me to take it to the Nissan dealer but I haven't because I found some very interesting points here. I am going to try to write to Nissan and change the part that almost everyone is saying that works. I always sort of thought it had something to do with the muffler. Sometimes I let it run while I am outside the car and I notice that the muffler sounds like its chocking, I'm going to tell my mechanic and see what he says. One more thing, when I took it to the mechanic, he was messing around with a part that makes the RPM accelerate or just makes it accelerate in general. I believe that if he can make the RPM stay at the 1 or 1.5 then it wont scuffle because when I hold the brake and accelerator and leave it at 1 it doesn't scuffle so I am going to try to get him to mess with that again and if it works, I will definitely post that on here! Sorry to write so much, I'm just happy I found some help on that embarrassing problem!

OK - so first the check engine light comes and then it starts to jerk and shake when my car idles. Since my car had about 100K miles I think a good tune up is in order. I have it looked over and get everything taken car of - cost $800. My cars still shakes when I idle. I think the mechanic is a SCHMUCK. I spend a couple of days having him look over the car and he still can't find anything wrong. So finally, I rent a car and leave my car with him for three days. OK so he calls me and finally finds something. Intake Manifold Gasket - cheap part, but expensive to replace. $645 + tax, plus rental. Is this going to keep happening????

I am a certified mechanic, a friend tried to get this car passed for emissions in CT. The emission service center said that she had a problem and that it was going to cost 1-2K to fix. After she left to get another quote the check engine light turned on and the car started to have a rough idle. She had it quoted at another more reputable place and they tested it and said it was a vacuum leak and would cost around 1K. She asked me for advice. I checked the computer OBD-II and the code was 0170 Bank 1 lean. I used the smoke pro diagnostic tester and there was a vacuum leak at the intake gasket at cylinder 4. Searching the net, this looks like it was a design flaw, but I don't see any recall. The last mechanic told her it would cost over 1K due to the extra time need to remove extra parts to get to the problem. Looking at the engine, it probably would take me 4-5 hours at an average of 80/hour (for a cheap mechanic)- the lowest would probably be around 400. It fits with everyones quotes. I was going to check the book to see what the factory listed hours is for this procedure, but I think 400-800 dollars is reasonable. I don't work on cars for money, so I will tell her how much would be reasonable and have reputable mechanic fix it. I usually recommend the dealer since they usually are more reputable, but this is not always the case. It helps to have a non-biased person to verify the problem.

My God folks, Where have y'all been. I've so far replaced the plugs, plug wires, distributor coil, knock sensor, number 4 fuel injector, now it's telling me that i may have a faulty catalytic converter. I tell you no one has been able to tell me definitively anything that could be the "actual" problem. How does one go about checking this by yourself. is this difficult to fix yourself. and ultimately as i'm trying to not shell out enough money to buy a new engine. I'll also keep an eye out for this as a recall item. I am not encouraged by the multi replacements of this part due to the multiple failures of the same thing. grrrrr. I'm going to try to get this fixed this week i'll report back on the impending success, where professionals have failed.

Thanks to all of you who have suffered through this and reported so that i won't have to kill the vehicle in question.

The car was vibrating at idle so severe it had everything rattling even the trunck lid. After changing the normal tuneup components to no avail I found this site. I sprayed some carb. cleaner in the area of the #4 intake port and lo and behold I could have killed the car if I had kept spraying. Definitely an intake gasket issue in this area. After reading the posts about the costs of repair I will do this one myself. My first foreign car bought for dependability and my last. Nissan apparently doesn't back it's products when it's an obvious design flaw due to the amount of failures reported.

We experienced the same issue that others reported: car shaking and sputtering. We took it in to the dealer for a diagnostic and were informed that they would have to replace the intake manifold gasket. We were quoted $960 (10 hours labor) by the dealer. I called around to 4 other places and was told that it would take 5 to 5-1/2 hours. We went with another dealer who did the work for $430 (5 hours labor). So, shop around. We chose the dealer instead of one of the other shops (who was a few dollars cheaper) for the warrantee (12 months/12,000 miles from the dealer vs. 90 days).

We were told by all 3 dealers that this is a common problem with the Altima. ARGH!!!

As with other owners, I had the shaking and rough idling problem. My regular mechanic thought it was the idle control valve, but replacing it did nothing. My son found this site, and sure enough, the site described perfectly the problem (SES light coming on intermittently, idle fluctuating wildly, the whole thing). My regular mechanic was nice enough to recommend a Nissan dealer fix the problem, as he frankly said he didn't want to tackle it. Dealer fixed the problem for $600. A lot of money, but this is the first problem I've had with the Altima, and from reading other peoples' problems, I guess I am lucky I didn't experience it until 124,000 miles. Thanks for helping me.

Car shakes, shutters, and tries to stall at stop in drive,neutral, or park. RPM's bounce erratically. Turn a/c on, steadies out, then once compressor shuts off, RPM's bounce again and it stalls. Have to put car in P or N to keep giving gas, or keep foot and brake and give gas to keep RPM's up. Mechanic did fuel induction system using a 3 stage, chemical inspect injectors and seals for leaks, service throttle body and replaced gasket on idle air control valve. Problem still persists after $650.00. Lost original gas cap, and bought generic at Kragen's. It can't be the gas cap can it?

SES light comes on, but no code can be found,and is reset. SES light comes on again, and code reads misfire cylinder 4, reset. SES light on again. Will take back. Should I take it to my mechanic or Nissan so if a recall is announced for 2001 altima GXE, I can get refund?

Whenever I was at a stop light while idling the car would shake. I put up with this annoying condition when it started acting up about a year ago. Finally, my car stalled, the check light finally went on, and the code read multiple misfiring. My husband was convinced based on , his research on the internet 6 months ago, many diagnostic fixes pointed to the gasket being the actual problem.

We went to a Nissan Dealership to see if there was a recall on replacing the intake manifold gasket? Not convinced with the no answer, we went back and asked the Service Manager if he could punch in our serial number in the system to see? He did not do this because he knew there was no recall for the gasket. We showed him the 22 complaints of the same year and model that we printed from the internet and curiously asked him if he had any service work done for gasket replacement? He confessed that they had changed a few. He asked us the mileage on our car? When we told him, he thought it was too low for the gasket to give way.

Anyways, we knew this was going to cost us big bucks to fix. We asked our local Mechanic to put in the just new gasket we bought 4 months ago, and not to do any other work. He wanted to replace fuel pump and do a complete tune up. This would have added several hundreds of dollars of to our bill and we knew this wouldn't make much a difference from reading other complaints that went ahead changing plugs, wires, fuel pump etc with no improvement.

He did find the gasket was missing a bit that was several millimeters of a open sliver that was causing the air to be sucked into the intake manifold (near the air filter). The gasket broke into pieces once removed. Our bill came out to $760. labor only we supplied the gasket we bought for about $10

I believe Nissan knew this common defect would add up costing them much $ if a recall was acknowledged. I thank you for having this site which gave us some evidence to convince our mechanic our diagnostic find. Thus saving us several hundreds of dollars of unnecessary extra repair work.

SO It seems that we all are having the same issue and I finally got my car back after 5 weeks. No one could diagnose the issue and now that I have it back it is worse than before! We all don't have time to deal with this nor the time and money to deal with this! It took me 1 hour to get to work today and even the AC being turned on is not helping the idol anymore. Apparently Nissan is aware of this issue and has created 7 different gaskets to try and rectify the problem and it is NOT working. PEOPLE WE NEED TO DO SOMETHING! Any suggestions?

I have the same problem with my 2001 Nissan Altima GXE. Around 65,000 miles the check engine came on and the dealer said it was the intake manifold gasket, so they repaired it under warranty. Now at around 80,000 miles the check engine light came back on, and this time the car shakes when it idles. I have to put it in neutral or hold down the gas & brake pedal at the same time to stop it from shaking. From the looks of it, it will happen a 3rd time after its fixed again! I think its going to be time for a trade in before the next intake manifold gasket problem!

As everybody else with this problem, my Altima shakes at idle, but not all of the time (especially when the mechanic has it). The problem started a few weeks ago and I feel certain that it will get worse. I took the car to a mechanic and he did a full tune up: plugs, wires, fuel filter, and it still idles rough occasionally. When it started again, my wife found this website and the mechanic is working on replacing the manifold gasket as I type this. This website helped us save possibly more unnecessary repairs. My wife has never owned anything but a Nissan, but if they don't do something about it, she will probably own a Toyota in the near future.

It disturbs me to see that there are so many people with this problem yet it hasn't been recalled. My theory is that because it is so hard to get to and fix they will lose money by recalling it. If there weren't so many people with the same problem, I would be fine, but it pisses me off that this car is unreliable. Nissan's credibility sucks. I did complain to the customer support line (1-800-NISSAN1). They took down my info and complaint and will get back to me. I just can't believe they are charging so much!!!!

I've been having the same problem for a number of weeks now. Rough idling. Acceleration problems. Nissan originally diagnosed the intake manifold leak and quoted $700 to repair. I thought I needed anther opinion and went elsewhere and was told over and over by another place that wasn't the problem and that I needed new spark plugs and a fuel injection service. Spent about $300 for someone to not fix the problem.

I am so glad I found this site. My car warranty of course just expired and now I am just at the mercy and waiting to see if Nissan will approve a GRT repair. I knew this shouldn't be happening at 43k miles. I've had no problems until now. I think it's a definite Nissan design issue! And I'm annoyed it hasn't been recalled.

I recently bought 2001 Nissan Altima GXE from a dealer. However after 1 month I noticed this particular problem of shaking when the car is idling. The problem is more noticeable after a short drive but not when I take my car out fresh. After long drives if I stopped at signals the shaking is embarrassing!!! However the engine doesn't stall. I guess I will check the manifold gaskets and see if it is the same cause. It is interesting to note that only 2000s and 01s are having the problem. Wish I should have checked for the possible problems before buying this car. The car is good just that it shakes

I'm having the same problem as everyone else. The idle is acting wacky. I come to a complete stop at a light, it happens at every stop. My car dealership told me I needed a tune up. They were going to charge me $500 to have that done. I thought they were out of their mind... so I had my Uncle do it for me. It's a simple procedure that takes 30 mins. He did everything the dealership requested.. changed the cap, wires, plugs etc... all of that didn't solve the problem. A month later I'm still having the problem, and my check engine light came on this morning. With that said I'm taking it back to the dealership tomorrow to figure this out. And I should mention that I take my car to a nissan dealership... so they should know how to diagnose this. Considering it's happened to other people. I'm really surprised they didn't catch this problem the first time. I'll mention the solenoid valve when taking it in tomorrow. The previous posts made it clear to me. Hopefully that is the problem... otherwise I'm out of luck.

After $1289.00 dollars no one can tell me why the car still shakes when idling!! First they(nissan dealership) said it was a valve cover gasket leak and threw in a power steering flush and oil change of course!!! $300.00 dollars(which also included a $48.00 keyless remote to be reprogrammed that still doesn't work properly! but that's a whole new electrical story). So.... while servicing they noticed the lower intake manifold leaks as well. this will cost roughly $728.00 dollars to fix. So.... i found some place else to take it for $565.00 dollars and they threw in a much needed cooling sys. cleaner flush and 2nd oil change. The engine light still came on , car still shakes while.... guess what!!! IDLING!!!! So, after a diagnostic, it's a fuel injector problem! $250.00 dollars to repair, (plus parts and labor)$174.00. Guess what?!? the car still, that's right! shakes. To be continued...

I had 2001 Nissan Altima for 61 months (exactly, 1 month past the 5 year powertrain warranty), but had just 40K miles on it. At the end of the 60 month, the SES light came on, So I replaced 4 spark plugs and it went off for a couple of days. But it came on again and it idled pretty rough at traffic lights or stop signs. I took it to the dealer and they said the intake manifold gasket was leaking and the replacement cost was $850. Because it was 30 days past 5 yrs, warranty won't cover it. This is ridiculous, as the other complains suggested, this must be a design problem and we need to do something about it. If Nissan can't handle this properly, this Altima will be my first and last Nissan car I have ever bought.

Basically my car is doing what everyone else has explained so far. It started with just a rough idle when sitting at a stop light or while trying to accelerate just after stopping. The RPMs would bounce between 500-800 and then it would take off and run fine once the RPMs were up.

This problem grew worse over the time period of about 2 months until I had to do something about it. I called Nissan and they said that I should bring it in. Knowing how much dealers charge I was lucky enough to find this site and figure it out without taking it to the dealer. The dealer didn't give me any hints over the phone to as what the problem was even though I am sure they knew it was frequent.

Right now the car is getting a new intake manifold gasket as we speak. I am trusting that this will be the fix. $250 for labor and $10 for the part wasn't too bad compared to what the dealer wanted to charge...

Here's the problem, when i'm at stopped at a red light or stopped with Vehicle in [D] with Brake Engaged or during [Reverse] without pushing the accelerator, the car vibrates erratically and i can see the RPM swinging between 500 and 700. At some point it just dies. This is a real PITA [Pain In The Ass] and causes real concern if you are driving into a parking lot or coming out. It could just die on you. Once while coming out of the Parking lot. The engine shook so hard and died right at the merge on the road, this disabled my power Steering completely, i couldnt press brakes, cuz they lock up when engine shuts-off. I felt like the deer in the light.

well I took my Nissan Altima [2001] to Bankston Nissan for Engine Vibration Issue. They said its a Intake Manifold Issue and it would cost WHOPPING $700. In my mind i'm thinking this is just a rip-off. To get a second opinion, I took it to Meineke Center, at first they didnt know what it was, they did a engine diagnostic check and cleaned the fuel injectors [costed me $200] , but still no luck, finally they said it could be Spark-plugs and cables. Not heeding to their opinion just based on speculation, I didnt do anything further. But reading on this site, tells me that IT IS INDEED the Intake Manifold Gasket. I have found a local mechanic here, who does the job in $150. Will be getting it done there next week. Hope that fixes it. In the mean time, here's the Solution to keep it from dying at red light. Just shift the Gear to Neutral [N] when stopping at a red light and Slide it back to [D] to drive forward, give a 3 sec pause [for gear to engage] before pushing the accelerator. I know this gets annoying but its a intrim fix before u get that fixed.