I will never buy a Nissan again. I've never seen a car blow head gasket after just over 100,000Km or 64,000 Km. This is a 2005 Nissan Sentra 1.8 and it's well maintained, with everything done on schedule. Visually, it looks good but what a piece of garbage the engine is. The Nissan Corporation should be ashamed, even when compared to some domestic north American cars. My advise, do due diligence research before buying any car. They should do a recall on this, they know this but prefer to hold onto the money they already have and lose future clients. Well that's fine then!

This Nissan has given us problems before and this time this took a toll on me since I’m a college student , I just came back from a friends house because this is the only form of transportation I have to school since I have to drive 35 minutes a day to get to school. It took a week to fix and the only problem that me angry was that even after 185 dollars of pre repairs they mechanics said the way the motor was formed the machine couldn’t quite tell what was the problem. The first diagnostics I was to it was one of the four modules on top of the motor, I bought one since I don’t have a lot of money and a week later it was shaking and not starting. The Friday it wouldn’t turn on after multiple times my dad took it to the mechanic and they finally figured out it was the head gasket and it was going to be over a thousand dollars. My dad unfortunately isnt as skeptical as I was but I over heard one of the mechanics mentioning every Sentra 05 they fixed had the same problem so I googled it on I found this website and many others. This isnt a one time problem and now that they recalled the Nissan Altima I have came to conclusion that this is isnt right, its not easy to drop 1300 dollars from one day to another. I had to drop everything for the week just do I wouldn’t be dropped from classes, taken buses and waiting 30-40 minutes for it and being on them for over a hour jus to get to my destination, not feeling comfortable because I couldn’t sleep in my own bed, all just for a stupid head gasket . But besides me all the other people as well, who had to pay the same thing or not pay because money was tight, deserve this issue to be resolved.

My story is much like the others, engine light on with dx of misfire, had spark plugs and coil #3 changed. got me 7 miles round trip to work for another 4000 miles with light going on and off but no code to read cause it would go off before mechanic could read code. Then light stayed on dx of fuel injection relay fail, got car back and light on next day. Back to mechanic who now says " -PRESSURE TESTED COOLING SYSTEM FOR 4 HOURS-REMOVED #3 SPARK PLUG=FOUND PUDDLED COOLANT ON TOP OF PISTON USING A BOROSCOPE TO LOOK INSIDE COMBUSTION CHAMBER-WHICH INDICATES THAT THERE IS EITHER A BLOWN CYLINDER HEAD GASKET AND/OR A CRACK IN THE CYLINDER" seems there is a failure in coil 3 area in my humble opinion ? Only 46683 miles, 2005 NISSAN SENTRA 1.8 color white

About 8 months ago my sentra starting misfiring badly when started, but only if it had been sitting for at least an hour. The misfires would throw "Random misfires" or "cylinder 3" or "cylinder 4" misfire check engine code. I had to replace my spark plugs about every 3,000 miles as they were fouling.

At first I suspected my fuel pump or a leaky fuel injector and I was either starving or flooding my cylinders. When I was changing the spark plugs and noticed a liquid pooling in the cylinders. I soaked some up in a cloth, smelled it and sure enough it was antifreeze. I had feared it was my head gasket after reading about the issues Nissan has had with their gaskets on these models. Interestingly I had not noticed a significant amount of antifreeze consumption, so I must have caught it early.

Nonetheless, the hard starts, fouling plugs and bad gas mileage motivated me to bring it to a local mechanic. He confirmed my diagnosis and did a head gasket change and I had him change my belts while he was at it. He mentioned that new head gasket was thicker and had three layers, evidently an improvement in design whereas the old one had just one.

Since I caught it early I'm hoping no permanent damage was done and I can drive this thing another 100k. I just got the car back tonite, and so far I have not gotten misfires or other problems.

Update from Apr 20, 2014: I'm at 131,000 miles now and have no problems with hard starts, fouled plugs or check engine lights complaining about cyliner misfires.

First I must say I take excellent care of my car and have everything serviced when it is supposed to be including oil changes every 2500 miles. I have it serviced at a Goodyear tire because Nissan is so expensive. I first got a check engine light one morning and the car was running rough after first starting it. I promptly took it in and I was told it was a coil and it was recommended that all four coils be replaced at a cost of $1,000 because if one went bad the others would soon follow. After I had it for a few days the same problem occurred. They said that one of the coils were bad and replaced it. A few days layer it happened again. This time I was told they didn't know my car was a California car and had put in the wrong coils. They also replaced the spark plugs this time. Since then I have had some heating problems and they have put in a new thermostat and flushed the cooling system. This week I got the check engine light again. This time when I took it in they said I had blown head gasket and cylinders 2 and 3 had low compression. I have taken it to a different mechanic who verified the blown head gasket and hasn't detected other engine problems so will repair it for $900 and will warranty it for one year. First no car should have a blown head gasket even at 128,000 miles especially when it has been serviced so meticulously. Second I am not happy with Goodyear for misdiagnosing the problem.

Blown head gasket on a car that has ONLY 68000 miles on it! NEVER BUY NISSAN!!!!!!!!!! It's ridiculous that a car that's under 100,000 has problems like this, and my mechanic even knows me on a first name basis! First, service engine light came on, so I brought the car to a mechanic. He said it's just the problem with a bad coil. I was like, ok, no big deal, paid $180 and got my car back. A few weeks later, the SES sign came back on, brought the car back, and now it was the blown head gasket... yes, the blown head gasket. The mechanic quoted $2000 for the whole motor repair, because if I just replace the gaskets, they don't know what other problems might come up. So, brought a friend of mine and his dad, who's a mechanic, to the shop, they checked it, both couldn't believe the problem was blown head gasket, brought the car to a dealership, hoping that they might do something about this (Town North Nissan in Austin, TX) and they said they've never had complaints like this, saying it's probably my fault for not maintaining the car, they were very RUDE about it, saying that the NISSAN corporate would NEVER pay for this. I'm just baffled and I've been telling everybody how it's the worst nightmare of my life, getting a car like this and the corporate not responsible for things like this (yes.. things like this). NEVER NEVER will buy Nissan.

I bought the car at 96000 miles and about 3 months later on 98000 miles I noticed that the coolant level was very low. I refilled it and found that it was still disappearing. A few days later the engine started misfiring when starting the car mostly in the mornings and the check engine light came up. Took the car to a few local mechanics but they were not able to diagnose the proper problem. Eventually as the problem would not go away, took the car to a nissan dealer. They did a pressure test and came up with the dreadful head gasket problem. It cost me about 1200 to repair. I should have read these reviews before buying the car. Its really unprofessional of Nissan not to acknowledge and recall cars with this defect. This is definitely my last nissan and I make sure I advise any car buyer I come across to stay away from nissan as well. :(

I truly believe Nissan corp. did not intend to put a faulty head gasket in this model but based on the numerous consumers such as me who had the misfortune to purchase this model and have had to come out of pocket and pay for the repair feel that Nissan corp. is not a corporation that stands behind their product. By not recalling the head gasket in 2005 Sentra and denying there is a problem in the first place Nissan corp. has made the top of my list of despicable corporations that put profit before the consumer.

My misfortune began when check engine soon light started to come on intermittently at aprox. 50,000 miles, I thought to myself it was something minor so I had my wife take it to her mechanic but at that time she took it in the check engine light was not on so a tune up and brake replacement was performed. Shortly thereafter the check engine soon light started to come on again this time I took the car in specifically for that problem and was told of the P0300 random misfire detected was the problem, the mechanic believed the head gasket was bad. The mechanic and I were puzzled that a car with such low mileage would have this problem so I went online to see if there were any recalls on this make and model which is when I stumbled upon this website and numerous complaints that started to sound familiar to what I was currently going through.

I then contacted Nissan Corp. and hoped that they could provide some answers regarding bad head gasket a fellow named "Jason" was very helpful in getting my claim processed, he told me to go to dealership and get a diagnostic and then he would forward it onto the next person, after being told by the dealership it wasn't the head gasket that instead it was a bad air sensor the dealership returned my car to me believing it had been repaired. I thought I dodged the bullet until the next morning when the check engine soon light came on again.

I took it back to dealership and after a few days the dealership finally diagnosed the car with a bad head gasket. I then informed “Jason” at Nissan Corp. the dealership diagnosed the car with a bad head gasket and few days later I was contacted by "Marsha" representing Nissan Corp. she did not want to hear or answer any of my questions regarding the faulty head gasket problem repeatedly occurring in the 2005 Nissan Sentra, she dismissed my claims as false and told me because it is on the internet it doesn’t make it true, she then basically told me that because I did not buy extended warranty or service car routinely with a Nissan dealership most likely Nissan corp. will not assist in any way regarding repair. She then told me to bring my service records to dealership and then they will make a final decision. I took my records to dealership and my car sat at the dealership for another week and finally I was notified that Nissan Corp. would not help at all in repair. The dealership did offer a reduction on labor but very minimal.

At this time I’m very disappointed with Nissan Corp. and will go out of my way to tell friends and family to stay away from Nissan for they are a corporation that will build a car with a faulty head gasket and because there is no safety issue involved will pass the cost on to consumer as well as the blame. Also on a side note I’m a 41 yr old working father with two teenage daughters one who will be off to college in a few months and I will be needing every last cent to further my daughters education if anyone reads this post and find themselves in the same situation or has the displeasure to talking to “Marsha “at Nissan corp. tell her the problem with the Head Gasket in 2005 Nissan Sentra is real as well as the people and the money we have to pay for this real problem.

I purchased my 2005 Nissan Sentra in November 2010, with 35,000 miles on it. By July 2011--only 7 months and approx 7,000 miles later--the car was shuddering and I was told the engine block was cracked. Naturally the car was just beyond warranty, and the Nissan dealership quoted a $6000!?!? repair cost along with a warm invitation to browse the showroom floor (not gonna go there). My brother dismantled the engine in November 2011 and sure enough the head gasket looked HIDEOUS lol, all wet and rusty. He replaced it and it's been running ok, but now the transmission is going to need to be looked at. I wish I had known about this website before, I'd have taken a picture of the head gasket.

Full disclosure: I am not the most conscientious person when it comes to car maintenance. It was about 4 months after my purchase before I even checked the fluids for the first time, and I understand that there is much truth to "getting out what you put in". My last car was also a Nissan Sentra, also used. It lasted three weeks before it croaked (gasket, surprise!) It is interesting that my sister, less conscientious than I am, was much harder on her Ford and current Charger and has never had an issue. All vehicles need maintaining, but I get the feeling that Sentras are unusually delicate.

We bought this car early feb for our 16 yr old daughter and it ran great for abt 2 week then it started not wanting to crank and we noticed the water in the overflow was gettin gone. took to a garage the man said it was a blown head gasket and the fuel pump need replacing the jobs are going to be about 1500.00 to fix and now a check engine lights on its reading po2 misfiring but the motor is running great not oil leaks. The car lot says it was not doing this when they had it i cant believe this and it has no warrenty so we have to eat all the cost i have seen alot of recalls on this model and i think nissan knows there is a problem with this model but they wont even offer to do anything about it either. i hav owned 6 prior sentras and had no problem out of them this is a shock and a dissapointment i only bought this car because of the great sentras we have owned. but this is the first 2005 we have ever owned now we have all this expense i am mad . Nissan needs to recall the fuel pump and do something about this headgasket problem to many of them out here to be nothing wrong. i still love nissans just not this one

I got this car in December of 2004 with 11 miles on it... With in the first year I had a recall on the gas tank, got it fixed and ever since I've had 5 fuel pumps put on this car. Here recently I've had problems with my heat, it wouldn't kick on until i drove it for 10 to 15 minutes... I took my car to a well known car repair place and they told me I had a busted up water pump and no coolant in my radiator, I got a brand new water pump and 2 days later my heat stops working again and my check engine light comes on. I take it back to the repair shop and they proceed to tell me its a 3rd cylinder misfire. They quoted me almost 400 dollars to get a tune up including spark plugs and a coil pack. I refused to get it done and decided to get a second opinion and was told the same thing. For weeks no one could figure out what was wrong with my car. If it was below 32 degrees, my car wouldn't start at all and the coolant smell was awful when I could finally get it to start. After weeks of not being able to figure out the exact problem, I decided to take it to the last repair shop I thought I could trust and this man finally told me it was my head gasket and quoted me a price of 1218 dollars. I still haven't gotten my car fixed because I refuse to put more money into a car that should be recalled. There are too many of the same issues and I'm not understanding why nothing is being done about this.

Wow, this car is a real lemon. I have a 2005 Sentra w/ 70,000 miles on it and out of the blue one day, the car started vibrating really roughly when I first started it in the morning and after 2 days of this, my check engine light came on. So I made an appt. on Monday to take it to the shop on Friday. By Wed, the car wouldn't even start-ended up having to pay to get it towed. Head gasket was blown and belts had to be replaced-total cost was $1500. This happened 5 months after my Warranty ran out and of course Nissan will do nothing. The mechanic who worked on my car said he's worked on "quite a few Sentra" w/ blown head gaskets at low mileage. A month and a half later my check engine light came back on-this time it was my O2 sensor-$300 more spent on that. I Hate this car and will never buy another Nissan. Ever.

About the middle of October the heat on our 2005 Sentra started working on and off and the car was hard to start and ran rough. We have had this car from day 1 and have performed all of the maintenance. I looked on line and found this site detailing other 2005 Sentras with the same problems and it always ended up being a blown head gasket. When I called Nissan North in Columbus Ohio and explained what I had read they said they never have blown head gaskets on 2005 Sentras. I took it in and they charged $748.90 and flushed the coolant exchange and installed a fuel pump repair kit. After that it did seem to start better but 2 weeks later the "check engine soon" light came on. I took it to auto zone and they read the code that one of the spark plugs was misfiring. I read on line that if you remove the spark plug and see water then you probably have a blown head gasket.

I took it back into the same Nissan dealer and the next day they called and told me they ran pressure tests and found it to be a blown head gasket. I don't know why they didn't run pressure tests the first time when I suspected a blown head gasket. That cost another $1400. I am a 62 year old woman and I diagnosed the problem before they could. I am very disappointment in this car and in Nissan, especially the Nissan North dealer in Columbus Ohio.