Altima headlamps have a familiar problem
I own a 2014 Altima SV, and the low beam headlights are increasingly dim. My husband replaced the bulbs, but there was no change. It appears to us that the magnifier lens is cloudy. I’ve resorted to using high beams when driving at night. I did some online searches and find that other Altima owners are experiencing the sameproblem. I had a case with NissanNorth America, but they just referme back to the local dealerships. The two dealerships I’ve contacted said they couldn’t find any problem and never driving the car at night; instead, they offered to replace the bulbs for a cost of approximately $150! Help! — Nancy M.
This is acommonbeef with 2013-2015 Altima owners! Apparently the projector units within the headlamp housings do a lousy job that gets worse with time to the point of being a safety complaint. Projector headlamps use a combination of optical tricks and a lens to more accurately focus either conventional halogen, LED orHIDillumination than larger oldschool reflector type headlamp housings. At least, in theory they do.
I believe you have two options. The first is to turn up the heat with fellow Altima owners via various car complaint websites, connect with a law firm investigating a related class action lawsuit, and file a safety complaint with the NationalHighway Traffic Safety Administration. Hopefully Nissan will step up and do the right thing! Option two is take a $200 to $300 gamble with a pair of aftermarket headlamp projector housings or retro-fit projectors. One projector brand that looks promising isMorimoto, sold through “The Retrofit Source.”
I amexperiencing a problem with my 2002 ChevyAvalanche (5.3 liter engine). The oil pressure gauge recently began sticking at 40 psi when I turn the engine off. If I restart the engine, it then goes to 0 psi and then to its normal range of 40 to 60 psi depending on engine rpm. I took it to the local Chevy dealer; they replaced the oil pressure sensor, no help. The dealer then replaced the instrument cluster, no help. They finally opened up a tac case for assistance. The results of the tac casewas “that this is a rare but normal occurrence for this year, make and model.” The dealer said that therewas not anything else they could do and Iwould just have to live with the issue. Fortunately they only charged me 1 1/2 hours labor; no charge for the oil pressure sensor, and re-installedmy original instrument cluster. This is absolutely driving me crazy. Help! — Michael C.
I ran your symptoms pastMike Kincer, a GMinstrument panel rebuilding expert (Kincer’s Service, Mt. Vernon, Kentucky), and the consensus is your dealer andGMare straight shooting on this. 2002 was the final year of the almost bulletproof air core instrument gauges, which were followed by much more problematic stepper motor gauges (a large part of his business involves fixing instrument clusters containing these).
Air core gauges tend to float at shutoff. As long as the gauge snaps to zero at startup and reads properly while driving, there isn’t anything to fix!
Email Brad Bergholdt at bradberg holdt@gmail.com; he cannot make personal replies.