2010 Altima coupe 2.5S rattles & issues!

[kjchen69]

hello all, first time here and I've been reading some useful info here and I want to see if you all can give me some advise or suggestion for me car!I just bought my 2010 2.5S last month, so the car is about a month old, 43 days to be exact. the car has about 40 something miles on it when I bought it, I only have con. pkg with the car, nothing else on it! I love the car but there are things really bothering me and they are:

1. my steering wheel sems not stright, I mean when I drive it and let it go, the car will lean to left side, so I have to put a little pressure to the streering wheel to the right to make the car going stright when I am driving. I had taken it back to the dealer where I bought it twice, first time, the service guy there just told me, it's a new car, we can look into it but it will take a lot of time and we are busy, made me sounded like I was bothering him. I went home that day, because it was late and I had something else needed to do, but I kept thinking about it and I have to drive this car everyday, so I am really not comfortable with the steering wheel, so I sent a strong compalin email to my sales (by the way, I paid 23k cash for this car), and he forwarded my email to their service & parts manager, and the manager sent me an email about my concern and asked me to take my car back and he'll personally look it for me and will give me a free of tank of gas. well, I did and he sent a guy from the service ti drive with me, and he did see the point I was trying to make but he said all the cars they sell, before handed to the custoemr, it's been alignment already and my car should had the same thing done, even they run the computer again, it proabaly will show all green lights again. I told him I can live with it for now but for my first oil change which will be april 23, they have to take a good deep look into it and fix it and the service manager also said he put a note on the system.

2. recently, I've been noticing some rattle from the passanger seat side when driving on the rough/bumpy road, at first I thought it's the seat belt thing is hitting the interior, but I pull the seat belt while I was driving and noticed the noise still came out, and I noticed it's the seat itself, on the passenger side, the adjustment part down the bottom, where to move the seat back back and forth, there are some plastic parts, nothing is lose but it just makes noises, even the car is not driving and just by hitting the seat itself, the noise would just comes out----I haven't asked dealer about it yet.

3. my 2 front door speakers: I dont know if this is normal or not, but when I play the music, even the bass only set to 3, and the volume only set to about 16-18, I hardly turn it over 20, if it's the heavy bass songs, I feel the whole 2 doors and some plastic parts are all rattles and making a lot of noises, is this normal??---I haven't asked dealer about this also as I dont know since I didn't get a better pkg with BOSE sound system, it might just because the cheap speakers?

4. shifting issue: from P to R, I can feel the huge shake, but from R to N, nothing is this normal or I should also check with dealer as well?

5. this is not an issue but can someone advise me or teach me, what's the miles/gallon technique?

I still love this car, but all above issues are killing me especially the streering wheel thing. if they said nothing can do after they checked it, what can I do? should I just take it to the 2nd dealer to look at it? I know it's still under warranty, but if I go to other dealer, will they value me as their custoemr since I didnt' buy the car from them? sorry for such dumb questions but this is my first new car here.

and sorry again if I made this post too long and thank you all for reading and hope you can help and give me some advise, suggestion and guide lines, thank you so much!

K.J

[fiftytseng]

In terms of the rattling noises, there's not much you can do. My car rattled within the first couple weeks of having car. I found that turning the music up made it not noticeable haha. It comes naturally as our cars are made of plastic and the noises coming from the speakers/doors or where are inevitable.

For gas saving techniques? Easy on the gas on acceleration, easy on the brake for deceleration. Give yourself enough distance to do everything smoothly. Do I do this? not really, its more fun to really drive the car!

[feelfree86]

my car also rattles on the passenger side. It's something in the door...gets somewhat annoying. I find that it rattles a lot more in the cold and when I have the heat blasting, so I'm hoping it gets better in the summer.

[nig1]

I know what u mean, my car rattled on the passenger side too. Sound would come n go, I took it to the dealer and the noise was so faint the tech guy couldn't hear it! I then drove w/a service manager and the sound disappeared. He told me they could take a look but it wouldn't be worth to take apart the whole dash trying to pinpoint the source. Right after I left the dealership, the sound came back on lol. Anyways, I figured it wasn't something to get upset about. I guess if ur anal about stuff like that, then u'll never be content. I'm enjoying my ride and stopped looking for any imperfections, btw the sound disappeared..must be something w/the weather. About ur alignment, unless ur steering wheel is really crooked, then that's much ado about nothing. They could still center it though.

[Rmuth25]

my car also rattles on the passenger side. It's something in the door...gets somewhat annoying. I find that it rattles a lot more in the cold and when I have the heat blasting, so I'm hoping it gets better in the summer.

I second that. In the summer the rattle in the door seems to go away.

As a general note though. the rattles do seem to get better over time. either better or you just start to notice them less

[Andy_G]

Mine rattled as well. I went with the music solution. LOUD.

Then I threw on exhaust and a Y Pipe. What rattle? LOL

[big_rig]

is your car curving to the side because you are driving on crowned roads? i know sometimes when i drive, i think that im a bit out of alignment, but then i realize that the road just has a crown to it and the laws of physics prevent me from not veering off to the side a bit. i have the bose speakers and i dont know if i have problems with them or if some of the mix cds i've made are just totaly chitty quality. sometimes i trip out and think that i have a blow speaker, then i change the track and its all good again. i usually run my volume at about 25ish and pretty much everything rattles and my side mirrors shake too.

[big_rig]

is your car curving to the side because you are driving on crowned roads? i know sometimes when i drive, i think that im a bit out of alignment, but then i realize that the road just has a crown to it and the laws of physics prevent me from not veering off to the side a bit. i have the bose speakers and i dont know if i have problems with them or if some of the mix cds i've made are just totally chitty quality. sometimes i trip out and think that i have a blow speaker, then i change the track and its all good again. i usually run my volume at about 25ish and pretty much everything rattles and my side mirrors shake too.

[Infinite-T]

In the 90's I used to restore and show old Z cars, now a days I just enjoy driving my Altis. I had a 2001 gxe that I bought in '03 and drove until a few months ago when I bought my A/C. Just about all the cars I ever drove and the onesI used to work on had little rattles here and there. I know how annoying they can be even when just small ones. Even My A/C had a few rattles.

One thing that has worked really well for me for the last 18 years is, Listen close to the rattle, try to locate exactly where it is comming from. A good way to do this is have a passenger come along. Listen for the rattle and have your passenger use their hand to put pressure on the area you think the rattle is comming from. If they push on a certain area and the rattle stops, that is probably the right spot. With plasic being used more and more, and more snap together pieces rather than screws it seems rattles will become more common.

Anyway, once you find the piece the rattle is comming from, take the piece off (if you can) and look at the back side of it, and the part it attatches to. Try to determine where the two pieces seem to be rattleing against eachother. Then go to a local craft store and buy some thin felt squares. they are really cheap, like 75 cents for a 2x2 square. Use a light colored felt so you can see your markings better. Take the felt piece and lay it against the piece you are going to insulate. Use a sharpie to trace out the shape as well as holes and clips and stuff. Cut it out with scissors and or a razor knife. Use some 3m spray addhesive and spray the backside of the felt. If you spray the object you could get overspray on the part you dont want glue on and have to clean it up later. Its just easier to spray the felt. Then stick it to the part. Give a few hours for the glue to dry and install the part.

If the object is large or oddly shapped or contoured and too difficult to line with the felt, try using just small pieces of felt in areas you think may be rattling, like in corner or near attatchment points. If you find the felt is a little to think for some spots you can use rubber sheets. You can find these at a hardware store usually in the plumbling dept. They are nearly paper thin and are pretty cheap.

I found this works VERY well in most situations where your body panels vibrate/rattle. I've used it in countless cars for myslef, friends and family and the old Z's I used to restore. It works well for speaker areas and trunks too. If you are insulating an area that may be subject to moisture, use the rubber and make sure the adhesive you use is rated for it.

Like I said I have found this to be very effective and works 99% of the time on interior rattles like that. It is SUPER cheap, it just takes a bit of work. Worth it in the long run for those rattles that just drive you nuts!

good luck

[LongBeachCoupe]

hello all, first time here and I've been reading some useful info here and I want to see if you all can give me some advise or suggestion for me car!I just bought my 2010 2.5S last month, so the car is about a month old, 43 days to be exact. the car has about 40 something miles on it when I bought it, I only have con. pkg with the car, nothing else on it! I love the car but there are things really bothering me and they are:

4. shifting issue: from P to R, I can feel the huge shake, but from R to N, nothing is this normal or I should also check with dealer as well?

5. this is not an issue but can someone advise me or teach me, what's the miles/gallon technique?

K.J

Welcome to the club!!!

http://forums.altimas.org/zeromain is the link you should bookmark!

All the info here is in its proper section (for the most part)... Please try and post in the correct area!

The search button works too, and we are always here to help you out! (again post in the right section if you can, if you arent sure, dont worry theres no beatings issued!)

Now to address your issues...

1. Bring it to the 2nd dealer, let them look, then report here.2-3. The sound guys are better at helping you with that, but $30 of deadening should do the trick4. I believe it is the ABS kicking in and disengaging5. I am not really sure what you are talking about lol!

I try and make sure that any questions are welcomed though, dont feel funny to ask anything!

Have fun!

[kjchen69]

dear allthank you all so much for such useful and wonderful advise and ideas, I really apperciate them!!

as for the steering wheel, I know if there's rough road or un-even street will cause the car leans but I have been testing it and it does lean to my left side when on the stright flat road, I am going to 2nd dealer today after work to see if they have time for me to check it out and if I found out anything, I'll come back here to let you all know!

as for the shifting, per LongBeachCoupe, it's just ABS's working, so I dont have to worry or be concerned about it? it just shifting too much from P to R, but I really don't know if other cars would do the same or not, I'll ask 2nd dealer's opionion as well when I go there today and will let everyone knows as well!

as for the rattle, I really wasn't trying to picky LOL, the car is great, especially I just paid a huge amount of the $$ for it, I really love it and over the weekend, I spent a lot of the time trying to firgure out what really causes that rattle and well, guy, here you go, on the passenger seat's seat adjuster on the side(see below picture), there's gap bewteen the thing and the seat, and when I drive on the bumpy or rough roads, it just rattles, it's not loose nor I can tighten a screw for it, I guess I'll just have to live with it since looks like nothing I can do about it!

one last thing, what's deadening? I google it and looks like it costs more than $30 for some carpet or stuff? where exactly I can get that or is there any link for the clear instruction for me?

thank you all so much again, I'll come back to let you know more if I found out more about the steering wheel and the shifting, thank you!

K.J