2 weeks ago I noticed this awful smell in the cabin of my brand new Altima. I did some searching about it and I checked the cabin filter which still looked new. I checked the AC drain line under the carpet and it was not clogged. I put my finger inside the cabin filter compartment and noticed my finger got wet. I looked around the cabin filter area and noticed a small drip of water coming from one of the screws for the cabin filter compartment. I looked under the hood and noticed my coolant in the resovior tank was low.

I took the car to the dealership, showed them where I saw the water coming from and made sure they noticed the awful smell. 2 weeks later I get the car back and 1st thing I noticed is the car still stinks bad. So I end up not taking the car and told them they need to get the smell out. They kept the car for 2 more days and they said they used an ozonator. A machine that removes odors , mold , mildew , etc. I told them the car still stinks but they said it will go away that the smell is from the machine they used. I took the car home , left the windows down so it can air out.

This all happened yesterday , today in the morning I could still smell the bad odor in the car. My 1 year old daughter started coughing and sneezing because of the strong odor. The odor smells like chemicals or something. The odor stays on your clothes when you get out of the car. So I called the dealer and told them I am taking the car back because the odor can be very harmful for my daughter. When I took the car in , I had the service manager smell inside the car to make sure he could smell what I smelt. Then I decided to put my hand where the cabin filter is just to check and when I pulled my hand out , my fingers were wet. I showed the service guy and told him I thought this was fixed during the 2 weeks that they had it. He said they replaced the evaporator and the carpet. I told him I also noticed that early in the morning my front window would fog up so bad you could barely see the on coming traffic.

I know when they had it for 2 weeks , I stopped by and the whole dash was removed for whatever they were replacing. Any ideas of what this could be?

My car only has 4,500 miles on it. I haven't even gotten my 1st oil change.

Sounds to me like the heater core is what's leaking. That's the one with coolant. Evaporator would have AC freon or whatever in it. This was a topic of discussion on Click and Clack's Car Talk radio show. The heater core was leaking coolant onto the firewall area. Running defrost sent coolant steam all over the windshield and would fog it up funky. It would be all warranty work, being so new, but it would still suck. Seems like they haven't fixed your car yet. Is it still wet in there today? Do you still loose coolant?

I picked up my car on Tuesday morning and then took it back on Wednesday morning because the odor was still there and I still felt water around the cabin filter. No , they have not fixed it. They told me they thought they had it fixed the first time . Now they have to look again to try and figure out what it is. The service guy said he thinks its moisture.

It does suck cause I only have 4500 miles. Haven't even gotten my first oil change though

The service guy frustrates me a bit. Please report some good news!

Dealership has had the car for over 30 days and they still cannot find the problem.

Have you contacted Nissan corporation regarding this matter? Did you do your own research to determine if other '15 Altima owners experienced the same problem? If the problem isn't resolved in the next 15 days, see if you have any rights to buy-back or swap.

Yes , I contacted Nissan Consumer Affairs and all they said was the smell is due to the plastic and because the car is black. Very stupid reason to give for a brand new car to smell as bad as it does. I looked online but didn't find many issues such as mine. I did find 1 or 2 , but nobody posted a fix for the problem.

Today makes 35 days they have had my car. They are on their 3rd attempt to make the smell go away. I went by today and they were replacing the headliner. The smell did seem to be gone, but will not know for until I get it back and I'm able to leave the car on, windows up, with the AC running. I could tell they put some kind of cleaner thru the vents to perhaps mask the smell.

I've sent in paper work to file for lemon law already since the car already qualifies for a possible lemon. The lawyer accepted the case , so hopefully he can win.

46 days and counting.

Time to contact a lemon law lawyer

I'm curious and following along, or trying to. Sept 30th you had a lawyer accept the case. October 11 and you think it's time to contact a lemon law lawyer... Those two statements seem to conflict, am I missing something?

What do you have to do to get a court date or whatever (I don't know if this stuff happens in a court or not)? If found to be a lemon, does the loser (Nissan in this case) have to pay the court and lawyer expenses?

I did contact a lawyer back in Sept , then I contacted him again to go ahead and proceed with the case. Nissan Consumer Affairs people were of no help so I had no choice. I gave Nissan plenty of times to help me , multiple phone calls , multiple trips to the dealership , so it was time to proceed with a lawyer. The people you talk to do not know anything about cars over at the Nissan Consumer Affairs. All they do is listen and say they will call you back in 3 days.

Lemon law lawyers handle everything for you. Most of them should not try to obtain a fee as there is a law that the lawyer can ask the manufacturer to pay all legal fees. So if they win or lose , you should pay nothing.

Usually these things look to get settled out of court cause the manufacturer doesn't want to go that far. The manufacturer will either buy the car back and refund you all the payments you made on the car , refund half of the registration fee, and any down payment you may have put down. They will deduct for miles put on the car though, I think its 10 cents a mile but not sure. They may also to replace the car with the newest model.

I asked for a buy back. This is my 2nd Altima in less than a year and I have just had problems with them. Hopefully the lawyer wins and they buy it back , refund my money , then I'll be heading over to Honda dealership. Altimas are nice and I liked mine , just tired of all the issues. Don't think I want to try a 3rd Altima.

Keep us updated on the progress you make regarding this matter.

Good Luck!

Lemon law lawyer filed a case on 10/3 , now just waiting for Nissan to respond.

Meanwhile , my car is sitting at dealership and they are doing nothing to it.

Is it standard protocol for you to leave your car at the dealership during the Lemon Law process?

If its safe to drive , you should be able to use it. Nissan will not let me take the car though. Nissan Consumer Affairs will not talk to me anymore because there is a lawyer involved now

I got a call from Nissan dealership today. They are taking off the entire dash again to see if they see any issues.

Called the lawyer and he said he is just waiting on a response from Nissan.

Nissan offered $3500 for compensation. Even though the car is still in the shop and they cannot fix it, they want me to keep the car and give me $3500.

What a joke!!!

I'd take 3,500 for the hassle... in addition to a full refund. It's not like you've had the enjoyment of car ownership all this time. What did your lawyer say about the compensation?

They would owe me about 3500 with a buyback but they said they do not want to buy back. Lawyer said he is going to get back with Nissan and tell them No.

The manufacturer needs to know the car is still in the shop and has been in the shop for 60 days already. Not sure if the manufacturer understood the car is still not fixed after all this time

Well... Nissan finally agreed to do a buy back. I'll sure be glad to get out of this lemon car

Okay, good news. Please let us know how it goes. I'm hoping things can get finalized in an expedient manner.

This will finally be over next week on Thursday. I surrender the car back to Nissan , sign the paper work, then Nissan will pay off the bank. If anyone ever has a car they feel is a lemon car , the best thing to do is get a lemon law lawyer cause Nissan will not help you. I paid nothing for the lawyer as Nissan has to pay all the lawyer fees.

You must be relieved....how long did this entire process take? Let us know when the entire process is officially over.

It started on 8/26 and will be over this Friday when I surrender the car back to Nissan.

Yes I am releived and I've already bought me a 2017 Honda Accord Sport.

Good luck Nissan owners