nissan altima stalls and hard to start

[LOLVO]

A friend of mine has a 2003 nissan altima 4cylinder auto with approximately 120,000 miles. At a stop light, the car would stall and he would have to crank it several times until it finally starts. There is no check engine light, but the service light is on.
He turned the car off to restart the car again, but it still required several cranks.
Basically, once the engine shuts off, it just takes several attempts to restart the car.
any ideas?

 

[EricF]

the 02-05 altima's have a known issue with the crank sensor. they are under recall, as well as a computer firmware flash that fixes an error due to the reading of the crank sensor as well.

 

[Sayjac]

Originally Posted By: EricF
the 02-05 altima's have a known issue with the crank sensor. they are under recall, as well as a computer firmware flash that fixes an error due to the reading of the crank sensor as well.
+1 I have an 03 2.5L. As said, there is a TSB on the crank angle sensor. I've had my sensor replaced once. Now whether the flash fixes the issue might be open to debate. There is also an issue on some with the camshaft position sensor. Another that I've personally had, was with the throttle actuator control, which was replaced under a goodwill fix. That's when the crank angle sensor was replaced also.

You can read about the engine complaints here. Click on the second, third or sixth choice.

 

[EricF]

the computer flashing is supposed to, of all things, allow for errors from the cam and crank sensors. IF I remember the verbage from nhtsa.gov