Nissan GA16DE (GA family, 1.3–1.6)
1.6 L · inline-4 · naturally aspirated · petrol · 1990–present
Also known as: ga16de, ga16, ga15de, ga14de, ga engine, 1.6 nissan, ga13ds, ga14ds, ga13, ga14, ga16i
Nissan's 1.6 four — in the Primera, Sentra, Almera and Sunny.
It is a chain-driven, port-injected, unremarkable engine that lasts — which is the whole reason it is worth a page: most of what brings one in is not the engine, and knowing that saves chasing it.
Two recurring faults account for most complaints. The distributor — on the engines that have one — fails from heat and gives an intermittent stall that clears when cool; and the idle air control valve carbons up and produces a hunting or stalling idle that reads as something worse. Both are cheap and testable.
A rough idle with no code is very often the inlet manifold gasket, which hardens with age on these and lets in unmetered air.
The GA14DE and GA15DE are the same design in smaller sizes and their results apply directly.
Its successor is the QG family, which is a different engine despite sitting in the same cars — see nissan-qg18.
Cars fitted with this engine
4 generations, across 1 make. From the authored catalogue — an absent car means the catalogue has not reached it, not that the engine was never fitted.
Information, not instruction
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Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
Posted about this engine
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Nothing posted about this yet. Whatever you found is worth writing down — even a dead end saves someone the same afternoon.
What makes one worth reading:
- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
- What you measured, not only what you replaced.
- What actually fixed it — or that nothing did, which is worth knowing too.
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