Nissan recalling 650,000 Altimas and Sentras

NIssan has issued a recall for over 650,000 MY 2002 and 2005-06 Altimas and Sentras sold with the company's 2.5L four-cylinder engine, which may suddenly stop running. Automotive News reports that the problem lies with the crankshaft position sensor, which can overheat and stop sending signals to the car's computer brain. If the signal break is too quick for the ECU to diagnose the problem, it stops the engine, which obviously could be extremely inconvenient depending on what the driver's doing at the time. All it takes to fix the problem, however, is for Nissan dealers to reprogram the ECU, which they'll do free of charge, of course. If you've got an affected vehicle, expect a notification from Nissan around December 10th.
[Source: Automotive News, sub. req'd]