Nissan Altima (1998-2023) firing order — diagram & guide

The Altima is one of Nissan’s longest-running models and it’s especially popular on the US automotive market. Now in its sixth generation, the compact sedan offers some pretty remarkable engines, and we’ve seen a lot of cases of drivers maintaining the engines themselves.

If you are among them, our team will give you a hand when it comes to the Nissan Altima (1998-2023) firing order and engine specs. So, you can use our instructions as guidelines to deal with the maintenance of your Altima engine regardless of the powertrain type and the model you own, and we’ll get right into it.

Second-generation Nissan Altima (1998-2001) firing order

Unlike the following generation models of the Altima, the early second-gen model only came with a single-engine option. It was a base four-cylinder engine, so that’s where we’ll start our journey through the firing orders of the Altima.

Nissan Altima 2.4L firing order

The Nissan Altima 2.4L firing order is 1-3-4-2 and this firing order goes for all the second-gen Altima models. It’s a simple four-cylinder engine layout with the first cylinder being the furthest one on the left and the fourth one being the right-most cylinder.

All the cylinders are ordered 1 to 4 from left to right, so it’s easy to do the cylinder numbering for this one and apply the firing order.

Third-generation Nissan Altima (2002-2006) firing order

While the 2.4-liter engine wasn’t available any longer for the third-gen Altima, this model got a new four-cylinder engine instead of it. Plus, there was a V6 engine option added for this one, so this time, not all the models use the same firing order.

Nissan Altima 2.5L firing order

For the base model of the third-gen, the Nissan Altima 2.5L firing order is 1-3-4-2, so it’s the same firing pattern used for the previous four-cylinder engine. Plus, the cylinder layout is also the same, keeping in mind that the first cylinder is on the left side of the engine, and cylinders 2, 3, and 4 follow up to the right.

Nissan Altima 3.5L firing order

The Nissan Altima 3.5L firing order is 1-2-3-4-5-6 and this is a standard firing sequence for Nissan’s V6 engines of the time. Along with a simple firing order, the cylinder layout is also easy to memorize since the cylinders are arranged in even and odd banks.

However, the thing to keep in mind here is that this engine is a transverse V6, which means there are higher and lower cylinder banks. So, the upper cylinder bank contains odd cylinder numbers 1, 3, and 5 from left to right, while the lower cylinder bank includes even cylinder numbers ordered 2, 4, and 6 the same way.

Fourth-generation Nissan Altima (2007-2012) firing order

Nothing much changed with the fourth-gen Altima model since the same engines were used in this one just as they were for the third-gen Altima. So, you could optionally get a 2.5-liter four-cylinder with a firing order 1-3-4-2, or a 3.5L V6 with a 1-2-3-4-5-6 firing order, so we’ll jump to the next-gen model.

Fifth-generation Nissan Altima (2013-2018) firing order

Nissan’s 2.5L and 3.5L engines also held up for the fifth-gen Altima model, but this time two more engines were added to the lineup. Four-cylinder engines like the 1.6L and the 2.0L were pretty popular for their fuel economy and since we already discussed the 2.5L and 3.5L engines, we’ll focus on the new options.

Nissan Altima 1.6L firing order

For the base fifth-gen model, the Nissan Altima 1.6L firing order is 1-3-4-2 and this engine features a standard four-cylinder layout. That means cylinder number one is the first one toward the left, while cylinders 2, 3, and 4 are further spread toward the right side.

Nissan Altima 2.0L firing order

Nissan’s 2.0-liter engine has been used in two different Altima models from the 2013 model year. The naturally-aspirated 2.0L Altima firing order is 1-3-4-2 with the cylinders going from 1 to 4 from left to right.

However, there’s also the turbo version of the engine and that one also features the same firing order and cylinder arrangement as the original 2.0L engine.

Sixth-generation Nissan Altima (2019-present) firing order

For the sixth-gen of the Altima, Nissan only used a single engine option just like they did before with the second-gen model. This time it was a turbocharged 2.0-liter engine with a firing order 1-3-4-2 that we’ve already discussed previously.

Our take

The Nissan Altima came with so many different engines across six generations that it becomes difficult to keep track of the firing order for each. So, now that you have a clear picture of it all in one place, we are confident you’ll be able to do better with DIY maintenance of your particular Altima model and its engine.