Nissan Altima problems: recalls, complaints and what they cost
Pick a model year below for the Nissan Altima's open safety recalls and the components owners complain about most — then, for each of those, whether it is safe to keep driving and what the repair should cost.
Choose a year to load recalls and complaints.
What goes wrong with the Nissan Altima?
Across 4 model years sampled between 2015 and 2024, NHTSA records 24 recall entries — one campaign counts once for each model year it covers, so the number of distinct campaigns is lower — and 1,406 owner complaints for the Nissan Altima. Counts track how many were sold as much as how good the vehicle is, so the useful signal is which components the complaints cluster on and which years stand out against the rest of the run.
Where complaints concentrate
| Component | Owner complaints | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Exterior Lighting | 265 | 19% |
| Power Train | 185 | 13% |
| Air Bags | 176 | 13% |
| Electrical System | 141 | 10% |
| Unknown or Other | 121 | 9% |
| Steering | 76 | 5% |
Exterior Lighting draws the most reports on this nameplate. That is a starting point rather than a verdict — a component can dominate because it genuinely fails or simply because it is the part owners notice. Match it against what your own vehicle is doing before spending anything.
By model year
| Year | Recall entries | Complaints |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 | 41 |
| 2020 | 6 | 179 |
| 2019 | 7 | 232 |
| 2015 | 10 | 954 |
Model years 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023 are not in this retrieval, which means no records were returned for them — not that there were none. Use the year selector above to query those years live.
Older years accumulate more complaints simply by being on the road longer, so compare a year against its neighbours rather than against the newest one.
Recent safety recalls
Structure
The door latch-lock cable may not have been routed properly in the rear door when the remedy was applied.
Free remedy: Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will secure the latch-lock cables in the correct position using the new remedy procedure, free of charge. The recall began February 5, 2019.
Latches/Locks/Linkages
The rear door latch/lock cable on the vehicles may have been improperly routed. As a result, lowering a rear window may inadvertently cause that door to unlatch and open.
Free remedy: Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will correct the rear door latch/lock cable routing, free of charge. The recall began on February 16, 2017. Owners may contact Nissan customer service at 1-800-647-7261.
Air Bags
Free remedy: Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will replace the ECU and update the OCS software free of charge. The recall began February 13, 2017. Owners may contact Nissan customer service at 1-800-647-7261.
Tires
On the affected vehicles, it is possible that one or more tires were cured for too long during tire production.
Free remedy: Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the tires, and replace them as necessary, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed on May 11, 2021.
Recall repairs are free with no mileage or ownership limit. Take the campaign number to any franchised dealer. How recalls work.
Recall text above is abridged from the NHTSA record. Search the campaign number at nhtsa.gov/recalls for the full notice, affected VIN ranges and dealer instructions.
Source: NHTSA (US Department of Transportation), public domain, retrieved 2026-10-08. Use the year selector above for the current live figures.
How does a sedan or hatchback typically fail?
High-volume sedans and hatchbacks produce the largest complaint counts of any segment, and that is mostly an artefact of how many were sold rather than how good they are. Read concentration, not totals. What genuinely distinguishes the segment is that these cars do a lot of short urban trips, which is the hardest duty cycle there is for oil life, exhaust components and batteries — engines never fully warm, moisture never boils off.
What should I check first?
For a sedan or hatchback, the systems worth ruling out before anything else are short-trip wear: oil condition, battery age, exhaust corrosion. Match what the vehicle is actually doing to the guide below — each one opens with a safety verdict, not a parts list.
- Check engine light steady
- Rough idle or stalling
- Won't start — clicking
- Grinding when braking
- Shaking at highway speed
What is the difference between a recall and a complaint?
A recall is a defect the manufacturer must fix free of charge, forever, with no mileage limit and regardless of how many owners the car has had. A complaint is one owner’s report filed with NHTSA. One complaint is an anecdote; two hundred naming the same component is a pattern, and patterns are what you want before you buy or before you authorise a large repair. Read the complaint list by concentration, never by total — a model that sold three times as many units collects roughly three times as many complaints while being no worse.
What should I check before buying one?
Short-trip history matters more than mileage here. A 90,000-mile highway car is usually in better health than a 45,000-mile one that never got warm. Ask what the commute was, and weight the service records accordingly.
Beyond that, the checks that find expensive problems are the same on any vehicle: see it started from stone cold, look under the oil cap, smell the transmission fluid, and scan it for stored and recently-cleared codes. Our used car inspection checklist walks through each one, and why cars fail explains how systemic defects emerge in the first place.
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Does the Nissan Altima have any open recalls?
Open safety recalls for the Nissan Altima are listed on this page, pulled live from NHTSA's public database. Recall repairs are free with no mileage or ownership limit, so an open campaign is money the manufacturer owes you rather than a repair you pay for. Check by VIN for certainty on one specific vehicle.
What are the most common Nissan Altima problems?
The complaint list on this page groups owner reports by component, which is the useful view: one component dominating the list is a pattern, while complaints spread evenly across many systems usually just means the model sold in volume. For this class of vehicle, short-trip wear: oil condition, battery age, exhaust corrosion are the areas worth checking first.
Is the Nissan Altima expensive to repair?
Cost depends far more on which system fails than on the badge. Each symptom guide linked from this page carries a parts-and-labour range for US independent shops, so you can price the specific fault rather than the car in general.