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2013 Nissan AltimaProblems: Top Complaints, Recalls & Failures (NHTSA)

Every owner complaint and safety recall the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has on file for the 2013 Nissan Altima, ranked by the component that failed most.

Complaints on file

2,309

Recalls issued

12

Crashes reported

63

Fires reported

9

What breaks most

  • Air Bags513 complaints · 22.2%
  • Power Train505 complaints · 21.9%
  • Exterior Lighting441 complaints · 19.1%
  • Suspension289 complaints · 12.5%
  • Electrical System159 complaints · 6.9%

Recalls on this model year

  • Air Bags › Frontal

    Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2013-2015 Altima and Pathfinder vehicles, 2013-2014 Nissan Sentra vehicles, 2013 Infiniti JX35 vehicles, 2014-2015 Infiniti QX60 vehicles and 2014 Infiniti QX60 Hybrid vehicles. The affected vehicles received an incorrect occupant

    Campaign 15V681000 · reported 20/10/2015 · recall work is free at any franchised dealer

  • Air Bags › Sensor › Occupant Classification

    Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2013-2015 Altima vehicles manufactured January 3, 2013, to July 29, 2013, 2015-2016 Rogue vehicles manufactured October 14, 2014, to August 12, 2016, and 2016 Maxima vehicles manufactured June 4, 2015, to August 19, 2015. An incorr

    Campaign 16V911000 · reported 19/12/2016 · recall work is free at any franchised dealer

  • Fuel System, Gasoline

    Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) notified the agency on July 31, 2015, that they are recalling certain model year 2016 Nissan Maxima vehicles manufactured February 10, 2015, to August 18, 2015. On October 14, 2015, Nissan expanded the recall to cover an additional 41,388 vehicles, including cert

    Campaign 15V486000 · reported 04/08/2015 · recall work is free at any franchised dealer

  • Electrical System › Software

    Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2013-2014 Altima, LEAF, Pathfinder, and Sentra, model year 2013 NV200 (aka Taxi) and Infiniti JX35 and model year 2014 Infiniti Q50 and QX60 vehicles. In the affected vehicles, the occupant classification system (OCS) software may

    Campaign 14V138000 · reported 25/03/2014 · recall work is free at any franchised dealer

  • Air Bags › Sensor › Occupant Classification

    Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2016-2017 Nissan Maxima, 2013-2016 Nissan Altima, NV200, LEAF, Sentra, and Pathfinder, 2014-2016 Nissan NV200 Taxi, Infiniti QX60, QX60 Hybrid, and Q50 Hybrid, 2014-2017 Nissan Rogue and Infiniti Q50, 2015-2016 Nissan Murano, Murano

    Campaign 16V244000 · reported 26/04/2016 · recall work is free at any franchised dealer

  • Latches/Locks/Linkages › Hood › Latch

    Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2013-2015 Nissan Altima vehicles manufactured March 6, 2012, to December 31, 2014. In the affected vehicles, the secondary hood latch may bind and remain in the unlatched position when the hood is closed.

    Campaign 16V029000 · reported 22/01/2016 · recall work is free at any franchised dealer

  • Latches/Locks/Linkages › Hood › Latch

    Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2013 Nissan Altima vehicles manufactured March 6, 2012, to February 28, 2013. In the affected vehicles, interference between the hood inner panel and the secondary latch lever, in combination with debris and corrosion, may cause th

    Campaign 14V565000 · reported 15/09/2014 · recall work is free at any franchised dealer

  • Latches/Locks/Linkages › Hood › Latch

    Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2013-2015 Nissan Altima vehicles manufactured March 1, 2013, to December 31, 2014. In the affected vehicles, the secondary hood latch may bind and remain in the unlatched position when the hood is closed.

    Campaign 15V116000 · reported 27/02/2015 · recall work is free at any franchised dealer

  • Air Bags

    Nissan is recalling certain model year 2013 Altima, LEAF, Pathfinder, Sentra, and Infiniti JX35 vehicles. Sensors within the passenger Occupant Detection System (ODS) may have been manufactured out of specification. This may cause the system to malfunction and permanently suppress the passenger ai

    Campaign 13V069000 · reported 01/03/2013 · recall work is free at any franchised dealer

  • Tires › Temporary/Emergency Spare Tire

    Nissan North America is recalling certain model year 2013 Altima vehicles manufactured March 21, 2012, through March 26, 2013. The spare tires may have been significantly over- or under-inflated.

    Campaign 13V158000 · reported 24/04/2013 · recall work is free at any franchised dealer

  • Steering

    Nissan is recalling certain model year 2012-2013 Altima vehicles manufactured from May 10, 2012, through July 26, 2012. These vehicles may have been equipped with transverse link bolts and power steering rack bolts that were not torqued to proper specification.

    Campaign 12V494000 · reported 10/10/2012 · recall work is free at any franchised dealer

  • Latches/Locks/Linkages › Hood › Latch

    Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2013-2018 Nissan Altima vehicles. If the primary hood latch is inadvertently released, there is an increased likelihood that the secondary hood latch may corrode over time.

    Campaign 20V315000 · reported 28/05/2020 · recall work is free at any franchised dealer

What owners report

Air Bags

  • The contact's brother owned a 2013 Nissan Altima. The contact stated that while her brother was driving at an undisclosed speed from a stop sign, another vehicle in the left lane crashed into the cont
  • Passenger airbag light on. I don’t even drive the car much. Out of no where it turned in.
  • Fuel System: Car hesitates and cut off after pumping fuel.\n' + 'Outer Tie rods torn rubber, vehicle never been realigned, but tires were worn on both front sides. \n' + 'Takata Air bag li

Power Train

  • The car feels unbalanced and shifting is bad
  • The contact owns a 2013 Nissan Altima. The contact stated that while attempting to accelerate from a stop sign, the vehicle accelerated to approximately 15 MPH and then unexpectedly decelerated. The c
  • The contact owns a 2013 Nissan Altima. The contact stated that while attempting to accelerate from a stop, the RPM became elevated, and the vehicle started accelerating unintendedly. The contact immed

Exterior Lighting

  • The headlight housings metallic coatings for reflectivity are failing and reduce the efficacy of the headlights. There has been a class action lawsuit against Nissan for this but many, like myself, w
  • Headlights are extremely dim almost always have to drive with my high beams on at night since the lights are so dark. Have tried replacing bulbs on my own but lights are still dim. No warning or anyth
  • The vehicle is a Nissan Altima experiencing a low-beam headlight failure. The headlights have become extremely dim and no longer provide adequate illumination of the roadway at night. Visibility is se

Suspension

  • Driver side rear lower control arm broke/rusted through. Was able to get the vehicle home prior to an catastrophic incident. See pictures attached. Warning light came on the dash at the time of the
  • The car feels unbalanced and shifting is bad
  • Right side rear lower control arm failed while driving due to excessive corrosion. I nearly lost control of the vehicle as the right rear wheel is no longer properly aligned. If this had happened on

Electrical System

  • Front passenger door lock actuator fails to unlock door when driver's, passengers or key fob to unlock is activated. All other doors (3) work as they should. This creates a safety issue as the door m
  • Tire Pressure light is on but no issues with air pressure.
  • Shifter Lock does not release when brake is pressed. Unable to shift out of Park. Need to manually press the shift relesae override to shift.

Excerpts are anonymized owner complaints as filed with NHTSA, trimmed to 200 characters.

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