AtWhatMileage
Engine · 50 owner reports

Other engine problem on the 2003 Infiniti I35

Reports of this failure 50
With an odometer reading 47
Reports per 1,000 built 1.0 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 6%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $300–$4,000
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 1st

When other engine problem gets reported

Owners of the 2003 Infiniti I35 report other engine problem at a median of 95,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 72,500 miles and a quarter after 137,500 miles, from 47 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 40,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 180,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 139,400 miles across the middle 80% of reports.

When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.

6% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 47 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
40,000 miles 72,000 miles 95,000 miles 137,300 miles 179,400 miles

Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.

What a percentile can and cannot tell you here

These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.

What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.

Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.

What happens, and what it costs

Putting it right typically runs $300–$4,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.

The same failure on other years

The same failure is reported on 3 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2004, at a median of 90,000 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 165,000 miles.

By volume the 2003 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.

If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.

Median
  1. 2002 Infiniti I35 other engine problem 165k
  2. 2003 (this one) 95k
  3. 2004 Infiniti I35 other engine problem 90k

Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

For the last year the engine of my 2003 infiniti i35 has been making a noise upon acceleration (while the engine is under stress) especially on inclines. I have brought the vehicle to pepe infiniti, they've duplicated the noise, yet they haven't done anything to rectify the problem although the vehicle is still under the manufacturer's warranty. I have contacted the infiniti corporate office to no avail. I am filing a complaint to hopefully get some resolution regarding this matter. *jb

40,000 miles NHTSA complaint 586455 filed 2006-06-27

For the last year the engine of my 2003 infiniti i35 has been making a noise upon acceleration (while the engine is under stress) especially on inclines. I have brought the vehicle to pepe infiniti, they've duplicated the noise, yet they haven't done anything to rectify the problem although the vehicle is still under the manufacturer's warranty. I have contacted the infiniti corporate office to no avail. I am filing a complaint to hopefully get some resolution regarding this matter. *jb

40,000 miles NHTSA complaint 586456 filed 2006-06-27

Tl*the contact owns a 2003 infiniti i35. While driving 35 MPH, the vehicle lost power without warning. The vehicle was able to be restarted. The dealer did not inspect the vehicle. The failure recurred while driving 35 MPH and, but the contact was unable to restart the vehicle this time. The vehicle was towed to the dealer who stated that the failure was caused by the cam position sensor. The dealer performed the repair. Approximately ten months later, while driving 70 MPH, the vehicle lost power without warning. He was able to restart the vehicle. The contact was unsure what repairs were made. The dealer stated that his VIN was excluded from recall # 03v455000 (engine and engine cooling). The current mileage is 103,000 and failure mileage was 80,000.

80,000 miles NHTSA complaint 629842 filed 2007-07-09

Also reported on the 2003 Infiniti I35

Stalling while driving

11 reports median 142k

Other electrical problem

9 reports median 144k

Other speed control problem

7 reports median 101k

Engine sensor failure

6 reports median 90k

Other driver assistance problem

5 reports median 137k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 50 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.

Questions this page answers

At what mileage does other engine problem happen on the 2003 Infiniti I35?

Across 47 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 95,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 72,500 miles and a quarter after 137,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other engine problem on the 2003 Infiniti I35?

50 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.0 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.

What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars

Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed