Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure on the 2003 Nissan Altima
3 crashes 3 of the 74 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Nissan Altima report control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure at a median of 75,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 87,500 miles, from 55 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 47,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 102,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 54,508 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
5% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48,597 miles | 55,250 miles | 74,444 miles | 88,000 miles | 103,105 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
Of these reports, 3 a crash is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $700–$3,000 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 16 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2007, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2016 at 115,000 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.
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.
I purchased a certified pre-owned 2003 nissan altima september 2004. On 7/12 I experienced the issue of recall #06v242000. My vehicle stopped running w/o warning at a stop at 2:00a.m. The nissan dealer indicated the computer found nothing wrong. I took the car home only for it to once again stop as I departed my job at 2:00 a.m. I again took my car to the dealer who kept my car for three days. One of which I was called and asked if my car could be driven more than 60 miles away (the dealer had to pickup an item in another state) in order to recreate the problem. The next day the technician again indicated he could find nothing wrong. Upon hearing this I contacted nissan consumer affairs (7/19) of my situation and was advised to contact the dealer and tell them of recall #06v242000. After having done this, the nissan dealer indicated they knew nothing of the recall, but would contact consumer affairs as I requested. After speaking with consumer affairs the dealer then indicated they were unable to determine whether recall #06v242000 was in fact my issue as the ECM indicated no such thing. Finally, I spoke with the dealer service…
Dt*: the contact stated the vehicle hesitated and suddenly stalled without warning while driving at various speeds. The "service engine soon" light illuminated. The dealership determined the crank sensor needed to be replaced and reprogrammed the ECM. The contact received a recall notice in the mail regarding NHTSA recall # 06v242000; engine and engine cooling; crank sensor and ECM; however the dealer and manufacturer determined the vehicle's VIN was not included. The vehicle hesitated and lurched forward and the "service engine soon" light illuminated soon after the above repairs were made. The contact was charged for the above repairs even though the recall notice indicates the VIN as being included. The dealership treated the crank sensor and ECM repairs as two separate repairs, but the recall notice indicated the two were correlated together as one.
Dt*: the contact stated while stopped at a traffic light the vehicle stalled and the service engine light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who determined the engine crank sensor needed to be replaced. While waiting for an estimate the contact received a recall letter #06v242000 regarding engine and engine cooling. The recall remedy was to reprogram the ECM sensor however after the ECM sensor was reprogrammed the problem persisted. To fix the problem the dealer recommended the crank sensor be replaced which would be an additional charged. The manufacturer was also alerted.
Also reported on the 2003 Nissan Altima
Other engine problem
Other body or interior problem
Engine sensor failure
Excessive oil consumption
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 74 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 control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure happen on the 2003 Nissan Altima?
Across 55 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 87,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure on the 2003 Nissan Altima?
74 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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