Exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin on the 2003 Nissan Altima
2 fires 2 of the 11 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 exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Nissan Altima report exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin at a median of 115,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 85,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 100,000 miles. It is the 19th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 85,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 135,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 51,970 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.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 83,200 miles | 85,000 miles | 115,000 miles | 128,000 miles | 135,170 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, 2 a fire 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 $250–$2,000 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 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 200 miles, and latest on the 2009 at 140,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 20; the 2003 has 11. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
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.
2003 nissan altima 2.5 stalled on the highway. Car had been idling very rough and engine vibration as well as intermittent power loss 24 hours prior to issue. At time of failure, the power steering and brakes locked up while traveling at 70 MPH on busy highway mountain pass. I was almost killed as car drifted with no control into other traffic. Car was able to be restarted. Took car to the dealership. The motor started shaking on drive back to dealership. Dealer found that there was a screw loose. They found the screw missing had come from the power valve intake in the power valve. They had to the remove the exhaust manifold to get the screw out, the dealer had to replace the manifold intake/valve and cylinder #4/ 02 sensor/ the gasket exhaust/gasket adapter, and the gasket manifold as the screw had shot trough the engine destroying most of it. The dealership stated that there was a recall for this problem, but only on some 2004 and 2005 models, not my 2003. This problem is documented in other 2002 and 2003 models on this odi website and on internet forums as per my research. Nissan north america refuses to address the problems in…
Tl*the contact owns a 2003 nissan altima. While the vehicle was in park, it idled very roughly and made a loud whistling noise. The contact took her vehicle to the dealer and they replaced the throttle positioning sensor. Immediately after the repair, the failure recurred. The dealer replaced the intake manifold gasket; however, the failure recurred shortly afterwards. The dealer was unable to determine the cause of the failures. The contact has not filed a formal complaint with the manufacturer. The failure mileage was 76,000 and current mileage was 78,000.
Tl*the contact owns a 2003 nissan altima. The contact stated that the oil in the engine was burning and damaged the engine. The dealer stated that the vehicle was not included in NHTSA campaign id number 03v084000 (engine and engine cooling:exhaust system:manifold/header/muffler/tail pipe). The failure and current mileages were 85,000.
Also reported on the 2003 Nissan Altima
Other engine problem
Other body or interior problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Engine sensor failure
Excessive oil consumption
No-start or intermittent start failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 11 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 exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin happen on the 2003 Nissan Altima?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 115,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 85,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin on the 2003 Nissan Altima?
11 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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