Other body or interior problem on the 2003 Nissan Altima
1 crash 1 fire 1 injury 3 of the 106 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 other body or interior problem gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Nissan Altima report other body or interior problem at a median of 107,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 77,500 miles and a quarter after 140,000 miles, from 85 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 52,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 160,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 106,624 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
4% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 52,376 miles | 77,900 miles | 108,000 miles | 140,000 miles | 159,000 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, 1 a crash, 1 a fire and 1 an injury are 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 $200–$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 23 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 25,000 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 107,500 miles.
By volume the 2008 carries the most reports, with 322; the 2003 has 106. 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.
A/c compressor does not disengage when the manual selector switch is moved from the defrost position. This is covered by a service bulletin ntb03-048 dated 5-6-03 from nissan concerning this problem. This is noted as a change in operation from earlier models and I feel it is dangerous. The only way to disengage the compressor after using the defroster is to stop the car, move the selector switch to any function that is not defroster related, turn off the ignition and restart the car. If you don't there is at least a 10% loss in mileage due to the fact that the A/C compressor is operating and the temp selector must be adjusted up or the occupants of the vehicle will freeze. This was discovered by my wife and I on our way through chicago on I-94. I thought it was a simple warranty problem that I would be able to get fixed upon my return to waukesha. The service bulletin makes it seem that this is normal and the consumer will just have to live with the problem. Now that I know what is going on I feel this is not only dangerous and environmentally unfriendly but just another way the car manufacturer has decided to cut corners and not…
I purchased my 2003 nissan altima on may 05, 2003 and it had a defect in the paint on the hood. I asked the dealer dorschel automotive for a new hood and they refused and said they could paint it. The paint job was absolutley terrible and was repainted five additional times. Almost the entire car has been painted and now the front nose/spoiler area is all checked and cracked and needs to painted. The vehicle only has 10,000 miles. I want a new vehicle or my money refunded for this vehicle.*ak
While driving at 20 MPH driver's seat started to bend toward the back right of the vehicle. As time went by the seat began to bend more and more. Currently, not only is the seat twisted but, there is a metal bar protruding from the seat into the consumer's back.*ak
Also reported on the 2003 Nissan Altima
Other engine problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Engine sensor failure
Excessive oil consumption
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 106 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 body or interior problem happen on the 2003 Nissan Altima?
Across 85 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 107,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 77,500 miles and a quarter after 140,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other body or interior problem on the 2003 Nissan Altima?
106 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 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