Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure on the 2004 Nissan Altima
2 crashes 2 injuries 4 of the 34 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 2004 Nissan Altima report control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure at a median of 77,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 62,500 miles and a quarter after 87,500 miles, from 28 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 52,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 215,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 161,988 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.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 52,012 miles | 61,267 miles | 77,977 miles | 87,433 miles | 214,000 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, 2 a crash and 2 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 $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 carries the most reports, with 74; the 2004 has 34. 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.
"engine service soon light" came on and took car to the shop on 10/31/06. At the time it came on there were no running problems. Nissan dealer replaced rear 02 sensor and diagnoses and reprogrammed engine control module. On 11/20/06 (less than three weeks later) the "engine service soon light" came on again. Prior to taking the car there were no running problems. Nissan dealer checked vehicle and called me and said that they need to run another diagnostic test for another fee. When I went to the dealership the vehicle was idling up an down and would accelerate on its own without touching the accelerator. P2135 throttle position sensor found, replaced sensor and cleared codes. I was charged on both occasions for a total of $668. *jb
"engine service soon light" came on and took car to the shop on 10/31/06. At the time it came on there were no running problems. Nissan dealer replaced rear 02 sensor and diagnoses and reprogrammed engine control module. On 11/20/06 (less than three weeks later) the "engine service soon light" came on again. Prior to taking the car there were no running problems. Nissan dealer checked vehicle and called me and said that they need to run another diagnostic test for another fee. When I went to the dealership the vehicle was idling up an down and would accelerate on its own without touching the accelerator. P2135 throttle position sensor found, replaced sensor and cleared codes. I was charged on both occasions for a total of $668. *jb
Car stalls and stops running on a day basis while being driven and servic engine soon light is on. Nissan dealer reprogrammed ECM, car still stalls, service engine light soon still on. I have almost been in several accidents due to car quitting and power brakes and steering shutting down while driving. Nissan not taking care of problem. *jb
Also reported on the 2004 Nissan Altima
Other engine problem
Other body or interior problem
Stalling while driving
Engine sensor failure
Other powertrain problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 34 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 2004 Nissan Altima?
Across 28 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 77,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 62,500 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 2004 Nissan Altima?
34 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 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