Other body or interior problem on the 2004 Nissan Altima
When other body or interior problem gets reported
Owners of the 2004 Nissan Altima report other body or interior problem at a median of 105,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 75,000 miles and a quarter after 135,000 miles, from 28 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 57,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 155,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 98,860 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 56,400 miles | 75,000 miles | 105,067 miles | 135,372 miles | 155,260 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 $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 2004 has 38. 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.
My husband and I were driving when the car started to jerk and run very rough. Not long after that the check engine light came on and it just shut off right in the middle of traffic. Aaa towed the car to cerritos nissan. The next day they looked it over and said it was a chamber and a mass air filter and injector a. They gave us the total of $1384. We had no choice I needed my car, so we told them to fix it. When we went to pick the car up,we paid our bill, I drove off and it started doing the same exact thing. We took the car back and the head of service was there. My husband tried to explain to him but he was not understanding. My husband ask if he would go on a test drive with him. My husband asked him to drive. When they came back, my husband said not only was it doing the same thing but it cut off on them as well. The service manager said he would write a note about what it was still doing. We had just begrudgingly forked out nearly $1400 and the car was doing the same exact thing. We were upset and wanted to know what did they fix? He assured us that they would fix it. He asked us what we wanted him to do. My husband said…
Rusted floor boards in passenger and driver side. In researching this problem, it looks like there was a defect in the design of 2001-2005 nissan altima floor boards due to a drainage plug that was not properly sealed. Contacted nissan north america and have not heard anything back after they said I would get a call back. The rusted out floor pans can become a hazard if not taken care of, but if you don't happen to see them then you will not no they are there. Most of the complaints that I have found; it seems that the floor boards have rusted all they way through to the main cabin. I am afraid that if people never check for this problem, it will progressively rust through and affect your seats and everything that is there. Looks like nissan north america will not take care of this problem! They don't care! *tr
I have a 2004 nissan altima that I take good care of. I don't drive it in the winter so it doesn't see much salt.I recently noticed rust holes in both my drivers side and passengers side floorboards which is ridiculous and unacceptable considering the car is barely seven years old and so well taken care of.my opinion is that the metal used is far too thin and that it is a flawed design.nissan should recall all of these altimas with this problem and make it right.I will never buy another nissan again... *tr
Also reported on the 2004 Nissan Altima
Other engine problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Stalling while driving
Engine sensor failure
Other powertrain problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 38 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 2004 Nissan Altima?
Across 28 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 105,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 75,000 miles and a quarter after 135,000 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 2004 Nissan Altima?
38 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