Other engine problem on the 2004 Nissan Altima
1 crash 1 of the 69 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 engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2004 Nissan Altima report other engine problem at a median of 70,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 52,500 miles and a quarter after 92,500 miles, from 57 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 42,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 127,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 85,162 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
9% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 42,438 miles | 53,000 miles | 70,000 miles | 91,520 miles | 127,600 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 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 $300–$4,000 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 24 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 105,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 272; the 2004 has 69. 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.
I purchased my 2002 nissan altima in december of 2001 with 4 miles on it in mid october. Since that time I have taken it over and over to the nissan service department because it cuts off on me out of the blue. It cut off first going down a hill, the wheel just locked and it shut down. I immediately I contacted passport nissan and sheey nissan in maryland and was told to bring it in on the next day. Nissan service department said we can't find anything wrong at this time. A few weeks later it cut off again I had to push it off the road. I called nissan1 usa the following day to report this they said to take it back to a nissan dealer. Nissan 1 usa does not provide any kind of support, guidance or solutions to this problem. I have contacted them on several different times and made mention to a case number that they gave me but for some strange reason they could never find my case number and I have to restart this whole boring procedure over again. I have had my car towed into the dealership at least 4 times for this problem. The dealer maintains that they could not find or duplicate the problem. The check engine light came on and…
Dt*: the contact stated while driving 40 MPH, the vehicle stalled without warning. It was maneuvered off the road and restarted. The vehicle was driven to the dealer who could not duplicate the problem.
I am the owner of a 2004 nissan altima. Presently the engine needs repairing. I took my car to crown nissan in greensboro,nc to be serviced. After a diagnostic test, the servicemen informed me that my power valve screw came loose falling in the engine causing it harm. I asked about the recall on this vehicle I was informed there was none at the present time. This occurred on nov 16th, 2006. He informed me that the price to fix it was between 500-4000 depending on the extent of the damage. After some research I came across other nissan altima owners experiencing the same problems on nissanhelp.com. I recovered a past recall on this vehicle with the stated problem. I called nissan and they told me my car was not included even though my VIN number is stated in the report. I am trying to reinstate this recall due to the false statements I have received from nissan. Thanks. Tiajuana bennett greensboro,nc 336-334-2951. *nm
Also reported on the 2004 Nissan Altima
Other body or interior 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 69 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 engine problem happen on the 2004 Nissan Altima?
Across 57 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 52,500 miles and a quarter after 92,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 2004 Nissan Altima?
69 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.9 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