Other engine problem on the 2006 Nissan Altima
4 crashes 7 fires 1 injury 12 of the 167 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 2006 Nissan Altima report other engine problem at a median of 88,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 53,000 miles and a quarter after 128,000 miles, from 126 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 6,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 158,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 151,800 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.
17% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6,200 miles | 53,250 miles | 87,560 miles | 128,257 miles | 158,000 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, 4 a crash, 7 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 $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 2006 has 167. 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 a new nissan altima apr 16 2006. On june 15 I received a letter from nissan nth america saying there was a problem with altimas - they were losing oil too fast. I checked my oil and with 2950 miles it was empty. I towed the car to the dealer, who said the oil was black, the engine was no good, and it needs a new motor. I don't want a new motor, I don't want them to fix the car. I want my money back. The letter stated the problem could cause a fire if unchecked. The dealer has since reported that there was a 3 month period of production of these cars that are affected. Now they want me to have them fill up the oil, drive for another 700 miles and retest the car. This is unacceptable. *jb
On 5/20/2006, I purchased a 2006 nissan altima. While waiting for the paperwork to be completed, my husband noticed a board on the wall for a contest. Our salesperson told us then that nissan was having a dealer contest for altima's. At the same time, nissan was very heavily advertising on tv a "special" lease price for the atlima's. 2 weeks later, before receiving any letter from nissan, a colleague sent me the link for the detroit free press, so that I could read the article about nissan altima's being pulled from the market because of oil problems, which were potentially hazardous. I feel very strongly that I was defrauded by nissan (and perhaps the dealer) by this sale. No one can make me believe that nissan didn't do this contest on purpose in order to move as many cars as possible off the dealer lots. The 200+ incidences of oil problems and the lesser incidences of fires did not all occur within the two weeks between the time I bought my car and sales were halted. I have already had one occurrence where I had to add oil. I then had to wait 4 days for the dealer to be able to look at the car. Ironically, when the car was…
Purchased a 2006 nissan altima in january of 2006. When car had about 2800 miles on it, we were eating dinner at a restaurant across from our local nissan dealership. When we started the engine to leave, it made a horrible clattering noise. My husband checked the oil and it did not register on the dip stick. We immediately drove it across the street and showed it to the sales manager since service dept was closed. We had to leave car there over the weekend. When service dept checked oil, they said it was low and changed the oil, but did not measure how low just said about 1 and 1/2 quarts low. I went to pick the car up and they tried not to provide me with a service ticket saying it was no charge. I told them I was not leaving with out a service ticket saying that my brand new car was so low on oil that it was not even registering on the dip stick!! Their answer was we aren't even charging nissan for it - like I care!! Anyway I got my ticket. Went back a few weeks later and was low again - then they decided to really take this seriously and changed the oil again and said to come back in 500 miles. We did and service manager said…
Also reported on the 2006 Nissan Altima
Other body or interior problem
Excessive oil consumption
Rust or structural corrosion
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
Engine sensor failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 167 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 2006 Nissan Altima?
Across 126 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 88,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 53,000 miles and a quarter after 128,000 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 2006 Nissan Altima?
167 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.5 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