Other brake problem on the 2009 Nissan Altima
2 crashes 2 of the 8 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 brake problem gets reported
Owners of the 2009 Nissan Altima report other brake problem at a median of 50,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 25th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 95,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 82,070 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.
38% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13,630 miles | 23,500 miles | 51,500 miles | 81,000 miles | 95,700 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 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–$1,800 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 22 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 150,000 miles.
By volume the 2018 carries the most reports, with 37; the 2009 has 8. 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.
On july 27,2010 my vehicle was approaching a corner and trying to come to a stop. A truck was approaching perpendicular heading north. I motioned for the truck to take the right of way before making my turn. My foot was on the brake pedal, but the vehicle would not stop, resulting in the truck hitting my vehicle in the left front side, causing considerable damage. In addition the airbags did not deploy. The vehicle is now in the body shop. Nissan na has been contacted , and planning to investigate the problem concerning the brakes and airbags. Insurance is estimating body damage. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2009 nissan altima. The contact stated while driving approximately 5 MPH, she applied the brake and the pedal depressed to the floor. The vehicle surged forward and caused her to crash into a tree and a metal pole. The contact was not injured. The vehicle was towed to an independent repair shop. The failure was not diagnosed. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and informed the contact that they would send an inspector to examine the vehicle. The failure mileage was 16,000. Updated 11/29/11 *cn updated 12/07/11
On a regular day, I drove my car to work in the morning. And it was parked at my workplace parking lot (luckily). In the evening, my keyless entry got me inside the car. But the brakes wouldn't engage and ofcourse, the push button wouldn't start the car. There is an amber light with a key sign inside it flashing on my dash screen. Lights would turn on so I was convinced it must not be the battery. When I looked it up in the car manual, it's supposedly an intelligent key sign. Since it was around 7:30pm, I couldn't get it towed immediately to the dealer workshop since they were closed. The next morning, I got it towed and the dealer workshop diagnosed it as "steering wheel lock unit needs to be replaced" and it would cost a whopping $850 (not including towing). Not just that, the part is back-ordered! So my car is in the workshop indefinitely as of now! I bought this car from a certified pre-owned dealer just six months ago and I have the seven year limited warranty on it too. The workshop said that this is not something my warranty can cover! My current mileage is 26000. And nissan is supposed to be reliable? This problem is not…
Also reported on the 2009 Nissan Altima
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other steering problem
Other electrical problem
Steering column or shaft failure
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 8 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 brake problem happen on the 2009 Nissan Altima?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 50,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other brake problem on the 2009 Nissan Altima?
8 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.2 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