Complete transmission failure on the 2009 Nissan Altima
When complete transmission failure gets reported
Owners of the 2009 Nissan Altima report complete transmission failure at a median of 140,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 100,000 miles and a quarter after 145,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 18th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 85,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 155,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 70,897 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.
11% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 83,740 miles | 100,000 miles | 140,000 miles | 143,000 miles | 154,637 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 $2,800–$8,000 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2004, at a median of 100 miles, and latest on the 2009 at 140,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 99; the 2009 has 12. 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.
Vehicle transmission failed. From a stand still at a stop light, the vehicle shook and then jumped forward 2 feet as if being rear ended from behind. When the light turned green, I stepped on the gas and the vehicle started to accelerate. Then the vehicle made grinding noises, hesitated, shook, and completely lost power to the wheels. The first incident (jumping 2 feet) almost caused me to hit the vehicle in front of me. The second incident almost cause the vehicle behind me to rear end me because we were accelerating to merge onto a main road, and my vehicle all of a sudden stopped dead in the middle of the road, but with the engine still running. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2009 nissan altima. The contact was driving approximately 70 MPH when the transmission failed. The vehicle was towed to an authorized dealer for diagnosis where the contact was informed that the transmission required replacement. The vehicle was scheduled for repairs. The manufacturer was notified of the defect. The approximate failure mileage was 140,000.
Around 11:30am on 05/15/2013 while driving the vehicle there was an immediate loss of acceleration. The vehicle was coasted into retailers parking for which it had to be towed to the dealership to determine the issue. Once the dealership was able to diagnose the vehicle they came back with CVT transmission failure. They mentioned they were having issues with CVT transmission in my version of altima, but would be unable to cover the cost of a replacement transmission of $4,000. I contacted nissan consumer affairs to file a claim and was given a case number for reference. I received a call back within 24-hours of placing the initial call. However the representative stated that based of the review of my case they would again be unable to cover any cost associated with replacing the transmission. To note, no review of my vehicle was conducted. To make a long story short I have replaced the transmission with a used transmission, but after researching there are numerous cases of transmission failures in nissan altima's yet nissan is not recalling and replacing the transmission. The failure could have caused a crash and is not safe…
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 12 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 complete transmission failure happen on the 2009 Nissan Altima?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 140,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 100,000 miles and a quarter after 145,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is complete transmission failure on the 2009 Nissan Altima?
12 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.8 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