Other engine problem on the 2010 Nissan Altima
1 crash 3 fires 2 injuries 6 of the 24 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 2010 Nissan Altima report other engine problem at a median of 45,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles, from 19 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 200 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 123,773 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.
32% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 227 miles | 32,000 miles | 47,038 miles | 99,000 miles | 124,000 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, 1 a crash, 3 a fire and 2 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 2010 has 24. 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 have a 2010 altima bought in march 2010 that has started to jerk while it is being driven. My local nissan dealer has had the car for two weeks trying to figure out what is wrong. They acknowledge that something is definitely wrong with the car and it is not driving normal but after talking to nissan technical assistance and trying to diagnose the problem I just received a call that states that their engineer said that the problem I'm experiencing is normal and there is nothing they can do. The problem is continuing to get worse and now I'm worried that while driving the engine could lose power. I do not feel that continuing to drive my car in this condition is safe. The car did not have these complications when I bought it brand new so I'm sure this isn't a normal condition. My mother has the same car bought two days after I bought mine and it does not have this condition. I have filed a complaint with the nissan consumer department but and very concerned that they do not have urgency in this matter. *tr
As car accelerates to 20 MPH, there is a loud rattling noise coming from the passenger side engine compartment/undercarriage area. Noise was noticed the first week of purchase. The car now has 7,500 miles on it. When it was taken in to the dealer, the lead tech had me ride with him to duplicate the noise--it happened. He then took me for a ride in a new model on the lot and it seemed to produce the same noise. He ended the ride and did not take the vehicle in for inspection. He told me I was the 4th person to come in with the same complaint. He stated it was the ABS completing a self check cycle...which just happens to be very noisy. This is very hard to accept on a newly purchased vehicle. It's very embarrassing. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2010 nissan altima. The contact stated that while driving 65 MPH, the vehicle stalled without warning. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The VIN was not available. The current and failure mileage was 47,038.
Also reported on the 2010 Nissan Altima
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other powertrain problem
Other body or interior problem
Other electrical problem
CVT failure
Other visibility problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 24 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 2010 Nissan Altima?
Across 19 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 45,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 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 2010 Nissan Altima?
24 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 3.6 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