Other powertrain problem on the 2012 Nissan Altima
1 crash 1 fire 2 of the 65 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 powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Nissan Altima report other powertrain problem at a median of 92,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 65,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles, from 50 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 135,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 101,550 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.
12% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 34,500 miles | 65,635 miles | 93,200 miles | 115,319 miles | 136,050 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 and 1 a fire 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 $400–$4,500 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 2001, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 180,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 245; the 2012 has 65. 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.
Altima was serviced at a dealership less than a week ago for oil and filter change. I was driving the 2012 altima from work on 4/10/14. It looked the car was stalling on the highway multiple times. I slowed down and managed to get home, all along it looked like it was going to stop any time, luckily it did not happen. But this morning (4/11/14) it stopped on the driveway stalled after moving 15 feet. Towed the car to the dealership to get it repaired. *js
While in operation climbing up and inclines this vehicle engine lose power to approx: 40 - 50 miles and hour, along with a whining in the transmission, also the front suspension appears to be shaking. Windows refuse to go up and down. *tr
We were driving on the interstate at about 70 MPH and were unable to accelerate. Accelerator peddle all the way to the floor and the most we could go was 45 MPH. Had the car towed to a nissan dealership and found out it was the shift select assembly that had broken/malfunctioned and the car had gone in to failure mode. There was not warning light at all and this could have been very dangerous on the interstate. First I feel that this part of the car should never have broken in a 2-year old car and I have to wonder if there is a defect in the part for this model year of the altima. Second, if and when this piece does break or malfunction, there should be some sort of warning light on the dash to make the driver aware and pull over. Nissan is aware of my concerns as I have shared them with their consumer affairs department. *tr
Also reported on the 2012 Nissan Altima
CVT failure
Other engine problem
Other body or interior problem
Other speed control problem
Other electrical problem
Complete transmission failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 65 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 powertrain problem happen on the 2012 Nissan Altima?
Across 50 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 92,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 65,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2012 Nissan Altima?
65 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 6.5 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