Other body or interior problem on the 2013 Nissan Altima
8 crashes 9 injuries 17 of the 175 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 body or interior problem gets reported
Owners of the 2013 Nissan Altima report other body or interior problem at a median of 44,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 23,000 miles and a quarter after 78,000 miles, from 121 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 12,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 100,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 88,000 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.
39% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12,000 miles | 23,000 miles | 44,000 miles | 78,000 miles | 100,000 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, 8 a crash and 9 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 $200–$2,000 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 23 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 25,000 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 107,500 miles.
By volume the 2008 carries the most reports, with 322; the 2013 has 175. 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.
Female passenger, 5ft. 0in., weighing 100lbs causes front passenger airbag to be disabled (front passenger airbag status light on). Light would go away after a while. For a female passenger, 5ft. 5in., weighing 120-125lbs causes intermittent front passenger airbag operation. Appeared to operate normally before. 12/24/2012: vehicle was brought to dealer and was found that the scale on the front passenger side seat was off by 25. Scale was zeroed out in the front passenger seat. Issue appears to be resolved for female passenger, 5ft. 5in., weighing 120-125lbs. 01/07/2013: front passenger airbag disabled for male passenger 5ft. 6in., weighing 160lbs. Resolved by restarting vehicle. *tr
The passenger air bag off warning light comes on intermittently while an adult over 125 lbs is seated in the passenger seat. This has happened multiple times with multiple adults of various weights. If the car is stopped, turned off and turned back on it usually clears the problem. I have brought the car into the nissan service center four times. Each time they have done something else to try to resolve the problem but it keeps happening. I am awaiting a call back from the manager of the nissan service center. I am very concerned that in the event of an accident my passenger will not be protected by a working front air bag. I have searched this problem on line and seen many post of similar problems for the 2013 nissan altima. I have also seem many instances of this problem with previous altima models and other nissan vehicles. *tr
I have had this car for 5 months and bought it brand new and it has been nothing but problems that nissan cannot resolve. On top of all of the recalls, brake and starting issues it now starting to fall apart. Recently I have been noticing a noise coming from the windshield almost every time I drive and especially when I am driving 60-75mph on the interstate. The noise I have been hearing sounds like small rock hit the windshield and at other times I hear a cracking noise. So here recently I was driving on the interstate at 75mph and hear something flapping on the windshield and notice that it is the rubber seal that goes around the windshield. So I pull off at the next exit and reattach the seal. The car is only 5 months old and nothing should be coming off like that. Also my car has black interior and it tends I be much hotter on inside especially in direct sunlight. One day I left my car parked in the direct sunlight and got it and the interior was pretty warm and I was going to plug my phone in and the A/C outlet inside the cubby under the radio and as soon as I tried to lift the outlet cover it cracked and broke off. I traded…
Also reported on the 2013 Nissan Altima
Headlight failure or clouding
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
Other powertrain problem
CVT failure
Other lighting problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 175 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 body or interior problem happen on the 2013 Nissan Altima?
Across 121 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 44,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 23,000 miles and a quarter after 78,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other body or interior problem on the 2013 Nissan Altima?
175 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 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