2021 Nissan Frontier: what breaks, and at what mileage
What breaks on the 2021 Nissan Frontier
On the 2021 Nissan Frontier, the failure owners report most often is no-start or intermittent start failure, with 3 reports on file. Across every failure mode on this year, half the dated reports were filed before 35,000 miles. Overall it scores 64 out of 100, high risk for a 2021.
High risk for a 2021 — 208th riskiest of the 231 2021 vehicles we can rate. 25 owner reports; fleet size estimated from this year's own recall paperwork.
The failures owners actually file about
Owners have reported 15 named failure modes on the 2021 Nissan Frontier, and the three most-reported carry 36% of everything filed.
No-start or intermittent start failure leads with 3 reports and about 0.1 per 1,000 vehicles.
Heater core failure follows with 3 reports.
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault follows with 3 reports, median 2,000 miles.
By system, the reports fall mostly into engine (5), cooling (3) and airbag (3).
When these failures get reported
Too few of the reports on this year carry an odometer reading to describe the timing: 5 of them do. The mileages quoted elsewhere on this page come from the modes that have enough of them.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
Showing the 12 most-reported failure modes of 15. The full list is in the table below.
How reports accumulate
Every report with an odometer reading, cumulative, from 0 to 200,000 miles. A curve that climbs early is a car with early problems, whatever its total.
- Line share of reports filed by that mileage
How bad it is when it goes
Across the named modes, 3 mention a crash. Those are the words owners used in their own complaints, and NHTSA does not verify them, but they are the closest thing in this data to a measure of what a failure actually did.
The average severity weight across every report on this year is 3.64, where a stalled engine or a failed airbag weighs many times more than a rattling trim panel, and a figure this high means the reports are dominated by failures with safety consequences rather than annoyances. The weighting is set out in full on the methodology page.
What the top failures cost to put right, as editorial estimates for an independent US shop rather than figures from NHTSA: no-start or intermittent start failure at $200–$1,800, heater core failure at $700–$2,400, airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault at $300–$1,600 and audio or connectivity failure at $150–$900. Dealer labour, a seized bolt or a part that is no longer made can push any of these past the top of its range.
44% of the reports on this year sit in the engine, transmission, drivetrain or cooling systems — the four where a repair bill is usually four figures.
Every reported failure mode
| Failure mode | System | Reports | With reading | 25th | Median | 75th | Per 1,000 | Typical repair | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No-start or intermittent start failure | engine | 3 | 3 | — | 36k | — | 0.1 | $200–$1,800 | Moderate |
| Heater core failure | cooling | 3 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.1 | $700–$2,400 | Moderate |
| Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault | airbag | 3 | 1 | — | 2k | — | 0.1 | $300–$1,600 | High |
| Audio or connectivity failure | infotainment | 2 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.1 | $150–$900 | Low |
| Other engine problem | engine | 2 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.1 | $300–$4,000 | High |
| Other powertrain problem | transmission | 2 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.1 | $400–$4,500 | High |
| Torque converter failure | transmission | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | $1,100–$3,200 | High |
| Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure | fuel | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | $250–$1,800 | Moderate |
| Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure | electrical | 1 | 1 | — | 99k | — | 0.0 | $700–$3,000 | High |
| Steering column or shaft failure | steering | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | $600–$2,500 | Critical |
| Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure | suspension | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | $400–$2,200 | High |
| Other electrical problem | electrical | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | $250–$2,000 | Moderate |
| Other brake problem | brakes | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | $300–$1,800 | High |
| Other wheel or tire problem | wheels | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | $200–$1,500 | High |
| Other driver assistance problem | adas | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | $250–$1,800 | High |
| Unclassified problem | other | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | — | Moderate |
Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound. Repair costs are typical independent-shop ranges for the failure, not figures from these reports.
How often, against how many were built
Scaled by an estimate of how many of these cars exist, the 2021 Nissan Frontier draws about 0.8 per 1,000 vehicles, which puts it in the 72nd percentile of complaint rates among 2021 vehicles we can rate.
That denominator is the weakest number on the page and it is fair to say so plainly. Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound.
The working figure is 30,029 vehicles. If the true number is twice that, every rate on this page is half what it says; the ranking against other 2021 vehicles, which is what the risk score uses, is far more robust than the rate itself.
Recalls on the 2021 model year
NHTSA has issued 2 recall campaigns covering the 2021 Nissan Frontier, affecting an estimated 58,204 vehicles. A recall is a different kind of evidence from a complaint: it is the regulator and the manufacturer agreeing that something has to be fixed, and the fix is free for as long as the car exists.
The campaigns cover power train:automatic transmission. Whether the work was actually done on the car in front of you is a question only the VIN can answer, and the manufacturer or NHTSA will answer it free.
Recalls also distort complaint counts. Publicity about a campaign reminds owners that complaining is possible, so reports for a recalled component often spike after the recall rather than before it.
POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION
197,230 vehicles 2022-09-07- Defect
- Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain 2020-2023 Titan, 2020-2022 Frontier, and 2023 Z vehicles. The transmission parking pawl may not engage when the vehicle is shifted into park, which can result in a vehicle rollaway.
- Consequence
- A vehicle rollaway increases the risk of a crash.
- Remedy
- Owners are advised to apply the parking brake every time they park their vehicle. Dealers will perform the applicable repairs below, free of charge: Model Year 2020-2022 Frontier vehicles: reprogram Transmission Control Module (TCM) Model Year 2020-2022 Titan vehicles: reprogram TCM and Engine Control Module (ECM) Model Year 2023 Titan vehicles: reprogram TCM Model Year 2023 Z vehicles: reprogram TCM. Owner notification letters were mailed October 28, 2022. Owners may contact Nissan's customer service at 1-800-867-7669.
POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION
180,176 vehicles 2022-06-24- Defect
- Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain 2020-2022 Frontier and Titan vehicles. The transmission parking pawl may not engage when the vehicle is shifted into park, which can result in a vehicle rollaway.
- Consequence
- A vehicle rollaway increases the risk of a crash.
- Remedy
- Owners are advised to apply the parking brake every time they park their vehicle. Dealers will replace the transmission parking pawl pin, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed November 2022. Owners may contact Nissan's customer service at 1-800-867-7669. Nissan's number for this recall is R22A2 R22A3.
Recall work is free at a franchised dealer regardless of the car's age. Check the VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls before assuming it was done.
How it ranks in the 2021 field
The score at the top of the page, placed among its peers. The zones are the same thresholds the scorer applies, read out of the scorer itself, so the picture and the band word cannot disagree.
Scores are ranked within the model year, never across years, because an older car has had longer to accumulate reports.
- Left fewer and less serious reports
- Right more, or worse
- Marker this vehicle
Where 2021 sits in the model line
High risk for a 2021 — 208th riskiest of the 231 2021 vehicles we can rate. Because the ranking is against the same model year only, age cancels out of it.
Across the 27 model years of this car that carry enough reports to score, 1999 comes out best at 61 and 2022 worst at 82, with 2021 itself at 64.
If the model year is negotiable, 1999 scores lower than 2021 by a margin worth acting on. Same body, same engines, different luck — usually a supplier change or a mid-cycle fix, which the complaint data can show but never explain.
Within the 2017–2021 generation specifically, 2021 is the strongest year at 64 and 2020 the weakest at 73.
Scores compare each year against other cars of the same model year, so a low number on an older car is a real result and not an artefact of age.
Shorter is better. Years with too few reports to score are shown without a bar rather than as a zero, because no data is not good news.
Within the 2017-2021 generation, 2021 Nissan Frontier scores best at 64 and 2020 Nissan Frontier worst at 73.
Where these figures stop being useful
25 owner reports; fleet size estimated from this year's own recall paperwork. Every count on this page is therefore a floor: it is the number of owners who went to the trouble of filing with a federal agency, which is a small and self-selected fraction of the owners who had the fault.
Of those 25 reports, 5 carried an odometer reading, so the mileages here describe 20% of the sample rather than all of it. Owners also round: readings pile up on multiples of ten thousand, which is why this site publishes "about 90,000 miles" and not "91,438".
Named failure modes come from matching phrases in the complaint text, so a badly worded complaint can land in the wrong bucket. The effect washes out across hundreds of reports and does not wash out across five.
And nothing here predicts what one car will do. These are other people's complaints, filed years apart, on cars maintained by strangers. Read the page as a map of where this model year has previously gone wrong, then have the specific car in front of you inspected.
Questions this page answers
What are the most common problems with the 2021 Nissan Frontier?
The most-reported failures are no-start or intermittent start failure (3 reports, median 35,000 miles), heater core failure (3 reports) and airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault (3 reports, median 2,000 miles). Counts come from owner complaints filed with NHTSA, which are voluntary, so they show what owners bothered to report rather than every fault that occurred.
Is the 2021 Nissan Frontier reliable?
It scores 64 out of 100 on our risk index, which is high — 208th riskiest of the 231 2021 vehicles we can rate. The score is a comparison against other 2021 vehicles, not a prediction about any individual car, and it is built from complaint rates, severity and how early failures appear.
Which year of the Nissan Frontier is best?
Within the 2017–2021 generation, 2021 scores best at 64 out of 100 and 2020 worst at 73. Same body, same engines, different luck.
Where this comes from. Every figure above is computed from NHTSA owner complaints and recall records for this exact make, model and year. Complaints are voluntary and self-selected, so treat counts as a floor. The methodology page writes out each formula, and the same numbers are available as JSON.
What breaks at my mileage Compare with another car
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