Unclassified problem on the 2011 Nissan Leaf
Only 16 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When unclassified problem gets reported
Owners of the 2011 Nissan Leaf report unclassified problem at a median of 55,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 65,000 miles, from 16 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 17th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 85,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 52,556 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
13% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 34,000 miles | 38,825 miles | 57,400 miles | 65,936 miles | 86,556 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 55,000 miles.
By volume the 2019 carries the most reports, with 32; the 2011 has 28. 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.
My car requires me to wait after pushing the start button before I can shift into drive or reverse. If I do not wait, then the car skips d or r and shifts into the neutral even when I select the gear shifter to r or d. I have explained this situation to my local austin nissan dealer on 5/28/15. It was explained to me that this is normal. I consider this a serious safety issue when I start my car on an incline or hill and attempt to shift to d or r. If I do not wait, then the car rolls downhill in neutral, regardless if I shift to d or r. The car is then able to lurch for several feet down and free roll downhill before I reapply my foot to the brake pedal. I could easily hit another car or pedestrian. It seems unsafe for the driver to have to remember to wait for > 0.5 second (estimate) before shifting out of park. The electronics shifter should default to remain in park if it is not ready to go into d or r. Going into n seems like a poor electronic default position when shifting from p to d or r at the start of car. I found multiple complaints of this online when I searched "nissan leaf shift to neutral". Thanks for your…
Passenger seat airbag on/off switch sensor needs replacement according to nissan dealer. Passenger airbag "off" light is flashing even with 125 pound passenger in seat. Nissan couldn't tell me whether or not passenger airbag was really on or off. Quoted $2400 to replace the passenger seat airbag switch and seat assembly because is no longer under warranty according to nissan. This appears to be exactly the problem covered by 2013 leaf recall for hardware manufacturing problem in same sensor.
Passenger airbag turned off. Cannot turn back on. Now have flashing red warning light. Seems ridiculous to have this safety failure fail on a car bought in august 2011. Nissan dealer (elk grove, ca) says they've never heard of this. I don't believe them.
Also reported on the 2011 Nissan Leaf
Other electrical problem
Other brake problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other body or interior problem
Software fault or failed update
Other fuel system problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 28 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 28 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 unclassified problem happen on the 2011 Nissan Leaf?
Across 16 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 55,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 65,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2011 Nissan Leaf?
28 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.2 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