Unclassified problem on the 2013 Nissan Leaf
2 crashes 1 injury 3 of the 13 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.
Only 7 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
There are 13 reports of unclassified problem on the 2013 Nissan Leaf, 7 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
It is the 28th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 20,000 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, 2 a crash and 1 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.
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 2013 has 13. 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 nissan leaf was plugged into 220v charging station at my home. It was charging for over an hour. My spouse went to leave and when entering the garage she smelled a strong burning smell. Smoke was coming from the charging station plug where it plugs into the car. She turned off the power at the breaker box and then proceeded to unplug the charger from the car. Two of the terminals on the plug were damaged and 2 terminals on the receptacle on the car were damaged. The connection had gotten hot enough to melt the plastic and create smoke indicating a fire. Nissan has determined by pictures that the car was not to blame for the incident. They are blaming the charging station for the failure. They have denied any warranty coverage. The burden of the bill has been placed with the customer. The car is currently only 5 months old and has less than 10,000 miles.
Passenger airbag shows off when passenger in the seat is a typical adult, ~130 pounds. The underseat sensor (ods occupant detection system) is not calibrated - needs about 160 pounds to sense a person in the seat. Nissan had a recall (march 2013) for this exact problem. They claim that this vehicle was not included. It is a safety issue. Nissan hotline ([xxx]) says take it to the dealer. The dealer says call nissan. This car needs to be a part of the recall. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6). *tr
Started car by pressing brake and ignition. Put the car in reverse. Car started moving at 2-5 MPH with the brake still pressed. Brake lost resistance and had to press hard to floor to stop car. No brake pressure. Took atleast 10-15 feet for the car to complete stop. Same thing happened when moved to drive forward. Fortunate that no one was close to car when this happened. Tik-tok-tik-tok sounds from car, pedal pulses rapidly and ABS and brake lights came on. Dealer replaced the 12v battery 2 weeks before this happened. Dropped the car at the dealership again. I see exact same complaints on this website from at least 10 other people. Not sure when this will become an issue that will be addressed by the manufacturer. Not sure if I can update this complaint later once I hear back from the dealer. If I can I will update it.
Also reported on the 2013 Nissan Leaf
Other brake problem
Loss of braking
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other electrical problem
Parking brake failure
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 13 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 13 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 2013 Nissan Leaf?
Across 7 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 20,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2013 Nissan Leaf?
13 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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