AtWhatMileage
Brakes · 11 owner reports

ABS module or sensor failure on the 2005 Nissan Maxima

Reports of this failure 11
With an odometer reading 10
Reports per 1,000 built 0.3 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 0%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $500–$2,400
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 14th

When abs module or sensor failure gets reported

Owners of the 2005 Nissan Maxima report ABS module or sensor failure at a median of 85,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 160,000 miles, from 10 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 14th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 40,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 175,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 135,960 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.

0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 10 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
40,000 miles 43,198 miles 84,000 miles 161,970 miles 175,960 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

Putting it right typically runs $500–$2,400 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 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2002, at a median of 25,000 miles, and latest on the 2005 at 85,000 miles.

By volume the 2004 carries the most reports, with 35; the 2005 has 11. 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

Malfunction of the rear anti-lock brake system. It has happened to each of the rear brakes, within 40,000 miles. The dealer who repaired this problem related that this is not a rare occurrence. *tr

40,000 miles NHTSA complaint 660385 filed 2008-03-06

Nissan 2005 maxima had a defect in the anti lock brake device where water from the road accumulated and caused corrosion. Nissan advised the dealer to drill a hole to allow water to exit. The dealer stated that they had prior occurrences exactly like this. The cost to me was$ 534.34. *tr updated 11/16/09 the consumer wanted to know the status of her complaint. Updated 03/29/10

72,000 miles NHTSA complaint 742947 filed 2009-11-06

Tl*the contact owns a 2005 nissan maxima. The contact stated that while driving 30 MPH he engaged the brakes and they made a very loud noise. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who stated that the left rear hub assembly and ABS module needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired and two years later the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken back to the same dealer who performed a diagnostic test which indicated that the ABS motor module, the hub assembly and actuator were defective and needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was contacted and did not offer any assistance since the vehicle was not covered under warranty. The vehicle was repaired. The failure mileage was 40,000 and the current mileage was 62,600. Updated 5/2/11 *cn updated 05/11/11

40,000 miles NHTSA complaint 847928 filed 2011-03-21

Also reported on the 2005 Nissan Maxima

Other powertrain problem

597 reports median 87k

Complete transmission failure

92 reports median 85k

Other engine problem

64 reports median 92k

Transmission slipping

50 reports median 84k

Other body or interior problem

35 reports median 65k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 11 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 abs module or sensor failure happen on the 2005 Nissan Maxima?

Across 10 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 85,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 160,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is abs module or sensor failure on the 2005 Nissan Maxima?

11 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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