Unclassified problem on the 2008 Nissan Maxima
2 crashes 1 injury 3 of the 16 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 9 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 2008 Nissan Maxima report unclassified problem at a median of 95,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 65,000 miles and a quarter after 125,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 25th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 60,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 66,640 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
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 58,560 miles | 65,000 miles | 96,000 miles | 124,000 miles | 125,200 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 22 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 115,000 miles.
By volume the 2009 carries the most reports, with 39; the 2008 has 16. 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 nissan maxima. The contact was sitting idle at a traffic stop when a vehicle crashed into the rear of his vehicle at approximately 35 MPH, which caused the vehicle to front end an eighteen wheel truck. The contacts airbags did not deploy. The contact sustained neck and muscle injuries. A passenger sustained injuries to the lower back. The vehicle was destroyed. A police report was filed. The current and failure mileage was approximately 38,000.
Tl* the contact owns a 2008 nissan maxima. The contact stated that while operating the vehicle, the air bag sensor light would flash off and on. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who diagnosed that the front passenger seat air bag sensor was faulty and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 63,700.
I noticed a small crack on the passenger side dash. The small crack has grown to 4 inches. There is a clear "line" that the crack is following - and it appears to be exactly where the air bag would deploy. The dealership suggested that someone used a knife or scissors on the dash?? No vinyl repair shop will attempt a repair as it is near the airbag. There is one other complaint registered for this same issue. Clearly it is a manufacturer's issue that nissan will not take care of. *tr
Also reported on the 2008 Nissan Maxima
Other body or interior problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other powertrain problem
Other wheel or tire problem
Rust or structural corrosion
Fuel pump failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 16 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 16 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 2008 Nissan Maxima?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 95,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 65,000 miles and a quarter after 125,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2008 Nissan Maxima?
16 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