No-start or intermittent start failure on the 2009 Nissan Maxima
When no-start or intermittent start failure gets reported
Owners of the 2009 Nissan Maxima report no-start or intermittent start failure at a median of 70,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 79 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 27,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 115,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 86,000 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.
13% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28,600 miles | 50,000 miles | 70,000 miles | 89,000 miles | 114,600 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 $200–$1,800 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 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2004, at a median of 25,000 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 165,000 miles.
By volume the 2010 carries the most reports, with 118; the 2009 has 89. 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.
While traveling in the number (2) lane of the us 405 n freeway at speeds of over 65 MPH, I noticed that the battery light started flickering, and within 10 seconds the accelerator ceased to respond when pressure was applied. When the accelerator was pushed, the engine would rev, and the RPM gauge would show the gauge moving up, but the engine would not respond. I pushed the accelerator all the way inwards, but the engine would not respond. Approximately 15-20 seconds later, I noticed that the engine ceased operating, and the wheel locked. I was also unable to apply the brakes, as when I pushed the brakes nothing happened and the brake pedal felt very stiff and non-responsive. At the same time, lights on the dashboard cluster were illuminated. I started panicking as I had no control of a vehicle traveling over 60 MPH on a freeway during evening hours los angeles traffic. I immediately activated my emergency indicators, and waited in complete panic until the vehicle came to a rolling stop on the side of the freeway. During the same evening, the vehicle started to exhibit the same malfunctions as experienced earlier that day and the…
Tl* the contact owns a 2009 nissan maxima. The contact stated that after refueling, the vehicle would not start. The vehicle was towed to an authorized dealer and the contact was informed that the steering lock unit needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired because the necessary parts were on back order. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and stated that the parts would become available in a few weeks. The failure and the current mileages were 40,000.
The steering wheel lock issue is leaving maximas stranded unable to start the car with these symptoms. What happens is when you try to start the car, without warning, the electric lock fails to unlock sending error message to the BCM. The car will not start in this case and will flash the intelligent key warning in the cluster. This is a known common problem with this model and a $1000.00 repair. It is obviously a design flaw. This should be a recall. *tr
Also reported on the 2009 Nissan Maxima
Other steering problem
Steering column or shaft failure
Other electrical problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other body or interior problem
Strut, shock or spring failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 89 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 no-start or intermittent start failure happen on the 2009 Nissan Maxima?
Across 79 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is no-start or intermittent start failure on the 2009 Nissan Maxima?
89 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 13 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