AtWhatMileage
Electrical · 11 owner reports

Other electrical problem on the 2012 Nissan Maxima

Reports of this failure 11
With an odometer reading 8
Reports per 1,000 built 0.4 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 0%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $250–$2,000
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 2nd

When other electrical problem gets reported

Owners of the 2012 Nissan Maxima report other electrical problem at a median of 75,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 50,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 200,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 149,235 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 8 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
50,000 miles 56,000 miles 73,500 miles 112,250 miles 199,235 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 $250–$2,000 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 19 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 40,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 175,000 miles.

By volume the 2000 carries the most reports, with 93; the 2012 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.

All 4 door lock actuators fail at the same time. Door lock switch and remote fail to lock or unlock the doors and the issue started on all 4 doors on the same day with no reason as to why.

65,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1260752 filed 2016-02-13

The door lock actuators do not work and this requires me to ensure my doors are locked manually. The cost to repair is expensive and should be the responsibility of nissan because it is apparently a defect. This defect is a security risk for potential theft and personal injury to the nissan owner.

82,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1262741 filed 2016-02-22

Tl* the contact owns a 2012 nissan maxima. The contact stated that while attempting to enter the vehicle or when inside the vehicle, the ' no key' warning indicator illuminated. As a result, the contact was unable to start the vehicle. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 90,000.

90,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1279415 filed 2016-05-02

Also reported on the 2012 Nissan Maxima

Other engine problem

10 reports median 78k

Other body or interior problem

10 reports median 48k

Other powertrain problem

9 reports median 84k

Sunroof failure or glass breakage

8 reports median 65k

Power steering pump or fluid leak

5 reports median 21k

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 other electrical problem happen on the 2012 Nissan Maxima?

Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other electrical problem on the 2012 Nissan Maxima?

11 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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