Strut, shock or spring failure on the 2008 Nissan Versa
1 crash 1 fire 2 of the 46 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.
When strut, shock or spring failure gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Nissan Versa report strut, shock or spring failure at a median of 67,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 47,500 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles, from 40 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 105,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 37,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 120,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 82,196 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.
10% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36,733 miles | 48,500 miles | 68,500 miles | 79,197 miles | 118,929 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, 1 a crash and 1 a fire 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.
Putting it right typically runs $500–$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 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2010, at a median of 52,500 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 72,500 miles.
By volume the 2009 carries the most reports, with 130; the 2008 has 46. 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.
As I was entering an on ramp to 676 east in philadelphia, pa, I heard a crunch (metal on metal) in my front passenger side . I attempted to straighten out my car after the slight right turn and my right tire was not reacting to my turning of the steering wheel. I hit the brake a bit and tried to slow the car when my car started to fish tail. At this instance I gave the vehicle some gas to try and regain control of the vehicle, but I was already in a spin that caused me to completely lose control and I attempted to gain control, but I was unsuccessful. As the car spun past 360 degrees, I went over an island and came to an abrupt stop once I took out the stop sign on this island. Luckily no body was hurt and I managed to not hit any vehicles or pedestrians. After several hours waiting for a two truck and philadelphia police, the vehicle and myself made our way to a body shop in lansdale, pa. After examination from the mechanics at this body shop (j.l. Freed) I was told that the strut assembly in my front right passenger side was in 3 pieces. This was evident to me that something mechanically went wrong as I was making that slight…
We own a 2008 nissan versa. It currently only has 9,400 miles on it. When driving it there is a "popping" feel underneath the floorboards/ in the front end of the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealership 2-26-09 where they replaced both upper strut bearings and completed a front wheel alignment. Again, the vehicle exhibited the same issues and on august 5, 2009 both upper strut bearings were replaced and another alignment was completed. We took the vehicle to the dealership again yesterday with the same complaint. This time they say they can't "hear" it (you can't hear it, but you can feel it), so they didn't do anything. They refused to even put it up on the lift to take a look at the assembly since they couldn't "hear" anything. After doing research, we are seeing this same complaint on many different websites. Nissan needs to fix these vehicles. One listed on this site was involved in an accident apparently due to the strut failure. *tr
We own a 2008 nissan versa. It currently only has 9,400 miles on it. When driving it there is a "popping" feel underneath the floorboards/ in the front end of the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealership 2-26-09 where they replaced both upper strut bearings and completed a front wheel alignment. Again, the vehicle exhibited the same issues and on august 5, 2009 both upper strut bearings were replaced and another alignment was completed. We took the vehicle to the dealership again yesterday with the same complaint. This time they say they can't "hear" it (you can't hear it, but you can feel it), so they didn't do anything. They refused to even put it up on the lift to take a look at the assembly since they couldn't "hear" anything. After doing research, we are seeing this same complaint on many different websites. Nissan needs to fix these vehicles. One listed on this site was involved in an accident apparently due to the strut failure. *tr
Also reported on the 2008 Nissan Versa
Airbag inflator rupture
Other suspension problem
Fuel pump failure
Other wheel or tire problem
Other engine problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 46 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 strut, shock or spring failure happen on the 2008 Nissan Versa?
Across 40 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 67,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 47,500 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is strut, shock or spring failure on the 2008 Nissan Versa?
46 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 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