AtWhatMileage
Engine · 15 owner reports

Other engine problem on the 2009 Nissan Versa

1 fire 1 of the 15 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.

Reports of this failure 15
With an odometer reading 12
Reports per 1,000 built 0.2 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 50%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 1
Typical repair $300–$4,000
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 7th

When other engine problem gets reported

Owners of the 2009 Nissan Versa report other engine problem at a median of 50,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 7th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 200 miles at the tenth percentile to 100,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 101,563 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.

50% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 12 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
187 miles 2,900 miles 50,217 miles 88,250 miles 101,750 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 fire is 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 $300–$4,000 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 16 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2024, at a median of 400 miles, and latest on the 2020 at 165,000 miles.

By volume the 2024 carries the most reports, with 50; the 2009 has 15. 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.

Tl*the contact owns a 2009 nissan versa hatchback. The front windshield is designed very low and the contact strikes her head against it when she leans over. The dealer stated that they could trade in the vehicle. The failure and current mileages were 500.update 09/10/08 *cw the consumer stated she had dproblems starting the vehicle. Updated 09/15/08. *jb

500 miles NHTSA complaint 684365 filed 2008-08-21

Vehicle does not start right away. It occurs at least once a day. I took my vehicle to nissan service department four times, no problem has been found. The service department replaced a fuel regulator assuming that was the problem, but the problem still have not fixed. *tr

152 miles NHTSA complaint 690809 filed 2008-10-02

The car wont start half of the time. Its takes two times to start the car. Usually the car cranks for about 10 seconds before it will start. It has been this way for about 10 days. *tr

4,000 miles NHTSA complaint 724159 filed 2009-06-18

Also reported on the 2009 Nissan Versa

Strut, shock or spring failure

130 reports median 62k

Airbag inflator rupture

111 reports median 120k

Other suspension problem

48 reports median 61k

Fuel pump failure

18 reports median 40k

Other wheel or tire problem

16 reports median 46k

Exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin

15 reports median 71k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 15 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 engine problem happen on the 2009 Nissan Versa?

Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 50,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 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 other engine problem on the 2009 Nissan Versa?

15 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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