Other engine problem on the 2012 Nissan Versa
1 crash 1 fire 2 of the 27 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 other engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Nissan Versa report other engine problem at a median of 65,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles, from 21 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 20,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 80,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 60,189 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.
24% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18,000 miles | 37,000 miles | 64,000 miles | 69,670 miles | 78,189 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 $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 2012 has 27. 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.
When driving down the highway, my versa went into neutral but the shift still said d for drive, had no acceleration took to dealer and they passed it off as nothing because nothing read on the computer system and they basically said in a round about way I'm a woman are you sure you didn't bump it into neutral? Then a month later had it back as it did the same thing but this time I was going 25 MPH. Hooked it up to the computer again and there was nothing reading and reset the computer system. Happened again but was in our parking lot and just blew it off as the dealer would just tell me nothing was wrong. Just yesterday (6/29) as I was turning into the park I work at it slipped back into neutral, then all the electrical went out, no power steering, but the engine was still going, electrical came back on and then the car died as I was going about 20 MPH and it quit all together on me shut down. Had to push it to a parking stall and call a tow to the dealer, once at the dealer they hooked it up to the computer and 3 errors for fuel system and 1 error for transmission came up. I'm just thankful that it didn't cause an accident when…
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 nissan versa. The contact stated that she exited the vehicle with the engine operating and when she returned to the vehicle, the engine was powered off. The contact attempted to restart the vehicle but the vehicle would not restart. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer for inspection or repairs. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 64,000.
January 2nd I was asked to jumpstart a vehicle in my driveway. Approximately 5 minutes later my nissan versa, with less than 32000 miles, caught on fire. The cables were hooked up correctly. Prior to this incident and at least three times, I had complained of a burning smell after highway driving. I was told by my insurance company, I should bring it to a nissan dealer where a licensed nissan mechanic could determine the cause of the fire. When the dealer neglected to do so, nissan north america was called in to do an inspection. They completed their inspection and would not cover the expense or release the report to me or the nissan dealer. They opted to keep the information undercover. I am assuming it is was an electrical issue or some type of leak judging by the 250,000 nissan vehicles recalled in 2012. *tr
Also reported on the 2012 Nissan Versa
Airbag inflator rupture
Other powertrain problem
CVT failure
Complete transmission failure
Other speed control problem
Other brake problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 27 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 2012 Nissan Versa?
Across 21 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 70,000 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 2012 Nissan Versa?
27 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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