CarComplaints.com Notes: Here's a disturbing trend for the 2002 Nissan Altima: the engine starts burning oil like crazy, the catalytic converter goes bad, the head gasket blows and eventually the entire engine needs replacement. Sound familiar? Like a script from a horror film, these Altimas seem doomed to fail around 95k miles.

1.4

hardly worth mentioning
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
119,000 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.

So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.

2003 Nissan Altima body / paint problems

body / paint problem

Find something helpful? Spread the word.
Get notified about new defects, investigations, recalls & lawsuits for the 2003 Nissan Altima:

Unsubscribe any time. We don't sell/share your email.

2003 Nissan Altima Owner Comments

problem #4

Aug 112014

Altima

  • 110,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

The contact owns a 2003 Nissan Altima. The contact stated that while driving 55 mph, a scraping noise emitted from the vehicle. The contact stated that after inspecting the vehicle, she noticed that the floor board was hanging from under the vehicle and the under body was rusted out. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer for a diagnostic testing. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 110,000.

- Johnston, RI, USA

problem #3

Sep 262013

Altima

  • 140,000 miles
I took my 2003 Nissan Altima to get a pa inspection and was shocked that the floor panels on the driver and passenger side of the car had rusted out. There is no other visible rust on the car and I feel this is a design flaw which should be remedied at Nissan expense.

- Conneaut Lake, PA, USA

problem #2

Aug 242013

Altima 4-cyl

  • 159,000 miles
We noticed over the weekend that the floorboards under the front seats are completely rusted. I could have been walking my car like the flintstones anytime soon.

- Congers, NY, USA

problem #1

Nov 142012

Altima 6-cyl

  • 67,000 miles
Underbody of passenger side of car with large hole(20 by 20) in it discovered when 4 wheel alignment was being done. This affects the safety of person sitting in that seat since the seat base is damaged and the seat with the passenger buckled in that seat would propel out the windshield in an accident. Hundreds and hundreds of safety concerns are noted online during a search of Nissan Altima underbody holes/rust. I think this is extremely unsafe and it has been noted over and over in complaints online and nothing has been done. There are no safety bulletins, no recalls, etc. My shop said this is the second one recently and when I called the Nissan dealer he said they have another car just today that also has this problem. It's over $1000 to repair and no part is available to replace that/ the seat has to be removed, the carpeting removed, the area welded with a piece of metal, etc. Etc.

- Hartland, WI, USA

Search CarComplaints.com for these popular complaint phrases...

Not what you are looking for?