I own a 2009 nissan altima 2.5 S. I have been having problems with it starting for over 6 months now. I bought and put in a new battery, battery connectors, spark plugs. The battery and alternator are fine. It will start and then not start. After replacing the battery and cables and connectors it would start ok for a few days, then it will just not start anymore without a jump start. It will start up by having it jump started with jumper cables from another vehicle. It will start up and will be turned off and minutes later it will not start up again. The car will go into ACC and go onto the on position and lights and radio and all will work, but car will not turn over. I am very frustrated. I have taken it to the nissan dealer in Idaho falls and they could not determine the problem. I would like to find out what the problem is and have it fixed. I am very dissatisfied and frustrated with the push start system and with my nissan. Can you offer any help with this matter? I will not buy another Nissan because of this issue.

Getting in my car on a warm day, trying to get home before kids get in from school to find out that it will not start. Very embarrassing and humiliating to be sitting in my car and it not cranking. I hit the brake and the keyless switch and it wont say a word. This has happen about 3 or 4 times. It even happen with my car sitting in my yard. I am afraid to go anywhere because I don't want to get stranded off from home. I do not have the money to get this fixed right now. I cant understand that with the number of people that are having this same problem, why wouldn't this be on the recall list. They put less things on the recall list. I have not checked with my dealer to see if my warranty will cover it, but from the looks of it from everyone else's post, it probably wont. I have the bumper to bumper warranty on my car.

I went out to my car and it was completely dead. It had to be towed to the Nissan dealership. I was told the manufacturers warranty had expired and it would cost $850.00 to fix. The part was not available and took five business days to arrive. I filed a complaint with NHTSA and posted several scathing messages on various blogs. Nissan could have cared less. The car was three years old at the time and I got the complete run around from Nissan. At this point I will never buy another Nissan and I make every effort to educate others on why not to bother with the car maker. All I want is to be completely reimbursed by Nissan USA for parts and labor.

HELLO how in the world is this not recalled???!! Thankfully I was leaving work to go to lunch when I hop in my car to leave IT WONT START. First thing, I changed my battery in my key, still didn't work. Second, I walk down a few doors where there is a local auto parts store and bought my self a new battery for the car. Thought for sure that was my problem and I would be on my way. NOPE!!! Car still wouldnt start. Its a push button start and when you go to push the button to start it won't move from the lock position. There is a little key symbol in left hand corner, and the theft symbol still flashes, brake lights still work, lights in car still works. After doing research on the internet I soon come to realize that there are tons of complaints about the same issue. Everyone says the steering lock control module will need to be replaced, which is about a $1000 repair. Me being a woman I was not really sure where to start...thankfully my brother is a pretty handy guy and decided to get in there and see if he could at least get it started to drive it home. He took the steering wheel apart basically and found the steering lock control module and tried to hit it several times..nothing. He then put his foot on the brake and held in the start button and at the same time he beat the crap out of the steering module..guess what... IT STARTED!!!!!! My car is now sitting in the garage at home, I'm scared to drive it anywhere because I dont want to be stranded. Obviously that is exactly what the problem is and it will need replaced. His 'repair' (if thats what you want to call it) may last a day or it could last a year.. bottom line this is a huge issue with the Altima, its amazing how many other people have the same problem. Something needs to be done. I feel as though Nissan should take care of this!!

2009 Altima. Electronic push button ignition will not start the car or even crank the car.

Had towed to dealer and they had 4 Altimas with the same issue. The symptoms are that the brake pedal will barely push down (which needs to be done to start the car) and no lights will come on the dash other than the "lock" light on the push start button as well as the steering wheel will not lock...you can spin it around and around albeit hard to do with electronic steering.

The fix is a $486.00 dollar sensor chip the size of two quarters that is installed with two $6.00 bolts underneath the steering column. I called Nissan customer service to see if they would pay with "Goodwill" and the lady kept reading off a script that said in synopsis "You are F'd and go F yourself---thanks for buying our Nissan Lemon."

There is another website with literally 100's of this exact issue and complaints. How they have not recalled this is disgusting.

Went to crank my car on my lunch and the car would not start. The key fob unlocked the doors, etc., but the brake and steering wheel locked up. Had to have the car towed to Nissan dealership. They said it was the battery. After repairing that, they said it was the "steering lock" device. Quoted me $1,250.00 for the repair. I had the car towed to another trusted company becuse the part was only $450.00. Nissan charged me $196.00 for the battery and "diagnostics". Found out today that the part is on NATIONAL back order. Nissan told them that it could be up to 3 weeks for him to receive the part and I've already been without my car for almost 2 weeks.

I'm very disappointed that Nissan is not recalling this. They say that it doesn't present a safety hazard, but how doesn't it? I've read online that people's have shut off in the middle of traffic and because you can't put the car into neutral without it running, you are stuck until a tow truck gets there. Fortunately, I was at work and it was day time when mine went out.

Do not plan on ever buying a Nissan vehicle again.

I read Michelle's complaint about being stranded at work. This is exactly the same scenario I had. Called the Nissan dealership today and they told me it will cost approximately $800 to fix, can't assure me that it won't happen again (even though my car is only 3 years old with 50,000 miles on it), and now I have to be concerned with being stranded the next time (and I'm SURE there will be a next time....) it happens!! I have a 1998 Chevrolet Venture mini-van that hasn't had the problems that I'm having with this Altima!! Shame on Nissan--this should be a recall!!!

Car would not start without warning, had to be towed to dealer from where it failed to start. Steering lock was bad. This appears to be a pretty common problem and voluntary recall was issued for the GT-R (Technical Service Bulletin NTB-10-025) but not for other models. A critical system failure like this on a car less than four years old should not be occurring with the frequency it appears to be. Complained to Nissan customer service and elevated it to regional representative with no satisfaction.

I drove my car to work and parked it in my office underground garage. When I tried to leave work to pickup my kids, the car wouldn't start. There was power to the vehicle, indicating that it was not a battery-related issue. I had to take public transportation home got a ride to work the next day. I did some research and figured out that I needed to have my car towed to the dealer. I lost a day of work arranging for towing and having my car towed to the Nissan dealer close my my home. I was shocked to learn that the repair cost was $800 and was able to get a 10% discount which brought the price down to $728. I am still very angry that Nissan would manufacture a car with a component that has such a poor reliability and that cost $500. I am very, very disappointed with Nissan and will never buy another Nissan car. I also had a hole in my exhaust system when my car was about 33,000 mile, which was another unexpected repair for a fairly new car. With the exhaust problem, it was covered under warranty, but if I had driven a few thousand miles, I would have been stuck with a $1000 repair bill.

I contacted Nissan consumer affairs and after a week they agreed to send me a $250 gift card in about 4-6 weeks toward future repairs. I still plan to pursue the issue of the component reliability because I think that without the push start system, I would not have this problem and would buy a car with an actual key in the future to avoid this problem. As a consumer, I think that it is unacceptable to manufacture a car with a starting system that is so unreliable with such a high cost and that the manufacturer of that component should be responsible for replacing that part if the mean time before failure does not meet the reliability standards.

The car broke down, try to started the engine and fail. brought to Nissan dealer in City of Industry for repair. I told service manager that the car only drove 23500 miles and 2 month over 3 years, asked him to check with Nissan (just want to make sure they have grace period for the warranty, my Toyota Camry 1 month over 3 years, Toyota still fixed under warranty). Service manager checked and called me that warranty expired. I am OK with that. Later that afternoon manager told me that would cost $950 to repair. (I also have 2 recall work in the shop in addition of $950 ignition switch whatever they charged me) I was speechless. What a wonderful way to end the 2012. My complaint was little on dealer (bad economy, dealer probably doesn't make good profit as before) , more on manufacturer. How could a car drove only 23500 miles in little over 3 year had problems like this? I only used locally 95% of the time. I checked online there were Altima owner got same problem like mine. Nissan did not make a recall is beyond my reasonable logic. my next car definitely is not a Nissan.

I take the train to work, so my car is parked in a transportation authority parking lot on a daily basis. Get off the train, try and start the car, can't press brake pedal down. The key light comes on, I try putting the key in the port, still can't press the brake pedal. I call for a tow because I cannot leave the car in the parking lot for the time being, because you have to prearrange overnight parking in the lot, and I ran the risk of being towed for where the car was parked. Get it towed to the dealer, I'm told they have seen the problem before, it's not good, going to cost about $900 but I'll get a break and it will cost $800. Oh yes, and I'm a single mother and it's a week before Christmas. The intelligent key just creates more problems to get fixed.

A snowy morning on my way to work, stopped at the convenience store, came back out and tried to start the car, a key light was flashing on the dash, brake was hard to press. The car would not start, doors would unlock with the fob but the car would do nothing. Reading the manual, I was able to tell what the indicator light meant. While waiting for the tow truck I Googled the result, I was shocked at all the complaints on the same malfunction. A $1,000.00 repair bill later, My husband called Nissan they said there was nothing they could do, after much research I found out that Nissan changed the part in late 2010 models yet they have not issued a recall. Nissan rep stated to keep our receipt in case a recall is issued. My husband informed the Nissan rep that they lost a good customer, they could only say sorry to hear that. We have owned 2 Nissan Pathfinders and now a fully loaded Altima and they didn't care that we would no longer buy their product!!! Bye bye Nissan

I drove my car to work and parked it. That evening when I tried to leave, the car wouldn't start. There was power to the vehicle, indicating that it was not a batter-related issue. I had to get a ride home. I brought my manual with me to work the next day. There was a blinking light on the instrument panel that was in the shape of a car with a key in the center - which indicated a problem with the steering column Anti-theft device. I had to have my car towed to a dealer (on a flatbed) to have the part replaced and my remotes had to be reprogrammed. The cost out of my pocket was $514.58 and I was without a car for 3 days. Nissan Consumer Affairs refused to help me in any way despite the fact that the 2005 Nissan Murano was recalled for issues related to the same part! http://www.motortrend.com/cars/2005/nissan/murano/recalls/

This is the first issue that I have had with this vehicle. However, only 5 months later, I had a problem with my transmission. I have included details of this in a separate complaint.

Buyer beware! Nissan is not a good buy for your money, in my experience. I had better luck with KIA!!

2009 Nissan Altima coupe: Today, my 2009 Nissan Altima would not start due to key error message. After my research come to find out this has been happening to lots of Altima owners. I got in my car after a short stop and the key message was on and nothing. It would not start. My windows were down and they would not go up. I tried everything. Disconnected my batter, did the neutral thing. Shook steering wheel. Etc... My car has had the top maintenance program as i drive 180 miles a day and cannot have a unreliable car. To think that Nissan would allow us to drive cars that simply all of a suddenly say to you: your stranded and your greedy service writers never say nothing to your spending customers as all they know is get more easy cash with no knowledge of their product. all of the money I have spent on that car to keep it perfect. Makes me sick to find out this can happen or worse yet the writers are too lame to say they have seen this before or for Nissan to never report this and find a fix. Of course it happens on a Sunday when everything is closed so it takes 2 tows (extra treat for us ...thanks) to get me in since of course my windows wont go up either so I had to get towed home to my garage and then to the shop. Woww...we are real happy. I loved this car until today and probably would have longer even with today until we researched and found out this happens to a lot of people and no one ever tried to warn us or tell us that we should fix it before it happened. totally unacceptable. Nissan....goodbye.

My 2009 Altima on Aug 3 2012 would not start. After numerous attempts stepping on the brake pedal and pushing in the start button it started. Did not have any more trouble starting it. Here is where I get up set. Took the car to the Nissan dealer to have the car checked. Could not get in for it was Saturday. So made an appointment for Tuesday morning. Was told that Nissan had send out a bulletin out to all dealerships that there was a problem with the brake switch, causing the engine not to start. ( The brake pedal has to be depressed while you push the start button in order for the engine to start). Nissan recommends that the break pedal switch and wire harness be replaced. With a diagnostic test the brake switch and wire harness plus labor and taxes the total would have been right at 500 dollars. Heck no!!!! i was so mad could not see straight. If Nissan acknowledge that there was a problem then why is the consumer paying for a $49 brake switch that I am sure Nissan got for pennies ( double profit) the wire harness 220 which they got for less then 20 dollars. The consumer has to pay for faulty equipment and the manufacture makes a profit. On a bulletin there is no safety issue so they don't have to worry about getting sued. I told them Hell!!!!!!!!!! noooooooooo just replace the switch and not the harness. I still got taken for 190 skins.

JUST A FEW MONTHS AGO WE HAD A FAULTY BRAKE SENSOR. THIS AFFECTS WHETHER YOU CAN DRIVE THE VEHICLE SINCE IT IS RELATED TO THE ELECTRONIC KEY. THIS WAS COVERED UNDER WARRANTY. AGAIN, THE CAR WOULD NOT START. ALMOST SAME SYMPTOMS AS THE BRAKE SENSOR. I HAD TO HAVE THE CAR TOWED TO THE DEALER. THE DIAGNOSIS IS A MALFUNCTIONING STEERING WHEEL LOCK CONTROL UNIT. THEY CHARGED ME $98 FOR THE DIAGNOSIS FEE AND THEY WANT ANOTHER 750 + FOR PART AND LABOR. AFTER BROWSING THE WEB, IT'S APPARENT THESE ELECTRONIC KEY SENSOR MALFUNCTIONS ARE MORE COMMON THAN I WOULD HAVE THOUGHT ESPECIALLY DURING VEHICLES EARLY YEARS. NISSAN WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A REPUTABLE COMPANY. HOWEVER, WITH THESE TYPES OF EARLY MALFUNCTIONS, I'M NOT SO SURE. NISSAN NEEDS TO PROVIDE A RECALL AND FIX THESE SENSOR ISSUES. RIGHT NOW I'M CONTEMPLATING HAVING ANOTHER MECHANIC PROVIDE THE FIX AND REMOVING MY VEHICLE FROM THE DEALER.