CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2013 Nissan Altima has multiple problem trends including the CVT transmission, and now that this model is out of warranty, it earns our "Avoid Like The Plague" badge.

Owners complain about vibration and transmission failure related to the CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission), a whining noise from the power steering pump, and constant windshield problems that appear to be the result of poor design.

Be warned: the 2014 & 2015 Nissan Altima appears to share these same problems.

10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
3 / 1
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 1
Average Mileage:
42,501 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.

2013 Nissan Altima fuel system problems

fuel system problem

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2013 Nissan Altima Owner Comments (Page 1 of 3)

problem #42

Jul 012024

Altima

  • miles

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

I have taken the car to 3 mechanics for 4-5 incidents knowing that the mechanics were indeed certified in professionally fixing the issue. I was driving the car and made a proper left turn, yielding to oncoming traffic when suddenly the vehicle was unable to accelerate. The other car was approaching and I pushed on the gas as hard as I could to barely get it to move out of the way, luckily avoid a collision. The car died and will restart and drive another 11 miles, repeating the process. No mechanic has been able to properly identify the cause. Please understand, I could be that "lies" to individuals in order to sell the car, but do I really want to put another person's life at such a faulty incident? Well, I recommend another recall on the issue, regardless of the cost because a little hood latch and a simple light compartment isn't anything like an unknown cause of malfunction stall towards driving in a hectic traffic.

- Frankston, TX, USA

problem #41

Feb 292024

Altima

  • miles
Delayed acceleration after making a stop, high RPMs when accelerating after making a stop. All above conditions appears to happen randomly.

- Middle Island, NY, USA

problem #40

Feb 182024

Altima

  • miles
Malfunction Indicator Light keeps coming on and remaining on.

- Maysville, NC, USA

problem #39

Dec 102021

Altima

  • miles

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

Unknown, but the issue is beneath the passenger seat where it seems a wire has shorted out and even became disconnected and i am unsure but pretty positive that it has something to do with the passenger side airbags because shortly after a diagnostic scan shows several airbag fault codes. Also since then my car-??s performance has changed and now i am receiving diagnostic trouble codes for different electrical components such as mas air flow sensor low voltage and its causing my car to stall at random times while driving and even on freeways. It also has caused my car to slow down while fully accelerating on the pedal. Very big safety concern as im driving on the freeway with my family in the car as well.

- Rancho Cucamonga, CA, USA

problem #38

Feb 202020

Altima

  • miles
When pushing the gas on the highway or the streets it feels like the power of the car is holding back. Feels like the gears are messing up. And there's problem with catalyst converter. It's always showing check engine light even after I have tried other solutions on fixing that and the gas odometer is not reading the gas levels right either. Plus the passenger seat buckle is stuck and doesn't latch to the seat belt for a hold from a car accident. Like you have to really push hard for the seat belt to hold on.

- San Jose, CA, USA

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problem #37

Aug 142019

Altima

  • miles
Head lights are so fun looks as if they are not on, airbag light is constantly on even with passenger in seat, both air bag lights on dask and in console. Doesn't matter if car is in motion or not completely dangerous

- Panama City Beach, FL, USA

problem #36

Aug 242020

Altima

  • 97,000 miles

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

While driving down the road, approximately 3 miles into my drive, I stopped at a stop light. When I tried to accelerate, my car would not move. After 2-3 seconds it decided to accelerate. About another half mile down the road at the next stop light, it did it again. Each time, I was almost rear ended by cars behind me trying to get to the interstate. The car is now at the dealership being looked at.

- Brandon, FL, USA

problem #35

Jul 032020

Altima 4-cyl

  • 123,204 miles
While driving on street, the gas pedal will no longer provide power to the car and begin to slow itself down. I will push on the breaks briefly and try the gas pedal to see if it works and it will take a few times before it does. While on the freeway the vehicle again, gas pedal would no longer provide power to the car and begin to slow itself down. This has now happened 8 separate times to the car. It will work for a few days and then do it again, with out notice. No check engine light goes on. Second issue is, the steering wheel will also feel extremely loose, not during the same time but when my speed is over 70 mph. Also, the check engine light nor any safety notices will go on. Lastly, the air bag light won't come off. The gas petal issue happened again on July 3th, 2020 and I decided to take it to get looked at. The dealer for a 5 point inspection and they found nothing wrong. I check the NHTSA website and it shows no recalls done. Does this mean they have not been completed?

- Long Beach, CA, USA

problem #34

Nov 092018

Altima

  • 90,000 miles
I had a check engine light that was for a problem with my catalytic converter. I had it replaced with an after market that went out 13 months later.

- Vancouver, WA, USA

problem #33

Mar 012019

Altima

  • 60,000 miles
Check engine light comes on. Shop runs diagnostics and all systems, independently are working, however collective issue. I.e. mass air flow sensor code reads as broken, but sensor is independently fine when tested. Multiple systems read out with error codes, but all are fine when tested separately to further analyze. No connection between multiple codes - random assortment. Vehicle fails emissions test due to these errors. Shop now states they have found tbs on this problem through Nissan & there is a part requiring a swap out. My vehicle has experienced this issue for 6+ months. Huge time & financial burden to bring car in & out of shop. Vehicle unable to get re-registered due to faulty computer system.

- Oak Park, IL, USA

problem #32

Oct 282019

Altima

  • 93,500 miles

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

(in nyc) my mpg has drop significantly, I'm getting 10-13 max mpg. The oil, oil filter and engine air filter are less than a month old. The tires are filled to the correct pressure. No service lights have ever came on, many mechanics have seen the car and said they can't find anything wrong. I do a mixture of highway and city driving and drive averagely (not aggressive but not slow either). I even reset the computer twice so far and get the same results.

- Brooklyn, NY, USA

problem #31

Aug 022019

Altima

  • 91,000 miles
The vehicle will not start after warm up/driving for a while and then turned off. It will continuously run if engine does not get turned off. In order to start the engine again, it has to cool down, then the cycle starts again. It only happens when hot. It always starts cold or cooled down. Took it to Nissan dealer for diag and they said that is was the fuel injectors, so we replaced them on their advice - but that did not solve the problem. This is issue started recently. This is a well kept and maintained 2013 Altima with the qr25de 4 cyl engine and only ~ 92, nnn miles.

- Winter Park, FL, USA

problem #30

Apr 272019

Altima

  • 80,000 miles
My call stalled when I was stationary, in drive, at an intersection. Since then whenever I shift into either drive or reverse the car stalls and shuts off. The check engine, check battery, and general warning light all come on when I experience this problem. I have seen other people on various online forums report this issue. My Nissan Altima 2013 has a little over 80,000 miles on it. I am the only owner of this car.

- Beverly Hills, MI, USA

problem #29

Jan 032019

Altima

  • 60,000 miles
- replaced 3 alternators - less than 60K miles - now the transmission is failed and needing replaced - too many significant quality issues for a new car

- Hiawatha, IA, USA

problem #28

Oct 062018

Altima

  • 81,000 miles
The transmission was working fine as we were running errands and all of a sudden the car would not go into gear. The car also began to shake and then stall. All this happened in minutes. The car was stuck in the middle of the street creating an unsafe position. We took the car to autozone after it would go into gear again and they pulled a diagnostic code of P0776. The code is transmission related. The car was driven on city streets that night.

- Chicago, IL, USA

problem #27

Oct 142018

Altima 4-cyl

  • 128,960 miles
The car shut completely down while driving (in motion). There where no indicators lights to warn us of any problems. We started it up again and it died again after a few seconds. We have no idea what causes the car to completely shut down while driving. We were parked and started the car a proceeded to exit the parking lot when it just stopped working. Just completely shut off. Unknown reason for the car shutting down....

- Jacksonville, FL, USA

problem #26

Oct 012018

Altima

  • 43,000 miles
I was turning right to park my 2013 Nissan Altima and I pushed on the brake to slow down the car to stop and the car suddenly accelerated and jumped over the concrete curb stop. It continued to run upslope to the bushes and over three big rocks while I was trying to avoid hitting the fence in the front and braking it. I continued to press on the brake and the car continued to drive forward and I kept turning the wheel to the right to avoid a fence. The car ran over the curb stop of another parking space about five spaces on the right. The bolt in the concrete stop punctured my oil pan and the rocks ribbed off the plastic shields underneath. I was finally able to stop the car by pumping the brake and wind up in the opposite direction. I checked my foot was still on the brake. My car had approximately 43000 miles on the odometer. This happened at the parking lot of bertelson memorial park in el dorado hills in California. We believed that there was a computer failure that caused the acceleration of the car while I was turning right and braking and tried to park. According to one of the expert, an electrical engineer who has studied sudden acceleration in cars for over 20 years, stated that "if you're turning into a parking space, you have a lot of stress on the front drive system, since everything is based on running through the computer, including sensors on your drive systems, any one of those could carry onto the system, carry on to the on-board computer and attack it." We felt very unfair to pay for the repairs for the defective product.

- El Dorado Hills, CA, USA

problem #25

Jan 012013

Altima

  • miles
Consistent with NHTSA 10109214, ,when attempting to add gasoline to the vehicle, the gas station's gas pump's filling nozzle kicks off immediately and continuously.. in order to add fuel, I must place the nozzle no further inside than the edge of the fuel tank tube and then only slightly squeeze the gas pump's nozzle.handle so that only a light stream of fuel slowly runs through the gas pump's nozzle.. it takes me 12-15 minutes to fill my tank. This is unsafe because I cannot insert the gas pump's nozzle any further than the edge of the opening to the fuel tank tube and so it is common for gasoline to splash out on my hand, body, clothing, car and other surroundings. Because fueling requires that I maintain my hand on the pump's nozzle handle and the process takes so long, I am subject to gasoline splashes and inhaling gasoline fumes for a prolonged period of time. The splashing of gasoline on the surrounding surfaces at the gas station poses a fire risk at the gas station, its customersi and me. In the event of a fire or spark, I could catch on fire.due to the splashing on my skin, and clothing. Because the nozzle can only be placed to the edge of the opening to the fuel tank tube, a spark could be attracted to the excessive access to fuel.. as a rule, people waiting in line behind me to fuel up become inpattient and enraged due to the delay. In today's world, if the wrong person is waiting behind me, I almost jokingly add that this vehicle's defect could lead to a mass shooting at the gas station. You may disregard that last comment.

- Collierville, TN, USA

problem #24

Jul 012018

Altima

  • 91,680 miles
My 2013 Altima started to hesitate and jerk when I was driving. Then when I would be stopped and ready to pull out my car will not go and then finally catch and go. It wont go over 30 miles an hr at some points. When I brought it to Nissan they did a diagnostic on it and its the cvt transmission that needs to be replaced. I was told my warranty expired 2000 miles ago and its gonna cost me $3500 for a new one. Ive only owned my car for 2 yrs. I am so dissatisfied with Nissan and they are so unprofessional to not fix this known problem with there cvt issues on all their vehicles.. I have also replaced the inside door handles on both doors..

- Palm Bay, FL, USA

problem #23

Jul 302018

Altima

  • 77,000 miles
My vehicle stalled as I was going through an intersection. Would not start and I coasted to the side and had to get a tow. Check engine lite was on. No codes found. Car sat for a week and then started right up and drove fine. Check engine light turned off. Car started stalling again only when I put it into drive or reverse, and as long as I put it into neutral and gave it gas, then threw it into drive I would be able to drive it. Still no light on. Car drove semi good for a week or so, seemed to run a little rough but didn't stall out. A few days ago it started to not take gas and rev up on its own. I would start to go and the car would accelerate by itself. When I was on highway, or regular roads. Usually under 50 miles an hour. Tachometer would rev even though car didn't seem to go any faster. Then it just stopped taking gas all together. Now today it just stopped going. I would give it gas and it wouldn't go anywhere. I shut off and turned on and it would go for a little and then stop. Now check engine lite came on and the first code P0776 is for a bulletin that went out and the the other code is for P0965. Pictures are attached. I have been afraid to drive the car, worried that I will get into a crash. I googled the problem and saw that a lot of other people are having the similar problems. The mileage is at 77,000. The majority of the other people I read had around the same mileage. Is this a problem that Nissan should be taking care of?

- Marlborough, CT, USA

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