CarComplaints.com Notes: The 2016 Nissan Altima shows multiple problem trends, continuing the poor reputation of the 2013-2015 Altima, prompting us to give it our "Beware of the Clunker" badge.

Owners are complaining about transmission problems related to the CVT (Continuously Variable Transmission).

10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
2 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
1 / 0
Average Mileage:
39,797 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.

2016 Nissan Altima drivetrain problems

drivetrain problem

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2016 Nissan Altima Owner Comments (Page 4 of 11)

« Read the previous 20 complaints

problem #145

Jul 012021

Altima

  • miles

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

I have jerking in what I believe to be the transmission when accelerating.

- Austin, MN, USA

problem #144

Aug 232021

Altima

  • miles
Upon arriving to my grandson's daycare, I applied by brake and put my car in park and suddenly my car accelerated at a fast speed. My car moved forward across an area that the children are usually playing in, but because it was raining they were inside. Thank God! I can't even imagine what would have happened. My car finally stopped because I was trying to avoid the daycare's shed, but hit the corner of the shed and this stopped the car. The air bag did not deploy as well. I am thankful to be alive and unharmed, but most thankful that no one else was harmed. My husband took photos of the brake marks on the pavement and grass and of the vehicle after collision with the shed and showing it was in park.

- Crawfordville, FL, USA

problem #143

Aug 202021

Altima

  • 130,000 miles
The contact owns a 2016 Nissan Altima. The contact stated while driving various speeds, the vehicle experienced unintended acceleration and deceleration. The contact had to place the key fob next to the push to start button to start the vehicle. Additionally, the contact had to use a screwdriver to shift the gear shifter from park to drive, or into reverse. The vehicle also stalled after stopping at a stop sign and then lunged forward to accelerate. The dealer was made aware of the failure and scheduled an upcoming appointment for a diagnostic test. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and informed the contact that the vehicle was over the mileage warranty coverage. The failure mileage was approximately 130,000.

- Dadeville, AL, USA

problem #142

Aug 022021

Altima

  • miles

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

This vehicle's 1st transmission was changed at a Nissan dealership around 44,000 miles. At 120,000 it started having issues again which effect safety: vehicle would not respond to acceleration, causing the vehicle to be stuck in dangerous situation such as merging or even in the middle of intersections. Nissan is refusing to take responsibility.

- Waterford, MI, USA

problem #141

Aug 052021

Altima

  • miles
CVT Transmission overheats then fails until it cools down.

- Lake Orion, MI, USA

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problem #140

Jul 292021

Altima

  • miles
Transmission is not right

- Dalton, MA, USA

problem #139

May 202021

Altima

  • miles

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

Car loses power while driving on highways or roads and had nearly cost me my life on occasion where the vehicle cannot complete a turn from loss of power and I cannot proceed and obstruct oncoming vehicle paths. It has also revved up out of the blue to 6000-7000 RPMs despite a holding steady pace on the gas pedal. The speed jolts and has nearly caused me to rear end unsuspecting vehicles. Sometimes the vehicle cannot accelerate and has NO POWER after coming to a full stop at a red light or stop sign. I have been unable to receive help for any of these issues despite many diagnoses and lots of money spent. And it was not made aware to me, an owner of a Nissan Altima vehicle that there is a known probability of failure with CVTs in use in Altima-??s of my hear. That lack of effort and total disregard for the lives of customers in similar Nissan vehicles is absolutely disgraceful and unacceptable! Furthermore, they try to deny it and try to take zero fault. Nissan is denying fault for faulty CVT in my vehicle and made NO ATTEMPT to notify owners of affected NISSAN vehicles and is NOT rectifying the issue or admitting their lack of effort on making owners of affected Nissan vehicles aware of issues and threatening consumer wellbeing

- Coral Springs , FL, USA

problem #138

Jun 012021

Altima

  • miles
After driving for a period of time (not too far, but more than just around the block) when I come to a stop at a stoplight or stop sign and try to accelerate again, there is a long delay of around 3-5 seconds and then my car will -??launch-??. I can push the pedal all the way to the floor and nothing happens. Then it will suddenly take off. This is a hazard while trying to turn out into traffic, if I would have to accelerate out of the way of a vehicle approaching me from any angle while at a stoplight or stop sign. Trying to cross intersections that only have 2 way stops, and for many other reasons that are pretty self explanatory. This sits very uneasy with me especially when my wife and child are riding with me. I brought this up to the dealer and they found no codes and could not recreate it, but did reprogram my ecm to most current programming per NTB13-054D. That cost $140 and did not fix my issue. It seems like to recreate the issue the car has to be driven for a little while (at lease 20-30 mins on the highway) before it begins acting up. It also seems like hot weather contributes to the issue as well.I drive an hour each way to work, so it pretty much acts up for me 2x a day since it has gotten warm out.

- Fairplay, MD, USA

problem #137

Jul 082021

Altima

  • miles
Stopped propelling the car. Might be a transmission problem.

- Ankeny, IA, USA

problem #136

Jun 192021

Altima

  • miles
The CVT transmission in my 2016 Nissan Altima causes my vehicle to experience sudden shaking or jerking and to occasionally stall after a traffic stop while driving. I have been in near accidents based on this CVT issue as there is no way to anticipate when my vehicle will experience the aforementioned problems. I have taken my vehicle to an independent service center where technicians confirmed that the issue lies with my transmission. My vehicle was also inspected by my municipal vehicle inspection service which also flagged the problem. I have tried to contact Nissan USA to assist in the resolution of this issue but it has not been helpful in resolving the issue as I am outside the arbitrarily-set extended warranty period due to the vehicle's mileage. The Nissan Altima CVT transmission is a public safety emergency that needs to be fixed and I hope Nissan USA adequately and equitably addresses this problem. As a consumer who has previously only owned and operated Nissan Altimas, I am saddened by the company's inability to fully help consumers who are endangered by its faulty transmission and who may be a danger to others on the road due to this known issue.

- Washington, DC, USA

problem #135

Jun 012021

Altima

  • miles

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

2016 Nissan Altima, driving down highway and car would not accelerate, then jerked forward quite intensely. I felt like I did not have control of the car and feared I was going to hit someone or be hit by someone. I was finally able to get the car pulled over to the shoulder and turned it off. I thought it was a bad tank of gas. Let it sit for a bit, restarted, and made it home. We ran it this way for a couple of days so we could run the 'bad' gas out. Filled back up and added additive. Nope, same issue as soon as the car gets warmed up after about 8-10 miles. Took it to my local mechanic to make sure it was not the Mass Air Flow Sensor that I had to pay him to replace a few months back which cost me $600. That came back fine, but he informed me it was the transmission, and is a known issue with Nissans. I began researching, and boy is it ever a known issue all the way back to 2013. What baffles me is they are still using this same transmission, and one day, this will cause someone to get killed because they are allowed to continue doing this. I took it to Nissan Dealership, and opened a case with Nissan HQ Consumer Affairs. They confirmed CVT Transmission. I am at 88,500 miles, warranty out at 84,000. They offered to pay 80% for repair. Not acceptable when this should be a recall. Please have this recalled for goodness sake before someone is hurt. I did not have any warning light at all come on.

- Hutto, TX, USA

problem #134

Jun 022021

Altima

  • miles
I was driving down the highway and my 2016 Nissan Altima began jerking and trying to stall, then jerking me forward again quite hard. I had to pull over in fear of hitting someone or my car becoming out of control. I have since discovered that it is the CVT transmission.

- Hutto, TX, USA

problem #133

Mar 202021

Altima

  • 50,027 miles
My wife was driving our 16 Altima that just crossed 50K miles on 3/20/21 when she could not accelerate after stopping at a red light. She noticed the rpms were moving higher but the vehicle would not move. She turned off the car while in the middle of the road and was able to restart it. After restarting she could not exceed 40mph. While driving the rmp bounced between 1000 and 3000 and the car "jerked" while she continued to drive home. By the time she made it home the check engine light was on. I used a code scanner to see what was going on and the car returned the following codes (P0776pressure control solenoid B performance or stuck off; P0841 transmission fluid pressure sensor/switch a circuit range/performance). I took the vehicle to the dealership and after they did their diagnosis I was told the vehicle, needed a new transmission. This vehicle has been well maintained with only 50K mills and now needs a brand new transmission. The tech from the dealership told me this a common thing with cvt transmissions, especially on Nissan; which is why he recommends customers buy an extended warranty. If this is a known problem with cvt transmissions why hasn't there been a recall or redesign to fix the issue" it is very dangerous to not have your vehicle accelerate when you need it to. How many accidents have been caused or lives lost by defective cvts" it is a very scary thing to drive a vehicle with this problem. Please do some about this. We do not what this to turn into a takata airbag situation. After being warned about this problem. If you google Nissan cvt transmission problems, you will find videos and forums with complaint after complaint regarding this problem. Please get this issue fixed. My wife and I both have videos of what took place.

- Sicklerville, NJ, USA

problem #132

Mar 242021

Altima

  • 41,000 miles
Engine light came on. My car fail to accelerate and it hesitated. I was told by the dealership that the code showing was the power train control module

- Memphis, TN, USA

problem #131

Mar 092021

Altima

  • 59,000 miles
The car often hesitated to accelerate when pressing on the gas then all of a sudden it will take off swiftly. It's starting to do it often and there are no check engine lights. This happened with my daughter driving as she made a left hand turn & almost caused her to be hit.

- Memphis, TN, USA

problem #130

Jan 112021

Altima

  • miles
The contact owns a 2016 Nissan Altima. The contact stated that while driving 35 mph, the vehicle shut-off without warning. The contact restarted the vehicle however, while approaching a stop light, she heard an abnormal knocking sound coming from the engine with an unknown warning light illuminated. The contact had to restart the vehicle several times before reaching her destination. The contact had the vehicle towed from her residence to jim browne Chevrolet, Inc. (11300 N Florida ave, tampa, fl 33612) where the vehicle was diagnosed with transmission failure. The vehicle was then towed to maus Nissan of North tampa (11011 N Florida ave, tampa, fl 33612) however, the dealer refused to repair the vehicle under warranty. The vehicle remained at the dealer. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was unknown.

- Tampa, FL, USA

problem #129

Jan 152021

Altima

  • 4 miles
Engine RPM is uncontrollable engine light came on at 87781 miles no problems before this failure because I was not aware of this manufacturer failure I have exceeded my extended warranty by 3K miles and now I'm in a bad position to deal with this, I still owe on this car.this is very shameful for letting Nissan get away with this defect, now we the consumers have to pay.

- Lewisville, TX, USA

problem #128

Jan 042021

Altima

  • 40,000 miles
While accelerating from a complete stop, the vehicle shudders or jerks but the engine rpms continue to increase. The problem appears to be random.

- Beaverton, OR, USA

problem #127

Jan 042021

Altima

  • miles
When im parrallel parking I notice that on occassion I would loose power for a few seconds and the steering becomes very difficult

- Baltimore, MD, USA

problem #126

Oct 162020

Altima

  • 68,000 miles
My 2016 Altima sr is experiencing a sporadic delay when accelerating from a stop. It won't rev or do anything for a couple of seconds no matter how far down the pedal is. Then all of a sudden it'll go. There is no check engine light and no codes. If I turn the car off, it's like it resets and has more power afterwards. The dealer has consulted their 'tech line', this happen twice one at 38000 and now 68000.

- San Jose, CA, USA

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