Two problems related to wiring have been reported for the 2010 Nissan Altima. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2010 Nissan Altima based on all problems reported for the 2010 Altima.
Nissan Altima 2010 (~25k miles so far) would not start upon press the start button, so the car is immobilized. Walked away, came back 15 minutes, and by chance, it started. This happen several times for the past 2 months. The last try, no such luck when attempt to start the car. Check the car battery was at 45%. So I charged the battery to 100% and still no luck starting the car. Call Nissanassist and recommended the car be towed to Nissan authorized service center. I did and their diagnosis ($119. 00) are a bad brake switch/wiring harness combo issue and cost about over $600. 00. The car is now out of warranty. The local service manager said "off the record", this known defective brake switch will not allow the car to start, also it is consuming the battery electrical current and over time. This continuous bleeding of current will heat up the wire harness/connectors due to the car starting and its security features, and thus eventually draining your car battery and damaging the wire harness. That is why you will have a dead battery over time of 1-2 weeks. This is a money making proposition for Nissan corporation and the local service person mentioned about a rash of bad switch occurrences last year (2013). In short, if you don't use the Nissan service department for your car and spend $$$ with them, the Nissanassist won't help you defray the cost for the car defective as you did not "invest" with them . So NHTSA, people won't die with this defective, but will cause many inconveniences with dead cars at various locations where drivers turn off their cars and frustrated on attempting to start their cars. This is the same problem noted on Nissan blog and websites by frustrated Nissan Altima owners. In summary, can NHTSA investigated and force Nissan to issue a recall for this recurring problem as no one die yet? yes, no one will die from this.
The contact owns a 2010 Nissan Altima. The contact stated that the push-to-start button failed to respond. The contact also stated that the abs and the slp warning lights illuminated. The vehicle would start after multiple attempts or the vehicle would have to receive a jump start to the battery from another vehicle in order to start properly. The vehicle was taken to a dealer for diagnostic testing and the mechanic stated that the brake and the park light switch failed. As a result the wiring harness needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 100.