general problems of the 2013 Nissan Altima - part 1

My airbag light has been illuminated for the past few months. It does not illuminate while someone is in the seat. Once reset, it stays off for a while. When checked, the mechanic informed me that the sensor in my passenger seat needs to be replaced. Due to this malfunction, the vehicle may improperly deploy airbags. This has not happened but I’m concerned that it could possibly happen.

Good day, the airbags don't show as on when passengers sit. And the transmission is giving me more problems.

When adult sits in passenger seat, the passenger (air bag off)light is on. Which means the air bag is off and will not deploy in a accident. When a heavy weight adult sits in the seat, the light turns off. Sensor might be bad in seat. My wife is 140 lbs. Light stays on when she sits in the passenger seat .

Both the driver and passenger side seat sensors do not detect when a person is in the seat, causing the air bags to remain off when vehicle is occupied. This is a common issue with the 2013 Altima, but Nissan has not issued a recall to have the seat sensors repaired.

When a passenger sits in the front seat the airbag light on the dashboard indicates the airbag isn't armed. I have had a Nissan dealer "fix" it three times and it starts again in a few weeks. First time dealer said a connection came loose when the seat was adjusted. Same thing the second time and the third time they said they secured the connection. The light came on in a matter of weeks again . I will take the car back for a fourth time soon. I asked the dealer service rep if there were any service bulletins regarding this problem, he said there weren't any, I feel that I can't have the only car with this problem. Whenever there is a passenger in the front seat I worry about being involved in an accident and their airbag not deploying.

When I bought the car I had to replace the transmission 2 times in one year, the suspension is giving up and the driver seat is always braking.

On June 2nd 2019 I was turning from a local street to rt 303 when heard a pop noise. It caused my wheel to jerk quickly to the right and my dash board light turned on. When I pulled over to the side to look and see what it was I saw that the body of my vehicle was resting practically on the tire. I went into a parking lot about 400m which was in front of an auto body. I left it in the parking lot over night and the next day I took it across the street where there is an auto body. When they lifted up my car they saw that the rear left part holding up my shocks had rusted and eroded and snapped and that my rear right side was rusted and cracked.

My lights real dim at night so I replace them with new led lights and they still looks dim I can't see nothing this is real safety issue especially when you got kids.

My "vehicle was previously recalled to reprogram front passenger occupant classification system (OCS) electronic control unit (ecu). " I took my car in for the recall to have it taken care of, but now I'm still having issues with the OCS. Currently, the driver side airbag light is on, indicating that it is not functioning properly. In addition, while the car was in motion and I was sitting in the passenger seat, the passenger side airbag light was lit up. This indicated that the airbag was off, despite the fact that I was sitting in it. After taking the car into the dealership, I was informed that I needed a new OCS control unit as well as two OCS sensors. I informed them of the previous recall on the OCS; however, they said this was a separate issue, so I was going to have to pay around $700. Nissan originally said in a letter that, "if at any time within the next 15 years, the OCS system in your vehicle does not perform as described above, we urge you to please schedule an appointment at your nearest Nissan dealer. The dealer can check the OCS system in your vehicle and, if needed, perform a one-time retrofit to the OCS system free of charge. " since the OCS is still having issues after the original recall, I thought it was imperative to report this huge safety issue. I was informed that the airbags might not deploy if I were in a car accident, which could cause unnecessary injuries or even death. Clearly there are still unresolved issues with the OCS that need attention.

Shifter needs to be replaced a/c compressor needs replaced seat belt light/air bag light issue.

I have already taken this vehicle back numerous times to the dealership for the same recalls and the notification / emergency lights still come on. This happens when driving at a stop light or when I turn the car on.

For 3 years we have been dealing with this particular issue, with no resolution. The dashboard light signaling that the passenger air bag is properly activated for an adult occupant comes on or does not come on when it is supposed to. This occurs whether the car is stationary or on the move. The dealer has told us not to put anything on the passenger seat = ridiculous. The dealer then said that it "reprogrammed the system". Then the dealer told us that they needed to replace the sensor. I believe this has been done 2 x. We last had this attended to sept 15, 2015 but the "so-called repair" did not work again. This air bag issue is serious, and we feel unsafe in this car, therefore we have driven less than 2000 miles in 5 months - the car sits in the garage. The problem is intermittant = we don't know when the air bag system is functioning correctly - we must assume it is malfunctioning!.

Front passenger airbag remains disabled when full sized adult is sitting in front passenger seat. Car was taken to dealer over one year ago for recall on this issue. Still has not been resolved. New recall issued oct 2015, took vehicle to Nissan for fix on 11/24/15. Nissan will not fix, say they have no way to fix the issue. Nissan states I will have to continue to drive a vehicle with inoperable passenger air bags. Showed Nissan service dept video of full sized adult sitting in passenger seat, vehicle running, and "airbag off" light illuminated in center of dash. Nissan states there is no fault in the system, and passenger should just "move their legs" to arm the system. Passenger seating position does not arm airbag or alter the function of the faulty system. Problem occurs randomly, with vehicle moving/stationary.

Randomly, the airbag sensor for the passenger side indicates as being off even when there is someone seating on it. This issue (supposedly) was already been looked at by the local Nissan dealer when a recalled was implemented for this issue. But it is happening again.

For over a year this vehicle has had an issue where the airbags will turn themselves on and off . No matter if there is a person in the passenger seat or not . The seat can be empty and the airbags warning indicator light will randomly come on and off . The same is true when there is a person in the seat . The vehicle was repaired numerous times right after purchase , it was fixed for the safety recall for this problem and it has been repaired numerous times since . The problem continues . Nissan corporate has refused to re purchase this obvious lemon and has said they will continue to attempt to fix it . Since they have been unable to identify the problem . . . They now have resorted to blaming the dealers . Search vimeo for 2013 Nissan Altima airbag light and you will see the video of this issue .

The occupant classification system (airbags) turn off when the passenger seat is occupied by person weighing 130+ pounds. This happens if car is idle, and at all speeds. Car has been taken to the dealership to be serviced for the recall on 4 seperate occasions and dealer has acknowledged that they do not know what to do as they have tried multiple remedies and cannot fix it. They refuse doing anything else to do and say it is not their problem. The dealership is Nissan of mckinney in texas. General manager is david kelly and service technician is matt johnson. I do not feel safe in the car as this is a serious safety hazard. There is a rebuttable presumption that a reasonable number of attempts have been undertaken to conform a motor vehichle to the applicable express warranties. It has been subject to repair on 4 seperate occassions. The car has guards on the underside of the car that have fallen off on 3 seperate occasions and been fixed to no avail. The dealership acknowledges that they sold an extended maintance warranty to me and miss represented the product and did nothing to make amends until I inquired on several occasions. Nissan of mckinney in texas sold the 2013 Nissan Altima with premium dunlop tires and charged a premium for the tires at the time of the sale. The orignial dunlop tires are bald an will not pass inspection, which was acknowledged by matt and general manager david kelly, at 19,000 miles. These tires have a 65,0000 manufacture warranty from dunlop/goodyear and the dealer will not make good or replace the tires as they are clearly faulty. The missrepresentation of the 2013 Nissan Altima has caused an extreme amount of undo stress and the dealership refuses to make any remedy at all. Nissan of mckinney texas and their general manager have sold me a car that falls under the texas lemon law.

Several times the passenger seat / occupant detection system has failed to properly identify an adult occupant and has disabled the passenger airbag. This occurs with males and females ranging from 40th to 70th percentile in all genders. I have recorded videos of these incidents for record of their occurrence. The only resolution is to pull over, power car completely off and restart car. On restart the car recognized the occupant and enabled the passenger airbag. The date of incident is of the first occurrence. This happened several more times with the most recent being may 2015 with approximately 29,000 miles on the vehicle.

The brakes make noise all the time even with new brake pads and rotors,the emergency brake like turn on while I was driving on the freeway so decided to park the car to check the emegency brake was not on, it turned off after the car rested for 2hrs. Also when I reverse the car then put it in drive there is a slight delay to accelerate.

My wife and I were driving I noticed the passenger airbag light saying "passenger airbag off". . My wife is about 150 lbs and the airbag seat sensor should not have an issue with a person of this weight. I worked on seat sensor design for almost two years and I know that most are programs to not deploy for people under 80lbs. This has happened three times so far (mid Jan, end of Feb, and early March 2014). I have pulled over each time, turned the car on and off and it re-set the error two of the three times. The one time it did not, I drove an additional 10 miles then retried the car off/on and it re-set so the airbag does work. Now I'm driving around checking for the light so I know the airbag will deploy in case of an accident when I have a passenger in my front seat.

The vehicle was involve in the 2014 recall for the safety defect due to a computer program could misjudge the weight of the person in the front passenger seat and conclude that a child instead of an adult was sitting there. The local Nissan dealer has tried at lest 5 time times to correct to no avail.

The front passenger air bag status light (passenger air bag off), illuminates intermittently with a full sized adult sitting in the right front passenger seat. Nissan claims that my vehicle is not subject to the voluntary safety recall campaign id# pc214, dated April 2, 2013. The passenger airbag status lamp is located above the instrument panel center stack. This intermittent condition has occurred twice through the month of December 2013. The warning indicator will turn off and operate correctly after I turn off my running engine and restart.

Passenger air bag indicator light indicates that airbag remains off while passenger is in the seat. Nissan dealer tech claims that this is not a problem; just the way the system works. He wouldn't even look at it.

The contact owns a 2013 Nissan Altima. While driving at various speeds, the passenger side air bag warning light illuminated intermittently. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the aftermarket leather seat and sensor needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired, but the failure recurred. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 35,800.

Passenger air bag light stays on while passenger is sitting in the seat. Problem started a couple of weeks after I leased brand new car. The problem is ongoing for over a year now. The fox Nissan dealership cannot replicate the problem so Nissan will not offer any resolution. I've been trying for a year now and the problem persists, Nissan or dealership cannot say if the airbag will work in the case of a crash. I'm paying monthly lease payments on a car that may or may not be safe. What ever happened to customer service? took the car in last Friday for the airbag recall, problem is still there after dealership updated the software problem. Both fox Nissan dealership and Nissan regional field rep said there is nothing more they can do since they can't replicate the problem. Apparently the photos of the problem they had me take we're to make me feel like they actually cared. I can't believe I'm continuing to make payments on this unsafe vehicle.

Passenger air bag off warning light comes on intermittently, even with a person over 100 lbs. In the front passenger seat. This has been an issue since the car was new. I brought the car into the dealer and they "recalibrated" the sensor, but this did not fix the issue. The recent passenger air bag recall did not include my VIN, so it appears that Nissan has no idea how to fix this. By reading these complaints on safercar. Gov, it appears that this is a widespread issue. How long will Nissan's customers be forced to drive around with compromised safety systems?.

Well I noticed that my passenger airbagoff light was on with a passenger sitting in the vehicle, it has done this many times, and I even have a video of me sitting in it and I weight 180lbs with the light on while the car is being driven. I have taken it in to the dealership 3 different times for this problem. Each time they have told me that they have reset the seat. It is still doing it, the video came after the third time and just 3 days ago. I called Nissan about this and my other big problems and they have told me that I should take it to another dealer. There is a recall on this through Nissan and yet I have brought it in 3 seperate times and they still keep telling me its ok. No sir. Nissan seems to just not care I have asked them many times for a Nissan rep to come out and look at my car and they just keep telling me to take it to a different dealer. The problem is all the Nissan dealers around me are owned and managed by the same company. And Nissan will not help me with a loaner car if I drive it 200 miles away to the next dealer. So I am just screwed. Very upset with how Nissan runs their business. This is my first and last Nissan ever!.

The day I purchased the vehicle (1/23/13) the seat belt light would not shut off. The passenger airbag light would also indicate that the passenger airbag was disengaged with a passenger in the vehicle. The dealership (rosenthal Nissan of tysons) took the car in back and made some adjustments. The problem apparently went away. Tonight (2/9/13) the passenger airbag sensor once again indicated no passenger when my 110 lb wife was sitting in the seat. I tried it with myself (175lb) and again it occurred. This is an unacceptable safety concern.

Passenger airbag indicator light indicates airbag is "inhibited" even though my wife is riding in the passenger seat. She has no protection from the airbag in the event of an accident.

Since I purchased my Altima in 12/2012, 90% of the time the "pass" passenger airbag light comes on when my wife is sitting in the front passenger seat. I have had the Altima in for repairs on this about 5 times at tamaroff Nissan in southfield, michigan, including when there was a recall. I've had it looked at twice after the recall repair and it is still not fixed. Tamaroff has reloaded software and checked the sensors with no luck. They finally indicated that since my wife weighs around 110 pounds, she is on the cusp of what the sensor will react to. Jokingly, they indicated that if she would carry something heavy in her lap, such as a bowling ball, the pass airbag light would not be activated. My previous Altima never had this problem.

Female passenger, 5ft. 0in. , weighing 100lbs causes front passenger airbag to be disabled (front passenger airbag status light on). Light would go away after a while. For a female passenger, 5ft. 5in. , weighing 120-125lbs causes intermittent front passenger airbag operation. Appeared to operate normally before. 12/24/2012: vehicle was brought to dealer and was found that the scale on the front passenger side seat was off by 25. Scale was zeroed out in the front passenger seat. Issue appears to be resolved for female passenger, 5ft. 5in. , weighing 120-125lbs. 01/07/2013: front passenger airbag disabled for male passenger 5ft. 6in. , weighing 160lbs. Resolved by restarting vehicle.

Purchased as a new vehicle, the heated seats do not, nor ever did work properly. When the temperature control is set to high, only the seat gets hot; and it gets real hot. When the temperature control is set to low, only the seat back gets warm and the seat itself does not heat. I know that Nissan is aware of the issue, my dealership's service department has told me as much. It is now over six months and they still cannot fix my new car. Living in a cold climate this was important to me. It is frustrating that nothing is being done. I feel it is definitely a safety hazard because the seat gets so hot when set on high and is not distributed equally throughout the entire seat.

Intermittently, "passenger airbag off" warning light remains on even though passenger (130 lbs) is in the front passenger, it occurred several times, had to turn off and restart the car to clear the light.

The "passenger air bag off" warning light may come on when an adult or large teenager is sitting in the front passenger seat. This failure happens occasionally. At times, the warning light will go off after a few minutes of driving. It appears that either the seat sensor(s) or the software that reads the sensor(s) and determines the size/weight of the front passenger may be faulty. I am amazed that there has been no recall of the 2013 Altima for this issue, given the number of complaints on this website.

I have a 2013 Nissan Altima. The passenger seat air bag occupant sensor comes on showing that the passenger air bag is turned off when an adult is sitting in the seat. The adult is 200 lbs. The light will stay on for 15-20 minutes while driving. My car was recalled for the occupant sensor classifacation reset. It did not change anything. It still does the same thing. I have complained about it numorous times to the dealer. The dealer says there is still not a fix from Nissan. I want this fixed. Please help.

The passenger air bag off warning light comes on intermittently while an adult over 125 lbs is seated in the passenger seat. This has happened multiple times with multiple adults of various weights. If the car is stopped, turned off and turned back on it usually clears the problem. I have brought the car into the Nissan service center four times. Each time they have done something else to try to resolve the problem but it keeps happening. I am awaiting a call back from the manager of the Nissan service center. I am very concerned that in the event of an accident my passenger will not be protected by a working front air bag. I have searched this problem on line and seen many post of similar problems for the 2013 Nissan Altima. I have also seem many instances of this problem with previous Altima models and other Nissan vehicles.