Car Will Not Start problems of the 2009 Nissan Altima Hybrid

The Nissan altimas and maximas have a faulty electronic steering lock (factory part #48700-9n00b & 48700-9n00a). Which will fail and your car will not start. This should been recalled because it is a very common issue which renders the car non-drivable. Also this part was only on the 07-11 altimas and 09-10 maximas. All this part is a little lock actuator that moves up and down and unlocks the steering wheel, then informs to vehicle to start the car. So if this fails when you push the start button on the vehicle the car will not start. Nissan knows that it is an common issue, even their service techs informed me it is a issue. Unfortunately they would rather charge the customer $680 for the part another couple hundred dollars in labor. This roughly a $1000 repair and instead of Nissan taking responsibility for a faulty part, they are passing the cost over to their consumers.

The contact owns a 2009 Nissan Altima Hybrid. While parked, the vehicle failed to start and "keyless intelligence" displayed across the message board. The vehicle was towed to a dealer, but was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 104,000.

I was 50 miles away from home, when I go to start my car it will not start at all! my key would lock and unlock my car but it wouldn't turn on. Initially I thought it was the key, I had my sister drop off my spare to see if that was the case, it wasn't. Come to find out the escl seems to be faulty and is preventing the car from starting up. Right now I'm waiting on the dealer to tell me what's going on, beware Nissan knows all about this but is refusing to do a recall!.

My wife went to start her 2009 Altima Hybrid with the intelligent key system. Nothing happened, the key indicator on the left of the instrument panel was lit. She tried the key in the in dash slot and still nothing. Batteries were good in both key fob's we tried, car battery was good also. It turned out to be the steering lock motor and switch. You could hear the steering lock work but evidently it never contacted the switch to show it was unlocked so the car would not start or even go into accessory mode. Parts and labor were $923 ($550 for the part, the rest labor) towing was another $100. Nissan would not help out even though I read in Nissan forums that it's been a recall item on a different model and that they didn't use the same system in newer cars.

Car operated normally in the morning, able to start and drove perfectly fine to the office. When I went to start my car to go get lunch, the car would not start and the intelligent key light flashed. I called the local dealership and was told the fob must have somehow un-synced. Aaa towed to dealership, was then told that my steering control lock had failed and needed to be replaced. Due to high demand from the part (indicating a significant current failure rate) the part would not be available for almost a week. . Read more...

It was in night around 11pm, I stepped out to nearby walmart. Upon return, the car did not start. I was getting the "yellow key" symbol. My first impression was that something was faulty with my fob key. I called my friend and got to try the key. Even this was futile. I looked up my manual for this symbol code and realized that there was some malfunction in the keyless ignition system. I was surprised cos the car was well maintained, with periodic service and very low miles(30k). It was perfect until then. I returned home with my friend and next day, I tried road side assistance who tried jump start without any luck. Finally, it was towed to the dealer. Later the dealer calls me to tell that it is steering lock problem, and that he doesn't have the replacement nor can he give me date of when it is expected. After seeing the messages in forum here, I realize it is serious problem on Nissan part. I am just lucky that this did not happen on day when I was far away from home. I cant imagine being stuck in outskirts in middle of night. I hope they seriously do something to recall this part. It is a total risky thing and wonder how Nissan did not look into it.

The steering lock unit (part number 48700-9n00b) needed replacement. The steering lock unit did not properly engage when the vehicle was turned off. Because the unit did not engage, the vehicle would not start. I was left stranded in a parking garage at night and had to have the vehicle towed. The nearest dealership was in alexandria, va. They charged $900 to diagnose and repair this problem. Since the vehicle had over 36,000 miles, it was not covered under warranty. This is a widely known issue with Nissan vehicles and is present on several online forums. Most of the steering lock unit failures occur after the warranty period, but before 60k miles. There is an existing safety recall for the 2009 Nissan gt-r model for the steering lock unit (campaign id p0309). This is Nissan's top tier vehicle. At this time Nissan has chosen not to issue a recall for other models to include the altima. Anyone driving a Nissan with this known issue can be stranded at any time.