Recently after lending my 2014 Nissan Altima to my daughter to drive out of state she made a turn in a parking lot and the rear lower control arm broke in half. The car was undrivable and had to be towed to a local repair shop. After doing some checking online I found out that Nissan is well aware of the issue and has issued a service bulletin P9324. However, I am very upset as Nissan never mailed out any notices to owners to bring the cars into a nissan dealership and have them inspected, owners were never made aware of the potential problem. Not only that, I live in a state which uses road salt, which their service bulletin says compounds the issue and I was still never notified. Nissan is well aware of the cracking lower control arm issue and had a redesign done in I believe 2018 to eliminate the issue. Additionally, I had the car in at a Nissan dealership 2 weeks before the failure occurred for a different recall issue and I feel there is no excuse for this to at least not have been checked when the car was in at a dealership for service, especially in a road salt use state. Looking back the car was making a clicking noise from the right rear where the control arm broke for the last year and a half only rarely when going over one particular speed bump where I live. Had I been notified by Nissan about the potential issue I immediately would have bought it into a dealer for inspection. Additionally Nissan did extend the warranty on this part but the failure was six months outside of their extended warranty and they will not cover repair expenses either. I strongly feel this breakage could have caused a loss of life if it happened at highway speeds as my daughter informed me the car was completely undrivable when it broke in the parking lot and had to be towed. I am in possession of the failed lower control arm. Once again shame on Nissan for failing to notify owners of this potential hazardous problem.
VIN Pattern | 1N4AL3AP*EC****** |
Drive Type | 4x2 |
Manufacturer | NISSAN NORTH AMERICA, INC. |
Make | NISSAN |
Model | Altima |
Model Year | 2014 |
Body Class | Sedan/Saloon |
Vehicle Type | PASSENGER CAR |
Engine Displacement (L) | 2.5 |
Engine Displacement (CC) | 2500 |
Engine Displacement (CI) | 152.559 |
Primary Fuel Type | Gasoline |
Front Air Bags | 1st Row (Driver and Passenger) |
Side Air Bag | 1st Row (Driver and Passenger) |
Curtain Air Bags | 1st and 2nd Rows |
Seat Belts | Manual |
Other Restraint System Info | 2nd row outboard and 3-pt manual belts, 2nd row center 3-point manual belts |
Plant Company Name | Smyrna Plant |
Plant City | SMYRNA |
Plant State | TENNESSEE |
Plant Country | UNITED STATES (USA) |