2016 NISSAN ALTIMA — Complaint #1735708
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:HAND HEATER:WIRING HARNESS filed March 22, 2021
NHTSA complaint #1735708 (ODI reference 11404352) concerns a 2016 NISSAN ALTIMA and was filed on March 22, 2021. The owner reports the failure occurred on September 25, 2019. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as electrical system:hand heater:wiring harness, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 1. A complaint that flags a crash, fire, or fatality is escalated on NHTSA's internal review queue and factors more heavily into any Preliminary Evaluation decision on this make and model. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same NISSAN ALTIMA cohort independently describe similar electrical system:hand heater:wiring harness failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2016 NISSAN ALTIMA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL* THE CONTACT WAS AN ADMINISTRATOR FOR THE CHILD DEATH REVIEW FOR LA COUNTY. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE OWNER OF A 2016 NISSAN ALTIMA, EXITED THE VEHICLE WITH THE HEATER ACTIVATED AND LEFT HER 2-YEAR-OLD CHILD IN A CAR SEAT LOCATED IN THE REAR PASSENGER SIDE OF THE VEHICLE FOR OVER 3 HOURS UNATTENDED. THE CAR SEAT INFORMATION WAS NOT AVAILABLE. THE CHILD WAS PRONOUNCED DECEASED DUE TO A HEAT STROKE. THE TEMPERATURE IN THE VEHICLE EXCEEDED 117 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT AND THERE WAS NO WARNING LIGHT TO MAKE THE DRIVER AWARE THAT THE VEHICLE COULD REACH FATAL HEATER TEMPERATURES OR THAT THE INTERIOR OF THE VEHICLE WAS REACHING HIGH LEVELS OF HEAT TEMPERATURES. THE CONTACT WAS CONCERNED THAT THERE WAS NO SAFETY MECHANISM TO AVOID THE VEHICLE REACHING INTERIOR HIGH-TEMPERATURE LEVELS. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOT INFORMED OF THE INCIDENT. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS NOT AVAILABLE.*DT
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1735708 |
| ODI Number | 11404352 |
| Date Filed | March 22, 2021 |
| Failure Date | September 25, 2019 |
| VIN | 1N4AL3AP9GC |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.