640,000 Altima Sedans Recalled

Nissan North America Inc. has recalled 640,000 Altima sedans after discovering the cars’ hoods can fly open while in motion. This brings the total number of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles recalled for the defect in the past year to nearly 1.1 million. On March 3, Nissan notified dealerships of the recall after the manufacturer discovered certain model year 2013 through 2015 Altimas contain secondary hood latches that may not fully engage when the hood is closed. The defect increases the risk that it will fly open unexpectedly while the vehicle is in motion and cause a crash. According to Nissan, there have been no reports of collisions or injuries caused by the defect.

In January, Nissan recalled 216,000 Nissan Pathfinder and Infiniti JX35s and QX60s for the same problem. Three months before that, hood latch issues prompted the recall of 238,000 model year 2013 Altimas. According to its report to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), Nissan said it is continuing to investigate which vehicles are involved in the current recall and said its work is ongoing. So far it had pointed to 625,000 Altimas sold in the U.S. and 15,000 sold in Canada. The agency said: Nissan is continuing to investigate the root cause of this issue. Once Nissan concludes its investigation, we may revise the defect description.

The manufacturer noted that it has not yet developed a remedy for the problem but plans to provide information as soon as it becomes available. The company plans to implement an interim procedure to inspect and lubricate the secondary hood latch assembly on all subject vehicles in dealer inventory prior to retail sale. “We will not include a statement in the Part 577 owner notification concerning reimbursement for the cost of obtaining a pre-notification remedy as the subject vehicles are under warranty,” Nissan said.

Nissan should complete notifications to customers of the defect by the end of this month. The automaker’s recalls so far this year have not been confined to only hood-related issues. In January, the automaker recalled 470,000 model year 2008 through 2014 Nissan Rogues that NHTSA found to be plagued by electrical shorts in a seat belt component due to a mixture of snow or water and salt seeping through the carpet on the driver side floor. The electrical shorts can cause a fire in the SUVs, according to NHTSA.