2005 Nissan Sentra
This year drew an ordinary 170 complaints for a Nissan Sentra — the model's median is 154. What they were about is the unusual part: 17.1% of them mention fuel, against 2.1% across the model's other years.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 170 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 154 |
| Involving a crash | 13 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 6 |
| EPA combined | 25 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- fuel — 17.1% of this year's complaints, against 2.1% across the model's other years (8.2×).
- tank — 21.8% of this year's complaints, against 5% across the model's other years (4.4×). Owners wrote it as: tank, gasoline, fuel tank, storage.
- pump — 20% of this year's complaints, against 6.9% across the model's other years (2.9×). Owners wrote it as: pump, online, water, buy.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
WHENEVER FUEL WAS DISPENSED INTO THE FUEL TANK, THE FUEL WOULD SPEW OUT FROM THE FUEL TANK FILLER NECK REGARDLESS OF THE FUEL CAPACITY. THERE WAS A RECALL ASSOCIATED WITH THE FAILURE UNDER NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID NUMBER: 05V269000 (FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE:STORAGE) BUT…
GASOLINE SPILLED ONTO THE GROUND BEFORE THE FUEL TANK WAS FILLED TO ITS CAPACITY. THE FAILURE RECURRED ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS. THE [VIN] WAS NOTIFIED AND DID NOT PROVIDE A REMEDY. THE FAILURE WAS NOT DIAGNOSED BY A DEALER OR MECHANIC. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 166…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V008000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V747000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 15V287000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 07V527000 ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING Fixed free of charge.
- 05V269000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 22E066000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Nissan Sentra was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2005 Nissan Sentra? What happened to yours?
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