There are 4 owner-reported air bags & restraints complaints for the 2012 Nissan Xterrain NHTSA's database. These are unverified consumer reports and may not reflect confirmed defects.
The contact owns a 2012 Nissan Xterra. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23E012000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was not contacted. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. VIN tool confirms parts not available.
The contact owns a 2012 Nissan Xterra. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23E012000 (Air Bags) however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. VIN tool confirms parts not available.
PASSENGER SIDE AIR BAG WARNING LIGHT INTERMITTENTLY GOES ON W/ SEAT OCCUPIED (120LB ADULT), SEAT BELT FASTENED, SEAT IN NORMAL UPRIGHT POSITION - INDICATING THE AIR BAG IS DEACTIVATED. I ASKED THE DEALER I PURCHASED THE VEHICLE (NEW) FROM ABOUT THIS ANOMALY AT THE FIRST SERVICE (2220 MILES/3MOS) ON 2-20-2013 AND WAS TOLD THERE WAS NOTHING THEY COULD DO - "READ THE OWNERS MANUAL". WE DID MANY DIFFERENT EXPERIMENTS WITH SEATING POSITION, SEAT BACK ANGLE ON SUBSEQUENT TRIPS, WITH NO POSITIVE RESULTS. THE ONLY EXPERIMENT THAT PROVIDED POSITIVE RESULTS WAS FOR HER TO HOLD OUR 20 LB DOG ON HER LAP - NOT A SATISFACTORY OR PERMANENT SOLUTION. I TOOK THE VEHICLE TO ANOTHER DEALER FOR THIS SPECIFIC ISSUE ON 4-22-2013 AND WAS TOLD THEY COULD DO NOTHING, AND THAT I SHOULD CONTACT NISSAN CONSUMER AFFAIRS WHICH I HAVE DONE WITH ZERO HELP OR SATISFACTION AS OF TODAY. AS SOMEONE WHO SPENT SOME 30 YEARS IDENTIFYING PROBLEMS LIKE THIS AND OVERSEEING THE DEVELOPMENT, TESTING AND PRODUCTION OF FIXES FOR AIRCRAFT, THE ENGINEERING REQUIRED TO PROVIDE OWNERS LIKE US WITH A SUITABLE FIX TO THIS PROBLEM WOULD NOT SEEM TO ME TO BE ALL THAT LARGE OR COSTLY. GIVEN THAT THIS REOCCURRING PROBLEM IN AN IMPORTANT SAFTEY SYSTEM ON THIS AND OTHER NISSAN MODELS AS WELL AS MANY IN VEHICLES PRODUCED BY OTHER MANUFACTURERS, I AM CONFIDENT YOUR OFFICES COULD PRODUCE QUICK AND MEANINGFUL RESULTS FOR EVRYONE - OWNERS AND MANUFACTURERS BY APPLYING PRESSURE AND ESTABLISHING A MEANINGFUL CRITERION FOR THE ACTIVATION/DEACTIVATION OF THE PASSENGER SEAT AIR BAG SYSTEM. *TR
I'M FILING A COMPLAINT BEFORE I HAVE AN INCIDENT. I OWN A NISSAN XTERRA. MANY OTHER NISSAN XTERRA OWNERS HAVE HAD SPONTANEOUS SIDE CURTAIN AIR BAG DEPLOYMENT WHEN TRAVELING VERY SLOWLY, GENERALLY ON DIRT ROADS. SOME OF THESE DEPLOYMENTS HAVE CAUSED INJURIES. THE PROBLEM APPEARS TO BE COMMON ON ALL 2ND GENERATION NISSAN XTERRAS (2006-2016). THE FOLLOWING LINKS ARE TO XTERRA FORUM THREADS AND PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS ABOUT RANDOM AIRBAG DEPLOYMENT IN XTERRAS. THERE ARE MANY MORE DOCUMENTED CASES OF THIS ONLINE, THE LINKS BELOW ARE A TASTE. THIS ALSO MAY BE A PROBLEM WITH NISSAN FRONTIERS, WHICH ARE BASICALLY THE TRUCK VARIANT OF THE XTERRA. BASED ON ABOVE TEXT, NO INCIDENT/CRASH OCCURRED...NO INJURIES. CHANGED INJ TO 0. 2/1/2017 PCO HTTP://TINYURL.COM/HSO3ELX HTTP://TINYURL.COM/J7U9E8K HTTP://TINYURL.COM/ZJT6ZMR HTTP://TINYURL.COM/HQGGBTO
Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA. A high complaint count may reflect vehicle popularity, not defect severity. Data sourced from NHTSA public records.
Data synced from NHTSA on Apr 25, 2026