Check a VIN

1996 Nissan 200SX problems

The most common problem on the 1996 Nissan 200SX is airbags. It has 18.5 times the complaints of a typical 200SX model year.

Typical year18.5x the typical complaints
Owner complaints
37
Recalls
1
Service bulletins
40
Worst area
Airbags

The worst 1996 Nissan 200SX problems

Ranked by number of owner complaints. Mileage and cost come from what owners wrote.

Problems by type

Tap a problem to see which part fails, at what mileage and in which other years.

  • Airbags
    12
  • Visibility
    9
  • Transmission
    4
  • Brakes
    3
  • Tires
    3
  • Electrical
    2
  • Engine
    2
  • Suspension
    2
  • Acceleration
    1
  • Lights
    1
  • Seat belts
    1

Specific symptoms reported on the 1996 Nissan 200SX

Wipers 8Airbag light 5

Recalls 1

Visibility: windshield wiper/washer: linkagesReported May 5, 1998 · 512,387 vehicles affected
What is wrong
Vehicle description: passenger vehicles. Water can enter and displace the grease in the wiper arm linkage ball joint where the wiper linkage attaches to the wiper motor linkage.
Risk
This can result in gradual wear over a period of time inside the joint that could lead to the separation of the wiper linkage assembly from the wiper motor linkage at the ball joint. A loss of windshield wiper function can result in this separation occurs.
Remedy
To prevent grease from being washed out of the joint, the dealers will modify by adding a water diversion seal that will prevent water from entering the windshield wiper linkage ball joint area.

Recall number 98V093000 · Recall details

See all 1 recalls for the 1996 Nissan 200SX

Technical service bulletins for the 1996 Nissan 200SX 40

Bulletins tell dealers how to fix known problems. A warranty extension means the manufacturer pays for that repair for longer.

See all 40 bulletins for the 1996 Nissan 200SX

What 1996 Nissan 200SX owners say

Most recent owner complaints, unedited.

Filed Jan 14, 2008 · Transmission · 92,000 miles · IL

Tl*the contact owns a 1996 nissan 200sx. The vehicle would not shift gears or exceed 20 MPH. The dealer stated that the transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle is currently being repaired by the dealer. The current and failure mileages were 92,000.

Filed Dec 6, 2007 · Visibility · 141,500 miles · NY

Wiper arm linkage pops off as described in the recall section, both wipers become non-functional. Local nissan dealer will not honor the recall, stating that my car does not have the defective part - no record of this recall being performed linked to this VIN.

Filed Nov 29, 2007 · Suspension · 181,000 miles · TX

Entering a right turn on a clover leaf the car made a sudden sideways movement. I was traveling about 20 MPH and was forced to the shoulder. Initial roadside inspection found left rear tire touching left rear fender well. Car was taken by flatbed carrier from roadside. Upon further examination found that the bracket that connects the rear left trailing-link arm to the rear axle had separated from the chassis. Nissan dealership inspected car and bracket and found that the bracket was not welded to the chassis with the correct amount of spot welds. In fact, six to seven spot welds were missed compared to the right side. Nissan has refused to repair this quite obvious manufacturers defect account high mileage and unknown maintenance records on car. I wonder if robot missed other welds on other cars?

Filed Aug 3, 2006 · Visibility · 128,000 miles · TX

Dt*: the contact stated the wiper arm linkage disengaged without warning, while the windshield washer/wipers were activated. The vehicle was not inspected by a dealer. There was a the federal safety agency recall, # 98v093000, regarding the windshield washer/wiper arm linkage. The vehicle was not included in the recall due to the VIN. The manufacturer was contacted.

Filed Jul 7, 2006 · Visibility · 141,000 miles · FL

I own a 1996 nissan 200sx with . I purchased the car in late summer of 2005. On july 5 2006 my son was driving the car in a rain storm and the wipers stopped functioning. The next day he asked me to look at the car and I discovered the windshield wiper linkage had failed at the ball joint where the connecting rod from the motor joins the pivot rod for the wiper blades. I did a little research and discovered this problem was previously reported in the federal safety agency recall 98v093000. I contacted my local nissan dealer and I was told my VIN had no outstanding recalls. I called nissan corp. And was told the same thing. However, nissan is going to pull the archives on my vehicle to see if it has been serviced for this recall. This process will take several days. Even if this car was previously serviced for recall 98v093000, whatever fix was done obviously wasn't sufficient because the problem recurred. I consider this a serious problem because it could have caused a traffic accident. If my VIN number turns out not to be part of the original recall group then I believe nissan should be required to expand the list of vehicles covered by this recall.

Filed Nov 8, 2005 · Tires · 17,300 miles · AZ

My witness who drove with me checked the tire pressure before we left because we were driving over 150 miles. We were driving from almost apache junction,az to sierra vista az. To pick my 7 year old son from his mothers. We got outside of casa grande going the speed limit, we heard a loud noise and felt something hit the side of the car. Come to find out the tread completely peeled off and when it peeled off it did $2000 of damaged to my passenger side of the car. Even though the tread peeled off there was still air in the tire, so we drove to a tire place and got a spare tire in eloy, az. I filed a complaint with cooper tires and they denied me saying that the tread came off do to under inflation and to repair plugs. This is false my witness checked my inflation in the tires before we left and he use to work at a at goodyear tires. Until this day they still deny me. I am not giving up because the gave me a defected tire.

Filed Nov 1, 2005 · Visibility · 113,000 miles · OH

Dt: the contact stated driver's side windshield wiper does not work. The passenger side windshield wiper will work intermittently. There was no forewarning prior to the wipers not working. There was recall 98v093000. He contacted the dealer, they stated it was too old of a recall in their database.

Filed Jul 8, 2005 · Transmission · 97,400 miles · VA

Manual transmission clutch cable failed, unable to change gears while driving. This condition was intermittent and happened three times before dealer was able to diagnose and repair. As a result of failure, car was unable to downshift which LED to vehicular lack of control. Local nissan dealer finally was able to diagnose the problem and replace the entire clutch cable assembly. Unkown of old part is available for inspection.

Filed Jun 28, 2005 · Visibility · 100,506 miles · OH

Driver side windshield wiper arm ball joint failed resulting in the inoperability of the driver side windshield wiper. According to the federal safety agency website, there is a recall for this specific problem. Nissan says this problem is VIN number specific and my VIN number is not included in the recall. My car has this very specific problem and we believe that it should be covered under the recall. The recall covers several years (1995 to 1998) of the manufacture of the car and mine is a 1996. About 500,000 of these cars were covered under the recall, why not mine? We almost lost control of the car in a rainstorm which could have killed us at the legal speed of 65 MPH at the time of failure.

Filed Jun 28, 2005 · Electrical · 105,500 miles · KY · fire

Vehicle was parked for 4 or 5 hours. Owner heard a loud pop but ignored it because he resided close to the interstate. Minutes later, the owner heard another pop sound and went to investigate. Owner found the vehicle engulfed in flames . The fire department said that the fire started under the driver's side underneath the hood. *ak *tt

Used buying checklistWhat to check on a 1996 Nissan 200SX before you buy

Compare the 1996 Nissan 200SX

Other model years

199119951996199719982001

Questions about the 1996 Nissan 200SX

Is the 1996 Nissan 200SX reliable?

Owners have filed 37 complaints about the 1996 Nissan 200SX, 18.5 times a typical 200SX model year.

What is the most common problem with the 1996 Nissan 200SX?

Airbags, with 12 complaints. Next is visibility (9).

How many recalls does the 1996 Nissan 200SX have?

1 recall, covering visibility.

What year does the Nissan 200SX have bad airbags?

The Nissan 200SX model years with the most airbags complaints are 1995 (26 complaints) and 1996 (12 complaints).

Share your experience with the 1996 Nissan 200SX

Tell other buyers what went wrong and what it cost. We review every report before it appears, and we never publish names, emails or VINs.

No names, contact details or links. Reports about a dealer or a person are not published.

VIN decoder

See the problems and recalls for an exact car

Buying a used 1996 Nissan 200SX?

Check the exact car before you pay: accidents, salvage or flood titles, odometer readings and previous owners.

Check its history
Is this car on a recall?Check VIN