The Lane Check

Cars › Nissan › Frontier › 2015

2015 Nissan Frontier: engine and transmission complaints

ELEVATED COMPLAINT SIGNAL
38%
8 of 21 relevant owner complaints are about the engine, transmission or fuel system

38% of relevant owner complaints on the 2015 Nissan Frontier are about the engine, transmission or fuel system. That is elevated. Worth an independent inspection before you commit to one.

Better than 57% of the 1,230 model years we track (2010–2023).

Excludes 12 airbag, lighting and seat-belt recall complaints that would otherwise mask the signal (unadjusted: 24%).

NHTSA data checked September 13, 2026
Share this car

Looking at a specific Frontier?Check its VIN: the full report, quotes about its own engine, and whether its recalls are still open. First report free.

Check a VIN
Drivetrain complaints
8
engine, transmission, fuel
Total complaints
33
this model year
Fires reported
1
owner-reported
Recall campaigns
0
2 crashes · 3 injuries

Complaints by component

AIR BAGS10 · 30%
POWER TRAIN5 · 15%
STRUCTURE5 · 15%
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL3 · 9%
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM3 · 9%
UNKNOWN OR OTHER3 · 9%

The years either side

2010
54%
22 of 59
2011
31%
15 of 64
2012
60%
31 of 78
2013
35%
11 of 48
2014
38%
11 of 42
2015
38%
8 of 33
2016
52%
17 of 43
2017
56%
19 of 38
2018
22%
5 of 25
2019
39%
9 of 28
2020
too few complaints
2021
too few complaints
2022
28%
29 of 110
2023
38%
24 of 64

Manufacturers fix things mid-generation. A bad year next to a clean one is common; the fix usually arrived in between.

Cleaner alternatives

Same car, a better year

Nissan Frontier 201131%Nissan Frontier 201822%Nissan Frontier 202228%

Other midsize pickups with no elevated signal

Honda Ridgeline 20145%Chevrolet Colorado 201516%Toyota Tacoma 201523%

The percentage is each model year's drivetrain complaint share. No elevated signal describes the model year, not any one car; a well-kept example of a flagged model can still be the right buy, and any of these still needs an inspection.

What owners reported

POWER TRAIN12/17/2024
Dangerous lurching and sometimes with not engage. Other Nissan models have the same problem. The diagnostic code is U0101 bad communication between TCM and Vehicle.
POWER TRAIN,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL09/17/2024
Engine light came on, and vehicle accelerated, then lost acceleration while revolutions increased. Diagnosis indicates Bad TCM. I went to 3 shops, and all said that the TCM are going bad, especially Infinity. Nissan wants to charge $500 just to try to reset it. The Dealership is the only ones that can perform this t…
ENGINE02/07/2022
I bought a 2015 Nissan Frontier SV from Elite auto dealership in Wichita, Ks on Dec 30-2021. After driving a car over one month, My car gets check engine light indicator turned on. I called the Elite auto dealership salesman to ask for getting my car fixed. However, my car salesman refused to fix it up. Therefore I wou…

Three of 8 drivetrain complaints. The full report shows more, with quotes about the engine in the car you are looking at first.

Before you buy a 2015 Nissan Frontier

Have the VIN?Paste it and get the full report for that car. First report free, then a 30-day pass covers a whole car search.

Check a VIN

Experimental model-level information. This is not a vehicle inspection, vehicle-history report, financial advice or purchase recommendation. It describes patterns across a model year, not the condition of any individual vehicle.