Diagsheet

2014 Nissan Sentra · symptom sheet

Airbag warning light or recall

  • 47owner reports
  • 43,800median miles
  • 15involved a crash

Newest report Aug 19, 2025 · checked Sep 9, 2026

47 of the 361 complaints on this car describe airbag. Only transmission shudder is reported more often on this car.

Tick what matches of 47 reports

22
23
10
3

What got replaced

Owners who name the part that was replaced mention the occupant sensor (14 reports).

Recalls and investigations

4 recalls on the airbags cover the 2014 model year. A recall on the same system isn't always the same failure, so read the defect text.

17V-253Apr 13, 2017
Air Bags

Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain 2015-2017 LEAF and 2014, 2016 and 2017 Sentra vehicles. Due to a manufacturing error within the air bag inflators, the passenger frontal air bag may not properly deploy in the event of a crash.

Risk and remedy
Risk: In the event of a crash, if the front passenger air bag doesn't deploy properly, it can increase the risk of injury to passengers.
Remedy: Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will replace the front passenger air bag inflator, free of charge. The recall began June 7, 2017. Owners may contact Nissan customer service at 1-800-647-7261.
16V-242Apr 26, 2016
Air Bags:Sensor:Occupant Classification

Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2013-2016 Sentra vehicles manufactured June 4, 2012, to April 9, 2016. The front passenger seat belt bracket may become deformed if it is used to secure a Child Restraint System (CRS). The deformed seat bracket may cause the Occupant Classification System (OCS) to incorrectly classify the installed CRS, resulting in the front passenger air bag to not be turned off as designed when a CRS is in the seat.

Risk and remedy
Risk: If the frontal passenger air bag deploys in the event of a crash when a child seat is installed in the front passenger seat, there will be an increased risk of injury to the child in the CRS.
Remedy: Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will reinforce the seat belt bracket as well as reprogram the Air Bag Control Unit (ACU) and OCS Electronic Control Unit (ECU), free of charge. The recall began on June 13, 2016. Owners are warned not to install a CRS in the front seat. Owners may contact Nissan customer service at 1-800-867-7669.
16V-244Apr 26, 2016
Air Bags:Sensor:Occupant Classification

Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2016-2017 Nissan Maxima, 2013-2016 Nissan Altima, NV200, LEAF, Sentra, and Pathfinder, 2014-2016 Nissan NV200 Taxi, Infiniti QX60, QX60 Hybrid, and Q50 Hybrid, 2014-2017 Nissan Rogue and Infiniti Q50, 2015-2016 Nissan Murano, Murano Hybrid, and Chevrolet City Express, 2014-2015 Nissan Pathfinder Hybrid, and 2013 Infiniti JX35 vehicles. In these vehicles, the front seat passenger Occupant Classification System (OCS) may incorrectly classify an adult passenger as a child or classify the seat as empty despite it being occupied. As a result, the passenger frontal air bag may be turned off and not deploy in the event of a crash.

Risk and remedy
Risk: If the passenger frontal air bag does not deploy as intended in the event of a crash, the passenger is at an increased risk of injury.
Remedy: Nissan will notify their owners. Chevrolet City Express owners will be notified by General Motors. Dealers will reprogram the Air Bag Control Unit (ACU) and OCS Electronic Control Unit (ECU) in Altima, Maxima, Murano, Rogue, and Sentra vehicles, and replace the OCS ECU in LEAF, NV200, NV200 Taxi, Pathfinder, Infiniti Q50, JX35, and QX60 and Chevrolet City Express vehicles, free of charge. Interim notices were sent to owners on May 31, 2016. Owners will receive a second notice when remedy parts become available. Owners may contact Nissan customer service at 1-800-867-7669, Infiniti customer service at 1-888-833-3216 or Chevrolet customer service at 1-800-222-1020.
15V-681Oct 20, 2015
Air Bags:Frontal

Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) is recalling certain model year 2013-2015 Altima and Pathfinder vehicles, 2013-2014 Nissan Sentra vehicles, 2013 Infiniti JX35 vehicles, 2014-2015 Infiniti QX60 vehicles and 2014 Infiniti QX60 Hybrid vehicles. The affected vehicles received an incorrect occupant classification system (OCS) control unit during a repair. These OCS control units may incorrectly classify the front passenger seat as empty, when it is occupied by an adult.

Risk and remedy
Risk: If the OCS does not detect an adult occupant in the passenger seat, the passenger air bag would be deactivated. Failure of the passenger airbag to deploy during a crash (where deployment is warranted) could increase the risk of injury to the passenger.
Remedy: Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will update the OCS software, free of charge. The recall began on November 30, 2015. Owners may contact Nissan at 1-800-647-7261.

NHTSA investigations into the airbags on the Sentra

EA21-002opened Sep 17, 2021
Airbags · model years 2002 to 2006

Desiccated air bag inflator rupture. Open.

NHTSA summary
From 2000 through 2017, Takata produced millions of air bag inflators using two types of phase-stabilized ammonium nitrate ("PSAN") propellant -- propellant 2004 and propellant 2004L. After prolonged exposure to high temperature cycles and humidity, inflators using propellant 2004 can degrade, causing the propellant to burn too quickly when ignited. The rapid burning can cause the inflator to rupture during deployment, potentially causing serious or even fatal injury to vehicle occupants. See 2016 Blomquist Report at www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/documents/expert_report-hrblomquist.pdf.Consequently, all frontal inflators using propellant 2004 that do not contain a "desiccant" (a substance that traps and holds moisture) in US vehicles are under recall. These "non-desiccated" inflators either have been or are required to be replaced.In some cases, the remedy part for these recalled inflators was, or will be, an inflator using either propellant 2004 or 2004L that does contain a desiccant. None of these "desiccated" remedy parts (which were installed in older model year vehicles) are currently under recall for a degradation concern. Certain subsets of desiccated PSAN inflators using propellant 2004 for use as original equipment, however, have been recalled for a degradation concern. All Takata inflators produced with propellant 2004L contain desiccant, and none of these desiccated inflators using propellant 2004L are under recall for a degradation concern. There have been n
EA15-004opened Aug 31, 2015
Airbags · model years 2013 to 2014

Occupant classification system failure. Closed may 2, 2017, led to recall 15V-681.

NHTSA summary
In May 2016, Nissan North America issued a safety recall (16V-244) to address the problem of improper classification of adult front seat passengers in approximately 3.3 million vehicles, including those in the scope of this investigation when it was opened (almost one million vehicles) and additional vehicles, as shown below.Nissan models: certain model year 2013-2016 Altima, 2013-2016 LEAF, 2016-2017 Maxima, 2015-016 Murano and Murano Hybrid, 2013-2016 Pathfinder, 2014-2015 Pathfinder Hybrid, 2014-2017 Rogue, 2013-2016 Sentra, 2013-2016 NV200, and 2014-2016 Taxi.Infiniti models: certain model year 2013 JX35, 2014-2017 Q50, 2014-2016 Q50 Hybrid, and 2014-2016 QX60 and QX60 Hybrid.Chevrolet model: certain model year 2015-2016 City Express.Additional information on the above-referenced recalls is available online at NHTSA.gov.Also, the numbers shown in the above failure report summary are for the original vehicle population, as opposed to the entire recall population, and the ODI reports cited are as of May 31, 2016 when Nissan began to notify the affected owners of recall 16V-244.Based on the recall actions taken by Nissan, this Engineering Analysis is closed.Additional information on this closing resume and the investigation are in the EA15-004 public file available online at NHTSA.gov.The ODI reports cited above can be reviewed online at https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls#vehicle under the following identification numbers: 10583283 10585264 10585349 10585379 10592434 10593399 105
RQ15-001opened Mar 18, 2015
Airbags · model years 2013 to 2014

Occupant classification system failure. Closed sep 1, 2015.

NHTSA summary
In April 2014, Nissan North America launched Safety Recall 14V-138 to address problems with the Occupant Classification System (OCS) algorithm in the following vehicles: model year (MY) 2013-2014 Nissan Altima, Pathfinder, Sentra and LEAF; MY 2013 Infiniti JX35; MY 2014 Infiniti QX60 and Q50; and MY 2013 Nissan NV 200/Taxi vehicles.According to Nissan, the OCS may misclassify adult front passenger occupants and turn off the passenger's frontal air bag for an adult occupant of sufficient weight.In March 2015, the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened this Recall Query after the agency received approximately 124 complaints alleging problems with the OCS after the recall repairs and/or other OCS related repairs were made by Nissan/Infiniti dealers.The majority of the complaints alleged the passenger air bag status light stays on (i.e., indicating passenger air bag is turned off) for adult front passengers of sufficient weight.Many of the complaints stated the dealers have made multiple repairs but the problem still persists.In its June 2015 response to ODI's information request under the Recall Query, Nissan provided approximately 1,121 complaints and field reports on the recalled vehicles.These reports alleged OCS issues similar to the NHTSA reports described above.At this time, NHTSA has received a total of approximately 208 complaints (note: total of 1,271 reports shown in the table above eliminates 58 duplicative reports received by ODI and manufacturer).This Recall Q
EA15-001opened Feb 24, 2015
Airbags · model years 2003 to 2006

Air bag inflator rupture. Open, led to recall 14V-668.

NHTSA summary
The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened PE14-016 in June 2014 based on six inflator rupture incidents involving consumer owned vehicles produced by five vehicle manufacturers.All six vehicles were operated in Florida or Puerto Rico at the time of the rupture and for the majority of their service life, and were equipped with inflators produced by Takata, a tier-one supplier of automotive air bag systems.During the course of PE14-016, ODI determined that five additional vehicle manufacturers used inflators of a similar design and vintage also supplied by Takata. No evidence of field failures was found in vehicles produced by these five additional manufacturers.Nonetheless, at ODI's insistence, all 10 vehicle manufacturers initiated a regional recall within approximately two weeks of the opening of the investigation.The regions recalled initially included Florida, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, areas with high absolute humidity and climatic conditions believed to be a significant factor in the inflator ruptures.As part of the recall actions, inflators removed from remedied vehicles are to be returned to Takata for testing.Takata's initial test results on passenger inflators from remedied vehicles indicated a much higher than anticipated rupture frequency for inflators returned from Florida.Accordingly ODI requested all 10 manufacturers expand the regional recalls for passenger inflators to include other geographic areas where high absolute humidity co
PE14-016opened Jun 11, 2014
Airbags · model years 2004 to 2006

Air bag inflator rupture. Closed mar 2, 2015, led to recall 13V-172.

NHTSA summary
The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened PE14-016 in June 2014 based on six inflator rupture incidents involving consumer owned vehicles produced by five vehicle manufacturers.All six vehicles were operated in Florida or Puerto Rico at the time of the rupture and for the majority of their service life, and were equipped with inflators produced by Takata, a tier-one supplier of automotive air bag systems.During the course of PE14-016, ODI determined that five additional vehicle manufacturers used inflators of a similar design and vintage also supplied by Takata. No evidence of field failures was found in vehicles produced by these five additional manufacturers.Nonetheless, at ODI's insistence, all 10 vehicle manufacturers initiated a regional recall within approximately two weeks of the opening of the investigation.The regions recalled initially included Florida, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, areas with consistently high absolute humidity and climatic conditions believed to be a significant factor in the inflator ruptures.As part of the recall actions, inflators removed from remedied vehicles are to be returned to Takata for testing.Takata's initial test results on passenger inflators from remedied vehicles indicated a much higher than anticipated rupture frequency for inflators returned from Florida.Accordingly, ODI requested all 10 manufacturers expand the regional recalls for passenger inflators to include other geographic areas where high absolu

When it happens

The middle half of failures fell between 20,000 and 80,000 miles, from the 23 reports that gave a mileage.

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What owners wrote

“The vehicle sustained major damage in a collision totaling the vehicle and no airbags deployed”

Filed Aug 19, 2025

Should you keep driving it?

This page can't tell you that. 15 of 47 reports involved a crash and 14 people were hurt. Owners who file are the ones who had a bad experience, and nobody checks their reports. If the problem affects steering, braking, power or a fire risk, treat it as a safety fault and have it inspected before a long or high-speed drive.

File your own report with NHTSA. Complaint counts are how a problem gets an investigation.

Other problems on this car