If you are considering buying a used Nissan Juke, these are the common problems worth knowing about first. Our garage database tracks 8 known faults for this model, 3 of them rated high severity. Every one below is a repair bill a seller has good reason not to mention.
Found a Nissan Juke for sale?
Paste the advert and we read it against these 8 known faults, its MOT history and the DVLA record, and tell you what the seller has not. Free, about a minute, no card.
Check a Nissan Juke advert (free) →The Nissan Juke has 8 known faults in our database, 3 of them rated high severity. The most serious are engine (repeated reports of cylinder head or head gasket failure, leading to misfires) and engine (the 1.2 DIG-T suffers heavy oil consumption with no visible leak, which starves). None of them makes the car a bad buy on its own; the risk is a seller who knows and says nothing.
That is a count of the faults we hold, not a reliability score. Popular cars get written about more, and a newer generation has had less time to show its faults.
No year is a write-off on its own. What matters is which serious faults a given year and engine can have, and whether the car in front of you has had them fixed.
Each one is set out in full below, with the symptoms, the typical mileage and a rough repair cost.
One owner each, in their own words rewritten as a line, and not counted in our risk scoring. A fault joins the list above once a second report or an editorial source backs it.
Sellers rarely admit these faults outright
We track 23 specific phrases sellers use in adverts to soft-pedal these exact issues. Paste any Nissan Juke advert and we check it in seconds.
Check an advert now (free) →Recall work is done by the manufacturer, and GOV.UK says you will not usually have to pay for it. These are the 14 DVSA recalls for the Juke, newest first. They do not tell you whether this particular car has had the work: for that, put the registration into the free GOV.UK MOT history check, which shows a recall status where the manufacturer shares it, or ask a franchised dealer to check the VIN.
On affected vehicles the front seat belt may have been accidentally damaged during the parts preparation for assembly.
Put right by: The retailers will inspect vehicles as identified as potentially affected and replace any affected seat belt assemblies.
On affected vehicles the VIN stored in the vehicle system may not match the actual VIN of the vehicle. This may lead to a situation where a vehicle user can see information related to a different vehicle resulting in a data security breach.
Put right by: Replace the navigation display / control unit and the telematics control unit.
On affected vehicles the right-hand rear door welds may be out of specification. The door may rattle and a side impact may increase the risk of deformation. In the extreme impact could cause the hinge to fail and the door to open.
Put right by: Replace the rear right-hand door.
A potential concern affecting the HEVC (Hybrid Electric Vehicle Control) module software has been identified which may cause a module reset of affected vehicles. Simultaneous pressing of brake and accelerator could cause engine stumble or stall.
Put right by: Update the HEVC module software
The rear seat back may not be securely latched when returned to the upright position after folding.
Put right by: Replace both rear seat lock knobs with a countermeasure part.
The drivers bag may tear during inflation.
Put right by: Replace the drivers airbag of all potentially affected vehicles.
Possible reduced retention force of the Rear Door Child Lock switch.
Put right by: Fit a countermeasure part into the child lock door switch aperture of all potentially affected vehicles.
Ignition Switch spring defect may cause engine to be turned off while driving
Put right by: Inspect and where necessary replace the Ignition Switch
If an electrical short occurs in the supply to the rear oxygen sensor the senor will fail but the driver will not see an immediate warning. A MIL warning may display after continued driving depending on driving/vehicle characteristics.
Put right by: Reprogram the ECU to display a warning if the rear oxygen sensor fails.
On affected models with a push start ignition switch the switch may remain in the pressed position and not return after switching the engine on. If the vehicle continues to be driven in this condition the emergency engine stop function may operate and cause the engine to unintentionally stop.
Put right by: Inspect and where necessary modify the push start switch housing.
On affected vehicles the fuel pressure sensor may not have been tightened to the correct specification. Heat and engine vibration may cause the sensor to loosen and in extreme cases allow fuel to leak.
Put right by: Tighten fuel pressure sensor on affected vehicles
In the event that the driver airbag is deployed during a frontal impact small holes may occur on the surface of the airbag. The holes are caused by high temperature gases from the airbag inflator exhausting directly onto the surface of the airbag material. The high temperature gas/airbag material may contact the drivers skin. The deployment performance of the driver airbag is not affected.
Put right by: To replace the driver airbag with new.
Nissan has identified that the fuel rail pressure sensor of some vehicles may have not been correctly tightened to the fuel rail of the engine and may loosen gradually due to heat and vibration of the engine. If left undetected and the vehicle continues to be driven in this condition in extreme cases fuel leakage may occur.
Put right by: Re-tighten the pressure sensor and replace the pressure sensor gasket if required.
The Turbocharger boost sensor bracket may separate from the air inlet tube. This means the boost pressure may be measured incorrectly and the engine warning lamp may be illuminated. During low-speed driving this could cause the engine to stall and not restart
Put right by: Inspect and if necessary replace the air inlet tube with a new one
Recall data published by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency under the Open Government Licence v3.0. A recall listed here may not apply to every car of this model: the build dates and the registration check are what decide it.
An overdue cambelt is the most expensive thing a seller can fail to mention on a used Juke. These are the figures UK specialists work to.
The Renault-sourced K9K schedule is 72,000 miles or 5 years, whichever comes first. Some Nissan bulletins pair a 6-year term with a longer 100,000-mile limit, so the shorter 5-year term is recorded here. Ensure the water pump, tensioners and idlers are replaced at the same time.
Prone to chain stretch, driven by poor oil pressure, fuel-diluted oil and a clogged chain-lubrication oil jet rather than simple mileage. The engine's well-known excessive oil consumption is what starves the tensioner. Replace as a full kit and keep oil changes short.
Change the NS-2/NS-3 CVT fluid approximately every 60,000 miles under normal conditions, and as early as 30,000 miles in severe use, to prevent premature transmission failure. This is specialist and remanufacturer guidance rather than a figure Nissan mandates in every manual. No time-based limit is published, so none is recorded.
Always confirm against the vehicle handbook. Intervals vary by engine, and several manufacturers revised theirs after failures in service.
Three stand out. Engine: repeated reports of cylinder head or head gasket failure, leading to misfires (typically 20000 to 30000 miles). Engine: the 1.2 DIG-T suffers heavy oil consumption with no visible leak, which starves (typically 15000 to 70000 miles). Gearbox: xtronic CVT failure is widely reported on 2010 to 2016 cars, often at low mileage (typically 8886 to 83000 miles). The full list above is grouped by generation, with typical mileage and a rough repair cost for each.
No Nissan Juke year is a write-off, but the Mk1 (2010 to 2019) carries the most serious faults: engine and gearbox. Year matters less than whether the specific car has had the known fixes, so check the history for them.
Ask the seller about the engine and gearbox faults on this page and whether they have been fixed, with invoices. On the test drive watch for engine management light illuminated, oil level dropping between services with no leak or smoke and whining or other noises from the gearbox. Read the MOT history for repeat advisories, then paste the advert into the free check, which reads it against all 8 known faults before you travel. Check a Nissan Juke advert →
The DVSA lists 14 safety recalls for the Nissan Juke issued between 2012 and 2025. The most recent, from April 2025, is "Juke (F16) Front Seat Belt". Recall work is done by the manufacturer, and GOV.UK says you will not usually have to pay for it. This list is by model, so it cannot tell you whether one particular car has had the work: the free GOV.UK MOT history check shows a recall status from the registration where the manufacturer shares it, and a franchised dealer can check the VIN.
Owners report 41.0 mpg on average across the Nissan Juke engines with data, about 82% of the official combined figure. The gap between official and real-world economy varies a lot by engine, so the Real MPG page lists every engine and generation separately, from 1,104 owner submissions. Nissan Juke Real MPG by engine →
Looking at a Nissan Juke right now? Check the advert before you go and see it.
If you used to check the Honest John “Good & Bad” section before the site closed in 2026, this page is where that information now lives. We rebuilt the Nissan Juke owner-report history from the archived Honest John dataset, added our own research, specialist and owner-club sources and DVSA recall data, and we keep it free. Each fault above is badged with its source. The same data feeds our free advert check, which reads a listing against every known fault for the exact engine and year.
CarAdCheck is not affiliated with Honest John or Volkswagen Financial Services. What happened to Honest John, and where each feature lives now.
Knowing what a Nissan Juke goes wrong with is half of it. The rest is reading the advert and checking the car's history before you hand any money over.