Consumer Safety Complaints
Search 2,215,138 safety complaints filed by vehicle owners with NHTSA — including 138,663 crashes, 56,255 fires, and 8,561 deaths.
What is a NHTSA consumer complaint?
A consumer complaint is a free-form report filed by a vehicle owner directly to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) describing a safety concern about their vehicle. NHTSA collects these reports through its Vehicle Owner Defect Report (VOQ) system and publishes them publicly. Each complaint includes the affected component, the date and circumstances of the incident, whether the failure caused a crash or fire, and any reported injuries or deaths. The owner's full narrative description is included verbatim — NHTSA does not edit or moderate the descriptions.
The database below contains over 2,215,138 individual complaints. NHTSA's investigators monitor it for clusters of similar reports — when enough owners describe the same failure mode on the same vehicle, NHTSA may open a Preliminary Evaluation that can lead to a recall. Many of the largest recalls in U.S. history, including the Takata airbag recall and the Hyundai/Kia engine fire recalls, started as patterns visible in this complaint database years before they became formal recalls.
How to interpret what you read
A few principles for reading consumer complaints usefully:
- One complaint is anecdote; a hundred similar complaints is data. NHTSA does not investigate the truthfulness of any individual report — that's the job of the Office of Defects Investigation, which looks at the full pattern. When evaluating a vehicle, look for whether multiple owners describe the same chain of events.
- Crash, fire, injury, and death flags are owner-set. They are not verified by NHTSA. They are still useful as a filter, because owners who tick those boxes are typically reporting more serious incidents than those who don't.
- Component categories are NHTSA-assigned, not owner-assigned. NHTSA standardizes the component field so that complaints can be aggregated. The owner narrative often goes into more detail than the component category captures.
- Complaint volume scales with sales volume. A best-selling model will accumulate more raw complaints than a niche model even at the same defect rate. To compare across vehicles, look at complaints per 100,000 units sold, not raw counts.
If you've experienced a defect
File a complaint. NHTSA's investigators rely on this database to detect emerging defects, and useful complaints — specific, concrete, with dates and mileage and clear descriptions of what happened — feed directly into the agency's pattern detection. The form takes about 10 minutes and is at nhtsa.gov/recalls under "Report a Safety Problem." Your complaint becomes part of the same public record that this page is built from. Owners filing detailed VOQs are how recalls get triggered.
Read more from our blog
Showing 116,327 complaints — component: STEERING
Incident date: Feb 11, 2026
The steering wheel became stiff all the sudden and became hard to turn. As well as all the warning lights came on when that happened such as Adaptive Cruise Control Automatic Emergency Braking Blind Spot Warning Forward Collision Warning Lane Departure Warning Lane Keeping Assistance Parking Collision Warning Rear Cross Traffic Warning. I was driving in the middle of the road when this hap... Read more
Incident date: Feb 13, 2026
While driving around 45 mph, the steering wheel locked up and car came to a hard stop. Luckily cars swerved to avoid me. This was the second time it happened. The first time I was in a parking garage and the steering wheel locked up. After restarting the vehicle, the steering wheel worked again. The dash showed no fault codes or engine light. I found out there is a service bulletin and took it in ... Read more
Incident date: Jan 28, 2026
Steering sticking when traveling over 40mph. It is a minor sticking when implementing a adjustment. Upon review of the NHTA complaints there are other issues related to the steering box. NHTA # 11710516 issue 1/12/2026 NHTA # 11707737 issue 12/9/2025 NHTA # 11707168 issue 12/25/2025 NHTA # 11701247 issue 11/24/2025
Incident date: Jan 31, 2026
My car was totaled, I lost steering assistance, and it switched off while I was driving. The car was the subject of an open recall. I need this looked at because it might be a crash caused by a fault.
Crash
MERCEDES-BENZ
AMG A35
(2021) — STEERING
Feb 13, 2026
Incident date: Feb 13, 2026
Our vehicle was a 2017 Ram 1500 crew Cab 4x4. We’re getting near to Goldfield Nevada. I saw this town to my left when I remarked about the town to my wife, we were going the speed limit of 70 mph about 2PM in the afternoon than all of a sudden steering went erratic, twisting and turning us all over the highway to strong for me to hold with no warning lights, Genie yelled out what is going on, I ... Read more
Crash
2 injured
TOYOTA
SIENNA HYBRID
(2025) — STEERING
Feb 13, 2026
Incident date: Dec 17, 2025
In 2014 there was a recall issue on 2004 to 2009 Chevrolet malibus 2.4 l motors with the electric power steering assist motor. They were to be replaced with labor and free cost. A recall is a safety issue that has no expiration date. In 2015 GM issued a special coverage adjustment for 2010 through 2012 Chevy malibus. This special adjustment is for those vehicles 2010 through 2012 to have the power... Read more
Incident date: Feb 12, 2026
The contact owns a 2009 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the steering wheel was difficult to turn to the left or the right. The contact stated that the code “NO BUSS” flashed off and on, causing the instrument cluster to not function as needed. The contact stopped, turned off and restarted the vehicle, and the steering wheel returned to normal functionality... Read more
Incident date: Jan 22, 2026
While driving the dash will show power steering alert and then stabilitrack alert and the power steering then fails. This always happens while in motion and never when parked\idling. It has happened while turning which proves dangerous as the car then starts to straighten out. Had the truck serviced at the dealership to be told that it is a low voltage issue. The car is running so the alternat... Read more
Incident date: Nov 13, 2025
While angling into a turn lane, I was forced to go back into lane of traffic first signaling into the turn lane (left) then out (right) turn signal seemed to get stuck on, Steering wheel became locked and would only move a fraction of an inch either left or right. Once I was around the obstruction in the turn lane I angled back into it and was able to come to a stop. Once stopped the turn signal v... Read more
Incident date: Feb 9, 2026
The contact owns a 2022 Hyundai Tucson. The contact stated that while driving 15 MPH, the vehicle jerked right and inadvertently drove into a snowbank. The vehicle was taken to the residence and then towed to a dealer, where the failure could not be duplicated. The contact had not sustained injuries, and a Police Report was not filed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified... Read more
Incident date: Jan 28, 2026
Two of the same faults occurred within the same month of each other. The first: while driving home from work on the highway, while heavily raining, without warning every alarm light possible engaged, windshield wipers went full speed, vehicle would not shift, and my steering locked up (not to be confused with lost power steering). After about a mile I was able to encourage the Jeep off the side ... Read more
Incident date: Feb 12, 2026
The contact owns a 2016 Land Rover Range Rover. The contact became aware that the VIN was included in NHTSA Campaign Number: 25V514000 (Steering); however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the front suspension made an abnormal sound while driving over a bump in the roadway, while depressing the brake pedal, or while tu... Read more
Incident date: Feb 10, 2026
Happened at US 101 Southbound 0.1 MILES SOUTH of RENGSTORFF AVENUE. “Power Steering Malfunction” light came on, then suddenly after 1 second, the car’s steering went stiff and suddenly braked while at freeway speed flow of traffic. Car then sharply veered left into center divider due to automatic sudden braking with no control of the steering wheel
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Nov 19, 2025
The vehicle wanders down the road side to side. It’s constantly wandering you have to keep correcting it. It also feels like the steering has a gap in it when you go to correct it. It has been at Honda several times. We were told the last time it may need an alignment so Honda did an alignment and it just made it worse. Vehicle has 11000 miles or so.
POLESTAR
POLESTAR 2
(2022) — STEERING
Feb 13, 2026
Incident date: Dec 30, 2025
On February/12/2026 I was slowing down normally in a 25mph zone to stop at a red light and just before the moment that my vehicle actually came to a stop I heard a loud breaking sound coming from the front and I felt my vehicle's nose dip down on the passenger side. It was obvious that something major broke so I did not proceed or attempt to drive from that point. I turned on my 4 way flashers and... Read more
Incident date: Feb 12, 2026
My car is safely in my driveway. It only has 18,000 miles driven. It became stuck in wheel drive, greatly reducing my ability to drive the vehicle. The 2014 Cherokee is known for PTU failures in which the unit overheats or leaks fluid into the electronics, causing the system to lock in 4WD and display "Service 4WD" or "4WD System Unavailable". Will my dealership fix this problem under a past reca... Read more
Incident date: Feb 11, 2026
Aggressive clicking if wheel is turned greater than 15° off center
Incident date: Feb 1, 2026
I was driving around 35 mph, the steering wheels suddenly have no power, really tight and hard to turn with no symptoms before and no light on dash, this was very dangerous if I was driving on the highway. Second thing is the famous "Hemi tick" happened on my truck, everyone have the Ram truck have exactly same issue but I really do not know why this issue still not have any recall yet. Please rec... Read more
Incident date: May 29, 2022
I noticed that when I am driving on the freeway/highway for extended periods of time (30+ minutes) the wheel will start locking up. It stiffens enough that I have to force the wheel in a different direction. When it occurs there is no warning lights or messages from the car, it just suddenly stiffens. Other than driving on the freeway for 30+ minutes there does not seem to be any particular trigge... Read more
Incident date: Sep 1, 2025
I am writing to formally report that the safety recall repair on my 2012 Ford Fusion has failed to resolve the dangerous loss of power steering. My vehicle underwent the 15S18 recall update only at Tom's Ford back in 2015. On January 20 2026, the steering failed again while driving, creating an immediate safety risk. The dealer has failed to provide a permanent remedy at Jim Hudson Ford in Lexingt... Read more
Incident date: Feb 2, 2026
I was slowing down to take a turn and I see an error message saying “power steering assist failure”. And steering went stiff..
Incident date: Sep 24, 2024
While driving my 2022 Tesla Model X at highway speed, I experienced a sudden loss of steering assist shortly after Supercharging. The steering wheel became extremely difficult to turn, and I had to use significant force to maintain control. The vehicle displayed a ‘Steering Assist Reduced’ alert, FSD became unavailable, and the suspension behaved unexpectedly. After the incident, the vehicle w... Read more
Incident date: Oct 9, 2025
The contact owned a 2014 Tesla Model S. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed on the highway, the vehicle exited into a tunnel. The contact stated that his hands were on the steering wheel and that the steering wheel did not move; however, the vehicle inadvertently made a sharp left turn, and the passenger-side headlight struck the tunnel wall. The vehicle spun rapidly, an... Read more
Crash
1 injured
Incident date: Feb 2, 2026
Got word from the mechanic at the dealership that the cam shaft is leaking oil as well as the fuel injectors retainers are out and need to be sealed as they are also leaking. the engine went into safe mode to prevent any engine fires.
Incident date: Jan 30, 2026
I was entering my drive way waiting for the garage to open suddenly my car just accelerated and hit the wall.
Crash
2 injured
Incident date: Jan 30, 2026
I was driving on the freeway and the steering began to stiffen. I got to my destination and decided to check the tires for any ice or snow, thinking that might be why it was difficult to drive but there was no buildup. I made it home and parked the car. The next day, I can't even turn the steering and a warning comes up that says service power steering and advancetrac.
Incident date: Dec 1, 2023
1. Active Head Rest Inadvertent Deployment Driver's side 2. seat warmers and steering wheel warmer won't turn off unless vehicle is turned off and on again.
MITSUBISHI
OUTLANDER
(2007) — STEERING
Feb 12, 2026
Incident date: Feb 9, 2026
While driving steering suddenly stopped working. Red light came up onto dash stating "steering down safely pull over"
Incident date: Feb 5, 2025
While driving the car, the shifting mechanisms are not working correctly. Stalling, hard shift etc. Causing jolts, and sudden stop/start movements. I was driving in the snow when my car jolted and was unable to stop on the ice leaving me in the snow bank. Went to put it in 4wd and the 4wd wouldn’t work. Brought it to the dealer repair shop where the recall was determined as the culprit. I ... Read more
GMC
SIERRA 1500
(2025) — STEERING
Feb 12, 2026
Incident date: Aug 10, 2025
1/28/2026 Son was driving in a parking lot when all of a sudden, with no prior warning signs, the steering wheel locked up and he could not turn. Fortunately he was able to stop the vehicle; otherwise, it would have hit into other cars and he could have been injured. And fortunately this did not take place on a freeway. Hyundai service center located DCTS: C168806, C168886, and C240162. Replaced M... Read more
Incident date: Feb 4, 2026
Vehicle looses power steering sometimes, the last time I was in traffic on a bend and went up onto the sidewalk. It's almost impossible to steer when it happens.
Incident date: Aug 15, 2025
Clicking/Clunking under driver's feet
Incident date: Feb 9, 2026
I was rolling up to a red light. The jeep shut down on a main road. The battery light, ABS, and power saver mode went on. The power steering shut off and then the car shut off. I was unable to move the vehicle. I wait 5 minutes then started the car again and got it rolled into the nearest parking lot
Incident date: Feb 11, 2026
I have versa Nissan recall 2008 and never fixed the airbag recall. On January 30, 2026, Nissan dealer selling me a SUV Nissan Roque 2026, after i changed oil, I tried driving the SUV Nissan Roque, the steering wheel kind loose and easy turning left and right uncontrolled. the door has cosmetic paint that I decided to return bc of unsafe performance and movement of the SUV. I check the VIN, The ca... Read more
Incident date: Feb 11, 2026
I am reporting a safety incident involving my Tesla while Autopilot/Full Self-Driving was engaged. On February 11, 2025 at approximately 9:22 am, on Waccamaw Medical Park Ct Conway, SC 29526, I was driving on a normal city street with the system actively controlling steering and speed. Without any warning or alert, the vehicle suddenly steered to the right toward the curb and struck it. I was ve... Read more
Incident date: Jan 12, 2026
1. All safety features related to the back up camera, EPS, Traction Control, Lane Assist, Active Cruise Control, Automatic High Beam, Forward Collision Avoidance and more. 2. Loss of all safety features and then sudden restoration of EPS would cause swerve into oncoming lanes or into neighboring lanes and/or ditches. 3. Yes the problem has been reproduced, repeatedly in cold weather and while the ... Read more
Incident date: Dec 31, 1969
While reversing out of a parking spot, I noticed my break and steering wheel felt extremely stiff. I lost control of the vehicle for a second until I instinctively pushed HARD on the break. I realized it was unsafe to continue reversing, so I switched from R (reverse) to D (drive), I let go of the break pedal slowly, but the car continued to reverse. I pushed hard on the stiff break again, and swi... Read more
Incident date: Feb 11, 2026
Power Steering Loss (2019 - Recall 19S26): Affects 2013–2016 models. Corrosion of the steering gear motor bolts can lead to a sudden loss of electric power steering assist, making the car harder to steer. This recently happened to my vehicle, causing my wife to almost crash. Luckily she wasn’t far from home and was able to drive slowly with very difficult steering made it home safely. I took... Read more
Incident date: Jan 3, 2026
The power steering on my 2018 Honda CRV XE is sticky or sticks when I when I try to keep my CRV is the middle of the lane and/or change lanes a majority of the time on the freeway/highway. At times, the CRV will slides/drifts from one side to the other. The CRV is going in this week for an inspection / evaluation at a Honda dealership. There were no signs or warnings when I purchased the CRV from ... Read more
Incident date: Feb 9, 2026
I purchased my beloved 2013 FJ Cruiser from Wellesley Toyota 6.5 years ago and have really enjoyed it. I have had it serviced religiously at McGee Toyota of Hanover since my purchase and expected to continue to enjoy it for many years to come and was just informed by McGee Toyota that the frame is severly rusted out throughout. My truck only has 158K miles on it and I expected this to last at leas... Read more
LAND ROVER
RANGE ROVER SPORT
(2023) — STEERING
Feb 11, 2026
Incident date: Feb 8, 2026
I was driving my vehicle when suddenly I got a "electrical fault has been detected Pull over Safely" error message. At that time the everything is still running and working. I pulled over safely and shut off the car. I restarted it and it said "low battery, start engine". It was really cold and I imagine as the car kept running, that will recharge the battery. I continued to drive (cautiously on l... Read more
Incident date: Oct 5, 2025
This letter serves as a formal notice of concern and demand for accountability regarding the 2009 GMC Sierra LD, VIN [XXX] , owned by [XXX] . There are numerous documented complaints and safety investigations concerning premature tie rod failure in 2009 GMC Sierra models. While the 2009 model year may not have been subject to a sweeping, industry-wide recall specific to tie rods in the 1500 serie... Read more
Incident date: Feb 8, 2026
On September 8, 2024, while traveling approximately 75 mph on Interstate 4 with my wife and five children, this 2023 Cadillac Escalade experienced a sudden catastrophic loss of engine power following a hard shift. Steering, braking assist, and acceleration were effectively lost and the vehicle shifted into neutral without warning. We were nearly struck by a tractor-trailer while attempting to reac... Read more
KIA
SORENTO HYBRID
(2025) — STEERING
Feb 11, 2026
Incident date: Jan 16, 2026
The contact owns a 2024 Harley-Davidson RH1250-S. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 25V590000 (STEERING); however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. 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.
Incident date: Mar 1, 2023
The contact owns a 2021 Chevrolet Tahoe. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed and turning the steering wheel, there was an abnormally loud grinding sound coming from the vehicle, and the steering was difficult to turn. The vehicle was driven to a dealer and determined that the vehicle had lost power steering assist functionality. The contact referenced NHTSA Campaign Numbe... Read more
Incident date: Feb 5, 2026
During recent freezing weather, upon starting the car and attempting to turn, I realized that the steering wheel was frozen solid. While researching what could have happened, the war warmed up enough to melt the water in the electric power assisted steering motor, allowing the vehicle to turn. Now, the EPAS is seized up completely. If I had been driving when it locked up completely, it could have ... Read more
Incident date: Feb 8, 2026
My steering wheel is twitching & possibly failing due to the torque steering sensor & it is very unsafe to drive
Incident date: Jan 2, 2026
Received a notice that steering assist may be reduced. Other model year Ys have been recalled due to the same issue. It doesn’t make sense that this should fail in a vehicle that is 5 years old with no accidents and low mileage. This is a safety issue due to manufacturing defect and should be covered under warranty.
Incident date: Jan 22, 2026
Steering wheel noises while turning
Incident date: Jan 5, 2026
All of a sudden I have experienced sticky steering every time I turn the wheel it does not come back by itself, so need some effort to push it back. Mazda dealership service inspected the car and informed that they already put the order for the part, but it will take around 3 months to get it from mazda. I am not thinking to wait 3 months to get the car repaired. It is basically a new car with 25k... Read more