Consumer Safety Complaints
Search 2,245,377 safety complaints filed by vehicle owners with NHTSA, including 140,173 crashes, 56,794 fires, and 8,580 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 2,245,377 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 49,170 complaints - component: SUSPENSION
Incident date: Jan 9, 2022
Truck shakes and wobbles violently if a bump or transition in the road is hit at 50mph or greater. Truck has less than 13K miles on it , sits at stock height and tires have not been changed
Incident date: Jan 9, 2022
When truck hits certain rough areas of the road the steering wheel will begin to oscillate violently and the truck will shake(death wobble). This will continue until you slow down to around 20 mph. The dealer the truck was purchased from was notified of the situation but can not get me in for at least a month. This has only happened when traveling in a straight line but if did occur in a curve I d... Read more
Incident date: Dec 10, 2021
I OWN A 2010 HONDA CRV EX. The rear sub frame that carries the axle and suspension on the left side broke while making a left- hand turn from a restaurant. The sub frame that attaches to the unibody had rusted and the bolt connecting the suspension had pulled the frame section out. The car was inspected by my insurance company AARP Hartford and denied payment. They considered this a mechanical iss... Read more
Incident date: Jan 9, 2022
I have experienced out of nowhere violent front end shake on 4 different occasions since purchasing a used 2019 Jeep Wrangler Sahara three (3) months ago. It cannot be reproduced as I cannot determine what exactly causes it to happen but on at least two occasions I was traveling along highway bridges. There are no warning lights or messages prior to the violent shake.I have had a tire store empl... Read more
Incident date: Jan 1, 2022
I was driving down the rd and all of the sudden my truck jumps into 2nd gear and looses all power to speed up and it seems like I'm in neutral my relay box is messing up everything electrical now it shuts off at stop signs and If it keeps doing all this I'll have to replace transmission. I've already replace tipm 2 times
Incident date: Jan 7, 2022
When driving my rear control arm, on my nissan altima 2014 rusted and corroded so much that it broke in the back. When taking it to pep boys, they had said the left side was only a matter of time as well before that too suffered a similar fate. I live in Michigan which constantly uses salt to help the roads during winter. I have received an invoice of 2700 for repairs and after some googling I sa... Read more
Incident date: Dec 28, 2021
Both Rear tow links and knuckle replaced
Incident date: Jan 9, 2022
Issue is commonly known as the 'Ford death wobble' where the front end begins shaking violently at highway speeds and does not stop until the vehicle is rapidly slowed down and/or stopped. Control of the vehicle could be lost during this type of event and having to rapidly slow down is a safety issue for other drivers on the road as well. I will be scheduling a service appointment with a dealer, b... Read more
Incident date: Oct 5, 2021
Steering dang link , steering gear box has my steering throwing me all over the road . It's getting bad to almost causing wrecks and suspension is very bad . This has been getting really bad to the point of calling a lawyer
Incident date: Jan 6, 2022
Experienced death wobble-violent shaking of steering wheel and car side to side -on highway on 1/6/2022. It happened twice, 5 mins from my home. Both incidents occurred in expressway. Once while traveling 70mph and had to swiftly change two lanes in rush hour traffic to the slow lane. The shaking stopped stop at reduced speed to 50. Then the second time minutes later I was going 57mph in the slow ... Read more
Incident date: Dec 1, 2019
The front suspension shakes violently after encountering an irregularity in the road commonly referred to by the f250 community as " the death wobble".
VOLKSWAGEN
GOLF SPORTWAGEN
(2015) - SUSPENSION
Jan 7, 2022
Incident date: Dec 26, 2021
The contact owns a 2015 Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen. The contact stated that upon parking the vehicle, the tire pressure warning light was illuminated. The contact stated that the rear end of the vehicle was very low. Additionally, her children informed her that their buttocks hurt whenever the vehicle would hit a bump while driving. The contact was able to continue to drive the vehicle. The vehicl... Read more
Incident date: Dec 30, 2021
The front suspension and steering becomes unstable and uncontrollable at highway speeds when uneven pavement is encountered. There is a vibration and a side to side motion of the steering wheel that does not stop until the vehicle is stopped. This issue was first reported to the NHTSA, and the manufacturer through the dealer Santa Margarita Ford, Ranch Santa Margarita California in early 2021. A... Read more
Incident date: Jan 7, 2022
I recently purchased a used Jayco Precept 31 UL motorhome that is on a Ford F53 chassis. After the purchase I found that the vehicle handled very dangerously when being passed by a large trucks, or when there were crosswinds or medium strength winds. The problem was bad enough the I narrowly avoided accidents caused by being pushed around by passing 18 wheel trucks or crosswinds, or both. After... Read more
Incident date: Jan 6, 2022
Loss of steering and uncontrollable shaking/ oscillation of front end suspension components when hitting small bump at 55 mph. No warning light or notification of this prior to happening. Phoned dealership they will be inspecting truck.
Incident date: Jan 26, 2018
The front coils of the vehicle were totally deteriorated and could have led to an accident. I noticed that earlier models were recalled due to this same condition. I paid ~2K to have this problem fixed and the garage stated the coils should have lasted to 120k miles. Hyundai has subsequently issued extended warrantees for their elantra vehicles of which we own one. I am concerned that this defe... Read more
Incident date: Jan 7, 2021
When driving my muffler broke loose and was dragging on the ground. My axel creaks when I stop or sit idle at a light. When several miles from home my ignition cylinder came out. I couldn't start or turn the ignition on nor operate the steering. I'm now afraid to drive my vehicle. Since acquiring it. I've put a lot of money into repairs. In addition to purchasing this vehicle, I've spent ... Read more
Incident date: Dec 13, 2021
My truck has been parked at a Dodge Service Center for three days. I've been told the suspension has failed and needs to be replaced. The cost will be approximately $4,000. I've never been in an accident. I've never used the truck to tow anything. I don't drive off-road. I DO perform regular maintenance before the recommended time/mileage. I use quality products (oils, filters, brakes, etc.). N... Read more
Incident date: Dec 28, 2021
The front end experiences significant head shake and "death wobble" at speeds greater than 50mph. An alignment, balance, and tire rotation did not fix it
Incident date: Jan 6, 2022
Driving down the highway doing somewhere between 75-80. Hit a small bump in the road and then it felt like the front end of my truck exploded. The steering wheel started violently jerking and the whole truck was shaking from the inside out. I held as tight as I could to stay inside my lane since I was surrounded by many vehicles travel long as fast as me. I slowed down as fast as I could and was a... Read more
Incident date: Dec 1, 2021
The contact owns a 2000 BMW 323I. The contact stated that while driving at highway speeds, an abnormal rattling noise would emit from the rear end of the vehicle without warning. Upon inspection, the contact discovered part of the rear driver’s side subframe had detached from the undercarriage of the vehicle. The contact called the dealer about the failure and they offered no assistance. The man... Read more
Incident date: Jan 5, 2022
First, my secondary battery died 1.5 yrs into ownership and completely disabled my vehicle at a stop light, which left me nearly getting slammed into multiple times from the rear at an extremely busy intersection. There was no warning that the battery was failing — no “idiot light” — and a fire truck had to assist in getting me to safety. I was stranded for 3.5 hrs awaiting a tow to the de... Read more
Incident date: Dec 19, 2021
purchased vehicle in sept 2019 and had no issues until recently. Hitting bumps on freeway causes extreme shaking which lasts upwards of 6 to 10 seconds. Having this occur on icy roads can result in total loss of stability. I've taken this into the dealership already once, and issue still occurs. From research it looks like this issue has been present in jeeps for decades. Why hasn't the NHTSA forc... Read more
Incident date: Jan 2, 2022
The front driver side coil spring broke at the base. Was driving my car and heard what sounded like something hitting the underside of my car. Upon inspection we found the coil spring had broken. In researching online there was is a campaign recall for 2010-2011 Hyundai Sonata (#133). My vehicle does not fall in this category, but feel it should. Coil springs just don't break, unless you are g... Read more
Incident date: Dec 28, 2020
The contact owns a 2014 Nissan Altima. The contact stated while driving 70 MPH, he heard an abnormal knocking sound coming from the rear of the vehicle and lost control of the vehicle. The vehicle drove towards the right lane, but the contact was able to veer to the side of the road as there were no other vehicles around. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic who diagnosed that the rear... Read more
Incident date: Apr 6, 2014
The rear lower suspension arms recall notice solution was replacement of arms if needed and than sealed with epoxy. Labels were applied stating the arm is no longer adjustable. The vehicle no longer can routinely get a wheel alignment at a market expense. The Toyota company suggests for further alignments go to a Toyota dealership and have a alignment done for 900.00 dollars every time you need a... Read more
Incident date: Jan 4, 2022
The front air suspension perfectly failed right after 4 years manufacture warranty. It is life-threatening since my right front suspension drops all the way down. If this happens when I'm on a highway at high speed, it might kill me.
Incident date: Dec 30, 2021
After going over a rough patch of road, the steering wheel began to violently shake. Causing difficulty keeping the truck in my lane. I waited briefly for it to stop but it wouldn’t. I pulled to the shoulder and began to slow down. Around 10 miles per hour the shaking finally went away. Ford has recalled the steering damper. This repair has already been done on this truck but did not resolve the... Read more
Incident date: Dec 26, 2021
The contact owns a 2021 Ford F-250. The contact stated while driving on cruise control at 70 MPH, the vehicle experienced the death wobble, twice. The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. The contact was able to drive to his destination. The contact called the local dealer but had not received a response. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer had not been informed... Read more
Incident date: Jan 2, 2022
The contact owns a 2018 Tesla Model 3. The contact stated that the vehicle had begun swaying while driving approximately 60 MPH. Additionally, the contact noticed a creaking noise coming from underneath the vehicle. The contact pulled into a parking lot and the vehicle suddenly stalled. The contact noticed that the control arm had detached. The vehicle was towed to the dealer but was not yet diagn... Read more
Incident date: Nov 19, 2021
Was operating vehicle on I-65 traveling at interstate speeds. Hit a bump and vehicle started shaking and violently vibrating. Had to slam on my breaks to get the vehicle to stop shaking and back under control. Feared for my life and my son from being rear ended due to it being a busy highway. The vehicle has done it several times and this is my second complaint due to not hearing anything back.
Incident date: Jan 3, 2022
Front lower control arm bushings and front and rear sway bar bushings are cracked.
OLDSMOBILE
ALERO
(2002) - SUSPENSION
Jan 2, 2022
Incident date: Oct 13, 2021
Kept cutting off won't stay crunk long ignition is jammed loud screeching noises from the springs alternator might be the reason electrical issues fuel pump I had to leave my car at a friend's place I'm not working due to the COVID pandemic not able to afford repairs I really need my transportation someone referred me to this site
Incident date: Jan 2, 2022
I have experienced the famous Jeep Death Wobble in the past with my 2015 Jeep Wrangler Sport...same model as now, so I knew what I was experiencing. Over 2 days I was driving the highways (real estate agent) and 6 times when I hit a bump in the road the front end starting shaking and I began to lose control of it. I knew from before that putting on the brakes quickly will help to stop it, but hard... Read more
Incident date: Jan 2, 2022
1#.air . #2 not inspección 1year ago. #3 air bag lihg warning was the first day a Buy tne car. never im put interés now im know Is bad in damgere.
Incident date: Dec 31, 2021
While driving at approximately 65 mph on a highway under ordinary conditions and on a relatively flat road, unprompted by any driving event, the truck started violently shaking. The steering wheel was shaking uncontrollably at the same time. The passenger reached for the grab bar to hold on to in fear as it felt like the vehicle was out of control. The event lasted approximately 30-60 seconds and ... Read more
Incident date: Oct 1, 2020
Rear Struts/Shocks have been replaced twice due to failure and they have failed again. The first time was due to horrible noises coming from rear of vehicle going up inclines. The second time they were replaced noises came from the rear going over any slight bump or rough terrain.
Incident date: Dec 31, 2021
I have had in excess of 15 incidents where my truck upon hitting a bump in the road the front right tire began to go into what is referred to as a "death wobble". I took my truck in to have it repaired. The wobble stopped for approximately 2 weeks and then the left tire began doing the same thing. On Dec, 31st driving from Stockton to LA I hit an uneven spot in the highway when I was between a sem... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Jan 18, 2018
Transmission slipped almost from start. Took three appointments and two years - If my shop foreman knew the third time, why did he not call and tell me we now know your problem. I finally got fed up and brought it in one more time. Starter from day ONE maybe 50% of time made loud bang when Bendix retracted. Shop refused to take it off!!! I checked ball joint boots. One feels like no grease ... Read more
CHEVROLET
SILVERADO 1500
(2013) - SUSPENSION
Dec 31, 2021
Incident date: Dec 31, 2021
Frame already has holes from rust after only 8 years and was well kept and washed regularly. The vehicle also has about 85k miles
Incident date: Dec 27, 2021
In the last 2 months I have had the front passenger tire blow out 3 times. After this last tire repair the car started to shake, vibrate and make a knocking noise while driving. When driving faster the steering wheel would jerk me almost offthe road. It was so bad I pulled over and when I looked at the front passenger tire it was smoking and sitting sideways. I had to get my vehicle towed and now ... Read more
Incident date: Dec 30, 2021
Safety Recall: WVX34 NHTSA Campaign: 11V464000 The front lower passenger side control arm completely rusted in half. It occurred while parking vehicle, fortunately not driving at high speed. The recall was previously completed by Subaru dealership in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 2011. According to service records, they had been treated with anti-corrosion coating... I purchased the vehicle from a fam... Read more
Incident date: Dec 31, 2021
Airbag suspension fails when the compressor fails causing a fuse to blow and loose all air ride suspension. The ride leaves you feeling terribly unsafe hoping you can make it home in one piece. Its all over the web about this issue. Canada has a class action lawsuit filed. There are service bulletins but we need a recall with a permanent fix. It costs over 3000 with no guarantees to be fixed if yo... Read more
Incident date: Aug 5, 2021
a safety issue that has been termed the Jeep "death wobble" has occurred numerous times over the past 6 months . When a bump or pothole is confronted , there is a violent shaking of the steering wheel and front end and it takes anywhere from 5-15 seconds to resume control of the vehicle . This usually occurs at a speed of 55-65 miles per hour . control of the vehicle is virtually impossible when ... Read more
Incident date: Dec 31, 2021
There have been absolutely no modifications to my 21 Jeep Wrangler JL sport it has never been off road it has the stock tires at the proper tire pressures and I experienced it unbearable wobble at high speeds when I hit a bump AKA death wobble I cannot believe that jeep is still not addressed this problem, it has been ongoing for years with the Jeep lineup and not been addressed this is my first J... Read more
Incident date: Nov 11, 2021
The body panel around the rear driver side shock mount has almost completely rusted away. Driving one day, I started to hear a loud clunking noise from the rear driver side. It started to get louder the more I drove it. Upon inspection, I found the body panel had completely rusted around the shock mount tower, which is only now connected to the rear floor panel. Without the support of the rest of ... Read more
Incident date: Sep 26, 2019
A little over 2 years ago my truck started the death wobble. I didn't know at first what it was but after internet searches I quickly came across the so called "death wobble". I have taken it in to the dealer multiple times They have changed a few parts when taking it in, at my own expense, but never have fixed the problem. It is progressively getting worse and is very dangerous to drive. Not... Read more
MERCEDES-BENZ
C300
(2012) - SUSPENSION
Dec 30, 2021
Incident date: Oct 17, 2020
The rear subframe rusted through causing mounting point of the torque link to fail. As a result, the car looses control when braking going sideways. Luckily, I discovered it when testing brakes after pad replacement in a safe setting. To my understanding, there are many other W204/W212 cars affected in the US with that issue. Mercedes so far does not want to take responsibility and recall cars for... Read more
Incident date: Nov 12, 2021
This vehicle was sold for use over US highways, as "repairable condition". After going to a mechanic shop, I was advised, because of sever rust the rear leaf spring hangers were completely rusted thru, the rear axle assembly could come off or the frame could break in half, by just going over say, a railroad crossing. The mechanic said they would not repair this vehicle for use to drive on roads. I... Read more
JEEP
GRAND CHEROKEE
(2012) - SUSPENSION
Dec 30, 2021
Incident date: Dec 27, 2021
Symptoms are identical to recall W47, Where loss of engagement between transmission and the differential inside PTU (Power Transfer Unit)