This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
My headlights stopped working when I was out of town. Only had hi beams if I held the dimmer switch towards me. Once I released the switch, I had no lights. Took the car to my mechanic who replaced the dimmer switch with one from a wrecked car like mine because a new one from GM was $500. Also had heat/ac fan stop working. Now car is making a strange humming noise from the front end that is not coming from the motor. My husband believes the wheel bearings might be bad because our mechanic asked us if we had any problems with them. He has seen several cars like mine with wheel bearing issues.
Lights went off while driving at night. This happened soon, though not immediately, after flipping on the high beams. Fortunately, I was near home and not going fast, so was able to stop without incident. Somehow while playing around with the light switches, they came back on. I haven't tried to get it repaired as I can't get it to repeat the failure. This could have had serious consequences, and I suppose it may happen again.
- the contact took the 2003 Chevrolet Impala for an oil change, while she was at the service location, the technician told her that the intake manifold was leaking. Also, the high beam switch did not working properly. The high beam switch turned on, but did not stay on. The technician stated that the two failures were common. Failure mileage was at 58,524.
Recently, I have had 3 or 4 instances where the lights on my 2003 Impala went completely out while I was driving. I had switched the lights between high and low beam. This is rather concerting. My friend reported that her 2002 Impala has also recently began doing the same thing. My limited research led me to this site.
- Perrinton, MI, USA
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Brights cannot be turned off without numerous attempts to make the switch work, resulting in a safety hazard to other drivers, and self due to distraction.
The contact stated headlights stopped working when the high beam was engaged. The first time, the headlights went out and would not come back on. He drove the vehicle home with the emergency flashing lights engaged. The second time, the headlights went out, but came back on after the dimmer switch was pressed. He took the vehicle to a dealer. The dealer replaced the dimmer switch. There have been no further problems with the headlights. Updated 3/3/2006 -
The headlights would come back on by jiggling the dimmer lever arm. Several malfunctions were noticed between the first malfunction and the visit to the dealer for repair.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Denmark, ME, USA