While traveling at freeway speed a scraping noise was heard followed by the rear passenger wheel locking up. Tire and rim were ground down, while I brought the vehicle to a stop. Mechanics notes: "ebrake came apart passenger rear and locked brake up, causing backing plate to rip apart from ebrake mounting. Ebrake adjuster bracket damaged as well. The bracket adjusts the brake shoes and holds the brake cable in place. The part is not available from any vendor and has been discontinued by the dealer. Consequently new ebrake shoes and hardware can not be installed." Of course a part can fail on a now 17 year old vehicle, but it seems that the routine failure mode and effect analysis overlooked this part. A less able driver might have lost control of the vehicle and crashed. As far as I know, the emergency brake has never been used in the 17 year life of this car.

- Holly, MI, USA

The contact owns a 2003 Dodge Intrepid. The contact stated that after shifting into reverse the vehicle suddenly experienced unintended acceleration and crashed into a concrete wall. The contact indicated that during the failure the vehicle would not stop when the brakes were applied. The contact and the front passenger both suffered headaches and the contact also suffered an upper back injuries. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 153,874. The consumer stated on June 13, 2014, immediately after she put the vehicle in reverse, the vehicle jerked suddenly and accelerated out of control. She tried to apply the brake but the vehicle would not stop. The consumer stated the air bags failed to deploy. Updated 09/03/14

- Mesa, AZ, USA