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2004 MITSUBISHI LANCER — Complaint #1025114

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NHTSA Complaint about VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:WINDSHIELD:ELECTRICAL HEATING ELEMENT filed December 4, 2013

NHTSA complaint #1025114 (ODI reference 10554734) concerns a 2004 MITSUBISHI LANCER and was filed on December 4, 2013. The owner reports the failure occurred on November 28, 2013. The report was geocoded to Tennessee based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:windshield:electrical heating element, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.

The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. No VIN was supplied by the filer, so this complaint contributes to model-year trend data but cannot be tied to a specific vehicle.

Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same MITSUBISHI LANCER cohort independently describe similar visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:windshield:electrical heating element failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2004 MITSUBISHI LANCER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2004 MITSUBISHI LANCER
Component
VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:WINDSHIELD:ELECTRICAL HEATING ELEMENT
State
Tennessee

Complaint Description

THE A/C KNOB IN THE CAR BROKE OFF TOWARD THE END OF THE SUMMER 2013. IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN DIFFICULT TO SWITCH FROM AIR CONDITIONER TO HEAT. FOR A WHILE PLIERS DID THE TRICK. WHEN I GOT A QUOTE FROM THE DEALERSHIP TO CHANGE THE KNOB I WAS QUOTED $1800. NOW IT IS WINTER. IT IS FREEZING. I HAVE NO HEAT. I WAS PULLED OVER BY POLICE BECAUSE OF FOGGY WINDOWS. I HAD NO DEFROSTER BECAUSE I CAN'T TURN ON THE HEAT. *TR

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 1025114
ODI Number 10554734
Date Filed December 4, 2013
Failure Date November 28, 2013

Similar VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:WINDSHIELD:ELECTRICAL HEATING ELEMENT Complaints for 2004 MITSUBISHI LANCER

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.