1997 FORD WINDSTAR — Complaint #1065287
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:REAR:AXLE:NON-POWERED AXLE ASSEMBLY filed May 15, 2014
NHTSA complaint #1065287 (ODI reference 10588611) concerns a 1997 FORD WINDSTAR and was filed on May 15, 2014. The owner reports the failure occurred on May 8, 2014. The vehicle had 140,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Illinois based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:rear:axle:non-powered axle assembly, 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. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
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 FORD WINDSTAR cohort independently describe similar suspension:rear:axle:non-powered axle assembly 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 1997 FORD WINDSTAR shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS 1997 FORD WINDSTAR. THE CONTACT STATED WHILE TRAVELING 65 MPH THE REAR AXLE BEAM BECAME FRACTURED. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOTIFIED OF THE DEFECT. A PRIVATE MECHANIC STATED THAT THE REAR AXLE BEAM NEEDED TO BE REPLACED. THERE WERE NO REPAIRS MADE ON THE VEHICLE. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 140,000 AND THE CURRENT MILEAGE WAS 140,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1065287 |
| ODI Number | 10588611 |
| Date Filed | May 15, 2014 |
| Failure Date | May 8, 2014 |
| VIN | 2FMDA5141VB |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.