2005 BUICK CENTURY — Complaint #1253314
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about EXTERIOR LIGHTING:HEADLIGHTS:SWITCH filed January 15, 2016
NHTSA complaint #1253314 (ODI reference 10820455) concerns a 2005 BUICK CENTURY and was filed on January 15, 2016. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 26, 2015. The vehicle had 118,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as exterior lighting:headlights:switch, 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 BUICK CENTURY cohort independently describe similar exterior lighting:headlights:switch 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 2005 BUICK CENTURY shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2005 BUICK CENTURY. WHILE DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 60 MPH, THE LOW BEAMS STOPPED WORKING AND HINDERED THE CONTACT'S VISIBILITY WHILE THE VEHICLE WAS IN MOTION. THE CONTACT HAD TO HOLD THE SWITCH TO GET THE HIGH BEAMS TO REMAIN ILLUMINATED DUE TO THE FAILURE. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO A DEALER WHERE IT WAS DIAGNOSED THAT THE MULTI-FUNCTION SWITCH ON THE COLUMN FOR THE LIGHTS NEEDED TO BE REPLACED, INCLUDING PREMATURELY DETERIORATED GROUND WIRES. THE DEALER STATED THAT THE PARTS WERE TO BE ORDERED, BUT WERE NOT YET AVAILABLE FOR THEM TO PROVIDE A SPECIFIC DATE OF WHEN THE PART WOULD BE AVAILABLE TO COMPLETE THE REPAIR. THE CONTACT LEFT THE VEHICLE AT THE DEALER UNTIL THE PART WAS AVAILABLE. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOTIFIED OF THE FAILURE. THE APPROXIMATE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 118,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1253314 |
| ODI Number | 10820455 |
| Date Filed | January 15, 2016 |
| Failure Date | January 26, 2015 |
| VIN | 2G4WS52J851 |
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.