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2012 FORD F-150 — Complaint #1351792

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NHTSA Complaint about VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:REAR WINDOW:ELECTRICAL HEATING ELEMENT filed January 26, 2017

NHTSA complaint #1351792 (ODI reference 10947879) concerns a 2012 FORD F-150 and was filed on January 26, 2017. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 21, 2017. The vehicle had 68,500 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Pennsylvania based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:rear window: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. 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 F-150 cohort independently describe similar visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:rear window: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 2012 FORD F-150 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2012 FORD F-150
Component
VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:REAR WINDOW:ELECTRICAL HEATING ELEMENT
State
Pennsylvania
Mileage
68,500 mi

Complaint Description

APPROXIMATELY ONE YEAR AGO, THE SIDE MIRROR AND REAR WINDOW DEFROSTERS STOPPED WORKING INTERMITTENTLY. A FORD DEALER CHECKED THE REAR WINDOW ON 1/3/2017 AND TOLD ME THE ONLY WAY TO FIX THE PROBLEM WAS TO REPLACE THE ENTIRE REAR WINDOW. I DECIDED NOT TO COMPLETE THE REPAIR DUE TO COST. ON 1/21/2017, THE REAR DEFROSTER WAS WORKING AND I TURNED IT ON SHORTLY AFTER STARTING THE VEHICLE. AFTER ABOUT 15 MINUTES OF DRIVING, WHILE DRIVING SLOWLY ON A RESIDENTIAL STREET, I HEARD A LOUD BANG. MY DAUGHTER STARTED CRYING IN THE REAR SEAT AND ASKED ME WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BACK WINDOW. THE PASSENGER SIDE REAR WINDOW HAD COMPLETELY SHATTERED. THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF AN IMPACT OR ANYTHING THAT COULD HAVE BROKEN THE WINDOW BESIDES THE REAR DEFROSTER BEING TURNED ON. *TR

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 1351792
ODI Number 10947879
Date Filed January 26, 2017
Failure Date January 21, 2017
VIN 1FTFW1ET5CF

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