2004 BUICK RAINIER — Complaint #1558229
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about EXTERIOR LIGHTING filed April 15, 2019
NHTSA complaint #1558229 (ODI reference 11196567) concerns a 2004 BUICK RAINIER and was filed on April 15, 2019. The owner reports the failure occurred on September 18, 2018. The vehicle had 150,471 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to North Carolina based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as exterior lighting, 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 RAINIER cohort independently describe similar exterior lighting 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 BUICK RAINIER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2004 BUICK RAINIER. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE HEADLIGHTS TURNED OFF INTERMITTENTLY WITHOUT WARNING. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE HEADLIGHTS REMAINED OFF FOR APPROXIMATELY SIX MINUTES. WHEN THE LIGHTS TURNED BACK ON, THE LIGHTING WAS DIM. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO J.D. BYRIDER (5101 NEW BERN AVE, RALEIGH, NC 27610) WHERE THEY REPLACED THE REPLACED THE HEADLIGHT DRIVER MODULE ON TWO DIFFERENT OCCASIONS, BUT THE FAILURE RECURRED. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOT CONTACTED. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT REPAIRED. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 150,471.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1558229 |
| ODI Number | 11196567 |
| Date Filed | April 15, 2019 |
| Failure Date | September 18, 2018 |
| VIN | 5GADT13S142 |
Similar EXTERIOR LIGHTING Complaints for 2004 BUICK RAINIER
HEADLIGHTS FAIL INTERMITTENTLY WHILE DRIVING. WHILE DRIVING LAST NIGHT THE LOW BEAM HEADLIGHTS WENT OUT. THE HIGH BEAMS STILL WORKED. THIS IS ABOUT THE SIXTH TIME THIS HAS HAPPENED. I CHANGED OUT
LOW BEAM HEADLIGHTS FAILURE BOTH AT THE SAME TIME. OCCURRED ON TWO SEPARATE OCCASIONS. FIRST TIME A YEAR OR SO AGO, LOW BEAM RELAY REPLACED BY BEST RECOLLECTION
LOW BEAMS ON LIGHTING GOES OUT FOR NO APPARENT REASON. THIS HAS HAPPENED TWO TIMES IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS. DEALERSHIP SAYS THEY JUST CAN'T FIND ANYTHING WRONG. ALTHOUGH THEY HAD ANOTHER VEHICLE THERE
I TRIED TO GET MY CAR INSPECTED TODAY IN VIRGINIA BUT IT FAILED DUE TO THE DUMMY LIGHTS ON IN THE DASH BOARD ABS AND BRAKE. THE DEALER COULD NOT COMM WITH COMP BUT CHANGED THE FUSE FOR THE CIG LIGHTER
AFTER HEADLIGHTS ARE ON FOR A LONG TIME THEY WILL GO OFF.
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.