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2012 DODGE AVENGER — Complaint #1559988

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NHTSA Complaint about VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:HEATER CORE filed April 22, 2019

NHTSA complaint #1559988 (ODI reference 11202931) concerns a 2012 DODGE AVENGER and was filed on April 22, 2019. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 15, 2019. The vehicle had 146,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Michigan based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:heater core, 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 DODGE AVENGER cohort independently describe similar visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:heater core 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 DODGE AVENGER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2012 DODGE AVENGER
Component
VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:HEATER CORE
State
Michigan
Mileage
146,000 mi

Complaint Description

TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2012 DODGE AVENGER. WHILE ATTEMPTING TO HEAT THE VEHICLE AND ACTIVATE THE WINDSHIELD DEFROSTER, THE CONTACT REALIZED THAT THE FEATURES WERE INOPERABLE. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO AN INDEPENDENT MECHANIC WHO DIAGNOSED THAT THE HEATER CORE NEEDED TO BE REPLACED ALSO, MECHANIC DIAGNOSED THE PROBLEM AS THE ACTUATOR DOORS. INDEPENDENT DEALER CUT AND OPEN THE DASH AND FOUND HEATER CORE WAS PLUGGED WITH SILICONE AND DUST PARTICALS FROM WHEN FACTORY PUT ENGINE TOGETHER. THE VEHICLE WAS CURRENTLY BEING REPAIRED. THE DEALER WAS NOTIFIED. MANUFACTURER WERE NOT NOTIFIED OF THE FAILURE. THE APPROXIMATE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 146,000. THE VIN WAS NOT AVAILABLE. *BF *JB

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 1559988
ODI Number 11202931
Date Filed April 22, 2019
Failure Date January 15, 2019
VIN 1C3CDZCB3CN

Similar VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:HEATER CORE Complaints for 2012 DODGE AVENGER

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