2016 FORD F-150 — Complaint #1587868
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:REAR WINDOW:ELECTRICAL HEATING ELEMENT filed July 24, 2019
NHTSA complaint #1587868 (ODI reference 11234558) concerns a 2016 FORD F-150 and was filed on July 24, 2019. The owner reports the failure occurred on July 20, 2019. The vehicle had 38,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Massachusetts 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. No VIN was supplied by the filer, so this complaint contributes to model-year trend data but cannot be tied to a specific vehicle.
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 2016 FORD F-150 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2016 FORD F-150. WHEN THE CONTACT ACTIVATED THE REAR DEFROSTER, THE REAR WINDOW EXPLODED AND BEGAN TO PRODUCE SMOKE. THE CONTACT AND OTHER PASSENGERS EXITED THE VEHICLE UNHARMED. THE CONTACT DISCONNECTED THE REAR DEFROSTER THE FOLLOWING DAY. THE VEHICLE WAS DRIVEN TO BONNELL FORD (353 CAMBRIDGE ST, WINCHESTER, MA 01890, (781) 729-9700) AND A DIAGNOSTIC APPOINTMENT WAS SCHEDULED. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOT MADE AWARE OF THE FAILURE. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT REPAIRED. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 38,000. THE VIN WAS UNKNOWN.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1587868 |
| ODI Number | 11234558 |
| Date Filed | July 24, 2019 |
| Failure Date | July 20, 2019 |
Similar VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:REAR WINDOW:ELECTRICAL HEATING ELEMENT Complaints for 2016 FORD F-150
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.