2002 MERCEDES-BENZ S500 — Complaint #1779702
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about INTERIOR LIGHTING filed November 22, 2021
NHTSA complaint #1779702 (ODI reference 11441273) concerns a 2002 MERCEDES-BENZ S500 and was filed on November 22, 2021. The owner reports the failure occurred on May 1, 2021. The vehicle had 135,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Alabama based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as interior 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 MERCEDES-BENZ S500 cohort independently describe similar interior 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 2002 MERCEDES-BENZ S500 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2002 Mercedes-Benz S500. The contact stated that the instrument cluster had started to flicker and had eventually gone completely blank without warning. The contact had taken the vehicle to a dealer where he was informed that his vehicle was not included in NHTSA Campaign Number: 06V028000 (Interior Lighting). The manufacturer was also notified of the failure and provided the contact with the same information as the dealer. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 135,000. The defective instrument cluster also prevents the owner of these cars not knowing when the vehicle air shocks can and will suddenly drop without warning like the rear air shocks completely dropped.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1779702 |
| ODI Number | 11441273 |
| Date Filed | November 22, 2021 |
| Failure Date | May 1, 2021 |
| VIN | WDBNG75J42A |
Similar INTERIOR LIGHTING Complaints for 2002 MERCEDES-BENZ S500
See attached document for complaint.
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2002 MERCEDES BENZ S500. THE CONTACT STATED UPON START-UP, THE INSTRUMENT CLUSTER WENT BLANK. THE CONTACT CALLED MERCEDES-BENZ OF LOS ANGELES (1801 S. FIGUEROA ST, LOS ANGELES,
THE INSTRUMENT CLUSTER IN THE COMPANY CAR I AM DRIVING WHICH IS A 2002 MERCEDES BENZ MODEL S500 JUST RECENTLY WENT OUT COMPLETELY. I HAVE TAKEN THE CAR IN TO BE REPAIRED AND A NEW FUSE WAS PUT IN AND
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.