2011 MAZDA TRIBUTE — Complaint #1891165
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STEERING:COLUMN filed April 28, 2023
NHTSA complaint #1891165 (ODI reference 11519445) concerns a 2011 MAZDA TRIBUTE and was filed on April 28, 2023. The owner reports the failure occurred on November 17, 2022. The vehicle had 103,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Texas based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as steering:column, 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 MAZDA TRIBUTE cohort independently describe similar steering:column 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 2011 MAZDA TRIBUTE shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2011 Mazda Tribute. The contact stated while driving approximately 35 MPH, the steering wheel became firm and failed to respond to driver input. The contact stated that several unknown warning lights started to flicker, and the vehicle stalled. The contact had the vehicle towed to an independent mechanic, where it was diagnosed and determined that the battery needed to be replaced. The vehicle had been repaired. The contact stated that the failure reoccurred; however, the steering wheel became loose and unresponsive to driver input. The contact stated that on another occasion the vehicle lost power steering functionality and the steering wheel locked and could not be turned in either direction. The vehicle was towed to a dealer who diagnosed the vehicle and determined that the steering column needed to be replaced. The vehicle had not been repaired. The manufacturer had been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 103,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1891165 |
| ODI Number | 11519445 |
| Date Filed | April 28, 2023 |
| Failure Date | November 17, 2022 |
| VIN | 4F2CY0C79BK |
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.