2021 MERCEDES-BENZ GLE 350 — Complaint #2046991
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about VISIBILITY:REAR WINDOW WIPER/WASHER filed December 10, 2024
NHTSA complaint #2046991 (ODI reference 11629889) concerns a 2021 MERCEDES-BENZ GLE 350 and was filed on December 10, 2024. The owner reports the failure occurred on December 4, 2024. The report was geocoded to Florida based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as visibility:rear window wiper/washer, 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 GLE 350 cohort independently describe similar visibility:rear window wiper/washer 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 2021 MERCEDES-BENZ GLE 350 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The windshield wiper fluid will not pump out onto the front or back window, causing poor visibility. The pump is working, but the design of the strainer on the bottom of the pump causes a restriction and causes goo to build up and block the flow of the windshield wiper fluid. Mercedes refuses to cover this under warranty, even though the failure is caused by their bad design. I am unable to use the wiper fluid, and my visibility while driving is impaired. This is a safety issue. Mercedes' neglect of their responsibility to provide a safe vehicle and honor its warranty is endangering us, the American people. Google is full of similar complaints about the Mercedes windshield wiper pump design. The repair involves removing the front wheel of the vehicle, etc., and a repair cannot be done by the average driver; it requires a mechanic. My dealer said that it would cost about $300 to fix, and I'd have to wait for the approximately 2+ hours that the repair would take, even though m
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2046991 |
| ODI Number | 11629889 |
| Date Filed | December 10, 2024 |
| Failure Date | December 4, 2024 |
| VIN | 4JGFB4KBXMA |
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.