2015 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA — Complaint #2098228
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:WINDSHIELD:ELECTRICAL HEATING ELEMENT filed June 6, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2098228 (ODI reference 11665315) concerns a 2015 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA and was filed on June 6, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on May 23, 2025. The vehicle had 49,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to New York based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:windshield: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. 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 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA cohort independently describe similar visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:windshield: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 2015 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2015 Volkswagen Jetta. The contact stated upon activating the defroster, the defroster only engaged while the switch was turned to maximum, and there was an abnormal grinding sound coming from underneath the dashboard. The dealer and the manufacturer were notified of the failure and informed the contact that it was a common failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 49,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2098228 |
| ODI Number | 11665315 |
| Date Filed | June 6, 2025 |
| Failure Date | May 23, 2025 |
| VIN | 3VWD17AJ6FM |
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.