2026 data Public-data reference. official source

2021 RAM 3500 — Complaint #2163265

Open-data reference.

NHTSA Complaint about EXTERIOR LIGHTING:BRAKE LIGHTS filed January 5, 2026

NHTSA complaint #2163265 (ODI reference 11708936) concerns a 2021 RAM 3500 and was filed on January 5, 2026. The owner reports the failure occurred on November 3, 2025. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as exterior lighting:brake lights, 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 RAM 3500 cohort independently describe similar exterior lighting:brake lights 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 RAM 3500 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2021 RAM 3500
Component
EXTERIOR LIGHTING:BRAKE LIGHTS
State
California

Complaint Description

Both front ball joints wore out at 20,000 miles The 3rd break light leaks into the cab at 26,000 miles & won't be warrantied even though there's an active recall for our same truck, same part just different model

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 2163265
ODI Number 11708936
Date Filed January 5, 2026
Failure Date November 3, 2025
VIN 3c63rrrl6mg

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.