1979 CHEVROLET IMPALA — Complaint #381209
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:FRONT:SPRINGS:LEAF SPRING ASSEMBLY:U-BOLT, LEAF SPRING TO AXLE filed November 6, 2002
NHTSA complaint #381209 (ODI reference 769281) concerns a 1979 CHEVROLET IMPALA and was filed on November 6, 2002. The report was geocoded to Kansas based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:front:springs:leaf spring assembly:u-bolt, leaf spring to axle, 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. No VIN was supplied by the filer, so this complaint contributes to model-year trend data but cannot be tied to a specific vehicle.
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 CHEVROLET IMPALA cohort independently describe similar suspension:front:springs:leaf spring assembly:u-bolt, leaf spring to axle 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 1979 CHEVROLET IMPALA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
THE PROBLEM IS IN A NEW HITCH I JUST PURCHASED MANUFACTURED BY VALLEY INDUSTRIES, OF LODI, CALIFORNIA. KIT CAME WITH TWO 7/16" SQUARE U-BOLTS, WHICH REQUIRED DRILLING HOLES INTO THE FRAME TO INSTALL. THE INSTRUCTIONS CALLED FOR THE NUTS ON THE SQUARE U-BOLTS TO BE TIGHTEN TO A FORCE OF 55 FT.LBS. THE BOLTS PROVIDED, WILL NOT HOLD THAT FORCE. INSTEAD THEY NECKED AND BROKE AT SLIGHTLY OVER 40 FT. LBS. I FEEL THEY HAVE PROVIDED A MILD STEEL BOLT INSTEAD OF A GRADE #0, 1, OR 2. INSTEAD OF THE GRADE OF A #5 WHICH WOULD HAVE HELD THIS KIND OF FORCE. I CALLED THE MANUFACTER A COUPLE OF TIMES ABOUT THIS TODAY 11/4/02 AND FINIALLY TALKED TO ENGINEERING, WHO TOLD ME THAT ALL THE U-BOLTS ARE MILD STEEL, YOU CAN'T GET U-BOLTS IN A HARDEN STEEL, IN AUTOMOTIVE APPLICATIONS. THEY (THE COMPANY), DIDN'T UNDERSTAND HOW THE BOLTS WOULD BREAK, BUT THEY WOULD SEND ME OUT SOME NEW ONES. IT IS MY CONTENTION THAT THEY KNEW ALL ALONG THAT THE GRADE OF BOLTS THEY WERE PROVIDING CAN NOT BE TORQUE
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 381209 |
| ODI Number | 769281 |
| Date Filed | November 6, 2002 |
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.