1999 DODGE CARAVAN — Complaint #386270
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about FUEL SYSTEM, OTHER:STORAGE filed December 18, 2002
NHTSA complaint #386270 (ODI reference 10000206) concerns a 1999 DODGE CARAVAN and was filed on December 18, 2002. The owner reports the failure occurred on December 18, 2002. The vehicle had 45,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Delaware based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as fuel system, other:storage, 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 DODGE CARAVAN cohort independently describe similar fuel system, other:storage 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 1999 DODGE CARAVAN shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
1999 DODGE CARAVAN: STRONG FUEL ODERS ENTER CARGO/PASSENGER AREA OF VEHICLE - ODERS ALSO NOTICIBLE OUTSIDE OF VAN. FUMES ARE POTENTIAL FOR SPONTANIOUS COMBUSTION. ALSO, EXPOSURE TO GAS FUMES (DURING EXTENDED TRIPS AND OVER CUMULATIVE TIME) CAN BE HARMFUL TO MAJOR ORGAN COMPONENTS WITHIN THE HUMAN BODY - ESPECIALLY TO DEVELOPING INFANTS. A FORMER COMPLAINT WAS SUBMITTED USING ODI ID: 748730 SURROUNDING DATE: 09/06/2001. "COMPONENT: FUEL: FUEL TANK ASSEMBLY: TANK SUMMARY: SMELL GASOLINE COMING FROM THE FUEL TANK, A SMALL AMOUNT OF GAS WAS LEAKING DOWN THE SIDE OF THE FUEL TANK, DUE TO THE ROLLOVER VALVE WAS LEAKING ON THE FUEL TANK, REPLACE FUEL TANK." THE CONCLUSION LEADS THE READER TO BELIEVE THERE'S POTENTIAL FOR IGNITION IF VEHICLE SHOULD BE IN PROXIMITY OF AN UNEXTINGUISHED CIGGARETTE, EX: AT A STOP LIGHT ONCE A DRIVER/PASSENGER IN PROXIMITY PLUCKS A BUTT NEAR VEHICLE. THE FINDINGS ALSO LEAD THE READER TO BELIEVE THE ROLL OVER VALVE WILL FAIL WHEN CAPSIZED CONTRIBUTI
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 386270 |
| ODI Number | 10000206 |
| Date Filed | December 18, 2002 |
| Failure Date | December 18, 2002 |
| VIN | 2B4FP2530XR |
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.