2003 HONDA ACCORD — Complaint #435630
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about PARKING BRAKE:DRIVELINE filed October 16, 2003
NHTSA complaint #435630 (ODI reference 10043052) concerns a 2003 HONDA ACCORD and was filed on October 16, 2003. The owner reports the failure occurred on October 15, 2003. The vehicle had 9,300 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Florida based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as parking brake:driveline, 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: 1. A complaint that flags a crash, fire, or fatality is escalated on NHTSA's internal review queue and factors more heavily into any Preliminary Evaluation decision on this make and model. 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 HONDA ACCORD cohort independently describe similar parking brake:driveline 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 2003 HONDA ACCORD shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
I WAS TRAVELING ON THE INTERSTATE AND MY GAS PEDAL LOCKED, THEN MY STEERING SYSTEM, FOLLOWED BY THE GAS PEDAL. I WAS SURROUNDED BY HUGE TRUCKS AND WAS TRAVELING WITH SMALL CHILDREN AND WAS ABLE TO STOP THE CAR. I THEN REPEATEDLY SMASHED THE BRAKE PEDAL AND FORCED THE STEERING TO STIR ME TO THE SIDE OF THE ROAD THE CAR WENT INTO THE DITCH AND CAME TO A FAIRLY ABRUPT STOP. WHEN I ARRIVED TO THE DEALERSHIP, THEY TOLD ME THAT IT WAS A PROBLEM WITH THE ALTERNATOR, BUT SUGGESTED THAT I SHOULD REPLACED THE WATER PUMP. I ASKED FOR AN ENGINEER TO LOOK AT THE CAR AND BE GIVEN A STATEMENT OF SAFETY BEFORE I RISKED MY LIFE DRIVING THE CAR. THEY AGREED WHEN MY BROTHER-IN-LAW ASKED BUT I WAS DENIED AFTER HE GOT OFF THE PHONE AND SPOKE WITH ME ALTHOUGH MY CAR IS 90 DAYS OLD AND UNDER A FULL BUMPER TO BUMPER WARRANTY. *LA
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 435630 |
| ODI Number | 10043052 |
| Date Filed | October 16, 2003 |
| Failure Date | October 15, 2003 |
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.