2002 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA — Complaint #510126
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:MULTIPLE AXLE:TORQUE ARM filed December 6, 2004
NHTSA complaint #510126 (ODI reference 10103191) concerns a 2002 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA and was filed on December 6, 2004. The owner reports the failure occurred on December 2, 2004. The vehicle had 50,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Massachusetts based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:multiple axle:torque arm, 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 suspension:multiple axle:torque arm 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 2002 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
THE TORQUE ARM SHEARED OFF. AS A RESULT, AXLE TRANSMISSION WAS NOT BOLTED TO THE FRAME. *AK THE CONSUMER STATED THAT THE VEHICLE WAS PARKED. THE VEHICLE WAS PUT IN REVERSE AND IT STARTED BUCKING AND MAKING A LOT OF NOISE. THE VEHICLE WOULD NOT SHIFT FROM GEAR TO GEAR WITHOUT BUCKING. THE STEERING WHEEL WAS NOT STEERING CORRECTLY. EXHAUST BECAME LOUD. *TC
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 510126 |
| ODI Number | 10103191 |
| Date Filed | December 6, 2004 |
| Failure Date | December 2, 2004 |
| VIN | 3VWSK69M72M |
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.