2000 CHEVROLET CAVALIER — Complaint #510436
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC:FOUNDATION COMPONENTS:DIFFERENTIAL PROPORTIONAL VALVE filed December 7, 2004
NHTSA complaint #510436 (ODI reference 10102330) concerns a 2000 CHEVROLET CAVALIER and was filed on December 7, 2004. The owner reports the failure occurred on December 25, 2003. The vehicle had 34,016 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Nebraska based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as service brakes, hydraulic:foundation components:differential proportional valve, 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 CHEVROLET CAVALIER cohort independently describe similar service brakes, hydraulic:foundation components:differential proportional valve 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 2000 CHEVROLET CAVALIER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
THE 2000 CHEVROLET CAVALIER WAS PURCHASED IN JULY 2003 WITH APPROXIMATELY 32,000 MILEAGE. ON DECEMBER 25, 2003 WITH 34,016 MILEAGE THE BRAKE DASH LIGHT CAME ON, INDICATING A PROBLEM. THE FLUID WAS BARELY VISIBLE WHEN CHECKED. THE MECHANIC LATER DETERMINED THE PROPORTIONING VALUE WAS LOSING A DROP OF BRAKE FLUID WITH THE APPLICATION OF THE BRAKE PEDAL. THE PART WAS ORDERED AND RECEIVED FROM THE LOCAL DEALER. THE REPAIRED CAR WAS COMPLETED ON JANUARY 2, 2004. HE DIFFERENCE WAS REMARKABLE. IT WASN'T UNTIL IT WAS REPAIRED THAT I REALIZE HOW MUCH IT HAD LOST IT BRAKING ABILITY. TODAY I WAS TOLD IT WAS NOT A SAFETY ISSUE, SINCE I DIDN'T HAVE IT REPAIRED BY THEIR AUTHORIZED DEALER ONLY THE DEALER COULD MAKE THE DETERMINATION OF DEFECTIVE PARTS. *AK
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 510436 |
| ODI Number | 10102330 |
| Date Filed | December 7, 2004 |
| Failure Date | December 25, 2003 |
| VIN | 1G1JC1249Y7 |
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.