2004 CHEVROLET IMPALA — Complaint #513454
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about EXTERIOR LIGHTING:TURN SIGNAL:FLASHER UNIT filed December 22, 2004
NHTSA complaint #513454 (ODI reference 10104330) concerns a 2004 CHEVROLET IMPALA and was filed on December 22, 2004. The owner reports the failure occurred on December 11, 2004. The vehicle had 11,800 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Virginia based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as exterior lighting:turn signal:flasher unit, 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 IMPALA cohort independently describe similar exterior lighting:turn signal:flasher unit 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 2004 CHEVROLET IMPALA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
1) EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE FAILURE - IT ALL STARTED OUT OF THE BLUE ABOUT 2 WEEKS AGO. I HAVE AN INTERMITTENT FAILURE OF THE BLINKER MECHANISM OF THE TURN SIGNALS. WHEN IT DOES NOT WORK, THE LEVER IS TURNED FOR EITHER LEFT OR RIGHT TURN AND THE SIGNAL STAYS LIT, BUT NOT BLINKING. MOST OF THE TIME, THOUGHOUT THE DAY, THE SIGNALS BLINK PROPERLY. 2) FAILURE AND ITS CONSEQUENCES - THIS IS OBVIOUSLY A SAFETY ISSUE IN THAT DRIVERS FOLLOWING ME WOULD NOT BE AS ALERT TO A NON-BLINKING LIGHT AS THEY WOULD BE FOR A BLINKING LIGHT. 3) BOTH MYSELF AND MY LOCAL GAS STATION REMOVED AND AND RESEATED THE POSSIBLE OFFENDING FUSE AND ASSOCIATED RELAY MODULE. HE EVEN INDICATED THAT BOTH CHEVROLET AND PONTIAC CARS HAVE TURN SIGNAL ARMS WITH SHORTS IN THEM. I COULD NOT FIND ANY RECALLS INDICATING A SHORT IN THE TURN SIGNALS.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 513454 |
| ODI Number | 10104330 |
| Date Filed | December 22, 2004 |
| Failure Date | December 11, 2004 |
| VIN | 2G1WF52E849 |
Similar EXTERIOR LIGHTING:TURN SIGNAL:FLASHER UNIT Complaints for 2004 CHEVROLET IMPALA
NO PRIOR EVENT. TURN SIGNAL FLASHER CEASED TO FUNCTION FULL TIME. IT HAS BEEN INTERMITTENT FOR SEVERAL DAYS. HAZARD LIGHTS NOR TURN SIGNALS BLINK. BULBS COME ON AND STAY ON. NO FLASHER. *TR
THE TURN SIGNALS AND HAZARD LIGHTS NO LONGER BLINK WHEN TURNED ON. THE BULBS LIGHT UP BUT DO NOT BLINK ON AND OFF. *TR
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.