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1998 CADILLAC CATERA — Complaint #541491

Open-data reference.

NHTSA Complaint about EQUIPMENT:RECREATIONAL VEHICLE/TRAILER:LPG SYSTEMS:WATER HEATER filed June 27, 2005

NHTSA complaint #541491 (ODI reference 10126748) concerns a 1998 CADILLAC CATERA and was filed on June 27, 2005. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 20, 2000. The vehicle had 90,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Michigan based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as equipment:recreational vehicle/trailer:lpg systems:water heater, 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 CADILLAC CATERA cohort independently describe similar equipment:recreational vehicle/trailer:lpg systems:water heater 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 1998 CADILLAC CATERA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
1998 CADILLAC CATERA
Component
EQUIPMENT:RECREATIONAL VEHICLE/TRAILER:LPG SYSTEMS:WATER HEATER
State
Michigan
Mileage
90,000 mi

Complaint Description

1998 CATERA PROBLEMS: TRANSMISSION FAILED 3 TIMES CAUSED BY ELECTRONIC PART MAL FUNCTION; ALTERNATOR FAILURE; BATTERY HAS BEEN REPLACED 3 TIMES; HEATER AND A/C INOPERATIVE-BURNED HARNESS AND ELECTRONIC COMPONENT; DOOR HINGES FAILED; ENGINE OIL LEAK; VEHICLE CRANKS BUT WILL NOT START; PREMATURE TIRE WEAR; VEHICLE WANDERS; FRONT END ALIGNED 3 TIMES IN ONE YEAR; WARPED DISC ROTORS TWICE IN TWO YEAR PERIOD; DIFFERENTIAL SEALS LEAK; VAOLTAGE METER AMBIGUOS READING; SIDEMARKERS INOPERATIVE AND CORRODED; HIGH UNDERHOOD TEMPERATURE; REMOTE KEYS FILED; REAR VIEW MIRRORS DO NOT ADJUST TO NIGHT DRIVING.

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 541491
ODI Number 10126748
Date Filed June 27, 2005
Failure Date January 20, 2000
VIN W06VR52RXWR

Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.