2005 FREIGHTLINER COLUMBIA — Complaint #545604
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about POWER TRAIN:CLUTCH ASSEMBLY:BELL HOUSING filed July 23, 2005
NHTSA complaint #545604 (ODI reference 10129789) concerns a 2005 FREIGHTLINER COLUMBIA and was filed on July 23, 2005. The owner reports the failure occurred on May 10, 2005. The vehicle had 176,865 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Idaho based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as power train:clutch assembly:bell housing, 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 FREIGHTLINER COLUMBIA cohort independently describe similar power train:clutch assembly:bell housing 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 2005 FREIGHTLINER COLUMBIA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
CLUTCH EXPLODED GOING DOWN THE HIGHWAY AND LOCKED TRUCK IN GEAR AND FRAGMENTS STAYED IN BELLHOUSING THIS TIME,REMOVE CLUTCH AND REPLACED CLUTCH ASSY.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 545604 |
| ODI Number | 10129789 |
| Date Filed | July 23, 2005 |
| Failure Date | May 10, 2005 |
| VIN | 1FUJA6CK45D |
Similar POWER TRAIN:CLUTCH ASSEMBLY:BELL HOUSING Complaints for 2005 FREIGHTLINER COLUMBIA
TRUCK WOULD NOT GO INTO GEAR, SENT WRECKER HAD TOWED TO SHOP SHOP CHECK AND FOUND CLUCTH HAD EXPLODED, FRAGMENT WENT TRU, BELL HOUSING. RUNIED HOUSING AND CLUTCH.FRAGMENTS HAD HAVE HIT HIGHWAY. REMO
CLUTCH EXPLODED GOING DOWN THE HIGHWAY AND LOCKED TRUCK IN GEAR AND FRAGMENTS WENT THOUGHT THE BELL HOUSING.ALSO THIS BROKE THE REAR ENGINE BELL HOUSING. COULD HAVE HIT OTHER AUTOS ON HGHWAY OR COULD
CLUTCH EXPLODE GOING DOWN THE HIGHWAY AND LOCKED TRUCK IN GEAR AND FRAGMENTS WENT THOUGHT THE BELL HOUSING. COULD HAVE HIT OTHER AUTOS ON HGHWAY OR COULD HAVE SENT FRAGMENT INTO CAB OF TRUCK AND INJU
CLUTCH WOULD NOT RELEASE, AND THEN MADE LOUD POPING SOUND, THEN IT STARTING WORKING, GOT INTO OUR SHOP CHECK OUT FOUND IT HAD BLEW A HOLE IN CLUTCH HOUSING, PARTS OF CLUTCH DISC, CAME APART.R&R CLUCTH
CLUCTH MAKING ALOT OF NOISE HARD TO GET INTO GEAR, CHECK, AND FOUND THE PIECE IN CLUCTH DISC PART WAY STUCK OUT OF DISC. REPLACE CLUTCH ASSY, CAUGHT THIS ONE BEFORE DISC CAME APART
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.