2001 NISSAN XTERRA — Complaint #585051
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about VISIBILITY:REAR WINDOW WIPER/WASHER:SWITCH/WIRING filed June 14, 2006
NHTSA complaint #585051 (ODI reference 10159818) concerns a 2001 NISSAN XTERRA and was filed on June 14, 2006. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 22, 2006. The report was geocoded to Pennsylvania based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as visibility:rear window wiper/washer:switch/wiring, 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 NISSAN XTERRA cohort independently describe similar visibility:rear window wiper/washer:switch/wiring 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 2001 NISSAN XTERRA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
APPROXIMATELY ONE MONTH AGO AFTER JUST STARTING MY XTERRA, I NOTICED THAT THE REAR WINDSHIELD WIPER WAS ON. I BEGAN TO PRESS THE SWITCH TO TURN THE WIPER OFF, THINKING I HAD LEFT IF ON, BUT REALIZED THAT IT WAS ALREADY IN THE OFF POSITION. THE WIPER THEN BEGAN TO MOVE AGAIN, AND WASHER FLUID STARTED TO SPRAY ON THE WINDOW. AFTER SEVERAL ATTEMPTS TO TURN THE SWITCH OFF AND ON, I FINALLY RESOLVED TO REMOVE THE FUSE FOR THE REAR WIPER. (THIS ALSO HAPPENED PRIOR TO A HEAVY RAINFALL LATER IN THE DAY, PREVENTING ME FROM USING THE REAR WIPER.) AFTER RETURNING HOME, I REINSERTED THE FUSE, THINKING IT WOULD SIMPLY RESET THE WIPER. HOWEVER, A SHORT WHILE AFTER TURNING THE ENGINE ON THE NEXT TIME IN THE CAR, BOTH THE WIPER AND WASHER FLUID ACTIVATED WITH THE SWITCH IN THE "OFF" POSITION. I HAVE FOUND SEVERAL REFERENCES TO SIMILAR PROBLEMS IN ONLINE XTERRA OWNER FORUMS, BUT HAVE NOT FOUND ANY RECALL NOTICES FROM NISSAN. *JB
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 585051 |
| ODI Number | 10159818 |
| Date Filed | June 14, 2006 |
| Failure Date | April 22, 2006 |
| VIN | 5N1ED28Y81C |
Similar VISIBILITY:REAR WINDOW WIPER/WASHER:SWITCH/WIRING Complaints for 2001 NISSAN XTERRA
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.