2026 data Public-data reference. official source

1996 GMC SAFARI — Complaint #586685

Open-data reference.

NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:FRONT:SPRINGS:TORSION BAR filed June 29, 2006

NHTSA complaint #586685 (ODI reference 10161045) concerns a 1996 GMC SAFARI and was filed on June 29, 2006. The owner reports the failure occurred on June 26, 2006. The vehicle had 132,890 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Minnesota based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:front:springs:torsion bar, 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 GMC SAFARI cohort independently describe similar suspension:front:springs:torsion bar 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 1996 GMC SAFARI shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
1996 GMC SAFARI
Component
SUSPENSION:FRONT:SPRINGS:TORSION BAR
State
Minnesota
Mileage
132,890 mi

Complaint Description

GMC SAFARI VAN WAS PARKED IN DRIVEWAY, NEXT MORNING IT WAS DISCOVERED THAT THE FRONT HAD COLLAPSED AND WAS JUST 2 INCHES OFF THE PAVEMENT, INNER FENDERS WERE TOUCHING THE TIRES. DISCOVERED THAT THE TORSION BARS HAD FAILED, DEALER SAID REPAIRS WILL BE $1000, PART HAS BEEN REDESIGNED AND HAS A NEW MOUNTING KIT TO GO ALONG WITH NEW TORSION BARS . VEHICLE IS USED AS SECOND FAMILY CAR AND DRIVEN BY DAUGHTER FOR SCHOOL AND WORK, LUCKILY FAILURE OCCURRED WHILE PARKED. *NM

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 586685
ODI Number 10161045
Date Filed June 29, 2006
Failure Date June 26, 2006
VIN 1GKEL19W6TB

Similar SUSPENSION:FRONT:SPRINGS:TORSION BAR Complaints for 1996 GMC SAFARI

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