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2004 MITSUBISHI LANCER — Complaint #622094

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NHTSA Complaint about VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:WINDSHIELD:ELECTRICAL HEATING ELEMENT filed April 27, 2007

NHTSA complaint #622094 (ODI reference 10189143) concerns a 2004 MITSUBISHI LANCER and was filed on April 27, 2007. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 27, 2007. The vehicle had 65,601 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Nevada based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:windshield:electrical heating element, 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 MITSUBISHI LANCER cohort independently describe similar visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:windshield:electrical heating element 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 MITSUBISHI LANCER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2004 MITSUBISHI LANCER
Component
VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:WINDSHIELD:ELECTRICAL HEATING ELEMENT
State
Nevada
Mileage
65,601 mi

Complaint Description

A/C, DEFROST CONTROL HAS BEEN HARD TO CHANGE SINCE PURCHASE OF VEHICLE. PLASTIC CONTROL FOR CONNECTION OF KNOB BROKE. CALLED CLOSEST DEALER (OVER 60 MILES AWAY) AND THEY ARE AWARE OF PROBLEM BUT WILL NOT FIX BECAUSE THEY FEEL THAT IT IS NOT A SAFETY ISSUE. I DISAGREE. COST FOR REPAIRS QUOTED AT OVER $600 PARTS PLUS LABOR. WITHOUT REPAIR CAR CAN NOT SAFELY BE DRIVEN APPROXIMATELY 5 MONTHS OF THE YEAR IN THIS AREA. *JB

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 622094
ODI Number 10189143
Date Filed April 27, 2007
Failure Date April 27, 2007
VIN JA3AJ26EX4U

Similar VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:WINDSHIELD:ELECTRICAL HEATING ELEMENT Complaints for 2004 MITSUBISHI LANCER

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