1998 CHEVROLET MALIBU — Complaint #624099
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about VISIBILITY:REAR WINDOW WIPER/WASHER:LINKAGES filed May 14, 2007
NHTSA complaint #624099 (ODI reference 10190683) concerns a 1998 CHEVROLET MALIBU and was filed on May 14, 2007. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 16, 2007. The vehicle had 123,800 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Oklahoma based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as visibility:rear window wiper/washer:linkages, 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 CHEVROLET MALIBU cohort independently describe similar visibility:rear window wiper/washer:linkages 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 CHEVROLET MALIBU shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
WHILE DRIVING DURING ICE STORMS IN JANUARY 2007 THE WINDSHIELD WIPERS QUIT WORKING DUE TO A BROKEN PIVOT HOUSING ON THE PASSENGER'S SIDE. THE SAME DEFECT WAS COVERED IN NHTSA RECALL CAMPAIGN 01V068000. HOWEVER, BECAUSE I LIVED OUTSIDE THE SALT BELT,CHEVROLET WILL NOT COVER THE REPAIR OF THIS MANUFACTURER'S DEFECT. I AM FEARFUL, BUT FORCED TO, DRIVE IN RAIN STORMS WITHOUT WORKING WINDSHIELD WIPERS. THE MANUFACTURER HAS BEEN COMPLETELY ARROGANT ABOUT HELPING IN THIS SITUATION FOR THE LAST 5 MONTHS.*AK
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 624099 |
| ODI Number | 10190683 |
| Date Filed | May 14, 2007 |
| Failure Date | January 16, 2007 |
| VIN | 1G1ND52M6WY |
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.