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2003 FORD WINDSTAR — Complaint #662862

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NHTSA Complaint about PARKING BRAKE:INDICATOR LIGHT filed March 24, 2008

NHTSA complaint #662862 (ODI reference 10222169) concerns a 2003 FORD WINDSTAR and was filed on March 24, 2008. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 23, 2007. The vehicle had 45,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Florida based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as parking brake:indicator light, 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 FORD WINDSTAR cohort independently describe similar parking brake:indicator light 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 2003 FORD WINDSTAR shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.

Vehicle
2003 FORD WINDSTAR
Component
PARKING BRAKE:INDICATOR LIGHT
State
Florida
Mileage
45,000 mi

Complaint Description

BOTH THE ABS LIGHT AND THE EMERGENCY BRAKE LIGHT COME ON IN MY 2003 FORD WINDSTAR ONCE THE VEHICLE GETS WARMED UP. I HAVE CONDUCTED EXTENSIVE RESEARCH AFTER HAVING A MECHANIC GIVE ME THE CODE THAT THE VAN IS THROWING (C1185) AND FOUND THE FOLLOWING: THE BRAKE PRESSURE DIFFERENTIAL DEACTIVATION SWITCH (2B264) LOCATED UNDER THE MASTER CYLINDER (BEHIND THE AIR FILTER) OVER TIME DEVELOPS A LEAK. THIS CAUSES A SHORT AND A FUSE TRIP, FUSE #10. THIS LEAK CAUSES BRAKE FLUID TO WICK DOWN TWO WIRES TO THE ABS BRAKE MODULE (2C219). THE FLUID ACCUMULATES ON THE POWER CONNECTORS FOR THE ABS BRAKE SYSTEM WHICH ARE POWERED BY FUSES 101 AND 102 AND ARE BOTH 40 AMP. THE FLUID ATTRACTS MOISTURE, ROAD SALT AND LEADS TO A FIRE WHEN THE FLUID AND MOISTURE ACT AS CONDUCTOR BETWEEN THE HOT LEADS AND GROUND. THIS SWITCH HAS BEEN THE SUBJECT OF OTHER FORD RECALLS, JUST NOT THE WINDSTAR VAN YET. BELOW IS A PICTURE OF THE SWITCH IN QUESTION. NOTICE THE FLUID THAT LEAKED ON THE PART BELOW IT. THIS SWITCH WILL

Complaint Details

NHTSA Complaint ID 662862
ODI Number 10222169
Date Filed March 24, 2008
Failure Date April 23, 2007
VIN 2FMZA53483B

Similar PARKING BRAKE:INDICATOR LIGHT Complaints for 2003 FORD WINDSTAR

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