2003 FORD WINDSTAR — Complaint #662862
Open-data reference.
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.
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
I WAS DRIVING ALONG AND SUDDENLY THE EMERGENCY BRAKE LIGHT, THE ABS LIGHT, THE TRACTION LIGHT, AND CHECK ENGINE LIGHT CAME ON. THE ODOMETER, AND DASHBOARD FUEL INFO SYSTEM DIDN'T WORK, THE SPEEDOMETE
MY AUTOMOBILE KEEPS GETTING MULTIPLE EMERGENCY BRAKE AND ABS ERRORS. THE LIGHTS COME ON AND REMAINS ON UNTIL TURNED OFF. UPON RESEARCHING THIS PROBLEM IT APPEARS TO BE A WIDE SPREAD ISSUE WITH FORD WI
I WOULD LIKE TO REQUEST AN INVESTIGATION ON MY 2003 FORD WINDSTAR VAN. MY ABS AND EMERGENCY BRAKE LIGHT RANDOMLY COME ON, FOR NO APPARENT REASON. I CAN SIT AND LET MY CAR IDLE, AND THE LIGHT WILL CO
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.