1998 FORD TAURUS — Complaint #818334
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about EQUIPMENT:ELECTRICAL:ANTI-THEFT DEVICES filed October 4, 2010
NHTSA complaint #818334 (ODI reference 10359092) concerns a 1998 FORD TAURUS and was filed on October 4, 2010. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 30, 2010. The report was geocoded to South Carolina based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as equipment:electrical:anti-theft devices, 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 TAURUS cohort independently describe similar equipment:electrical:anti-theft devices 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 FORD TAURUS shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL*THE CONTACT OWNS A 1998 FORD TAURUS. WHILE DRIVING 35 MPH, THE ANTI THEFT DEVICE ENGAGED AND CAUSED THE VEHICLE TO STALL UNEXPECTANTLY. THE CONTACT COASTED THE VEHICLE OFF THE ROADWAY. THE CONTACT WAS ABLE TO RESTART THE VEHICLE AND SHE STATED THE FAILURE RECURRED AT LEAST SIX TIMES. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE DEALER TWICE. THE CONTACT STATED THE DEALER REPLACED THE BATTERY CABLE, A METAL WIRE TO THE BATTERY AND THE KEY WAS REPROGRAMMED AND REPLACED. THE FAILURE CONTINUED TO RECUR INTERMITTENTLY. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT REPAIRED. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS UNKNOWN AND THE CURRENT MILEAGE WAS 158,273.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 818334 |
| ODI Number | 10359092 |
| Date Filed | October 4, 2010 |
| Failure Date | January 30, 2010 |
| VIN | 1FAFP53S7WA |
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.