2003 MITSUBISHI LANCER — Complaint #837709
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SERVICE BRAKES, AIR:SUPPLY:CHECK VALVE filed January 20, 2011
NHTSA complaint #837709 (ODI reference 10377981) concerns a 2003 MITSUBISHI LANCER and was filed on January 20, 2011. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 10, 2011. The vehicle had 80,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Missouri based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as service brakes, air:supply:check valve, 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: yes, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. A complaint that flags a crash, fire, or fatality is escalated on NHTSA's internal review queue and factors more heavily into any Preliminary Evaluation decision on this make and model. 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 service brakes, air:supply:check valve 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 MITSUBISHI LANCER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
ON JAN. 10, 2011 I WAS DRIVING MY FRIENDS 2003 MITSUBISHI, LANCER. AS WE WERE LEAVING THE DOCTORS OFFICE PARKING LOT I ATTEMPTED TO STOP AT THE PARKING LOT EXIT, A SLIGHT INCLINE BEFORE A BUSY STREET. THE BRAKE PEDAL WAS FIRM BUT THE CAR CONTINUED TO ROLL FORWARD. EVEN THOUGH I WAS PRESSING THE BRAKE AS HARD AS I COULD I WAS UNABLE TO STOP AND THE FRONT END OF THE CAR WAS SMASH BY A SEMI TRUCK. MY FRIEND AND I WERE UNHARMED BUT SHAKEN UP. AFTER CHECKING FOR RECALLS I CAN'T HELP BUT THINK THE BRAKE FAILURE WE EXPERIENCE IS THE SAME AS DESCRIBED IN NHTSA CAMPAIGN #09V077000 FOR THE 2008-2009 MODEL OF THE MITSUBISHI LANCER. *TR
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 837709 |
| ODI Number | 10377981 |
| Date Filed | January 20, 2011 |
| Failure Date | January 10, 2011 |
| VIN | JA3AJ26E83U |
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.