2003 CHRYSLER 300M — Complaint #850194
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SEATS:FRONT ASSEMBLY:RECLINER filed April 5, 2011
NHTSA complaint #850194 (ODI reference 10394290) concerns a 2003 CHRYSLER 300M and was filed on April 5, 2011. The owner reports the failure occurred on May 15, 2004. The vehicle had 55,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Georgia based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as seats:front assembly:recliner, 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 CHRYSLER 300M cohort independently describe similar seats:front assembly:recliner 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 CHRYSLER 300M shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL*THE CONTACT OWNS A 2003 CHRYSLER 300M. THE CONTACT RECEIVED NOTIFICATION OF NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID NUMBER: 03V035000 (SEATS: FRONT ASSEMBLY: RECLINER) IN 2003 AND THE VEHICLE WAS REPAIRED. AFTER THE RECALL WORK WAS PERFORMED, THE DRIVER SEAT RECLINER BOLT FAILED AND THE SEAT COLLAPSED. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE DEALER REPAIRED THE SEAT A SECOND TIME BUT THE BOLT FAILED AGAIN WHILE THE CONTACT WAS DRIVING 60 MPH AROUND A BEND. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE DEALER A THIRD TIME FOR THE REPAIR AND THE DEALER AGAIN, REPAIRED THE SEAT BOLT YET THE SEAT BOLT FAILED A FOURTH TIME AND WAS REPAIRED. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE SEAT BOLT FAILED FOR THE FIFTH TIME. THE CONTACT CALLED THE DEALER TO REPORT THE FIFTH FAILURE ON MARCH 15, 2011 AND HE WAS ADVISED THAT THE PART WOULD BECOME AVAILABLE APRIL 7, 2011. HE CONTACTED THE MANUFACTURER AND THEY ADVISED HIM THAT THEY WOULD EXPEDITE THE DELIVERY OF THE PART. THE APPROXIMATE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 55,000 AND THE CURRENT MILEAGE WAS 145,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 850194 |
| ODI Number | 10394290 |
| Date Filed | April 5, 2011 |
| Failure Date | May 15, 2004 |
| VIN | 2C3HE66G1YH |
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.