2004 HONDA CR-V — Complaint #891004
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about EXTERIOR LIGHTING:HEADLIGHTS:HIGH/LOW BEAM DIMMER SWITCH filed November 17, 2011
NHTSA complaint #891004 (ODI reference 10436192) concerns a 2004 HONDA CR-V and was filed on November 17, 2011. The owner reports the failure occurred on November 9, 2011. The vehicle had 125,251 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Massachusetts based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as exterior lighting:headlights:high/low beam dimmer switch, 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 HONDA CR-V cohort independently describe similar exterior lighting:headlights:high/low beam dimmer switch 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 2004 HONDA CR-V shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
WHILE DRIVING AT NIGHT MY LOW BEAMS STOPPED WORKING AND I COULD SMELL SMOKE. IT WAS VERY DANGEROUS TO JUST ALL OF THE SUDDEN HAVE YOUR LIGHTS GO OUT. I COULDN'T SEE AND OTHERS COULDN'T SEE ME. I TURNED OFF THE LIGHT SWITCH, AND THE SMOKE SMELL DISSIPATED. MY HIGH BEAMS STILL WORKED. I GOT ONLINE AFTER THE INCIDENT AND REALIZED THAT I WAS NOT ALONE WITH THIS EXACT TYPE OF PROBLEM. THE PROBLEM HAS BEEN ISOLATED BY SEVERAL OTHER CR-V OWNERS AS AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM INVOLVING THE WIRING HARNESS THAT PLUGS INTO THE HEADLIGHT/TURN SIGNAL SWITCH. IN ADDITION, I FOUND AN ARTICLE STATING THAT THE NHTSA HAS OPENED AN INVESTIGATION OF THIS PROBLEM (NHTSA RECALL CAMPAIGN NUMBER EA11012) . A CALL TO A HONDA DEALERSHIP RESULTED IN A VERY EXPENSIVE QUOTE TO REPLACE THE WHOLE HARNESS (SEVERAL HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS). I FEEL THAT THIS PARTICULAR PROBLEM IS A SAFETY HAZARD, AND THAT HONDA SHOULD ISSUE A RECALL TO FIX THE PROBLEM. UPDATED 12/19/11 *BF *TR
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 891004 |
| ODI Number | 10436192 |
| Date Filed | November 17, 2011 |
| Failure Date | November 9, 2011 |
| VIN | SHSRD78804U |
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.