2003 MAZDA TRIBUTE — Complaint #989057
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about VISIBILITY:WINDSHIELD WIPER/WASHER:LINKAGES filed June 25, 2013
NHTSA complaint #989057 (ODI reference 10521674) concerns a 2003 MAZDA TRIBUTE and was filed on June 25, 2013. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 11, 2013. The vehicle had 261,548 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 visibility:windshield wiper/washer:linkages, 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 MAZDA TRIBUTE cohort independently describe similar visibility:windshield wiper/washer:linkages 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 MAZDA TRIBUTE shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
ON MAY 11, 2013 MY WINDSHIELD WIPERS STOP WORKING DURING RAINY STORMING DAY. AT FIRST THE WIPERS SLOWED DOWN AND WOULD MOVE EVERY 5 TO 10 MINUTES; THUS, THEY STOPPED COMPLETELY. I HAD A HOUR AND HALF COMMUTE HOME BEFORE I COULD PARK THE VEHICLE. THINKING THAT IT WAS THE WIPER THAT NEED TO BE REPLACED, I HAD A MECHANIC TO LOOK AT IT; HOWEVER, IT WAS DISCOVERED THAT THE WINDSHIELD WIPER LINKAGE WAS BROKEN IN HALF. I CALLED MAZDA ABOUT THE RECALL ON IT THE ITEM AND WAS TOLD THAT THE RECALL DOES NOT APPLY TO MY VIN NUMBER. MAZDA WILL NOT REPAIR THE PROBLEM. THE RECALL WAS FOR 2003 MAZDA TRIBUTE HOWEVER MAZDA STATES THAT IT DOES NOT APPLY TO MY 2003 VIN NUMBER. PLEASE ASSIST. ITEM AFFECTED: VISIBILITY:WINDSHIELD WIPER/WASHER:LINKAGES DATE ANNOUNCED: 11/29/2000 DESCRIPTION OF RECALL: VEHICLE DESCRIPTION: SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES. THE WINDSHIELD WIPER LINKAGE CAN DISENGAGE DUE TO A BROKEN BALL SOCKET. ACTION NEEDED TO FIX IT: DEALERS WILL INSPECT AND, IF NECESSARY, REPLACE THE WIPE
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 989057 |
| ODI Number | 10521674 |
| Date Filed | June 25, 2013 |
| Failure Date | April 11, 2013 |
| VIN | 4F2YZ04163K |
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.