Investigations
Engine stall after refueling
NHTSA Defect Petition DP17002 - closed, opened 2017-03-29.
NHTSA investigation DP17002 is a Defect Petition opened on 2017-03-29 and currently closed. The subject is tracked inside the Office of Defects Investigation queue. Latest activity on this investigation was logged on 2017-10-03 - NHTSA updates that field whenever an Information Request goes out, a supplement is filed, or a status change is recorded in the public docket.
A Defect Petition like DP17002 starts when a person or group formally asks NHTSA to investigate a specific alleged defect. Petitioners submit evidence, NHTSA reviews it within 120 days, and either grants the petition (opening a PE) or denies it with a written explanation in the Federal Register.
Investigators summarized the matter as follows: "NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) evaluated this petition by 1) reviewing the Vehicle Owner Questionnaire (VOQ) reports (i.e., complaints) submitted to the Agency, 2) reviewing the manufacturer's response to..." Investigations are the early-warning layer of the federal auto-safety system, sitting upstream of formal recalls and defect orders. Whether this one closes without action or escalates into an Engineering Analysis, the full history stays in the ODI archive so researchers, litigators, and buyers can pull the paper trail at any time.
Investigation Summary
NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) evaluated this petition by 1) reviewing the Vehicle Owner Questionnaire (VOQ) reports (i.e., complaints) submitted to the Agency, 2) reviewing the manufacturer's response to an Information Request letter the Agency produced, and 3) reviewing the investigative files for two prior Agency actions, specifically PE13-016 and DP14-002, both of which involved the same alleged defect condition and both of which were closed without a defect finding. Consistent with prior evaluations, ODI has determined that further investigation is unlikely to result in a finding that a defect related to motor vehicle safety exists given the conditions under which these stalls occur. Additionally, and as indicated by the failure report counts shown above, there have been no relevant crashes, injuries or fatalities identified by either ODI or the manufacturer despite the fairly significant service life of the subject vehicles. In view of the need to allocate and prioritize NHTSA's limited resources to best accomplish the agency's safety mission, ODI is denying petition. A detailed summary of ODI's analysis of this petition is available in the investigative file for this action, and will be published in the Federal Register also. The 39 VOQ reports cited above can be reviewed at NHTSA.gov under the following reference (ODI) numbers: 10520767, 10582092, 10630009, 10632390, 10655183, 10661543, 10669824, 10679771, 10700955, 10714106, 10721350, 10721565, 10726070, 10749804, 10776405, 10777810, 10783139, 10790325, 10794850, 10817500, 10818793, 10822168, 10823089, 10823234, 10826088, 10836787, 10837871, 10846388, 10850984, 10851905, 10855663, 10862684, 10897450, 10905638, 10914269, 10918942, 10944115, 10944318, 10948386
About This Investigation Type
A Defect Petition (DP) is initiated when an individual or organization formally petitions NHTSA to investigate a potential safety defect. NHTSA reviews the petition and decides whether to open an investigation.
Data from NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation. Cross-references: NHTSA recall campaign API and NHTSA FARS where fatality records overlap. PlainCars does not rate or recommend vehicles. about how PlainCars sources NHTSA data.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.