10.0
really awful- Crashes / Fires:
- 0 / 0
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 0 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 0 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.
Hi, I was driving at highway speeds, about 80mph through West Texas where the speed limit is 80MPH. I was pulling a trailer, there was a 40'ish MPH side-wind blowing pushing the vehicle to the center divider. As I was passing a semi on the outside of a curve, as I came upon the bow wake, the vehicle was pushed towards the center divider and encountered the rumble strip. At which point the power steering malfunctioned and completely turned off, leaving only manual steering. There was an error on the display indicating power steering malfunction. It was an extreme driving environment, but within the limits of the law. With a lot of quick reaction, I was able to maintain control of the vehicle and continue on the the next safe location to stop, which was the next gas station. West Texas is fairly desolate, and stopping on the side of the road did not appear to be a safe option. After some web research we found this was not an isolated incident and it has been noted before, NHTSA Campaign Number: 17V595. Additional research indicated that rebooting the vehicle would in fact re-enable the power steering, which it did. We were able to complete our destination. If my wife was driving we would be dead, along with a few others, without a doubt. We contacted MB, we were told to have a dealership conduct am inspection, I will contact them to get an estimate. I have owned the van for 3.5 yrs, with about 52k on the odometer, this has never happened before, how on God's green earth is a dealership going to be able to anything besides read the computer and get the error message? Anomalous malfunctions are incredibly to difficult to detect, they only occur when a very unique combination of events coincide. I ask you to look at case NHTSA 17V595. My vehicle was made 2-3 months after that event, I believe more than 3 vehicles were effected and it is an ticking time bomb for the owners of the vehicles affected. God be with them, as He was with Us that moment.
- Atoka, OK, USA
- Baton Rouge, LA, USA