2.4
hardly worth mentioning- Crashes / Fires:
- 0 / 0
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 0 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 64,035 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.
« Read the previous 20 complaints
Windshield wipers froze in place while driving. This has occurred on multiple occasions to the right side wiper but yesterday (3/12/14) neither wiper would work after a 20 mile highway drive during a moderate snowfall. The chronology of events are as follows: 1.) the vehicle is warmed up and the windshield defrosted with the normal automotive HVAC system. 2.) the wipers are used during low speed driving and keep the windshield clear. 3.) at speeds above 35mph, light/moderate snow does not stick to the windshield shield and visibility is better without the wipers running. At some point during travel with the wipers off, the moisture from previous wiper use causes the wipers to freeze in place. 4.) the wipers are needed when speed is reduced or roadspray is encountered and they do not work because they are froze below where the defroster heats the windshield. At this point I must stop and exit the vehicle to free the wipers. I've thus far been fortunate enough to not have encounter serious roadspray while my wipers have been frozen in place, but feel it is only a matter of time before I'm require to stop in a dangerous/impracticable location to free the wipers.
- Woodsville, NH, USA
The windshield wipers rest on a portion of the windshield that is not heated. After having fully cleared my windshield of snow and ice before my trip, I was quite surprised to find my windshield wipers non-functional when I went to use them to clear road spray from my windshield. What had happened was that the wipers had refrozen to the windshield after having been cleared earlier. I commonly drive with the vehicle's climate control set to the floor/defrost setting to keep the windshield warm, especially on the first leg of a trip. This is the first vehicle I own where the wipers disappear from the view when they are not used. Inspection of the windshield design shows that the lower portion of the windshield is not directly exposed to cabin heat, nor is there a easy path for engine heat to affect this area. There should be, at a minimum, a method to defrost the lower portion of the windshield that the wipers rest on, either through direct thermal electric means, or by exposure to cabin heat when the HVAC is on the defrost setting. Having wipers that randomly not function because they are frozen represents a significant safety hazard when road spray covers your windshield due to greatly reduced visibility. Additional hazards are present because you have no choice to but to immediatly stop on the side of the road to free your wipers. This leaves you exposed to traffic traveling at high speeds while you are stopped, as well as the inherent risk associated with merging back on the road from a full stop without the aid of an on-ramp, or other acceleration lane.
- Waverly, IA, USA
- Cincinnati, OH, USA