Owner-reported complaints naming the exterior lighting system, filed with NHTSA
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Reports naming headlights, tail lights, turn signals and other exterior lighting. Every record below is an owner-reported complaint about the 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML350 submitted to NHTSA — not a confirmed defect, not a recall and not a manufacturer bulletin. 9 reports on file name it.
Complaints are reports submitted by owners and drivers to NHTSA. They are not verified and do not establish that a defect exists.
Shown in the owner’s own words, exactly as filed
My indicators stopped working a month prior to accident, then they started working again. On March 10th the issue happened again where I turned my signal on and no light appeared and no light on the dash with the indicator sound either. Boom, I had sideswipe someone on a major road causing an accident. NHTSA needs to do something about this because corporate won’t do anything!
Turn signals will not operate, dealership quoted me $1400 3 years ago, had the work performed and now the issue is happening again and I am being quoted the same amount of money. This is a safety concern if I cannot signal to others where I am turning!!!!! This could cause an accident!!!!! This is highly unsafe!!! What if my kids were in the car?! Talking to customers in waiting lounge at dealership other people have had same issue!! The one time they stopped working I had a person hit me going 30 mph, could have been much much worse.
Steering column module is intermittently not working as intended, therefore the blinkers will sometimes not work causing it to be a safety concern if I can not signal where I am going. When looking this issue up online I have seen numerous different forums and posts where people have had the same issue. When I took my vehicle to the dealership they had told me that this is very common with the vehicle I have and they do the fix all of the time, just for the issue to happen yet again later down the road.
When reversing the vehicle the brake pedal jumps with your feet on the brake pedal and a nose rattles,when driving and you have a sudden stop motion the vehicle brakes pedal with your feet on it it’s very hard to push the brake Pedal . Reversing the vehicle very strong nose and the vehicle doesn’t stop right away
Due to water in the spare wheel well, (Recall ID:22V955) our fuel module and fuel pump went out. While driving in traffic on I-5 our car stalled then stopped which put us at risk of a crash.The first time (July 2022) It was repaired by Cooper's Auto Repair), After the 2nd time it failed again in Aug 2022, once again as we were driving, our mechanic at (Boyle's Foreign Car Repair) Aug 2022 & Dec 2022 (replace) decided to do an inspection of the whole car to see why this was happening, upon inspection he found water in the spare wheel well, He pulled out the plug to stop accumulation. 2 months later (Feb 2023 )we received the recall letter. In the letter it states that MBUSA would reimburse repairs performed prior to the recall. MBUSA is now refusing to reimburse for replacement but also refusing to find and fix where the water in entering. We reside in a very wet part of the country and see this as a continuing issue. There also is condensation in the back tail lights, which was not there until this issue started occurring. The car was previously in S Cal so there was no issue with water accumulation until it was moved to the rainy Pacific NW. We are fearful of using this car during very wet times as we do not know if this (failure of pump/module) will occur as well as condensation and water being in the back tail lights possibly resulting in the car stopping during it being driven. Therefore putting our lives in potential danger of an accident.
The steering column does not operate properly. The column no longer adjusts positions and more importantly, the turn signals work ad-hoc. When you start the vehicle, the turn signals tend to operate properly; however, after driving for approximately 15 minutes, the turn signals operate sporadically. THIS IS A SAFETY CONCERN as it's impossible to know when the turn signal will operate correctly or not, thus creating a hazard to me and others on the road. It is my understanding from investigating this online that this is a systemic issue with this model and not unique to my vehicle (just google "2012 Mercedes ml350 turn signal problems"). I discussed this with Mercedes Benz USA and they told me that the only way to resolve this issue is to replace the steering column (part #: 166-460-62-00) at the cost of $3,373.81. I hope that the NHTSA investigates this further as Mercedes-Benz has decided to ignore this safety issue that may cause harm or death. Sincerely, [XXX] INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
WHEN THE CAR HAS BEEN RUNNING FOR A WHILE THE DIRECTIONAL SIGNALS STOP WORKING
THE HEADLIGHTS ARE REALLY DIM. IT'S HARD TO SEE THE CURB IN THE NIGHT WHEN DRIVING FROM A ROAD WITH NO CURB AND ENTERING A ROAD WITH CURB. *JS
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2012 MERCEDES-BENZ ML350. THE CONTACT STATED THAT HEAD LIGHT WOULD NOT ILLUMINATE BEYOND TWENTY FIVE FEET, MAKING NIGHT TIME DRIVING VERY DIFFICULT. THE CONTACT TOOK THE VEHICLE TO THE DEALER AND THE DEALER COULD NOT DETERMINE THAT THERE WAS A DEFECT. THE CONTACT STATED THAT HE HAD TO UTILIZE THE HIGH BEAM HEADLIGHTS WHEN DRIVING AT NIGHT. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 40,000.
Higher-selling and older vehicles accumulate more reports. Counts are not failure rates and are not directly comparable between vehicles that sold in very different numbers.
Categories with enough reports to have a page of their own
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