Consumer Complaint Detail
FREIGHTLINER / FLD / 2004
1 Injured
0 Death
No Fire
| Components - Details | |
|---|---|
| NHTSA Complaint Number: 005018368 | Incident Date: Apr, 19 2005 |
| Consumer's City: DALLAS | Consumer's State: TX |
| Vehicle Transmission Type: MAN | Manufacturers Name: FREIGHTLINER LLC |
| Model Name: FLD | Model Year: 2004 |
| Vehicle Involved in a Crash: Yes | Component's Description: Steering:linkages:knuckle:spindle:arm |
| Vehicle Involved in a Fire: No | Persons Injured: 1 |
| Vehicle's VIN#: | Date added to File: May, 23 2021 |
| Date Complaint Received: May, 02 2005 | Complaint Type: IVOQ |
| Incident Reported To Police: Yes | Purchase Date: Feb, 28 2002 |
| Was Original Owner: Yes | Anti-lock Brakes: No |
| Number of Cylinders: 8 | Date of Manufacturer: - |
| Was Vehicle Towed: - | Description of the Complaints: As a mechanical engineer and accident reconstructionist i was asked to examine the front axle of a late model freightliner truck-tractor that had been in a loss-of-steering-control type accident. the accident resulted in a total loss of the tractor, the trailer, the trailer load and injury to the driver. upon examining the left front steering spindle i noticed it had separated from the axle. the place where the spindle connects to the axle is effected by an interference fit between a solid cylinder and a cylindrical hole with no other means of joining the two parts. the hole was cracked which caused a partial loss of interence fit which allowed the spindle to work its way out of the hole. when this occurs there is loss of load support by the wheel and a loss of steering. there was no impact damage to the wheel so the separation was the cause of the accident not a result of the accident. this was clearly a defective front axle but it is not known at this time if it is a (1) design defect , (2) manufacturing defect or (3) a material defect. however, there is a defect and it is a very serious problem because there are several thousand of these truck tractors operating right now with steering axles potentially about to fail and when they do the effects will be catastrophic to the drivers, other motorists and cargoes. the only way to correct this problem is to stop the trucks, recall the trucks and replace or modify the spindle-axle connection so that they can't separate. i know that there was a meeting of a number of trucking companies that have experienced this problem and that they have not had any good response from freightliner regarding fixing the problem. for the sake of public safety you should open an investigation of this problem as soon as possible. these truck tractors and their defective steering axles are ticking time bombs on our nation's highways. |