← NHTSA complaints

2024 VOLKSWAGEN ID.4 — VISIBILITY/WIPER

fire · 2094696 · 2025-05-23

Vehicle

Make
VOLKSWAGEN
Model
ID.4
Year
2024
Manufacturer
Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.
Component
VISIBILITY/WIPER

Severity

Deaths
0
Injured
0
Fire
Yes
Crash
No
Police report
No
Medical attention
No
Vehicle towed
No

Narrative

5/22/2025, Thursday morning I unplugged my car that was parked inside my garage. I sat down, tapped the pedal to turn on my “ignition mode” and within a few moments my windshield shot a massive flame in front of me and began sparking shooting glass from both heating elements. Glass shards landed on my hood and garage floor. My windshield was smoking and the amount of heat generated melted some of the glass around the area where the heating elements connect to the glass on the interior of my vehicle. My dealership fought me hard saying I had a crack that caused the fire and advised me to file an insurance claim for this “accident” and also continuing driving my vehicle that had just caught fire momentarily. Thankfully the fuse blew and that’s why the fire stopped but my concern is how much heat had to be generated to spontaneously combust my glass and then melt it! I refused to accept their response and after an entire day of arguing with VW customer support and the dealership. I repeatedly asked for a diagnostic of my windshield heating element module and the amount of electricity it was giving. The dealership declined to diagnose my car and removed the heated windshield fuse per my request. I spoke with the dealership owner who finally contacted their field service advisor who advised I should not drive my vehicle that caught fire and instead are going to further investigate my concern. I struggle to trust an actual investigation will be performed and hope they do

Source

Authoritative
NHTSA ODI Flat-File Downloads
ODI Number
11662879
Machine
JSON-LD · Markdown