Other visibility problem on the 2004 Volkswagen Jetta
1 fire 1 of the 7 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
Only 6 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When other visibility problem gets reported
There are 7 reports of other visibility problem on the 2004 Volkswagen Jetta, 6 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 75,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 74,043 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $150–$1,400 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 20 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 90,000 miles.
By volume the 1999 carries the most reports, with 49; the 2004 has 7. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Dt: the caller had the vehicle's electrical system replaced 5 times. The windows/the alarm system/the lights/the gauges, and the dashboard lights failed. As the caller indicated everything electrical malfunctioned. The caller was able to drive vehicle to the dealer, and a few times he had to have it towed. Dealer could never give him an answer why the vehicle was having these problems. The manufacturer said they could not help him for free, and since the problem included different components it did not fall under the lemon law. Manufacturer said that if the caller got a loan on the vehicle it would be a different situation. *ak
The right rear hinge on the trunk of my 2004 jetta cracked on a joint. This caused the trunk to close in an imbalanced way. I recently closed my trunk and the leading edge of the trunk lid made contact with the back light (rear windshield) glass and shattered the glass completely. The glass fell into the car creating a very hazardous situation. When I contacted my local vw dealer to inquire about getting the hinge fixed, they explained that this is a common problem on vw jetta and passats and they have had numerous similar failures. I also contacted my insurance company (geico) and they told me the same thing, that they had an unusual number of claims from vw owners of shattered back lights (rear windshield) after the trunk lid was closed by the owner. If my kids were sitting in the rear seat, they would have been shattered with glass. Because my car has over 50,000 miles I am out of warranty. I called vw customer service and was basically given the run around. I said this is a safety issue and not a mileage based issue and they should fix my car, but they have refused. *tr
On december 17, 2007, I opened the hatch of my 2004 volkswagen jetta tdi and the window shattered. My wife and I first heard a pop sound and then the window exploded over our heads. It was a cold, dry morning in ne ohio (around 25 degrees). *tr
Also reported on the 2004 Volkswagen Jetta
Other body or interior problem
Other powertrain problem
Fuel pump failure
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
DPF, EGR or DEF system failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 7 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 7 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other visibility problem happen on the 2004 Volkswagen Jetta?
Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other visibility problem on the 2004 Volkswagen Jetta?
7 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed