NHTSA Complaint #11119418 — 2004 CHEVROLET TRAILBLAZER

DRIVING CONDITIONS DARK, 11PM, UNLIT, STARS VISIBLE PAVED COUNTRY ROAD WITH HILLS, CURVES AND 2-5 FOOT DITCHES. WEATHER WET BUT DRYING. VISIBILITY GOOD. VEHICLE IN MOTION NEAR LEGAL SPEED LIMIT 80 KM/HR. OCCASIONAL ONCOMING TRAFFIC, SO OCCASIONALLY SWITCHING BETWEEN LOW AND HIGH BEAMS. NOTICED LOW BEAM HEADLIGHTS FLICKERED OCCASIONALLY. EFFECT WAS ONLY VISIBLE AFTER ONCOMING TRAFFIC HAD PASSED, BEFORE SWITCHING BACK TO HIGH BEAM HEADLIGHTS. I HAD ATTRIBUTED THE EFFECT TO MY EYES ADJUSTING AFTER THE ONCOMING HEADLIGHTS. ON ONE OCCASION, AFTER THE ONCOMING VEHICLE HAD PASSED, I SWITCHED BACK TO LOW BEAM SETTING, BUT THE LOW BEAM HEADLIGHTS WERE NOT ILLUMINATING THE ROAD AT ALL. ALL I COULD SEE WAS A SMALL AMOUNT OF YELLOWISH LIGHT OFF TO THE SIDES OF THE VEHICLE FROM THE OTHER RUNNING LIGHTS, INCLUDING YELLOW LIGHTS ON THE SIDE-VIEW MIRRORS. THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT LIGHT TO SEE ANY DISTANCE DOWN THE ROAD, SO I CEASED TO DEPRESS THE ACCELERATOR PEDAL, AND COVERED THE BRAKE APPLYING GENTLE BRAKING. I STILL HAD MY FINGERS ON THE LEVER AND WAS ABLE TO SWITCH BACK TO HIGH BEAMS AFTER SEVERAL SECONDS. FORTUNATELY THE HIGH BEAMS STILL WORKED. I BROUGHT THE VEHICLE TO A STOP AT THE NEXT AVAILABLE SAFE OPPORTUNITY, TO ASSESS WHAT HAD HAPPENED. ALL OTHER LIGHTS, INCLUDING THE FOG LIGHTS WERE WORKING. I DROVE AT REDUCED SPEED ALTERNATELY USING THE FOG LIGHTS AND HIGH BEAMS. THE LOW BEAMS OCCASIONALLY STARTED WORKING AGAIN. BY THE TIME I WAS HOME, THEY HAD CEASED TO WORK. I REPLACED THE GM HDM MODULE, AND THE LOW BEAMS WORKED FOR A YEAR OR SO UNTIL THAT MODULE FAILED. THERE IS A RECALL TO REPLACE GM HDM 15016745 WITH GM HDM 13506836 BUT THE RECALL APPARENTLY DOES NOT APPLY TO MY 2004 MODEL YEAR. NHTSA RECALL NO. : 15V-519 MANUFACTURER RECALL NO. : 14291 I CONSIDER THIS TO HAVE BEEN A SEVERE LIFE THREATENING EVENT.