NHTSA Complaint #11550249 — 2013 HONDA FIT

The rear door window motors both failed. At the time of this report they are available for inspection. The safety risk is that back seat passengers could become trapped in the event of a water entry which makes doors difficult or impossible to open. Because the rear windows are typically operated less than the front, the average user would not expect that they have failed (especially if the fronts are working) and the failure would likely go unnoticed, possibly until the emergency situation occurs. The vehicle has not been checked or inspected by any dealer, service center, manufacturer, police, insurance representative, or any person other than myself. However, I have checked the fuses and verified with a voltmeter that the switches have power and are operating correctly thus isolating the failure to the motors. There is no warning lamp or message indicating that the window motors are not functional and I did not experience any symptoms other than the window not moving when the switches were depressed. I noticed the left rear failure first in July 2023 and at that time the right rear was still functional. Approximately a month later the right rear failed. I only thought to make this report because when I searched the internet for troubleshooting and replacement parts I found quite a few other accounts of a variety of Honda models with rear window failure many of them were both, and several auto mechanics indicated that this issue was common. Unless the rear doors use different motors than the front doors, it is possible that the root cause is a wiring/electrical problem and electrical problems have a reputation of eventually causing other seemingly unrelated problems elsewhere in the system.