Vapor Structure: Door

Vapor is recalling about 40,000 vehicles over a problem with the structure. Under these conditions, if the panel is separating or has separated, a passenger could fall from the bus onto the roadway, possibly resulting in personal injury or death.

Campaign
01E048000
Manufacturer
VAPOR CORPORATION
Reported
26 September 2001
Vehicles
40,000
Built between
Not published
Models
1
Recall type
Equipment
Initiated by
Manufacturer
Owners notified
19 December 2001
Repaired
Not reported
Unrepaired
Not reported

Does this affect my vehicle?

The manufacturer did not publish a build-date range for this recall, so the model and year list below is the only way to tell whether your vehicle is covered.

  • Vapor BUS Door Panel

What the defect is

Equipment description: adhesively bonded aluminum bus door panels used in passenger doorways on transit and light and medium duty buses installed on buses built between september 1, 1997, and february 1, 2000. Due to an imperfect bonding of the door panel skin to the panel frame, environmental moisture may infiltrate regions of imperfect bonding and cause separation of the frame and door panel.

What could happen

Under these conditions, if the panel is separating or has separated, a passenger could fall from the bus onto the roadway, possibly resulting in personal injury or death.

What gets fixed

VAPOR CORPORATION WILL NOTIFY IS CUSTOMERS TO HAVE THEIR BUSES INSPECTED AND VAPOR WILL INSTALL MECHANICAL FASTENERS TO ATTACH THE SKINS TO THE FRAME ELEMENTS FREE OF CHARGE. OWNER NOTIFICATION BEGAN DECEMBER 19, 2001.

Timeline

  1. Recall reported to NHTSA26 September 2001
  2. Owners notified19 December 2001

Your rights

A safety recall repair is free. Under US federal law the manufacturer must fix a safety defect at no cost to you — no charge for parts, labor or diagnosis — whether or not you are the original owner. A dealer cannot charge you for recall work, and cannot require you to have bought the vehicle from them.

That entitlement is not unlimited. It applies where the vehicle was first sold less than 15 years before the recall was announced — 5 years for tires. Past that a manufacturer may still do the repair free of charge, and many do, but they are no longer obliged to. This recall was reported on 26 September 2001.

To arrange the repair, contact any franchised dealer for the brand. If a dealer refuses the work or tries to charge for it, you can report that to NHTSA at nhtsa.gov/recalls or on 1-888-327-4236.

Manufacturer contact

Owners who take their vehicles to an authorized dealer on an agreed upon service date and do not receive the free remedy within a reasonable time should contact vapor corporation at 847-967-8300.

Official source

Manufacturer's recall number
TB04-24-005
Recalling manufacturer
VAPOR CORPORATION
Recall initiated by
MFR

Everything on this page — the models listed, the build dates and the repair figures — comes from the manufacturer's filing to NHTSA and describes the vehicle line as a whole, not any individual car. Only the manufacturer can confirm whether a specific vehicle is affected, and whether its recall work has already been carried out. Check yours by VIN and read the official notice at nhtsa.gov/recalls.

Additional notes

Also contact the national highway traffic safety administration's auto safety hotline at 1-888-DASH-2-DOT (1-888-327-4236).

Check your own vehicle

This page describes the recall, not any one car. To see which recalls cover a specific vehicle, search by make, model and year.

A VIN lookup here identifies your vehicle and shows recalls issued for that make, model and year. It cannot tell you what is still open on your individual car - only the manufacturer knows that. Search by VIN instead, or check your VIN at nhtsa.gov for whether a recall is still open on your individual car.

Same component

Same brand