Novabus Structure: Door

Novabus is recalling about 43 vehicles over a problem with the structure. The door separates and falls off, increasing the risk of injury.

Campaign
01V321001
Manufacturer
NOVA BUS INCORPORATED
Reported
9 October 2001
Vehicles
43
Built between
Not published
Models
1
Recall type
Vehicle
Initiated by
Manufacturer
Owners notified
5 November 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.

  • 1997-2000 Novabus RTS

What the defect is

Vehicle description: buses equipped with adhesively bonded aluminum bus door panels used in passenger doorways on transit and light and medium duty buses supplied by vapor corporation. 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

The door separates and falls off, increasing the risk of injury.

What gets fixed

VAPOR CORPORATION WILL NOTIFY CUSTOMERS TO HAVE THEIR BUSES INSPECTED AND WILL INSTALL MECHANICAL FASTENERS TO ATTACH THE SKINS TO THE FRAME ELEMENTS.

Timeline

  1. Recall reported to NHTSA9 October 2001
  2. Owners notified5 November 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 9 October 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 or novabus at 1-505-347-7349.

Official source

Manufacturer's recall number
02-001
Recalling manufacturer
NOVA BUS INCORPORATED
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