Specialty Manufacturing Equipment: Mechanical

Specialty Manufacturing is recalling about 79,736 vehicles over a problem with the equipment. Should the stop arm not perform properly, a child or pedestrian may be endangered by passing motorists should the motorist not stop at the correct location.

Campaign
05E032000
Manufacturer
SPECIALTY MANUFACTURING CO.
Reported
10 May 2005
Vehicles
79,736
Built between
Jan 2002 – Feb 2005
Models
1
Recall type
Equipment
Initiated by
NHTSA investigation
Owners notified
10 June 2005
Repaired
Not reported
Unrepaired
Not reported

Does this affect my vehicle?

This recall covers vehicles built between January 2002 and February 2005. If yours was built outside that window, it is not part of this recall.

  • Specialty Manufacturing Stop ARM Series 5Built January 2002 to February 2005

What the defect is

Certain specialty manufacturing (smc) 5-SERIES stops arms manufactured between january 7, 2002, and february 25, 2005, and sold for use on various school buses. In extremely cold weather, the microswitches used internally to position the sign in the open and closed positions may malfunction, causing the sign to open or close in an improper position, or to not open at all.

What could happen

Should the stop arm not perform properly, a child or pedestrian may be endangered by passing motorists should the motorist not stop at the correct location.

What gets fixed

THIS RECALL COVERS THE ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT AND EACH VEHICLE MANUFACTURER WILL CONDUCT ITS OWN CAMPAIGN.

Timeline

  1. Vehicles builtJanuary 2002 to February 2005
  2. Recall reported to NHTSA10 May 2005
  3. Owners notified10 June 2005

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 10 May 2005.

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.

Official source

Recalling manufacturer
SPECIALTY MANUFACTURING CO.
Recall initiated by
ODI

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

Customers may also contact the national highway traffic safety administration's vehicle safety hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (tty 1-800-424-9153), or go to http://www.safercar.gov.

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