- Vehicles
- 153
- Built between
- Nov 2002 – Feb 2005
- Models
- 2
- Recall type
- Vehicle
- Initiated by
- Manufacturer
- Owners notified
- Not yet
- Repaired
- Not reported
- Unrepaired
- Not reported
Does this affect my vehicle?
This recall covers vehicles built between November 2002 and February 2005. If yours was built outside that window, it is not part of this recall.
- 2002-2005 Thomas ERBuilt November 2002 to February 2005
- 2002-2005 Thomas SAF-T-Liner ERBuilt November 2002 to February 2005
What the defect is
Certain my 2002-2005 thomas built saf-t-liner er school buses and er transit buses manufactured between november 2002 and february 2005 and equipped with john deere 8.1L compressed natural gas engines models HFN01 and HFN03. The engine control unit and throttle can unexpectedly surge. These units fail to conform to federal motor vehicle safety standard no. 124, accelerator control systems.
What could happen
A sudden engine surge could possibly result in a vehicle crash.
What gets fixed
JOHN DEERE WILL NOTIFY THE CUSTOMERS OF FREIGHTLINER/THOMAS BUILT AND WILL UPDATE THE ENGINE CONTROL UNIT SOFTWARE FREE OF CHARGE.
Timeline
- Vehicles builtNovember 2002 to February 2005
- Recall reported to NHTSA27 April 2005
No owner-notification date has been published yet. Manufacturers normally write to registered owners within 60 days of reporting a recall.
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 27 April 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.
Manufacturer contact
Owners may contact john deere at 1-800-JD-ENGINE.
Official source
- Manufacturer's recall number
- FL-450
- Recalling manufacturer
- FREIGHTLINER LLC
- 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
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.