- Vehicles
- 18,305
- Built between
- Apr 2008 – Aug 2008
- Models
- 1
- Recall type
- Equipment
- Initiated by
- Manufacturer
- Owners notified
- 6 July 2009
- Repaired
- Not reported
- Unrepaired
- Not reported
Does this affect my vehicle?
This recall covers vehicles built between April 2008 and August 2008. If yours was built outside that window, it is not part of this recall.
- SMI Stop ARMBuilt April 2008 to August 2008
What the defect is
Specialty manufacturing, inc. (smi) is recalling 18,305 000290 LED light kits sold separately or contained in school bus stop arm assemblies and sub-assemblies manufactured from april 1 through december 18, 2008, sold for use as replacement equipment or installed as original equipment on various model school buses. A change to the wire used in the LED light kits may reduce the effective life of the lights used on the specialty brand stop arms. The lights may stop functioning without warning.
What could happen
Should the LED lights stop functioning, visibility of a stopped bus would be decreased, possibly endangering a child or pedestrian to injury by passing vehicles.
What gets fixed
EACH VEHICLE MANUFACTURER WILL PROVIDE A REMEDY PLAN AND NOTIFICATION SCHEDULE. THE AFFECTED LED LIGHT KITS ON THE STOP ARMS WILL BE REPLACED WITHOUT CHARGE TO THE OWNERS.
Timeline
- Vehicles builtApril 2008 to August 2008
- Recall reported to NHTSA25 June 2009
- Owners notified6 July 2009
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 25 June 2009.
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 smi warranty service at 1-800-951-7867.
Official source
- Recalling manufacturer
- SPECIALTY MANUFACTURING CO.
- 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
Owners 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 <a href=http://www.safercar.gov>http://www.safercar.gov</a> .
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.