Thomas Built Seat Belts

Thomas Built is recalling about 570 vehicles over a problem with the seat belts. Without the floor reinforcement channels, in a crash, the floor may flex and the seat occupants may not be adequately restrained, increasing the risk of injury to the seat occupants.

Campaign
14V074000
Manufacturer
Daimler Trucks North America
Reported
20 February 2014
Vehicles
570
Built between
Oct 2011 – Jan 2014
Models
1
Recall type
Vehicle
Initiated by
Manufacturer
Owners notified
17 April 2014
Repaired
48%
Unrepaired
296

Does this affect my vehicle?

This recall covers vehicles built between October 2011 and January 2014. If yours was built outside that window, it is not part of this recall.

  • 2013-2015 Thomas Built MinotourBuilt October 2011 to January 2014

Repair progress

296 of 570 vehicles in this recall had still not been repaired as of Q3 2015.

48% repaired — 274 of 570 reported

Manufacturers file these figures with NHTSA each quarter. Vehicles the manufacturer could not trace, or that have been scrapped or exported, are counted separately and are not included in the unrepaired figure.

What the defect is

Daimler Trucks North America (Daimler) is recalling certain model year 2013-2015 Thomas Built Buses Minotour dual rear wheel school buses manufactured October 21, 2011, through January 16, 2014, and equipped with certain 3-passenger IMMI or S3C brand seats installed in the rear section of the bus. In the affected vehicles, the floor reinforcement channels that provide additional support for the seat mounting were omitted during manufacturing.

What could happen

Without the floor reinforcement channels, in a crash, the floor may flex and the seat occupants may not be adequately restrained, increasing the risk of injury to the seat occupants.

What gets fixed

Daimler will notify owners, and dealers will install the missing floor reinforcement channels, free of charge. The recall began on April 17, 2014.

Timeline

  1. Vehicles builtOctober 2011 to January 2014
  2. Recall reported to NHTSA20 February 2014
  3. Owners notified17 April 2014
  4. Latest repair reportQ3 2015 — 48% repaired

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 20 February 2014.

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 Daimler at 1-800-385-4537. Daimler's number for this recall is FL-659.

Official source

Manufacturer's recall number
FL-659
Recalling manufacturer
Daimler Trucks North America
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 Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to 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