Blue Bird Engine and Engine Cooling: Exhaust System

Blue Bird is recalling about 1,936 vehicles over a problem with the engine and engine cooling. If all the exhaust hangers were to fail, the housings may fall onto the roadway, creating a road hazard and increasing the risk of a crash.

Campaign
15V059000
Manufacturer
Blue Bird Body Company
Reported
3 February 2015
Vehicles
1,936
Built between
Jun 2010 – Jan 2015
Models
1
Recall type
Vehicle
Initiated by
Manufacturer
Owners notified
6 March 2015
Repaired
89%
Unrepaired
220

Does this affect my vehicle?

This recall covers vehicles built between June 2010 and January 2015. If yours was built outside that window, it is not part of this recall.

  • 2011-2016 Blue Bird ALL AmericanBuilt June 2010 to January 2015

Repair progress

220 of 1,936 vehicles in this recall had still not been repaired as of Q2 2016.

89% repaired — 1,716 of 1,936 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

Blue Bird Body Company (Blue Bird) is recalling certain model year 2011-2016 All American rear engine school buses manufactured June 5, 2010, to January 13, 2015. In the affected school buses, the exhaust system hangers may fail, possibly causing damage to the Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) and the Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) housings.

What could happen

If all the exhaust hangers were to fail, the housings may fall onto the roadway, creating a road hazard and increasing the risk of a crash.

What gets fixed

Blue Bird will notify owners, and dealers will install new bolted hanger assemblies and support cables, free of charge. The recall began on March 6, 2015.

Timeline

  1. Vehicles builtJune 2010 to January 2015
  2. Recall reported to NHTSA3 February 2015
  3. Owners notified6 March 2015
  4. Latest repair reportQ2 2016 — 89% 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 3 February 2015.

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 Blue Bird customer service at 1-478-822-2242. Blue Bird's number for this recall is R15YB-SB.

Official source

Manufacturer's recall number
R15YB-SB
Recalling manufacturer
Blue Bird Body Company
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