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Recall: S61/NHTSA 16V-668

10K views 17 replies 14 participants last post by  Irontooth  
#1 · (Edited)
--Begining of notice
IMPORTANT SAFETY RECALLS61/ NHTSA 16V-668

This notice applies to your vehicle (VIN:_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx).

Dear: (Name)
This interim notice is sent to you in accordance with the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act to inform you that your vehicle[1] requires a safety recall repair. FCA US has decided that a defect, which relates to motor vehicle safety, exists in certain 2010 Chrysler Sebring, 2011-2014 Chrysler 200, 2010-2014 Dodge Avenger, 2010-2012 Dodge Caliber, 2010-2014 Jeep®Compass, 2010-2014Jeep Patriot vehicles

YOUR ADDITIONAL OPTIONS
1. RECOMMENDED OPTION
Visit recalls.mopar.com to sign up for email or SMS notification
for when remedy parts become available. You will be asked to provide your Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), provided above.
2. Wait for FCA US to contact you again, by mail, with a follow-up recall notice when remedy parts are available
3. Visit www.safercar.gov for more information on recalls
4. Call the FCA Recall Assistance Center at 1-800-853-1403. An agent can sign you up for email or SMS notification for when remedy parts become available, or answer any other questions that you may have.

Why is my vehicle being recalled?

The above vehicles may experience a loss of air bag and seat belt pretensioner deployment capability during acrash due to a shorting condition resulting in a negative voltage transient that travels to the Occupant Restraint Controller via the front impact sensor wires.

What is the risk?
The potential loss of air bag and seat belt pretensioner deployment capability during a crash may increase the risk of injury in a crash.


How do I resolve this important airbag issue?
The remedy for this condition is not currently available. We are making every effort to finalize a remedy and obtain parts as quickly as possible, and will service your vehicle free of charge (parts and labor)

What do I need to do?
FCA US will contact you again, by mail, with a follow-up recall notice when the
remedy and parts are available.

Once you receive your follow-up notice, simply contact your Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge or RAM dealer right away to schedule a service appointment [2]. Additional options for your next steps are included on the left side of this notification. We appreciate your patience

If you have already experienced this specific condition and have paid to have it repaired, you may visit www.fcarecallreimbursement.com to submit your reimbursement request online[3]. Once we receive and verify the required documents, reimbursement will be sent to you within 60 days. If you have had previous repairs performed and/or already received reimbursement, you may still need to have the recall repair performed.

We apologize for any inconvenience, but are sincerely concerned about your safety. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Customer Care / Field Operations
FCA US LL


Note to lessors receiving this recall: Federal regulation requires that you forward this recall noti ce to the lessee within 10 days

[1] If you no longer own this vehicle, please help us update our records. Call the FCA Recall Assistance Center at 1 - 800 - 853 - 1403 to update your information.
[2] If your dealer fails or is unable to remedy this defect without charge and within a reasonable time, you may submit a writt en complaint to the Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey Ave., S.E., Washington, DC 20590, or you can call the toll - free Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1 - 888 - 327 - 4236 (TTY 1 - 800 - 424 - 9153), or go to safercar.gov.
[3] You can also mail in your original receipts and proof of payment to the following address for reimbursement consideration: FC A US Customer Assistance, P.O. Box 21 - 800 4, Auburn Hills, MI 48321 - 8007, Attention: Recall Reimbursement

--end of notice
source: https://www.chrysler.com/universal/webselfservice/pdf/S61.pdf
 
#3 ·
I chatted with Mopar via recalls.mopar.com.

I was worried about the safety of still driving my 2011 Patriot.

 Mitchell: Okay looking at the vehicle information here i can see the S61 OCCUPANT RESTRAINT CONTROLLER. For this recall the repair procedure and recall parts are still developing. For the moment you would get another letter in the mail when it is ready to be completed but we can also get you set up with our recall tracking team for updates when we know more about the part timing and release.

 SCOTT: But is the car safe to drive?

Mitchell: Oh yes, The investigation right now is dealing with a condition may occur when vehicles equipped with a particular occupant restraint control module and front impact sensor wiring of a specific design, are involved in certain collisions. So there is no unexpected behaviors for regular driving and even in crash situations it would not likely come into play.

 SCOTT: Can the car be inspected by the dealer to determine if its has the bad parts?

Mitchell: Not at the moment, that part of the recall is still developing, at this point the notice you received is just and information notice letting you know we are looking into this. The repair and parts affected are still developing.

 SCOTT: If god forbid I'm in an accident, the air bags could fail, correct?

 Mitchell: The language is quite open at the moment, it's not every collision there are a number of factors to deploy the airbags or not, for this recall it looks like there are some crash situations where the airbags should deploy but do not. It's hard to say with the information we have confirmed right now

 SCOTT: You understand its a little scary to still drive the car

Mitchell: I can certainly understand that! I can assure you there is no added danger to driving the vehicle. In these cases where our customers are unsafe we take the vehicles off road and supply alternative transportation. The NHTSA also has to agree to the analysis or we could not verify this with you.
 
#4 ·
I experienced this type of situation in the 1980's with a Ford Escort. They sent out a warning that there was a possibility that the timing belt (integral engine part) could break prematurely, shutting down the engine completely and instantly. They did not offer to fix this, but said that it would be covered IF it broke before the recommended replacement service at 100,000 miles (i think). So......every time you went to pass another car or do anything else remotely semi dangerous, you had to wonder what might happen if the belt decided to break at that moment. It was a very odd situation in my opinion.

There have recently been other brands (Honda) that could not immediately replace all their defective air bags. It is really a catch 22 situation for everyone involved. The lawyers must be salivating.
 
#6 ·
Try being in our situation. We are a 2 Jeep family. Both of our cars are under the recall. I was told by a Chrystler call line operator that the advice at this point is not to drive the vehicles any more than we have to, which is pretty apt since my 2010 Jeep Patriot has been out of comission for the last 3 months with A bad TIPM and PCM (1 month of that at a certified Jeep dealer). Our other Jeep is a 2007 Rubicon with a un-done TIPM recall fronm 2007 which we never knew about until the TIPM went out on the Patriot. Yeah, I'm whining. Never a problem with my car then wham-wham-wham
 
#10 ·
S61 recall repairs, but recall part was bad.

Has anyone else taken their vechicles in for the repair of the s61 only to find out that as soon as the year get the new part installed that the part is defective?

We took ours in on Thursday Sept. 7th to have S61 repaired. I was called later that day to pick up our keep, and upon picking it up found out a airbag light was now on, dealership hooked it up to their systems to find out the new recall repair was defective! Now Chrysler has put us in a Rental until they get another OCM part for the recall in to fix it..

Has anyone else gotten a defective recall part, or are we just a fluke with the one that we got installed. Makes me concerned about the new S61 repair that took over a year to be produced is now defective. ?
 
#11 ·
Has anyone else taken their vechicles in for the repair of the s61 only to find out that as soon as the year get the new part installed that the part is defective?

We took ours in on Thursday Sept. 7th to have S61 repaired. I was called later that day to pick up our keep, and upon picking it up found out a airbag light was now on, dealership hooked it up to their systems to find out the new recall repair was defective! Now Chrysler has put us in a Rental until they get another OCM part for the recall in to fix it..

Has anyone else gotten a defective recall part, or are we just a fluke with the one that we got installed. Makes me concerned about the new S61 repair that took over a year to be produced is now defective. ?
Hi CWatson,

Sorry to hear about this! If you haven't already had a customer care case opened to further address your concerns please send us a PM with your VIN so I can start this process for you.

Andrea
Jeep Social Care Specialist
 
#12 ·
Cwatson, I had a similar but not identical problem with our old Saturn. The infamous ignition switch failed and we had it replaced BEFORE the recall at a nearby GM dealer. Then after the recall GM refused to reimburse us for the replacement switch because their dealer had replaced it with the same OEM defective switch. That first replacement was on my dime (understated cost) and they replaced it again a few months later with the new corrected switch.

In your case the supposed corrected part was defective. I suppose any run will have some level of defects. Fortunately they caught the defect so the dealer did their job right. I'm impressed they gave you a replacement vehicle and didn't just send you home to come back next week. I hope they put you at the top of their list.
 
#15 ·
A quick update on mine - got my Patriot back earlier this week! So there are several different versions of the recall part (ORC), and they had accidentally installed the incorrect one for my car. Once they realized their mistake, it was just a matter of ordering the right ORC and swapping it out.

Thankfully everything's up and running now!
 
#17 ·
Hard to say what it might be without codes and no other signs of a malfunction.

You may need to get a code reader and keep it in the car so you can check when the light comes on.

If you have an android device, a bluetooth adapter and a copy of https://www.alfaobd.com/index.html or jscan might help.