What seems to be a very unique recall, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has announced that it is recalling one 2019 Ram 1500 Classic. It isn’t often that you see a recall for a single-vehicle. But according to the company, it is due to an issue with the instrument cluster.
In the official National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) report, the vehicle has an instrument cluster that may not properly illuminate drive warnings. The vehicle fails to conform with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 101, “Control and Displays.”
According to FCA documents, failure of the instrument cluster to properly illuminate may prevent the driver from receiving warnings about the vehicle’s system and could increase the risk of a crash. FCA will notify the owner and a dealer will replace the instrument cluster, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin on September 13th, 2019. The owner may contact FCA customer service at 1-800-853-1403. FCA has issued a number for the recall, V83.
FCA states the issue was brought to their attention when their engineering department notified the FCA US Vehicle Safety and Regulatory Compliance (“VSRC”) organization of a non-operational condition relating to some instrument clusters on 2019 model year Dodge Charger, Dodge Challenger, and Chrysler 300 vehicles back on January 25th, 2019. On February 8th, FCA US Engineering notified FCA US VSRC that the non-operational condition had been observed on test vehicles. The company declared a voluntary safety recall 19V-203 on March 7th.
FCA US then learned a small number of Ram 1500 Classic clusters were manufactured with similar suspect software that was the subject of the voluntary safety recall 19V-203 and was built into a small number of Product Evaluation Run vehicles, on April 12th. During the months of May and June, FCA US VSRC investigated the suspect population and ultimately determined that there was a single suspect vehicle in the United States. On July 18, the company determined through the Vehicle Regulations Committee to conduct a voluntary safety recall on the vehicle.
