NHTSA Investigation PE10013

Fire In Grote LED Clearance/Marker Lamps

The subject Grote Clearance / Marker lamps have not demonstrated that they represent an unreasonable risk to motor vehicle safety.In the past five years of operational exposure ODI is only aware of 124 failures representing a failure rate of less than .02%.In the year leading up to this investigation ODI is only aware of 13 failures of the subject lamps.Of 124 failures ODI is not aware of any where the burning lamp resulted in damage to the vehicle beyond just the lamp.These lamps are often mounted on aluminum surfaces that help prevent the burning lamp from causing damage to the vehicle.At a very early stage in the subject lamps exposure life Grote took steps to address the potential failures modes of the subject lamps.Grote made the necessary design changes to the lamps to prevent lamps from being susceptible to water intrusion.With these design changes Grote appears to have acted responsibly in proactively identifying and remedying potential design issues with the subject lamps even when the failure rates were very low.In light of these findings, a safety-related defect trend has not been identified at this time and further use of agency resources does not appear to be warranted.The closing of this investigation does not constitute a finding by NHTSA that no safety-related defect exists.The agency reserves the right to take further action if warranted by the circumstances.For more detailed information, please see the attached closing report.

An investigation is a separate record from a recall and from a manufacturer communication. A manufacturer campaign to repair a safety defect or a failure to meet a federal safety standard.