2014 Mci D4500 Recalls

By letter dated April 15, 2013, Motor Coach Industries (MCI) notified the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) of a safety defect that may exist in certain model year (MY) 2012 and 2013 MCI D-model coaches built from December 22, 2011 to May 19, 2012 equipped with the Cummins 2010 EPA ISX 12 Liter engine.These vehicles may have had an incorrect installation of the exhaust pipe.If installed incorrectly, the elbow pipe may prematurely fail and if a Diesel Particulate Filter regeneration event occurs, the hot exhaust gases could cause a fire, resulting in injury to persons and/or damage to property.MCI conducted an inspect and repair if necessary recall campaign identified by NHTSA Recall No: 13V-142. At the time MCI believed that 13V-142 covered all the vehicles potentially having the safety defect. However, ODI review of EWR data indicated that other vehicles outside the scope of 13V-142 also experienced the same defect condition. Subsequently, in May 2017, MCI expanded the scope of the previous recall to include certain MY 2011-2012 MCI D-model coaches manufactured from January 31, 2011 to May 19, 2012, identified by NHTSA Recall No: 17V-337.In April 2013 when MCI conducted recall 13V-142 to remedy incorrectly installed bellows pipes on certain MCI model year 2012 and 2013 D model vehicles they also changed the bellows pipe assembly process in then current production.With recall 17V-337 MCI expanded the first recall by an additional 178 vehicles they felt also had not had the bellows pipe properly installed.Following the receipt of complaints and EWR data alleging bellows pipe failures on vehicles built after the implementation of the improved assembly process, NHTSA opened this Recall Query to assess the scope and adequacy of these two safety recalls and MCI's recall decision making process.Analysis of the failure data provided by MCI to this investigation found that the improved assembly process reduced the failure rate but did not eliminate the defect all together.In response to this investigation, MCI agreed to conduct recall 18V-309. This latest recall includes and expands upon the vehicle population of the prior recalls, and implements a new remedy that adds a mesh component to the bellows assembly to reduce vibration.This remedy was also implemented in production in 2015.Vehicles built after this date do not have an elevated failure rate even with a significant amount of time in service.With recall action 18V-309 taken by MCI this investigation is closed. Further use of agency resources does not appear to be warranted. The closing of this investigation does not constitute a finding by NHTSA that a safety-related defect does not exist on other model or MY vehicles outside of the recall scope. The agency reserves the right to take further action if warranted by the circumstances.