Immi equipment query EQ10003
IMMI Seat Custion Locking Mechanisms. NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation opened this equipment query about the seats. Opened Apr 1, 2010, closed Sep 8, 2010 after 5 months. It led to safety recall 10V142000, 10V194000, 10V291000, 10V292000. became a recall
What NHTSA says
Source: Office of Defects Investigation, as filedOn February 1, 2010, Indiana Mills & Manufacturing, Inc. (IMMI) notified NHTSA that it sold certain school bus seats, manufactured between October 6, 2009 and January 25, 2010, and that these seats did not meet FMVSS No. 222, School bus passenger seating and crash protection, when installed in a school bus application. IMMI stated that certain seat cushion locking mechanisms are capable of being misaligned during vehicle assembly or after the vehicle is in use. A seat cushion with a misaligned locking mechanism might not be able to meet the requirements of FMVSS No. 222 as it would not allow the cushion to remain attached to the seat during a certain threshold of upward force. Should a school bus seat cushion become detached from the seat during vehicle operation, personal injury is possible to the seat occupant(s).On April 2nd, 2010, RMD mailed IR letters requesting 573 Defect Report submissions to 13 of the 14 purchasers IMMI listed in its February 1st letter to the agency. Daimler Trucks (Thomas Bus) had already filed a Defect Report for its buses in February (10V-058).After a second IR letter was mailed to the other 13 purchasers on June 17, 2010, RMD received a response from all purchasers with the exception of Durham School Services. As a school bus operator and not a vehicle manufacturer, they would not be required to notify the NHTSA and submit a Defect Report, but RMD did want to notify them of this safety issue. Of the 12 respondents, 4 chose to file a subsequent Defect Report for school buses they built with these seats:Collins Bus Corp:10V-291 Starcraft Bus: 10V-194 Bus West: 10V-292 HA Dehart & Sons: 10V-142The remaining 8 responses did not require a Defect Report as the vehicles were repaired prior to sale, the seats were previously returned to IMMI, or they were not installed into buses as original equipment. This EQ is closed. EQ responses can be found in the Document Repository. A working spreadsheet of responses can be found by clicking on the paper clip in this Adobe document.
A Equipment Query is a query about a piece of equipment — a component, a tire, a child seat — rather than a whole vehicle. The summary is the agency’s own text from its investigation file, unedited; the opening and closing resumes with the full reasoning are on NHTSA’s site under this number.
What this means for an owner
Source: and what happens nextAn investigation is not a finding that a defect exists, and it puts no duty on anyone. NHTSA opens a Preliminary Evaluation when complaints and other reports suggest a condition worth asking the manufacturer about; it upgrades to an Engineering Analysis when the answers warrant testing; it closes either when it recommends a recall, when the manufacturer recalls on its own, or when no defect trend is found. The agency’s own goals are about four months for a petition, eight for a Preliminary Evaluation or a Recall Query and eighteen for an Engineering Analysis; many run longer.
This one became a recall. The campaign page carries the manufacturer’s filed defect, risk and remedy, the build window and every model year covered; whether one specific vehicle is included is settled by VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls.
Model years it names
Source: as NHTSA filed themNHTSA filed this action against Indiana Mills and Manufacturing Inc. without naming a model year — an equipment or manufacturer-level query.
Common questions
Source: NHTSA Office of Defects InvestigationIs EQ10003 a recall?
No — it is the investigation that led to one. Recall 10V142000, 10V194000, 10V291000, 10V292000 is the campaign; its page carries the remedy.
Is EQ10003 still open?
No. It closed on Sep 8, 2010 and led to recall 10V142000, 10V194000, 10V291000, 10V292000.
Which vehicles does EQ10003 cover?
NHTSA filed it against Indiana Mills and Manufacturing Inc. without naming a model year.