The problem
Certain sport utility vehicles fail to conform to the requirements of federal motor vehicle safety standard no. 208, "Occupant crash protection." In these vehicles, the right front passenger seat is built with a passenger sensing system. When tested with a representative unrestrained small adult, the system is required to turn the right front passenger's frontal airbag on. An error in the seat sensor calibration can cause it to fail this test. In addition, this condition can prevent the airbag from turning off when the seat is occupied by a small child.
The risk
Whenever the front passenger seat is occupied, the driver should always check the airbag indicator to see if the airbag is on or off. If it is not correct for the situation, the passenger should be moved to a different seat. This can increase the risk of injury to a seat occupant during certain crash conditions.
The fix
Dealers will reprogram the seat's electronic control unit. The manufacturer has not yet provided an owner notification schedule for this campaign. Owners may contact chevrolet at 1-800-630-2438 or pontiac at 1-800-620-7668.
Contacts
Gm recall no. 07174. Customers may also contact the national highway traffic safety administration's vehicle safety hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (tty 1-800-424-9153), or go to http://www.Safercar.Gov.
What to do
- Check your VIN. Enter it at nhtsa.gov/recalls - it shows whether this recall applies to your vehicle and whether the repair has been done.
- Call a dealer. Any authorized Chevrolet, Pontiac dealer will do the repair free, whether or not you bought the vehicle there. Quote campaign 07V344000.
- Ask about parts and a loaner. If parts aren't available yet, ask what to do in the meantime.
- Keep your paperwork. If you paid for this repair before the recall, you may be able to get reimbursed - here's how.