Chrysler has recalled more than 1.5 million 1996-1998 model year minivans sold under the Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Caravan, Dodge Grand Caravan, Plymouth Voyager, and Plymouth Grand Voyager names.  The issue arose due to defective clocksprings located in the steering column that can prevent driver airbag deployment.  A typical symptom of a defective clockspring is that the driver air bag does not deploy, even though the passenger air bag does deploy (even if there was no passenger).

Unfortunately, Chrysler refused to make clockspring replacement mandatory for all these vehicles.  Instead, they negotiated a deal with the federal government requiring replacement of the clockspring only for those minivans having less than 70,000 miles.  For those having more miles, replacement isn’t required unless the air bag warning lamp is on, and the system diagnoses a defect in the clockspring.  Unfortunately, it’s possible that your warning light is not on when you are involved in a crash, and yet the clockspring fails and prevents deployment of the driver airbag.  Thus, you may not know you have a problem until it’s too late.  This can result in devastating personal injuries or death.

To compound the problem, Chrysler did not issue this recall promptly after discovering the first defective clocksprings.  After numerous reports of problems, the government opened its formal defect investigation into this issue in August of 2000.  However, Chrysler did not issue the recall until more than two years later.  Of course, the longer it took for them to issue the recall, the less vehicles would qualify for the mandatory replacement of clocksprings for vehicles having less than 70,000 miles.

The government’s recall number is 02V-293.

Clocksprings are part of the driver airbag system and are located inside your steering column, under your steering wheel.  They allow the  electrical signal from a detected crash to be sent to the driver airbag, while still allowing you to turn your steering wheel during normal driving without damaging the airbag wires.  This way, the crash sensors or airbag control module can send the deployment signal to the airbag, no matter how your steering wheel is turned.  If they fail to work properly, the results can be deadly.

Recalls – Unfortunately, many clocksprings have proven to be defective.  Although millions of them have been recalled, there are still many of them on the road today.  In our experience, defective clocksprings are most commonly found in vehicles made by Chrysler, including those sold under the Chrysler, Plymouth and Dodge nameplates.  Millions of the clockspring affected by these safety recall were manufactured by supplier called Methode.

Defects – There have been several common failure modes for clocksprings, each of which can prevent driver airbag deployment.  This can, and has, caused significant personal injury and wrongful death during accidents where consumers were deprived of the protection of the airbag.  Some of these defects were caused by cost-savings measures that took priority over consumers’ safety.  Others were caused by manufacturing and quality control problems.  Regardless of their cause, the result is the same: unnecessary injuries and deaths when your driver airbag fails to deploy.  An expert can help you determine whether and why your clockspring failed in your accident, and the specific defect causing the failure.