Fuel Heater May Overheat and Cause Fire – 2017-2021 IC Bus CE School Buses

April 17, 2020 NHTSA CAMPAIGN NUMBER: 20V220000

Fuel Heater May Overheat and Cause Fire

A fire increases the risk of injury. An engine stall can increase the risk of a crash.

 

NHTSA Campaign Number: 20V220

Manufacturer Navistar, Inc.

Components FUEL SYSTEM, DIESEL

Potential Number of Units Affected 23,299

 

Summary

Navistar, Inc. (Navistar) is recalling certain 2017-2021 IC CE School Buses equipped with Cummins B6.7 diesel engines with fuel module option number FS90301 or FS90453. The electric fuel heater within the fuel module may overheat and cause plastic in the fuel heater to melt and potentially catch fire. It may also lead to engine stalling.

 

Remedy

Cummins will notify the affected Navistar customers and dealers will disable the fuel heater by either installing a plug in place of the heater or otherwise rendering the fuel heater non-operable and remove the fuse supplying electrical power to the fuel heater and install a cover over the wire harness connector, free of charge. The recall began May 28, 2020. Owners may contact Cummins customer service at 1-800-286-6467.

 

Notes

Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.safercar.gov.

 

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*** IMPORTANT SAFETY RECALL***
NHTSA Recall No. 20E-018
Cummins Campaign #C2302

 

May 29, 2020

 

Dear Cummins Customer:

This notice is sent to you in accordance with the requirements of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act.

Cummins Inc. has decided that a defect which relates to motor vehicle safety exists in certain B6.7 diesel engines that were manufactured between December 16, 2015 and March 24, 2020 and equipped with fuel module option FS90301 or FS90453.

This notice applies to your engine(s) listed on the enclosed Engine/Vehicle list.

If your engine was manufactured between December 16, 2015 and February 25, 2019, you received a similar notice regarding NHTSA Recall No. 19E-020 (Cummins Safety Campaign #C2127) pertaining to your engine(s).  This recall notice supersedes the prior recall notice; you must have the remedy described in this recall performed on your engine, even if your engine was remedied under the prior recall.

If your engine was manufactured between February 26, 2019 and November 5, 2019, your engine may have had repairs done according to Cummins Campaign #C2128 or ATC2278.  This recall notice supersedes actions under those field actions; you must have the remedy described in this recall performed on your engine, even if your engine was remedied under those actions.

If your engine was manufactured between November 6, 2019 and March 24, 2020, this is a new action.

 

WHY IS A RECALL BEING CONDUCTED?

Fuel module options FS90301 and FS90453 contain an electric fuel heater.  Internal electrical heating within the fuel heater may create sufficient heat inside the fuel heater to cause plastic in the fuel heater to melt and potentially catch fire.  It may also cause an engine stall.  A fire, if undetected and uncontained, presents an increased risk of personal injury.  An unexpected engine stall may increase the risk of a crash.  If this condition exists, melting of the fuel heater or fuel seepage from around the fuel heater may be visible during a service event, smoke may precede or accompany a fire, or the engine may become increasingly difficult to start.

 

WHAT ARE WE DOING ABOUT THE PROBLEM?

Cummins has released field Safety Campaign #C2302 “B6.7 Engine-Mounted Fuel Heater Safety Campaign” to correct this condition.  This campaign is currently available at Cummins Distributors and Cummins-authorized Warranty Dealers.  The remedy will consist of the following: (1) disabling the fuel heater by either installing a plug in place of the fuel heater or otherwise rendering the fuel heater inoperable and (2) removing the fuse supplying electrical power to the fuel heater and installing a cover over the wire harness connector.  The repair will be completed free of charge (parts and labor) and most applications will require approximately 30 minutes to complete.

This safety recall addresses the potential safety defect for your engine.  However, this repair will disable the fuel heater.  Cummins is currently working to determine an appropriate cold weather starting aid for customers that require it.  Cummins Distributors and Dealers will be notified when a separate field action is available.

 

WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

Contact the nearest Cummins Distributor or authorized Warranty Dealer to arrange to have this campaign performed on your engine.  The distributor or dealer will work with you to schedule the best date to complete this repair.

In the meantime, to mitigate the safety risk, Cummins advises you to remove the fuel heater fuse as shown in Figures 1, 2 or 3 below (based on the vehicle).

Federal law requires vehicle lessors receiving this recall notice to forward a copy of this notice to the lessee within ten (10) days.  Also, it is a violation of Federal law for a dealer to deliver a new vehicle or equipment covered by this recall notice under a sale or lease until the defect has been remedied.

If you previously paid to have this recall performed on your vehicle, you may be eligible for reimbursement.  Please contact Cummins Care at the number below for more information.

 

WHO SHOULD YOU CONTACT IF YOU HAVE FURTHER QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS?

If you have questions or concerns about this recall, please contact your local Cummins Distributor or authorized warranty dealer.  You may also contact Cummins Care at 1-800CUMMINS (1-800-286-6467) or visit our website at care.cummins.com.

If you have a complaint relative to this recall, you may report it to the following:

Administrator
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590

 

You may also call the toll-free Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY: 1-800-424-9153); or go to https://www.safercar.gov.

If you have not registered your Cummins product, please complete the enclosed registration card or register your product at https://prodreg.cummins.com/prodreg/#/webform/contactInfo.

If you are no longer the owner of the engine or vehicle listed in the table, please forward this notice to the new owner or provide the new owner’s contact information to Cummins at cummins.campaign.administration@cummins.com so that we can notify them of this recall.

Cummins is taking this action in the interest of safety and satisfaction with our products.  We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,

Campaign Administrator Cummins Inc.

 

Navistar® CE Bus and 1300 FBC Fuse Removal Instructions (Reference Figure 1 below)

1. Disconnect vehicle battery.
2. Locate red 50 Amp or green 30 Amp Maxi Fuse on under hood fuse panel.
3. Remove fuse cap and discard red or green Maxi Fuse.
4. Reinstall fuse cap. Do not replace fuse.
5. Reconnect vehicle battery.

 

Navistar® MV, HV and TC Commercial Bus (some DuraStar (4300)/WorkStar (7300) Fuse Removal Instructions (Reference Figure 2 below)

1. Disconnect vehicle battery.
2. Remove 30 or 40 amp fuse located at 2C cavity.
3. Reconnect vehicle battery.

 

 

Navistar® DuraStar (4300) / WorkStar (7300) / HC Commercial Bus Fuse Removal Instructions (Reference Figure 3 below)

1. Disconnect vehicle battery.
2. Remove Power Distribution Module (PDM) cover, located under the hood on the driver side of the vehicle.
3. Remove fuse located at cavity 2C.
4. Reconnect vehicle battery.

 

Cummins Inc.
Box 3005
Columbus, IN 47202-3005 USA
Mail Code: 40911 Phone: 1 800 CUMMINS care.cummins.com

 

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• 02/04/2020 Cummins receives the first field report of a melted fuel heater on an engine that had a remedy completed under NHTSA Recall 19E-040.
• 02/05/2020 thru 02/07/2020 Cummins sent an engineering team to the site of the reported melted fuel heater to investigate the failure. The team confirmed that the remedy had been properly performed. During this investigation, Cummins became aware of two additional reports of melted fuel heaters.
• 02/07/2020 Navistar was informed of three failures that happened in New York.
• 02/08/2020 thru 02/25/2020 Cummins investigated the issue, including completing teardown analysis of the returned fuel heaters. During this time, Cummins received a total of five melted heaters returned from the field.
• 02/26/2020 Cummins conducted a Product Safety Hazard Analysis and concluded that there was insufficient information to determine that the fuel heaters contained a safety defect. The recommendation was to continue to investigate the issue.
• 02/26/2020 thru 03/10/2020 Cummins continued the investigation, including analysis of four additional melted fuel heaters returned to Cummins and conducting tests to understand the cause and the potential scope of the issue.
• 03/11/2020 Cummins revisited the Product Safety Hazard Analysis with the additional information from the investigation.
• 03/24/2020 Based upon the data collected and evaluation of the issue, Cummins decided to conduct a safety recall to address this condition.
• 03/25/2020 Cummins reviews their investigation results indicating several reports of melted fuel heaters with Navistar.
• 03/31/2020 Cummins informed Navistar that a 573 defect report was filed with NHTSA
• 04/07/2020 Navistar meets with Cummins to review their root cause analysis.  Navistar finalizes the suspect vehicle population based on the engine build ranges stated above.
• 04/09/2020 Navistar declares this a safety issue. The safety recall will be managed by Cummins under NHTSA number 20E-018.

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5 Affected Products

Vehicle

MAKE	MODEL	YEAR
IC BUS	CE	2017-2021

 

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5 Associated Documents

Miscellaneous Document- Chronology

RMISC-20V220-9367.pdf 17.207KB

 

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Recall Acknowledgement

RCAK-20V220-4203.pdf 244.586KB

 

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Defect Notice 573 Report

RCLRPT-20V220-3442.PDF 214.796KB

 

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ISSUED Owner Notification Letter(Part 577)

RCONL-20V220-2341.pdf 336.34KB

 

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Recall 573 Report- Amendment 1

RCLRPT-20V220-9524.PDF 214.928KB

 

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Latest Recalls Documents

https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/cs/documentList.xhtml?docId=20V220&docType=RCL

 

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http://oemdtc.com/2890

19E-040

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http://oemdtc.com/4199

20E-018

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