NHTSA asks why 1.2m Ram trucks roll away still after recall

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is looking for answers to why 1.2 million Ram trucks roll away still after a completed recall.

Ram trucks roll away?

The Federal agency says it has received 14 vehicle-owner complaints and six death and injury reports connected to potentially faulty recall fixes for Ram trucks.

NHTSA says the trucks range from 2009 to 2018 Ram 1500 and Ram HD trucks that were involved in transmission recalls in 2017 and 2018.

Ram first recalled the trucks under the recall 17V-821 for nearly 1,500,000 trucks and then 18V-100 for another 180,000 trucks. The issue then and now appears to a subset of trucks equipped with a column-mounted shifter.

The original recall documents state the shifter could become stuck in the “open” position allowing the trucks to be shifted out of park with out a key in the ignition or any pressure on the brake pedal.

Here is the official description of the issue:

“Depression of the brake pedal when the vehicle is in PARK and running energizes the Brake Transmission Shift Interlock (“BTSI”). When the BTSI is energized for prolonged periods, the temperature rises, causing the BTSI housing plastic to swell and the grease to degrade, which causes the BTSI locking pin to stick in the open position. With the BTSI locking pin in the open position, the transmission can be shifted out of PARK and to or from any gear position without depression of the brake pedal and/or without the key in the
ignition, if key applicable.”

NHTSA says the reports it received from owners all came after the recall fixes were completed by Ram and it wants the company to reexamine the issue to see if there is another underlying issue going on with the those trucks. If there is another issue, then Ram might be forced to recall them again.

Our take

These kinds of investigations are fairly common in automotive with the NHTSA Office of Defects monitoring consumer complaints. Sometimes they turn into another recall like with the news this week of the Nissan engine recall, sometimes they don’t.