NHTSA Probing Alleged Volvo Defects
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating alleged safety defects in heavy-duty trucks made by Volvo trucks North America between 1998 and 2000.The impetus for the investigations was a petition by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association Inc. OOIDA wanted the agency to conduct a much larger investigation covering nine areas on 1989 to 2000 model year Volvo trucks. However the agency denied the OOIDA petition for most of them because the alleged faults did not involve potential safety defects.
"The investigations have been open for quite some time and we have been working on them," said Heino Scharf, director of product assurance for Volvo Trucks North America.
According to the April 9 Federal register, the agency is investigating steering defects and steer axle U-bolt failures on VN-610, 660 and 770 series trucks built during the model years 1998-2000. Those initiatives were opened in December.
"Information on the rear axle investigation was sent out to NHTSA April 8," said Scharf.
In February, NHTSA opened a recall audit regarding the scope of Volvo's recall of 1998 through 2001 VN- series trucks for front axle overweight conditions.
"We want to see if the recall covered enough trucks," said Robert Squire a NHTSA safety defects specialist.
An investigation into sleeper berth fires listed in the same Federal Register notice was closed out March 26 and is no longer an issue. Squire said the investigation found no conclusive proof of a safety defect causing a fire hazard.
The OOIDA petition has come up before, notably in March 2001, when Volvo asked NHTSA to open a preliminary evaluation of the issues raised.
At the time, Volvo said it was working with some of the OOIDA members who had complaints and found "maintenance practices to be the prevailing factor."
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