Recall - Rear Compartment Pan Side Rail Poor Welds: Overview
NUMBER: 94-C-10SECTION: BODY
DATE: JULY 1994
SUBJECT:
REAR COMPARTMENT PAN SIDE RAIL WELDS
YEAR:
1994
MODEL:
ACHIEVA
TO: All Oldsmobile Retailers The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, as amended, provides that each vehicle subject to a recall campaign of this type must be adequately repaired within a reasonable time after the owner has tendered it for repair. A failure to repair within sixty (60) days after tender of a vehicle is prima facie evidence of failure to repair within a reasonable time.
If the condition is not adequately repaired within a reasonable time, the owner may be entitled to an identical or reasonably equivalent vehicle at no charge or to a refund of the purchase price less a reasonable allowance for depreciation.
To avoid having to provide these burdensome solutions, every effort must be made to promptly schedule an appointment with each owner and to repair their vehicle as soon as possible. As you will see in reading the included copy of the letter that is being sent to owners, the owners are being instructed to contact the Oldsmobile Customer Assistance Network (OCAN) if their retailer does not remedy the condition within five (5) days of the mutually agreed upon service date. If the condition is not remedied within a reasonable time, they are instructed on how to contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
DEFECT INVOLVED
General Motors has determined that certain 1994 Oldsmobile Achieva vehicles may not comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 301, "Fuel System Integrity". These vehicles may have been built with welds in the rear compartment pan assembly which do not meet General Motors' manufacturing standards. As a result, these vehicles may not meet the FMVSS standard relating to fuel leakage in the event of a rear-impact crash.
To prevent this condition from occurring, retailers are to install rivets adjacent to the locations where suspect welds may have occurred.