I had a minor collision where a car backed into me as i was driving forward at a slow rate of speed. minor body damage to both cars. however, all of my front air bags deployed. insurance, the estimator, everyone, is shocked they all deployed, or that any deployed considering how minor the collision was. my van, unbeknownst to me, had a knee airbag. the knee air bag exploded against my shins, causing extensive bruising, cuts, and gouges where the cover and casing shot out onto my legs like shrapnel. it felt like a bomb of sharp glass went off against my shins and knees, there was blood all over the place. i had to go to the er to get the wounds cleaned up and they're still trying to heal weeks later. *dt consumer stated car is at insurance auto auctions. *jb *dt photos attached.*jb *dt *dt 'parts of this document have been redacted to protect personally identifiable information pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).'*jb *dt *tr *dt*dt*jb
On this 2015, florida based, dodge grand caravan with 58,640 miles, the passenger side active head restraint deployed with the car parked in the driveway and no one in it. it could not be reset as the thin plastic bracket that held a metal restraining bar in place disintegrated under the pressure of the deployment spring and released. in fact it appeared that multiple plastic parts had broken. checking the internet, this appears to have happened in hundreds of other vehicles in multiple models and model years and dodge/chrysler has made no attempt to fix the problem or warn the owners. there are also at least two separate law firms pursuing class action lawsuits regarding this. there also appear to be hundreds of complaints on this site. if this happened on the driver's side while the car was in motion, an accident could have resulted. the dodge dealer said they have no obligation to fix this and that replacing each head restraint would cost close to $900. they also could not say the driver's side head restraint wouldn't also deploy unexpectedly. one wonders if there haven't already been significant or even fatal accidents related to this. getting hit by the headrest would cause injury alone this appears poorly designed. the idea of putting a thin plastic bracket under constant strong spring pressure for years is just asking for trouble, especially for vehicles in florida where temperatures in parked vehicles can remain well over 120 all day. how can thin plastic be expected to take this for the life of the vehicle? these parts should be metal. i pushed the deployed headrest back together and secured it with two cable zip ties. as dodge can't tell me if the other headrest won't also deploy, i have also secured it with cable zip ties to guard against its unexpected deployment. where is the nhtsa in all this? at least change the design.
The passenger seat headrest deployed while the car was sitting in my driveway sometime between sunday evening (5/26) and tuesday afternoon (5/28). the car had not been involved in any accidents prior to or during this time frame. my husband and i had driven our 2015 dodge caravan on sunday. i was in the passenger seat. i am 8 months pregnant. on monday, we did not drive the van. on tuesday around 12 noon, with the car still in the driveway, i noticed that the passenger side headrest had basically exploded. i called the dealership where i had bought the van (a chevy dealership that had received it in a trade-in). they had never heard of such a thing and told me to bring in the van immediately. that afternoon, i (reluctantly) drove the van the 25 miles to the dealership, leaning forward as far as i could in the driver's seat in case it were to deploy. the dealership called me today, wednesday 5/29, to inform me that chrysler refuses to accept any responsibility for the defect, and would charge nearly $900 to cover the new headrest. chevy generously offered to cover half the cost since i am a repeat customer, and they saw this as a severe safety issue. i declined, not wanting to spend over $400 to replace a defective part with another part, especially since this would not ease my worries about the safety of the driver's side. i plan to zip tie the headrests with multiple zip ties. there's no other solution at this time. even if i were to pay to replace the broken passenger headrest, there is no guarantee at this point that either headrest is safe and will function as intended. i would not feel safe driving with one of these headrests ever again. i would trade in the vehicle, but i am worried this will cause significant financial harm since i only just acquired the vehicle in october 2018. also, i will be having a baby in 1 month and have no money to spare.
The active-restraint head rests deployed while driving through a parking lot making a loud bang that sounded like a gun shot. the deployment of the active-restraint head rests was a distraction to the driver and if anyone had been in the passenger seat it could have caused an injury. the van is still under warranty and the dealership could not tell us if reseting the headrest would be covered under our warranty or not.
2015 grand caravan my wife michelle o'connell drive in pulling into our driveway and the headrest restraint system airbag deployed striking my wife in the back of the head van was towed to black chrysler dodge ram in statesville north carolina to be repaired my wife sought medical attention chrysler then demanded the vehicle be inspected by an independent inspector to see if it was in an accident after the report was done in received chrysler notify the dealer do not touch the vehicle the report said the vehicle was flawless which we knew that then chrysler's lawyer contacted us and said we are not fixing your vehicle until you sign paperwork absolving us of any liability which they know they're liable cuz the van is in perfect condition we are reporting this because we believe there is a known defect by chrysler and they're trying to sweep it under the rug they had a similar incident where they had to recall 880000 vehicles in 2013 for the exact same issue chrysler made of direct threat saying we're not going to fix your vehicle and leave it on registerable because of the airbag for inspection and unusable unless you absolve us of liability the vehicle was only traveling less than 2 miles an hour pulling into our driveway it was a driver's side headrest restraint at deployed
Tl* the contact owns a 2015 dodge caravan. while driving 40 mph, the air bags deployed without warning or impact. the front driver and passenger air bags did not deploy. the vehicle was taken to the dealer, but was not repaired. the manufacturer was notified of the failure. the vin and failure mileage were not available. *tr
I bought a 2015 dodge caravan avp model and wanted the stow-away roof rack added. it wasn't until i brought the vehicle home that i discovered that the wrong roof rack had been installed. then i read the owners guide and i found the warning about not drilling into the roof. this warning states: do not add roof racks that require any bolts or screws to mount a rack. it also states that the roof should not be drilled into for any reason. dodge customer care put me in contact with a technician from mopar, the company that supplies the stow-away roof rack. that is when i learned that mopar will not supply the stow-away rack to the dealerships because it can only be put on at the factory. he told me about the dangers of drilling and putting screws into the roof. not only could an airbag deploy while the rack is being installed, but if a screw is touching or in near contact with the airbag or wiring, the system could fail later. this means that the 14 screws that were drilled into the roof could potentially cause an accident by deploying the air bags prematurely or they may not work at all in an event that requires them. so far no one from dodge will put in writing that my vehicle is safe and that i have nothing to worry about. my request to the dealership and to dodge customer care for paper work about the roof rack have gone unanswered. i have also been trying to get proof of who installed the roof rack and the warranty card that is supposed to be filled out by the installer. i have no paper work about the roof rack at all, such as the use and care of it. now i feel obligated to let the public know about this very dangerous situation.