Dive Brief:
- FCA US is recalling nearly 1.3 million Ram 1500 pickups over second-row seat belt buckle anchors that may have been improperly secured to the vehicles’ body structure, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
- The recall involves certain model year 2019-2026 Ram 1500 trucks produced between February 2018 and April 2026. However, only 0.1% of the recalled vehicles are estimated to have improperly secured seat belt anchor bolts.
- Dealers will inspect and, as necessary, properly torque the seat belt buckle anchor bolts at no cost. Owner notification letters are set to be mailed beginning Aug. 18.
Dive Insight:
In order for seat belts to properly restrain vehicle occupants in a crash, seat belt buckle anchors must be able to withstand extreme forces.
Per U.S. safety regulations, these anchors and their attachment bolts must be able to withstand thousands of pounds of force to protect occupants. If a seat belt anchor bolt is not properly torqued, it can reduce the seat belt’s effectiveness and increase the risk of injury. In the recall report, FCA US cites noncompliance with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards governing seat belt assembly anchorages.
The report states that the issue is not due to defective parts, but by second-row seat belt anchors that were not properly secured at the factory. In its notice to dealers, FCA US said the problem could be present in the second-row driver-side or center-position seat belt anchor, which will be inspected by dealers.
The issue first came to light in Canada early this year. On Jan. 20, Transport Canada — the federal agency responsible for Canadian transportation policies and regulations — notified FCA Canada of a customer complaint concerning a second-row seat belt buckle anchor that may have been improperly installed in a 2025 Ram 1500 pickup.
Following the Canadian report, FCA US’s Technical Safety and Regulatory Compliance group opened an investigation on Feb. 26 into possible installation issues covering certain model year 2019-2026 Ram 1500 trucks. Through July, the group met with the automaker’s engineering and manufacturing teams to analyze the issue and its failure mode, as well as to determine the affected population.
On July 15, the team concluded that safety issues existed and that the assembly problem could impair the performance of second-row seat belt buckle anchors in the vehicles.
FCA US’s Vehicle Regulations Committee subsequently approved the recall on July 23.
The company has also issued other recalls involving its best-selling Ram 1500 pickup this year, including a February recall of 456,000 vehicles for defective trailer tow modules and an April recall of 65,000 Ram trucks for instrument panel cluster display failures.
