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Letter to the Editor

CAPA Decertifies Hood; Notifies NHTSA of Potential Safety Issue

CAPA has decertified a hood for the 1995-2000 Toyota Tacoma Pickup, manufactured by Jui Li Enterprise Co. Ltd., part number JLH-13900. As a result of preliminary test information provided by a distributor of this part, CAPA is decertifying the part pending completion of a CAPA quality investigation and test fit. CAPA has notified the U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

On March 18th CAPA was informed that a replacement hood on a 1997 Tacoma flew up during a test drive by a repair technician. While CAPA knows little about how the hood was installed or the circumstances surrounding the repair, apparently, the primary latch did not perform correctly and the safety catch failed to keep the part in place. The part in question did not have a CAPA seal and, therefore, is not considered a CAPA certified part. In addition, the packaging, which would also indicate CAPA certification, was thrown away.

Regardless, CAPA immediately initiated an investigation of part number JLH-13900 to determine if there were any problems, simply because that part was in the CAPA program. As a result of this investigation CAPA has taken the following steps:

1. Immediately contacted all three factories that make versions of this application and compared the parts in the factory warehouse with the car company master part. In two of the factories (Gordon and TKY) the parts matched their car company master. In the third factory, Jui Li, the manufacturer of the part in question, no Jui Li parts were available for inspection.
2. CAPA also contacted part distributors throughout the midwest in order to obtain parts from the market for testing. The U.S. representative for the manufacturer (who was initially unavailable) was contacted for assistance in finding parts in the market. With the help of the manufacturer representative, parts were located and immediately shipped to CAPA's validator for testing. These parts have yet to arrive.
3. CAPA has decertified the part pending the results of the testing. This is contrary to CAPA's standard practice of confirming defects prior to taking any action. However, given the confirmation of the alleged defect by the distributor of the part, it was deemed prudent in this situation. In addition, we have requested the test parts from the distributor, and will perform a test fit on them as well.
4. CAPA has notified the NHTSA of this potential problem. "Clearly, this is an unusual situation and we believe the best course of action is to notify the public of the potential problem as soon as possible," said Jack Gillis, Executive Director.

All CAPA parts have a tamperproof, non-transferable seal with a unique number that allows the public to track the part to the manufacturer. The CAPA seal is, in part, a response to repairers who have asked for easy identification and confirmation of CAPA certification. Because the seal is such an integral part of the CAPA program, for years CAPA has stated that if a part does not have a seal, the part should not be considered certified, regardless of what is printed on electronic estimates, distributor catalogs and even CAPA listings. We see no reason why a repairer would intentionally remove a CAPA seal. Doing so eliminates their ability to prove to their customer that a CAPA certified part was installed or to quickly track the history of the part.

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