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Letter to the Editor

CAPA Confirms Decertification of Tacoma Hood and Recommends Recall

CAPA recently completed its investigation of JLH-13900, a hood for the 1995-2001 Toyota Tacoma produced by Jui Li. CAPA's investigation was prompted by a report that a replacement hood on a 1997 Toyota Tacoma pickup flew up during a test drive by a repair technician. Nine business days after receiving notice, CAPA decertified the Jui Li part pending completion of its full investigation and notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the potential defect.

CAPA has completed its investigation, verified a nonconformance in the Jui Li part and the decertification of JLH-13900 stands. The part must pass a complete dimensional inspection and vehicle test fit before returning to the program.

As a result of this complaint investigation, CAPA has updated the hood checking fixture requirements to increase measurement checks of secondary latches in multiple directions. In addition, CAPA has reinspected all hoods with primary and secondary striker configurations in factory inventories.

CAPA will check those not currently in inventory upon completion of the next production run and is in the process of reinspecting all hoods.

"CAPA, like all standard setting organizations and product certifiers, is continually improving its standards and program requirements and this investigation enabled us to yet further improve our process. Anything less than continued improvement would simply not be in keeping with CAPA's philosophy," said Jack Gillis, Executive Director.

"By implementing these changes and increasing its product oversight, CAPA is demonstrating the importance of an independent, third party standard setting organization in the market," said Bob Anderson, Anderson's Automotive and CAPA's Board President.

In a press release to the industry, CAPA laid out the following principle and guidelines:

As in all industries, recalling a defective part is the responsibility of the manufacturer and the distribution network. CAPA strongly recommends a recall of any defective parts and that all parties involved in the sale of the part participate fully in the process. The manufacturer, Jui Li, has taken steps to comply with the recall.

The following are suggested recall guidelines for various parties involved in the sale, requested use, distribution or installation of Jui Li Hood #JLH-13900.

Manufacturers:

Manufacturers (in this case Jui Li, who has agreed to participate) should carefully review sales records and notify all distributors who have received decertified parts. They should ask distributors to destroy parts in their warehouses and provide them with a refund, replacement, or credit. (CAPA's Recall facilitation procedure requires such action.) They should also request that distributors contact their customers regarding these parts.

Insurance Companies:

Insurance companies should review their databases for estimates requesting the installation of a certified hood on a 1995-2001 Toyota Tacoma and contact customers to return to the point of repair for inspection or replacement. (Note: The insurance company can only determine if that type of part was requested, not the brand of the part actually used.)

Distributors:

Distributors should review their sales records for all Jui Li hoods sold for the 1995-2001 Toyota Tacoma and notify their collision repairer customers of the potential problem. They should ask repairers to contact their customers and instruct them to return for inspection or replacement.

Collision Repairers:

Collision repairers should review their repair records for all Jui Li hoods for the 1995-2001 Toyota Tacoma installed on customer vehicles and request that their customers return for inspection or replacement. The CAPA Quality Seal comes with a special feature that enables repairers to remove an identifying tab for their repair files. That tab has a unique number that can easily be used to identify the manufacturer, lot, and type of part before and after installation.

CAPA Recall Facilitation Program:

CAPA takes its responsibility to immediately and effectively notify all parties of parts that no longer comply with CAPA's rigid standards seriously. Furthermore, because CAPA strongly believes in the removal of defective parts from the market, we have instituted a special recall facilitation program to make it easier to implement a recall and destroy bad parts. CAPA participants are required to refund, replace or credit part distributors holding a decertified part upon CAPA's receipt of the small section of the part bearing the CAPA seal. Cutting this section out of the part eliminates the need (and expense) of returning the actual product in order to affect a recall. More importantly, it prohibits the resale of the part.

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