The Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) has issued a safety advisory requesting the agency to provide information regarding possible bolt failures in steering gearboxes associated with Nova Bus vehicles.
The FTA recommends that carriers identify Nova Bus models manufactured after 2018 that use the Bosch steering gearbox mounting plate assembly. The three 7/8 inch bolts that hold the steering gearbox mounting plate assembly to the vehicle frame, if found loose or missing, could interfere with the operator’s ability to control the steering of the bus. I have.
Nova Bus performs a visual inspection to confirm the presence of the three bolts, a visual inspection to ensure the torque seal marks on the bolts are not broken, a torque inspection and re-torque, and a new torque seal mark on the bolts. Recommended to apply. Both FTAs and Nova Bus require reports on non-conforming elements to be shared.
In a safety recall by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Nova Bus said it considers the action to be proactive and has not received any reports of injury or death related to the defect. . Although the safety recall was found to involve Nova Bus Low Floor Series (LFS) and LFS Artic vehicles, the FTA recommends inspection of Nova Bus vehicles built between 2018 and 2022. increase.
Nova Bus issued a preventative delivery suspension on November 14, 2022, indicating that vehicles delivered after this date have a permanent remedy for the defect. This permanent remedy consists of hardware changes to limit the maximum clamp load and different torque strategies to increase the nominal clamp load and reduce clamp load variability.
Nova Bus and the FTA have been working to mitigate this issue and have identified seven transit agencies that could be affected by the flaw, but the FTA expects all agencies to review their vehicles to ensure that they are not affected by other vehicles. It is recommended to determine whether there is also
Nova Bus is conducting an investigation and will issue a formal service bulletin to customers once this investigation is complete.
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FTA safety recommendations can be found here.
The NHTSA Safety Recall Report for Nova Bus can be found here.
