FCA US is recalling 66,819 older-model pickup trucks with manual transmissions to replace their faulty clutch ignition interlock switches.
The company will recall certain Dodge Dakota, Dodge Ram 1500, 2500, 3500 and Mitsubishi Raider pickups.
The company said that its engineers had discovered that switches in certain 2006 and 2007 pickups models may be equipped with spring wire that differs from wire used in previous switches.
The alternate wire could break resulting into the vehicles to not start and in rare cases vehicles could make the vehicle show unintended movement on the turning on of the ignition key.
One fatality occurred from an accident involving this population of vehicles.
Reuters reported that in the incident, a young child could enter a 2006 Ram 3500 truck and start the ignition without the clutch depressed which resulted in the vehicle moving forward, hitting and killing another child.
The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation of the fatality in May.
The company did not use the alternate wire in any vehicles produced before July of 2005 or after June of 2006, FCA said.
FCA has discontinued the production of Dakota and Raider. The latter was built for Mitsubishi under terms of an assembly contract.
There are an estimated 54,558 vehicles in the US, 4,356 vehicles in Canada, 7,648 in Mexico and 257 outside the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) region.
The customers are expected to be notified from 13 February.
Until then, the company has advised customers to follow recommended procedures for starting their vehicles including activating the vehicle's parking brake, placing its shift lever in the neutral position and pressing the clutch pedal before turning the ignition key.
Image: A 2008 Dodge Dakota. Photo: courtesy of Ifcar.
