Carrier A/C Evaporator Fires

On January 25, 2011, Carrier Corporation (Carrier) notified the NHTSA that it had decided certain GenV EM-1 evaporator assemblies, installed into school buses and shuttle buses, contain a safety related defect. Carrier stated that certain EM-1 evaporators, manufactured between January 2006 and December 2010, contain a Delphi Pack-Con III fuse holder in an Allied Motion motor assembly. Over time, the Delphi fuse holder contacts may relax and possibly produce arcing. If sufficient arcing occurs, the fuse holder may melt, and may be accompanied by flame, smoke and potential fire. This issue was assigned recall number 11E-003. On February 2, 2011, RMD contacted Delphi Corporation (Delphi) via e-mail to learn if it intended to file a Part 573 Report for the Pack-Con III fuse holders that Carrier deemed defective in its Part 573 filing. On February 17, 2011, Delphi responded via e-mail that this particular fuse holder had been in production since 1976 without any field issues reported to Delphi. Delphi stated that it, "...believes the Pack-Con III fuse holder is not defective and that the Pack-Con III fuse holder was misapplied by Carrier." On March 17, 2011, RMD issued an information request (IR) letter to Delphi to formally request a list of purchasers that received these fuse holders. On March 25, 2011 Delphi responded by supplying a list of purchasers to NHTSA's Office of the Chief Counsel under a request for confidentiality. Given the information supplied in Delphi's earlier February 17, 2011 response, RMD chose not to contact the purchasers of these fuse holders during this EQ as no other vehicle or equipment manufacturers have filed similar safety defect decisions with the NHTSA at this time. RMD may, however, contact these fuse holder purchasers in the future should any other safety defect decisions regarding this equipment be filed with the NHTSA. On October 6, 2011, RMD mailed IR letters to 10 purchasers identified in Carrier’s Part 573 filing in order to learn