This official notice of recall is to describe and address a known issue, who it applies to, and how you can seek remedy.
Who is affected: This recall applies only to cruise control units with a February 2, 2009 build date and then only to the relatively small number of customers that experience the symptom as described below (technically, those smart owners with Delphi brand wiper controller circuits but you have no reasonable way of knowing who makes your controller circuit so please just go by the symptom).
How to identify your build date: There are no markings that specify this. If you purchased your unit from SmartieParts then look at your
shipping date. If this date is between February 2, 2009 and March 31, 2009 inclusively then you have a Feb 2 build date. If you purchased from any other retailer after February 2nd you
may or may not have a Feb 2 build date. In either case, it is more important to confirm your symptoms than it is to verify your build date.
Symptom: Your cruise control and windshield wipers will not operate simultaneously. Not to be confused with accidentally turning off the cruise when engaging the wipers through incidental contact with the cruise button. The most positive way to confirm you experience this symptom is to turn your wipers on first and then attempt to engage the cruise control.
Cause: A combination of a specific wiper component (Delphi) being used in a small number of smarts, and a software change that was made on February 2nd which introduced the unexpected behavior. This issue was diligently researched and resolved in software starting with April 1, 2009 build dates. For clarification, there were no build dates after Feb 2 and before Apr 1.
Remedy: Affected cruise units needs to be reprogrammed.
Note that if you are not experiencing the wiper issue as described then there is absolutely no benefit to having your cruise reprogrammed. You should not take part in this recall if your build date falls within the affected date range but you are not experiencing the symptoms described. Only 8% to 15% of smarts appear to have the aforementioned wiper component. Even if you are eligible for this recall you may choose not to partake if you are not bothered by the symptom. In the future, we may add features or make improvements which would also include this fix and it may be preferable for you to wait until such a time. There is no time limit for participating in this recall and participation (or lack thereof) will not affect your product warranty in any way.
Procedure: To participate in the recall now, please fill out and submit this form:
Area 451 Parts Cruise Control RECALL #1.
Please do this whether or not you've already posted on this forum or sent an email to us or your place of purchase or made a phone call to someone asking, "let me know when..." Prior to right now, we didn't have a unified system in place for dealing with this so we feel it is best to start clean.
