These Are Your Worst Experiences With A Recall

Car owners worldwide wish that every vehicle rolled off the assembly line perfectly designed and manufactured, but nobody’s perfect. We asked earlier this week for your worst experiences with a recall. The comments section was filled to the brim with tales of mechanical woes and lackluster customer service spanning decades of automotive. There were faulty cars that were refused recall service, and vehicles claimed to be repaired but still had the reported issue. Not to spoil anything, but not even dealership employee are immune from a frustrating recall. Without further ado, here are the most egregious stories:

In 1991, I had a 1986 Fiero and there was a recall about the exhaust manifold, which could crack and lead to a fire risk. I was in college and took it into the local Pontiac/BMW place for the recall, which took a couple hours.
When I drove off, the gauges were all messed up, the windows rolled up and down without commands, the headlights came on and turned off randomly, etc . I turned around within 100 feet of the dealership and drove it back, and told them they had messed it up, which of course they claimed they did not. So, I opened the engine hatch/truck and found the problem.
Instead of unplugging the wiring harness to get to the exhaust manifold, they had cut it. They butted the two halves together and wrapped it with tape. They claimed the car was like that when they got it, but I happened to have a picture of the engine bay available. They refused to replace the wiring harness, but they did splice each wire they cut. I ended up with the car running right, but a ball of electrical tape the size of a softball back there.
The entire time, the BMW salespeople kept strongly suggesting that I get a new car. They offered $100 for the Fiero in trade-in because it was messed up.

Submitted by: hoser68

The Kia Stinger forums are filled with horror stories of people getting their Turbo Oil line recall done and the dealerships having no idea how to work on the engines, Kia quoting a 3-hour job that supposedly takes six and some places thinking they need to drop the whole engine.
I need to get mine done, and I’m worried.

Submitted by: ProjectNeo

My dad had a 1975 Corvette and back around 1978 or so he had a set of Firestone 500 radials put on the car. They were recalled and replaced before there was any issue, fortunately.
Fast forward 20 years and my dad lets me take the car on a road trip about 200 miles from home. My buddy and I hear a noise from the right rear and sure enough, the tire’s gone flat. I nurse the car to a safe spot, jack it up and drop the spare from underneath and, boom… there’s a 20-year-old Firestone 500 just waiting to finally see daylight.

Submitted by: BuddyS

Getting a recall taken care of from a defunct OEM is really difficult… I had a 2006 Saab 9-2X (essentially a rebadged Subaru Impreza) that fell under the Takata recall. I get the recall letter from GM telling me that the car needs to be taken to a certified Saab service center in order to get it taken care of. Problem is, Saab had gone under 8 years prior. Logic would dictate that any GM dealership or even a Subaru dealership could handle it but nope. I had to call GM’s customer support line to find an aftermarket shop that GM was willing to work with to handle the recall. The shop was a 2-hour drive in a complete different county from mine.

Submitted by: RemainKalm916

Where to start? Well, my worst experience with a recall was the Chrysler A-604 transmission back in the early ’90s. Good old Lee Iacocca pushed this new FWD application 4-speed auto out to the market well before it was fully baked.
It was a disaster on all fronts.
As a young Chrysler District Service Manager at the time, I had the misfortune of dealing with a lot of VERY angry customers who bought new cars that very quickly failed spectacularly.
Typically, the cars went into limp-in mode, which locked them in 2nd gear and made them barely drivable, aside from limping them into one of our overwhelmed dealers who neither had the parts nor enough transmission techs to fix them.
The issue was not so much that there was a recall. It was that we were ill-prepared to fix them, even when the recall came out.

One of the challenges with NHTSA regulations is manufacturers are required to send recall notices out within a very tight time window, regardless if they have the parts or training to do the fix.
Of course, being Chrysler in the early ’90s, we ran fast and loose with quality on most fronts. There were plenty of disasters somewhat akin to the A-604, but it was the pinnacle of doing things the wrong way.
I still remember driving in one morning to see one of my dealers when my own company car’s transmission went into limp-in mode.
I was not amused.

Submitted by: Factoryhack

2017 Kia Optima PHEV. Get a recall notification to install anti-knock software to keep the engine from grenading. Never had an issue with knocking or ticking before this. Pick the car up after the work is “done”. Within 20 miles of driving, engine starts knocking on the freeway and completely grenades. Between that, hybrid battery failure, wiring harness failure, and a short in the stereo that drained the 12V system, it sat at the dealer for 18 months between Dec 2021 and April 2024
Cherry on top: they offered me a $2000 “goodwill” payment tied to an NDA and a clause that said if I sold the car and the next owner sued them, I was on the hook for the damages. No thank you

Submitted by: dubgasm

2018 Pacifica hybrid. It was undrivable due to a wiring issue in the transmission. We had to wait 4 months for a new transmission because of the UAW strike. Chrysler did cover a rental.
We’re still waiting to get the charging system recall fixed (again) so it doesn’t burst into flames when charging. We haven’t been able to charge it for over a year, and that’s the main reason we bought it over Honda/Toyota.
The first and absolutely last FCA product we will ever buy…

Submitted by: DCnative

The Hyundai engine recalls on my manual 2014 Elantra GT.
In mid-2021, I got the knock-sensor recall upgrade from Hyundai Canada meant to monitor my engine for signs of engine knocking. It would put my engine into a safety mode if any engine knocking was discovered. Potentially, I could get the engine replaced under warranty. The warranty had been extended to 10 years or 200,000km. I fell within both criteria, luckily.
Early January 2022, the knock sensor engages and I limp back to the dealership in safe mode (can’t rev the engine over 2000 RPM in safe mode). Hyundai Canada had the car for 4 weeks, no communication with me. Finally, they gave me back the car, claiming my oil filter was the issue (they said it wasn’t OEM and that caused the knock sensor to falsely engage). Next day, the knock sensor kicks in while on the highway as I drove 110kmph; it was like someone slammed on the brakes and I nearly got rear-ended getting off the highway when it happened. I parked the car at home, called the dealership back, told them to come tow the car back and fix the issue and that I wouldn’t drive it again until fixed as it was not safe to drive.
For 3 weeks, they wouldn’t give me an update or rental. Finally, after 4 weeks, they said they found metal shavings in the oil pan and engine and I got a rental car. 6 weeks total elapsed before I got the car back with a brand new engine, but they made me pay for a new oil pan (they said the warranty wouldn’t cover it and it was needed).

Sold the car only a few months later.

Submitted by: Jeffaulburn

Here in Canada, some Hyundai models have a recall for premature rusting on the brake lines and subframe. My 2015 Veloster was under this recall. As a tech of a Hyundai dealer, I knew it had to be done. The day I drove it in, the brakes were getting worse and worse. After being left in the parking lot for a few hours, the brakes were completely lost and it had to be driven in using the handbrake to stop it.

Submitted by: ThatYoteGal

The airbag recall for Acura several years ago…. Was told to park my car and not drive until parts became available…. That ultimately was 6 months… Fortunately, my lawyer got Acura to supply a free rental from Hertz for the entire time. The Hertz rental experience is a whole other story and near disaster.

Submitted by: Jdg000

I got a ticket due to a recall once. I brought my Miata in for an annual inspection/preventative maintenance. The recall fix required a computer reset, which they did before running the emissions test. But when you reset the computer, you’ve got to run the engine for some number of miles (maybe 100?) before you can run the test. I only drive the car maybe 1500 miles a year, so it took me a while to hit 100 miles. And in that time, I got a late registration ticket.

Submitted by: Give Me Tacos or Give Me Death

I knew a guy in college who was on his way to pick up some mail that had been delivered to his previous address. On the way, he was in an accident and was seriously injured by a bad Takata airbag. The mail he was going to get included a recall notice for the airbag.

Submitted by: Tycho