Nissan North America, Inc., Receipt of Petition for Decision of Inconsequential Noncompliance |
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Topics: Nissan Sentra
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Otto G. Matheke III
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
24 March 2021
[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 55 (Wednesday, March 24, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15769-15771]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-06025]
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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
[Docket No. NHTSA-2020-0100; Notice 1]
Nissan North America, Inc., Receipt of Petition for Decision of
Inconsequential Noncompliance
AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA),
Department of Transportation (DOT).
ACTION: Receipt of petition.
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SUMMARY: Nissan North America, Inc. (Nissan) has determined that
certain model year (MY) 2020 Nissan Sentra motor vehicles do not fully
comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 108,
Lamps, Reflective Devices, and Associated Equipment. Nissan filed a
noncompliance report dated August 26, 2020. Nissan subsequently
petitioned NHTSA on September 18, 2020, for a decision that the subject
noncompliance is inconsequential as it relates to motor vehicle safety.
This notice announces receipt of Nissan's petition.
DATES: Send comments on or before April 23, 2021.
ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit written data,
views, and arguments on this petition. Comments must refer to the
docket and notice number cited in the title of this notice and
submitted by any of the following methods:
Mail: Send comments by mail addressed to the U.S.
Department of Transportation, Docket Operations, M-30, West Building
Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC
20590.
Hand Delivery: Deliver comments by hand to the U.S.
Department of Transportation, Docket Operations, M-30, West Building
Ground Floor, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, Washington, DC
20590. The Docket Section is open on weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
except for Federal holidays.
Electronically: Submit comments electronically by logging
onto the Federal Docket Management System (FDMS) website at https://www.regulations.gov/. Follow the online instructions for submitting
comments.
Comments may also be faxed to (202) 493-2251.
Comments must be written in the English language, and be no greater
than 15 pages in length, although there is no limit to the length of
necessary attachments to the comments. If comments are submitted in
hard copy form, please ensure that two copies are provided. If you wish
to receive confirmation that comments you have submitted by mail were
received, please enclose a stamped, self-addressed postcard with the
comments. Note that all comments received will be posted without change
to https://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information
provided.
All comments and supporting materials received before the close of
business on the closing date indicated above will be filed in the
docket and
[[Page 15770]]
will be considered. All comments and supporting materials received
after the closing date will also be filed and will be considered to the
fullest extent possible.
When the petition is granted or denied, notice of the decision will
also be published in the Federal Register pursuant to the authority
indicated at the end of this notice.
All comments, background documentation, and supporting materials
submitted to the docket may be viewed by anyone at the address and
times given above. The documents may also be viewed on the internet at
https://www.regulations.gov by following the online instructions for
accessing the docket. The docket ID number for this petition is shown
in the heading of this notice.
DOT's complete Privacy Act Statement is available for review in a
Federal Register notice published on April 11, 2000 (65 FR 19477-78).
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Overview
Nissan has determined that certain MY 2020 Nissan Sentra motor
vehicles do not fully comply with the requirements of paragraph
S10.18.9.1.2 of FMVSS No. 108, Lamps, Reflective Devices, and Associate
Equipment (49 CFR 571.108). Nissan filed a noncompliance report dated
August 26, 2020, pursuant to 49 CFR part 573, Defect and Noncompliance
Responsibility and Reports. Nissan subsequently petitioned NHTSA on
September 18, 2020, for an exemption from the notification and remedy
requirements of 49 U.S.C. Chapter 301 on the basis that this
noncompliance is inconsequential as it relates to motor vehicle safety,
pursuant to 49 U.S.C. 30118(d) and 30120(h) and 49 CFR part 556,
Exemption for Inconsequential Defect or Noncompliance.
This notice of receipt of Nissan's petition is published under 49
U.S.C. 30118 and 30120 and does not represent any Agency decision or
other exercise of judgment concerning the merits of the petition.
II. Motor Vehicles Involved
Approximately 5,520 MY 2020 Nissan Sentra motor vehicles,
manufactured between November 26, 2019, and March 24, 2020, are
potentially involved.
III. Noncompliance
Nissan explains that the noncompliance is that the right-hand LED
headlamp aim in the subject vehicle may be misaligned resulting in a
vertical gradient value below 0.13 as required by paragraph
S10.18.9.1.2 of FMVSS No. 108.
IV. Rule Requirements
Paragraph S10.18.9.1.2 of FMVSS No. 108 includes the requirements
relevant to this petition. Vertical gradient. The gradient of the
cutoff measured at either 2.5[deg] L or 2.0[deg] R must be not less
than 0.13 based on the procedure of S10.18.9.1.5.
V. Summary of Nissan's Petition
The following views and arguments presented in this section, ``V.
Summary of Nissan's Petition,'' are the views and arguments provided by
Nissan. They have not been evaluated by the Agency and do not reflect
the views of the Agency. Nissan describes the subject noncompliance and
contends that the noncompliance is inconsequential as it relates to
motor vehicle safety.
In support of its petition, Nissan provided NHTSA with the
following:
1. Nissan states that the supplier (Ichikoh) did not apply the
correct aiming logic when setting the head lamp aim parameters in the
subject vehicles and, as a result, the right-hand LED headlamp aim may
be misaligned resulting in a vertical gradient value below 0.13. Nissan
asserts that a lower G-Value will lead to a headlamp cut line that is
slightly less sharp. Ichikoh inspected 3,506 lamps and found 572 lamps
with a G-Value below 0.13. However, when the cut-off value is brought
down to two decimals instead of three (per the express requirement in
FMVSS No. 108), only 286 lamps (about 8%) fall below the 0.13 minimum
threshold. Of the 286 lamps, 248 (about 87%) are at a gradient value of
0.12.
2. Ichikoh has also confirmed that, even when the G-Value is below
0.13, all points of the Light Distribution achieve the required
specifications of FMVSS No. 108 for both the low and high beam
performance.
3. Nissan states that it has not received any reports from the
field of customer complaints, warranty claims, crashes, injuries, or
fatalities related to this issue.
4. Nissan contends that the purpose of the gradient requirement is
to assist in headlamp re-aiming. Nissan says that the vehicles
potentially affected by this issue were aimed properly at the factory
using a different aiming method. Therefore, the only potential concern
would relate to re-aiming performed after the vehicle has been in use.
Aiming of the headlamps by a service technician in the field is an
event that is expected to occur infrequently. To confirm this, Nissan
searched its repair order database for repair orders on the previous
generation Sentra that involved re-aiming of the headlamps. Out of
1,389,330 vehicles, only 161 repair orders were found that involved
headlamp aiming. This rate of repair would be 0.011% of vehicles. If
the same rate of repair is applied to the expected 420 vehicles in the
subject population, we would expect only 0.05 vehicles of the subject
population to require a re-aiming in the field.
5. Nissan asserts that the difference in gradient values between
0.12 and 0.13 does not materially affect the ability of a service
technician to properly aim the lamp in the rare case that this would
need to be done in the field.
6. Even if the lamps had to be re-aimed at some point, according to
Nissan, it is unlikely the driver or other motorists would notice any
glare or observable difference in operation between a fully compliant
lamp and the subject lamps, based on the conditions described above.
7. In the subject parts, all points of the light distribution
achieve the required specifications of FMVSS No. 108 for both the low
and high beam performance.
Nissan concludes by again contending that the subject noncompliance
is inconsequential as it relates to motor vehicle safety, and that its
petition to be exempted from providing notification of the
noncompliance, as required by 49 U.S.C. 30118, and a remedy for the
noncompliance, as required by 49 U.S.C. 30120, should be granted.
NHTSA notes that the statutory provisions (49 U.S.C. 30118(d) and
30120(h)) that permit manufacturers to file petitions for a
determination of inconsequentiality allow NHTSA to exempt manufacturers
only from the duties found in sections 30118 and 30120, respectively,
to notify owners, purchasers, and dealers of a defect or noncompliance
and to remedy the defect or noncompliance. Therefore, any decision on
this petition only applies to the subject vehicles that Nissan no
longer controlled at the time it determined that the noncompliance
existed. However, any decision on this petition does not relieve
vehicle distributors and dealers of the prohibitions on the sale, offer
for sale, or introduction or delivery for introduction into interstate
commerce of the noncompliant vehicles under their control after Nissan
notified them that the subject noncompliance existed.
[[Page 15771]]
Authority: 49 U.S.C. 30118, 30120: delegations of authority at
49 CFR 1.95 and 501.8.
Otto G. Matheke III,
Director, Office of Vehicle Safety Compliance.
[FR Doc. 2021-06025 Filed 3-23-21; 8:45 am]
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