Troubleshooter: An app can let you know if your car is safe to drive
RALEIGH (WTVD) -- There's an estimated 37 million cars with recalls on the roads right now and with so many recalls out there it's difficult to know if your car is affected.
Now there's an app for that and you can find out if your car is affected in seconds using your smartphone.
With over 40 million vehicles facing recalls in the U.S. this year alone, it's not hard to find a car with recall on it. So we downloaded the free myCARFAX car maintenance app and did just that.
Chris Basso of Carfax, showed us how the app works and it didn't take long before we found a car with an open recall for radio vent slots.
The app alerted us of the recall and explained why it was a problem, this time saying the radio vents can "subsequently send direct current to the rear speakers. This can result in a speaker fire."
In this car's case the recall on the radio vents has been in effect since 2005.
"The longer this thing goes unfixed the greater that chance that that recall part could fail and a fire could happen in this car," Basso said.
To check if a car has an open recall, all you have to do is type the car's license plate into the app. We did just that and quickly found another car with an open recall.
"This one is for a passenger airbag inflator. That means the airbag in this car could either not inflate when it's needed, or inflate inadvertently when they're driving down the highway. Either way, that's a serious safety issue for anybody that's driving that car," Basso said.
We came across some of the vehicle owners who had open recalls on their cars, and many of them, like Honda owner, Madena Dunston, said they had no idea their car had a recall.
We ran Dunston's license plate number through the myCARFAX app and found one.
It's a safety issue with the seat belt. There could be an issue where the seat belt doesn't work properly, which could put your life in danger," Basso said.
Dunston says it's a problem he wants corrected.
"I will definitely look into it," Dunston said.
Dunston isn't the only who said they were going to seek repairs after hearing about the recall. We ran the app on Rachel Power's minivan and found a recall their too.
"The open recall is for a fuel pump module leak. So the fuel pump in your car could leak, which would cause it to catch fire," Basso told her.
In car after car, we found multiple recalls.
"Two recalls that have not been fixed. One recall for the ignition lock cylinder, the other for the ignition switch replacement, Basso said of yet another car we checked.
"These are the recalls that have made headlines for the last several months. They're key safety recalls that could fail at any time if that car isn't fixed," he explained.
Alerting consumers about current recalls on their car isn't the only thing the app does.
"It will also alert you to recalls that are issued to your car in the future," Basso said. "It's a great way to stay on top of those recalls - it's becoming more and more difficult."
The app also alerts consumers who bought their car privately, or might not be the original owner, and don't receive recall notices in the mail.
The app is also useful while shopping for new or used cars to see if the vehicle you're thinking of purchasing is recall free - something that may come in handy with the most recent recall for Takata airbags affecting 7.8 million U.S. cars.
Beyond recalls, the Carfax app can even alert you if your car is due for maintenance or if you're coming up on an out-of-date vehicle registration. For more information on the free myCARFAX car maintenance app click HERE.
If you do find that you have an open recall on your car, you can find out more information about the type of recall you have by visiting SaferCar.gov. You can also take your car back to the dealership where they should fix it for free. You might experience a bit of a wait though, as we've reported before, there is a backlog in recall repairs.
