How to Report a Vehicle, Tire or Child Car Seat Safety Defect to Transport Canada

Where do you report a vehicle, tire or child car seat safety defect?

Transport Canada accepts reports through its Safety-Related Defect Complaint Form. You can submit the official online defect complaint directly to the Defect Investigations and Recalls Division.

You can also speak with a defect investigator by phone:

• 1-800-333-0510 from within Canada;
• 819-420-4300 from the Gatineau-Ottawa area or internationally.

Telephone service is available Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Time. Outside those hours, you can leave a message.

What counts as a safety defect?

Transport Canada does not investigate every mechanical or product problem as a safety defect. Its current guidance says a safety-related defect has several characteristics.

The defect should:

• originate when the product was designed, manufactured or assembled;
• interfere with the safe functioning of the vehicle, tire or child car seat;
• be capable of occurring in a group of similar vehicles, tires or child car seats;
• directly endanger drivers, passengers, occupants of other vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists or other road users;
• cause a problem that happens with little or no warning;
• not be caused by ordinary wear and tear, lack of maintenance or owner negligence.

The official Transport Canada defect-reporting guidance provides examples of problems that are and are not normally investigated.

What types of problems should you report?

Transport Canada gives several examples of potential safety defects that should be reported. These include:

• steering components that fail suddenly and cause loss of vehicle control;
• fuel-system problems that may cause a vehicle fire;
• Electronic Stability Control systems that activate unnecessarily and cause loss of control;
• wiring problems that may cause a fire or sudden loss of lighting;
• air bags that deploy when they should not;
• child car seats with defective harnesses, buckles or other components;
• improperly designed or constructed tires that may fail unexpectedly;
• other critical components whose failure could cause loss of vehicle control or injury.

You do not have to know the engineering cause of the problem before reporting it. Describe what happened as accurately as possible and let Transport Canada's specialists assess whether it may represent a safety defect.

What problems are not normally considered safety defects?

Some problems can be frustrating or expensive without meeting the federal definition of a safety defect.

Transport Canada lists examples it does not normally investigate as safety-related defects, including:

• paint defects and cosmetic blemishes;
• ordinary engine or powertrain performance problems;
• squeaks, rattles and noises that provide warning before a component fails;
• non-structural or body-panel rust;
• air-conditioning or radio problems;
• air bags that do not deploy in less serious, non-injury collisions;
• ordinary wear and tear.

If the issue involves fuel consumption rather than a safety defect, Transport Canada directs consumers to Natural Resources Canada. Vehicle-emissions concerns fall under Environment and Climate Change Canada.

What information should you provide in the complaint?

Use the official form to identify the affected product and describe the problem as precisely as you can. A useful report explains what failed, when and under what conditions it happened, and why the event created a safety concern.

Provide the identifying information requested by the form for the vehicle, tire or child car seat. Avoid guessing. Accurate product identification helps Transport Canada compare your experience with complaints involving similar products.

Transport Canada may contact you later if investigators need more information to document the potential defect.

Should you report the problem even if you already told the dealer or manufacturer?

Yes. Reporting a safety concern to a dealer or manufacturer is not the same as reporting it to Transport Canada.

The federal Defect Investigations and Recalls Division maintains its own complaint database and analyzes reports for potential patterns. A problem that appears isolated to one owner may become significant when investigators identify similar complaints involving the same vehicle, component, tire or child restraint.

Transport Canada specifically encourages people experiencing possible safety defects to submit their own reports.

Can you report a problem if there is no recall?

Yes. A recall does not have to exist before you file a complaint.

Consumer complaints are one source of information Transport Canada uses to identify possible safety defects. The department documents and analyzes complaints and can open a formal investigation when the evidence warrants further examination.

You can separately search the Transport Canada defects and recalls service to see whether a recall or investigation already exists.

What happens after you report a safety defect?

Your complaint is entered into Transport Canada's Defect Complaints database and reviewed by an experienced analyst.

The Defect Investigations and Recalls Division is responsible for:

• documenting and analyzing complaints about potential safety defects;
• launching formal defect investigations when warranted;
• updating the Motor Vehicle Safety Recalls Database after manufacturers issue recalls;
• conducting recall audits to verify that companies meet applicable regulatory requirements.

If additional information is needed, Transport Canada may contact you. The official complaint form warns that, because the department receives many complaints, complainants are not usually contacted unless additional information is required.

Will the manufacturer see your complaint?

The official complaint form states that if you give Transport Canada permission, the manufacturer will have access to the details of your complaint.

The information submitted through the form is collected under the authority of the Motor Vehicle Safety Act and is used by Transport Canada for enforcement of the Act. The federal form also explains that personal information is protected under applicable federal privacy and access-to-information legislation.

How long does Transport Canada take to respond?

There is a service standard for acknowledging a report, but not a fixed deadline for completing an investigation.

Transport Canada's Defect Investigations and Recalls Division aims to acknowledge online defect complaints within one hour, 98 percent of the time.

For telephone contacts, the division aims to answer its hotline within two minutes during business hours 80 percent of the time. Voice-mail messages and messages sent to its generic mailbox are targeted for response by the next business day or sooner, 80 percent of the time.

These standards concern communication and acknowledgment. A defect investigation can require gathering and analyzing complaint data, obtaining technical information and conducting testing, so Transport Canada does not publish one standard completion period for every investigation.

Will every complaint result in an investigation or recall?

No. Transport Canada reviews complaint information and decides whether further investigation is warranted.

Its public lists show both active and closed investigations. An investigation can be closed when a safety defect is identified and the manufacturer issues a recall, or when the available evidence does not support finding a safety-related defect. Transport Canada notes that a closed investigation may be reopened if new information becomes available.

You can review active defect investigations and closed defect investigations.

What happens if a safety defect is confirmed?

Under the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, a company covered by the Act that becomes aware of a defect in the design, manufacture or functioning of a regulated vehicle or equipment that affects or is likely to affect someone's safety must provide a notice of defect to the Minister and, as required by the regulations, to current owners and other prescribed persons.

The Act also gives the Minister powers relating to safety defects. Where the statutory conditions are met, the Minister can order a company to correct a defect or non-compliance in the interest of safety.

The current Motor Vehicle Safety Act notice-of-defect rules explain the manufacturer's federal notification duty.

What should you do if a recall is issued?

A defect complaint and a recall are different stages. Filing a complaint alerts Transport Canada to a potential problem. A recall identifies products affected by a known safety defect or non-compliance and explains the corrective action.

If a product you own is recalled, follow the recall instructions and arrange the required corrective action. Transport Canada states that owners are responsible for having recalled products they own repaired or otherwise corrected as instructed.

You can also use Transport Canada's manufacturer and recall information to check vehicle recalls by VIN and find registration information for tires and child car seats.

Why is it worth filing a report if only one incident happened to you?

A single owner may not know whether other people have experienced the same failure. Transport Canada's complaint database allows analysts to compare reports and identify patterns involving similar vehicles, tires or child car seats.

Published investigations show that complaint data can contribute to a formal investigation. Additional reports received while an investigation is open may also become part of the evidence considered by the department.

If you experience something you believe may be unsafe, report the actual event rather than assuming another owner has already reported it.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Reporting an ordinary maintenance or wear problem as if it were necessarily a manufacturing safety defect.
• Assuming that telling a dealer automatically reports the problem to Transport Canada.
• Waiting for a formal recall before submitting a serious safety concern.
• Providing a vague description without explaining what failed or how it affected safe operation.
• Guessing product information instead of using accurate identifying information requested by the complaint form.
• Assuming that an acknowledgment of the complaint means Transport Canada has confirmed a defect.
• Expecting every individual complaint to generate a personal follow-up when investigators do not need more information.
• Ignoring an eventual recall notice after previously reporting the problem.