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Car Safety DB

NHTSA Campaign Number

12V488000

AIR BAGS

Reported to NHTSA: October 5, 2012

Key Takeaways

  • Recall 12V488000 currently maps to 3 tracked vehicle-year pages across 1 make.
  • This page summarizes the official defect description, safety consequence, and remedy text published by NHTSA for this campaign.
  • This is a campaign-level lookup, not a VIN-level clearance result. Use a VIN lookup before assuming your specific vehicle is still open.

Defect Description

Ford is recalling certain model year 2011-2013 Fiesta vehicles, manufactured from November 3, 2009 through September 21, 2012. The vehicles fail to comply with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 208, "Occupant Crash Protection." The passenger side curtain air bag will not deploy in the event of a side impact collision when the front passenger seat is empty. Although the side curtain air bag system was designed to suppress the side curtain air bag under this scenario, that information is not explained in the owner's guide for these vehicles as required by FMVSS No. 208.

Safety Consequence

An occupant in the right rear seating position will not have coverage from the side curtain air bag in a side impact collision when the front passenger seat is empty, increasing the risk of injury to the right rear occupant.

Remedy

Ford will notify owners and dealers will reprogram the vehicle's software free of charge so that it no longer suppresses the passenger side curtain air bag when the front passenger seat is empty, and consistent with the description in the owner's guide. The safety recall began on October 26, 2012. Owner's may contact Ford at 1-866-436-7332.

What This Recall Page Shows

This page summarizes a single NHTSA recall campaign, including the defect description, safety consequence, and manufacturer's remedy. The affected vehicles listed below are the make/model/year combinations tracked in our database — this is not a VIN-specific result. To check whether your individual vehicle is covered by this recall, enter your 17-digit VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls. Click any vehicle below to view its full safety profile.

Affected Vehicles (3)

YearMakeModel
2011FordFiesta
2012FordFiesta
2013FordFiesta

Browse Affected Vehicles

Affected Models

Affected Make + Year Views

Affected Years

Related Air Bags Campaigns

These campaigns share the same broad recall component family, so they are useful if you want to compare how similar issue types appeared across other vehicles and time periods.

This recall information is from NHTSA campaign 12V488000. This site is not affiliated with NHTSA. Contact your dealer or call NHTSA's Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 for more information.

Data synced from NHTSA on May 4, 2026