Complaint 2217581

Complaint Summary

SEATS

Owner Narrative

In August 2025, the front passenger Active Head Restraint (AHR) experienced a sudden mechanical failure and deployed unexpectedly. I immediately contacted my local Chrysler dealership, where a replacement headrest was ordered. The part was placed on an indefinite backorder with no estimated time of arrival (ETA). After several months of receiving no communication, I followed up with the dealer and was given an ETA of May 2, 2026. When that date passed with no word or resolution, I returned to the dealership on June 18, 2026, only to be informed that the parts delivery date had been pushed back yet again to July 3, 2026. In an attempt to make the seat usable, I initially attempted to secure the broken mechanism with heavy-duty zip ties, but the internal spring tension was too strong for them to hold. I was forced to use a ratchet strap to compress it; however, over time, the strap slips under the constant pressure and must be repeatedly retightened. Because Chrysler has failed to provide a critical replacement safety component for nearly a year, I am trapped in a double-sided safety hazard. If I leave the headrest exploded, the seat is physically unusable. Because I am forced to temporarily bind the headrest flat just to utilize the seat, the front passenger now has zero whiplash protection in a rear-end collision. Furthermore, this unstable, makeshift binding poses a continuous, unvetted impact and projectile risk to the middle-row passenger sitting directly behind it. By failing to maintain a reasonable parts supply for a known defect, Chrysler is forcing me to drive a vehicle with a structurally compromised safety system.

Owner-submitted narrative on file with NHTSA. Complaint narratives are self-reported and have not been verified.