Mahwah, NJ – September 26, 2021 – Tata Motors (NYSE:TTM), which owns Jaguar Land Rover, has recalled 9,000 vehicles with faulty seat belts that may not securely hold children’s car seats. The recall includes:

• 2020 – 2021 Jaguar F- Pace SUVs
• 2021 – 2022 Jaguar F- Type sports cars
• 2021 Jaguar XF luxury cars

The faulty component in this recall is the seat belt assembly, with multiple part numbers, including 636655200 and 639430300.  This is the second recall by Tata Motors because of this issue, caused by faulty parts supplied by Swedish-American manufacturer Autoliv.

Recall summary  

The problem stems from a faulty seat belt mechanism. There are two ways to secure a child car seat in a vehicle, and one is to utilize the seat belt, using retractors, which are parts used to hold it in place.

The retractor that secures a child seat is called the automatic locking retractor (ALR). It locks once “the continuous motion of spooling the belt out is stopped.”

Due to a supplier manufacturing issue, the ALR may deactivate and allow the seat belt to become loose, potentially allowing the child seat to move around.

Recall risks

According to research conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), car seats reduce deaths by 71% for infants under one year old, and by 54% for kids between one and four. In 2017 alone, car seats saved an estimated 312 lives among children under the age of five. 

If car seats are not tightly secured, they will not offer this level of protection. The defective Jaguar seat belt poses “an increased risk of injury in a crash” to a child in a car seat, according to the recall document.

Safety tips

Jaguar Land Rover has not yet released any instructions for owners on how to protect child passengers from this defect. The supplier did say the defect does not affect child car seats secured using anchors and tethers (e.g., “LATCH system”) on the seat. Find out which car seats use anchors and tethers in this article.

Warning signs 

Jaguar Land Rover also did not detail any warning signs that indicate a faulty seat belt. However, documents for an identical recall by Mercedes-Benz have reported an “audible clicking noise” drivers may hear when the seat belt is locked. If the clicking noise stops before the seat belt is fully retracted, the seat belt may be faulty.

The repair

Affected seat belts will be replaced free of charge by Jaguar dealers. Owners should receive letters with more information on October 22, 2201

Other Jaguar recalls

Earlier this month, Tata recalled 28,000 Land Rover SUVs affected by the same issue. Over 7,000 Land Rover Defenders were recalled in the same month because of  incorrect child restraint information in the owner’s manual, as reported. In March, there was also a Jaguar recall for defective high beams involving over 26,000 vehicles. 

Is your vehicle part of this recall?

A total of 9,000 vehicles are included in this Jaguar recall. To see if your car is one of them, use MotorSafety’s free vehicle lookup tool.