NHTSA Forces Recall of 4,800 Lamborghini Huracans Over Missing Screw Cap

Apparently, it allows owners to adjust their headlights and NHTSA doesn’t want that.

byChris Tsui|
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As some of the last Aventadors ever made tragically burn in the middle of the Atlantic, more Lamborghini-related trouble has brewed albeit with much, much lower stakes. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Lamborghini is being forced to recall precisely 4,796 Huracans from model years 2015 through 2020 over the absence of a "blanking cap" that's supposed to cover a screw within the headlight assembly. 

Per the NHTSA doc, this opens up the risk of owners reaching in and adjusting the headlights themselves, which may cause glare for other drivers, which inherently poses a safety risk, however small. 

"The horizontal aim adjustment of the subject beams is possible due to the absence of a blanking cap over the beam horizontal adjustment screw," the defect description reads. "The customers can reach the horizontal adjustment screw and make the horizontal adjustment by themselves. Improper horizontal aim may result in glare to other motorists/road users, reduced visibility on one of the sides of the road, and reduced down-road visibility. Increasing the risk of a crash."

Michael Tsui

In other words, NHTSA doesn't trust Lambo owners enough to not purposely aim their headlights at other people so as to risk an accident, and is now making Lambo reinstall a little cap on nearly 5,000 cars that essentially protects Lambo owners from themselves. The recall report also says that the blanking cap in question was not installed in the first place "due to a human error."

If you think this all sounds like a non-issue that borders on silly, you're not alone because just weeks after the "defect" was self-reported back in March 2020, Lamborghini filed a petition to NHTSA for Inconsequential Noncompliance. That's pretty much an official way of saying "Yes, we broke the rules but it's not really hurting anybody, so can we be excused from doing a recall?"

Earlier this month and two full years after the defect was originally discovered, NHTSA denied the petition, leading to the upcoming recall. Ergo, Lamborghini will be contacting affected owners this coming April and reinstalling the missing blanking caps free of charge. Because potentially misaligned headlights are, as we all know, the greatest source of danger when piloting a 602-hp, mid-engined V10 supercar.

Got a tip or question for the author about Lambo headlights? You can reach them here: chris.tsui@thedrive.com

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