The word "recall" gets used for everything from a software update to a press event, but in U.S. law it names a specific regulatory act with a deadline. The governing text is 49 CFR 573.6, the "Defect and noncompliance information report" rule administered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The recall clock starts at a determination, not an outcome: the regulation requires a manufacturer to report for each defect in his vehicles or in his items of original or replacement equipment that he or the Administrator determines to be related to motor vehicle safety, and for each noncompliance with a motor vehicle safety standard. Either the manufacturer reaches that conclusion, or NHTSA does — and once the conclusion exists, the duty to file attaches.

The most-quoted number in the recall process is the filing window. Section 573.6 sets a hard deadline measured in working days, and it begins running the moment a defect is determined to be safety-related.

"Each report shall be submitted not more than 5 working days after a defect in a vehicle or item of equipment has been determined to be safety related, or a noncompliance with a motor vehicle safety standard has been determined to exist."— 49 CFR 573.6, source

What the Part 573 report must contain

The report — universally called the "Part 573 report" after the regulation that governs it — is not a one-line notice. Section 573.6(c) enumerates the information a manufacturer must include: the full corporate or individual name of the manufacturer; the identification of the affected vehicles or equipment, including the make, model, and model-year range and the inclusive dates of manufacture; the total number of items potentially containing the defect; a description of the defect; and a chronology of the events that led to the determination. The regulation also provides for staged disclosure — at a minimum, the identifying and population information must be in the initial filing, and the remaining required detail must follow within five working days after the manufacturer confirms its accuracy. When new information updates or corrects an earlier submission, the manufacturer must amend the specified items within five working days, referencing the recall campaign number once NHTSA assigns one.

That campaign number is the thread that ties the public record together. NHTSA logs each safety recall under a campaign number, and the agency's public recalls database lets owners look up open recalls by vehicle identification number (VIN). The Part 573 report is the document behind that database entry — the primary record that defines exactly which vehicles are in scope and why. A reader who wants to know whether a recall is real, and what it actually covers, is looking for the Part 573 report and its campaign number, not the headline.

From report to remedy

Filing the 573 report opens the recall; it does not end the manufacturer's obligations. Under the broader recall framework, once a defect or noncompliance is determined, the manufacturer must notify owners, purchasers, and dealers, and must remedy the problem at no charge to the owner — by repairing the vehicle, replacing it, or refunding the purchase price less reasonable depreciation. The owner-notification letters, the remedy program, and the manufacturer's quarterly reports on how many vehicles have actually been fixed all flow from the determination that 573.6 captures. The five-working-day rule exists precisely because the gap between knowing a safety defect exists and telling the government is the window the regulation is built to close.

Two precise distinctions matter when reading any recall. First, a recall is triggered by a determination of a defect related to motor vehicle safety or a noncompliance with a motor vehicle safety standard — a customer-satisfaction campaign or a non-safety service action is not a 573 recall, even if a manufacturer uses similar language. Second, the obligation runs to both vehicle manufacturers and equipment manufacturers; 573.6 expressly covers defects in items of original or replacement equipment, which is why tire, child-seat, and component recalls follow the same path. The regulation is the authority for all of it, and its text is public: a determination of a safety defect, a five-working-day report, and a defined remedy at no cost to the owner.

Influenced versus ordered recalls

Most recalls are what the agency calls "influenced" rather than "ordered" — the manufacturer reaches the safety-defect determination itself, often after its own engineering review or after NHTSA opens a defect investigation, and files the 573 report voluntarily. But the regulation's opening clause makes clear the determination can come from either side: the duty to report attaches to a defect that "he or the Administrator determines to be related to motor vehicle safety." When NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation concludes a defect exists and the manufacturer disagrees, the agency can make an initial decision and, after a public hearing, order a recall. The 573 report is the common endpoint of both paths — the document that formally defines the recalled population whether the manufacturer volunteered it or was directed to it.

The chronology requirement in 573.6(c) is the part of the report that often matters most to investigators and the public, because it forces the manufacturer to lay out the sequence of events — the warranty claims, field reports, tests, and analyses — that led to the determination. That chronology is where the question of timing gets examined: whether the manufacturer acted promptly once the safety significance of a defect became apparent, or whether the signals accumulated for longer than they should have. Because the five-working-day clock starts at the determination, the chronology is also the record against which that determination date can be assessed. For a reader following a recall, the Part 573 report and its chronology are the primary, citable source for what the manufacturer knew and when — far more reliable than any secondary summary, and the foundation of the entire recall process the regulation defines.