A damaged terminal inside the wiring harness can leave a tail lamp dark, and 2,921 Mopar tail light assemblies are going back to the manufacturer because of it. The action was filed with federal regulators on October 22, 2026 as campaign 26E076000, and it covers replacement parts sold through the Mopar catalog rather than finished vehicles.
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Chrysler, which reports to the agency as FCA, tracks the campaign internally as A3D. Dealers will inspect the assemblies and swap them at no charge, and Chrysler will buy back parts that were never installed.
Two part numbers and a terminal problem
NHTSA files the campaign as an equipment recall, not a vehicle recall, and the federal recall dataset lists 2,921 units under the exterior lighting component. The affected assemblies carry Mopar part numbers 68272126AC and 68272127AC. Equipment recalls differ from vehicle recalls in what the record can say: a vehicle campaign names model years and VIN ranges, while this one names two part numbers and a quantity. The population is a quantity of parts that Chrysler shipped, and the owners involved are those who bought one of those parts for a vehicle, a mechanism that the company’s earlier lamp recall spelled out in its owner letter.
The defect, as Chrysler described it to NHTSA, is damage to terminals in the lamp’s wiring harness. A damaged terminal can interrupt the circuit, and a lamp that does not illuminate leaves the rear of the vehicle dark to anyone following behind. The agency’s recall page for 26E076000 is where the full notice sits.
The federal lighting standard behind the filing
The filing cites Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108, which governs lamps, reflective devices and associated equipment. The standard’s stated aim, in 49 CFR 571.108, is to reduce traffic accidents and deaths and injuries by improving roadway illumination and vehicle conspicuity. It defines a taillamp as a steady burning low intensity lamp used to designate the rear of a vehicle, and it sets rules for number, color, mounting height and photometric output.
The standard also subjects tail lamps to photometric output limits in Table VIII and to vibration, moisture, dust and corrosion tests. A lamp that fails outright cannot meet any of those requirements, which is why the recall is labeled as a noncompliance with the standard rather than only a durability complaint. The consequence NHTSA records is reduced visibility to other drivers and a higher risk of a crash.
Inspection, free swaps and buy-backs of unused stock
The remedy has two tracks. For parts already fitted, dealers will inspect the tail light assemblies and replace them as needed at no cost to the owner. For parts still sitting unused, Chrysler will repurchase the uninstalled assemblies, which effectively pulls the suspect stock back out of circulation rather than waiting for it to be fitted.
Owner notification letters are due to be mailed on December 3, 2026, about six weeks after the filing. Owners can reach Chrysler customer service at 800-853-1403 and should reference the campaign number A3D. Because the units are parts, the dataset gives no model years, and the two Mopar part numbers are the only identifiers the record supplies. The NHTSA entry lists no fire risk when parked and no do-not-drive instruction, so affected vehicles are not under a stop order while the replacements are arranged.
A 2022 Mopar tail lamp recall of 668 parts
The campaign is not the first time Mopar lamp assemblies have drawn a parts-level recall. In Chrysler’s Part 573 report for recall 22E-062, the company described Mopar tail lamp assemblies supplied by Automotive Lighting Corporation, part numbers 68421132AD on the right and 68421133AD on the left, that may have been built with damaged sub-components and could fail to illuminate.
The earlier recall involved 668 parts, 352 right-side and 316 left-side, produced between October 1, 2020 and November 10, 2021, with Chrysler estimating that about 1 percent contained the defect. The fix was replacement with compliant units, and owners who had already paid for a repair could send in receipts for reimbursement. The 2026 filing, at 2,921 units, is more than four times as large.
The owner notification letter for 22E-062, dated July 29, 2022, shows how a parts recall finds its audience. It told recipients that company records indicated they may have purchased one of the affected taillamps for their vehicle, and it warned that a nonfunctional marker can leave other drivers unaware of a vehicle’s position and size. The remedy was not yet available when the letter went out, so owners were told to wait for a follow-up mailing or sign up for email and text alerts, with reimbursement offered to anyone who had already paid for the repair. The Recall Assistance Center number printed on that letter, 1-800-853-1403, is the same one listed in the 2026 record.
The public notice for 26E076000 does not say how many of the 2,921 assemblies were installed and how many remain on shelves, nor which supplier built them. The count that the buy-back covers is the open number to watch once the December 3 letters go out.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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