Back in 2023, the Certified Automotive Parts Association (CAPA) posted a “public safety notice.” It cautioned that more than 5,800 CAPA-certified non-OEM radiator supports designed for 2016-2021 Honda Civic vehicles “may exhibit a separation of metal surrounding a mounting hole near the hood latch mounting area, which could affect the proper function of the hood latch.”
Do you know whether your shop installed one of those parts? Would you know what customer to notify about this important safety concern? You could, if you used the free “CAPA Tracker” when installing CAPA certified parts.
CAPA, founded in 1987, is a non-profit certification organization for non-OEM crash parts. The “CAPA Tracker” allows a shop to use the CAPA website to enter the unique seal number of the yellow CAPA sticker on the part they have installed, along with the repair order for that job.
“In the event of a part problem, CAPA can identify all reported instances of the use of that part, matching the seal number to the applicable repair orders and repairers,” the CAPA website states. “CAPA can immediately notify each repairer allowing them to contact their customers.”
Currently, CAPA parts that a shop is installing must be entered into the tracker one at a time.
“We are working on making changes to allow multiple parts to be entered for one repair order,” Gerry Poirier, chairman of CAPA’s board, said.
Only ‘public safety notice’ triggers notification
The number of CAPA certified parts that become the subject of such a “public safety notice” is relatively small — CAPA published nine such notices in 2022, 13 in 2023, but just two in 2024 and only one since January of last year. But decertification of some production lots of previously certified parts is more common. In a single month in 2023, for example, a CAPA report listed eight decertified part production lots, including a fender, hood, bumper bar, and several bumper covers.
“Decertification indicates that the part no longer meets the CAPA standard to which the part was originally certified, [but] in itself may not warrant a safety recall,” Poirier said.
Unfortunately, it’s become more challenging than it has been in the past to determine whether a CAPA part has been decertified. CAPA has faced some criticism for its decision announced late last year to halt publishing online a monthly list of such decertified parts.
CAPA does have a search feature on its site that it says allows a user to get this certification status information — but it does require searching for each part installed individually.
Collision repairers discussing the topic at a recent meeting wondered whether they could be notified through the “CAPA Tracker” if a part they’d installed had been decertified. The answer is no. Poirier said shops using the tracker are notified only if a CAPA part they installed is subject to a “public safety notice,” not if the part has been decertified but does not warrant a safety notice.
Shops see upside to knowing about any decertification
But a number of collision repairers at the meeting indicated they might be more likely to go through the added administrative step of using the tracker if it notified them about decertified parts as well. They pointed to potential upsides of knowing when a CAPA part they’ve installed has been decertified, even if it’s not a safety risk. Some states, for example, have laws requiring that any non-OEM parts used must be certified.
“Oregon law requires that aftermarket parts be certified equivalent to factory parts by an independent testing facility,” that state’s Department of Insurance website makes clear.
There’s also the customer goodwill of being able to notify them of a potential safety issue.
“The customer may not like the hassle of having to deal with a recall-like issue, but they probably will appreciate that we’re looking out for them, even after the repair,” one shop manager said.
During a time when claims counts are down, the need to replace an installed part also can bring another job into the shop. When promoting the “CAPA Tracker” some years ago, the organization said CAPA said if a problem were discovered with a part that led to a shop notification, “costs associated with the replacement of the part would be the responsibility of the part distributor, who deals directly with the manufacturer of the part.”
“We don’t sell parts,” Poirier said, confirming the process for dealing with a part that is decertified remains the same. “We just certify the parts and set the standard for that process. So, yes, a shop would get to their distributor, and that distributor in turn would get back to the manufacturer.”
Despite the “CAPA Tracker” having been available for more than two decades, CAPA representatives over the years have acknowledged that few shops use it.
“It’s a tool there to help everybody, but do people use it? Not as much as you would think,” Poirier said.
Based on the recent discussion of the topic among collision repairers, however, that could change if part decertification notices became included in the system.
“If it told us about any certified part, we’d installed that became decertified, tracked to a specific RO, I could see more possible upsides to using it,” the shop manager speaking at the meeting said.
John Yoswick