Stellantis’ trailer tow module recall crossed the Atlantic in August. Germany’s KBA published the global filing at 525,222 Ram pickups and chassis cabs, five months after the US action. Mercedes-Benz’s electronic parking brake campaign added 36,862 vehicles in Canada. And in the US, NHTSA turned its GM eBoost inquiry into an Engineering Analysis covering 1.16 million vehicles.
Those three stories carried a quiet month. Europe’s registers went a second straight month without a new brake campaign of their own, and Japan’s August filings contained none either. The full record, US and international, is in the Brake Recall Monitor database.
The trailer brake module becomes a defect class
Stellantis filed its trailer tow module recall with NHTSA in February. The module could fail and take trailer lighting and trailer brakes with it. That action covered 456,287 vehicles in the US under NHTSA 26V046 and FCA campaign 03D, and it named both module suppliers, Grand Haven Stamping and Continental’s Guadalajara plant.
On August 27, the KBA published the German filing under reference 16687R. It carries the same 03D code and puts the worldwide population at 525,222 Ram 1500, 2500, 3500, 4500 and 5500 trucks built between September 27, 2023 and November 8, 2025. That is about 69,000 more vehicles than the US count. Workshops replace the trailer module.
The timing matters. Ford’s integrated trailer module recall in March covered 5.0 million vehicles across the F-150, Super Duty, Maverick, Ranger and Expedition. Two OEMs, two supplier stacks, one failure mode: a trailer controller that stops talking to the vehicle and silently drops the trailer’s brakes. For anyone specifying trailer brake controllers, the module is now a recall category in its own right, not a lighting accessory.
Mercedes-Benz parking brake campaign reaches Canada
In July, Mercedes-Benz USA recalled 310,667 vehicles because a corroded microswitch in the driver’s door lock can stop the electronic parking brake and Auto-Park from engaging when the driver steps out. We flagged the Canadian parallel as a watch item. It arrived on July 24 as Transport Canada 2026364, covering 36,862 vehicles.
The Canadian scope is broader on paper than the US one. Transport Canada lists 2019 through 2026 model years across all seven affected lines: A-Class, C-Class, CLA, CLE, GLA, GLB and GLC. The US filing cuts each line to narrower model-year windows. Both remedies are the same: dealers replace the driver-side door lock. Mercedes-Benz advises owners to set the parking brake manually until then.
The consolidated North American action now stands at 347,529 vehicles. No KBA filing had published by the end of August, which is unusual for a defect Mercedes-Benz AG itself estimated at a 100 percent rate.
GM eBoost: the biggest US brake story of the month
On August 24, NHTSA escalated its preliminary evaluation of GM’s eBoost electronic brake booster into Engineering Analysis EA26006. The population is an estimated 1,164,820 vehicles. The agency cited 745 incidents, 22 crashes or fires, and six injuries.
An Engineering Analysis is the step before a recall request. It is not a recall, so it does not enter the database, but it is the largest open brake investigation in the US and it sits on the same electronic booster architecture that produced Ford’s 2025 campaigns. A day later NHTSA opened defect petition DP26007 on 82,040 model-year 2024 Ford Maverick Hybrids over alleged intermittent loss of antilock and regenerative braking tied to fault codes.
Read together, the two actions say where regulator attention is heading: software-defined braking, where the failure is a state the module enters rather than a part that breaks.
Europe and Japan: quiet, again
Our sweep of the EU Safety Gate weekly batches and the KBA for weeks 31 through 35 turned up fire, seat-belt, fuel-line and tow-hitch campaigns, but no new European-origin brake action. The Ram filing above is the only brake entry the KBA published in August. This follows a July that was equally quiet after five straight months of brake booster and parking brake campaigns from European OEMs.
One item is already on September’s board. On September 1 the KBA published a Cadillac Lyriq and Escalade noncompliance (KBA 15117R) covering 4,917 vehicles worldwide, where an electric parking brake fault lights the red brake warning alongside the yellow one, contrary to UN-ECE R13H. It gets a software update to the brake control module.
Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism logged thirteen recall filings in August. Of the nine we opened, none involved the brake system. Korea’s transport ministry published its confirmation of the Hyundai Tucson forward-collision software correction on August 6, the 104,781-vehicle action we recorded in July.
US actions this month
The standalone posts carry the detail. Here is the August list.
KTM North America recalled 21,040 GASGAS and Husqvarna off-road motorcycles through CPSC on August 20, with another 4,140 in Canada, after finding the rear brake caliper can crack or break. Riders are told to stop riding until the repair is done. It is KTM’s second rear-caliper action in six weeks, after July’s 6,257-unit NHTSA recall of street-legal models.
Altec recalled 55 aerial devices and digger derricks under NHTSA 26V541 because the Bendix automatic braking system was never recalibrated after the front radar box was moved during bumper installation. This is a body-builder integration miss, not a Bendix component defect.
Toyota recalled 407 2026 bZ Woodland crossovers under NHTSA 26V512. A solder defect on the Curt Manufacturing tow converter can short, leaving the brake lights on and deactivating stability control, a noncompliance with FMVSS 108 and 126. Toyota caught it at a vehicle processing center in April and held the cars before filing.
Wabash recalled 533 2027 van trailers under NHTSA 26V506 because the external ABS malfunction lamp may be unlabeled, an FMVSS 121 noncompliance.
Autocar’s 137-unit E-ACTT terminal tractor recall, filed July 30 and covered on August 3, was recorded in the July edition.
Watch items for September
The Mercedes-Benz KBA filing. Transport Canada parallels for the bZ Woodland tow converter. Any regulator follow-on to the GM eBoost Engineering Analysis. And September has already opened with three US brake actions: PACCAR’s Peterbilt 548 brake timing recall, Chrysler’s Pacifica brake pedal sensor recall, and Daimler’s re-remedy of 2,404 Cascadia and 49X trucks for corroded brake modulator valves.
August 2026 campaign reference
Stellantis Ram trailer tow module, Germany: KBA 16687R / FCA 03D, 525,222 worldwide (expands NHTSA 26V046).
Mercedes-Benz parking brake microswitch, Canada: Transport Canada 2026364, 36,862 units (expands NHTSA 26V481).
KTM GASGAS/Husqvarna rear caliper: CPSC recall of August 20, 2026, 21,040 US + 4,140 Canada.
Toyota bZ Woodland tow converter: NHTSA 26V512 / Toyota 26TB15, 26TA15, 407 units; supplier Curt Manufacturing.
Wabash ABS indicator label: NHTSA 26V506, 533 units.
Altec Bendix collision-mitigation calibration: NHTSA 26V541 / Altec CSN-3356, 55 units.
Every action above, plus the full US and international archive back to 2024, is searchable by supplier, brake system, regulator, region and vehicle class in the Brake Recall Monitor database.
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