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Suzuki recall 12V397: Model Year 2004-2006 Forenza and Model Year 2005-2006 Reno

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Illustrative photo, not the recalled vehicle. Photo: Peter Broomfield / Unsplash
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Suzuki Forenza, Suzuki Reno, model years 2004 to 2006. Filed by American Suzuki Motor Corp. and reported to NHTSA on 14 August 2012. 101,688 vehicles potentially affected.

What the notice says Suzuki is recalling certain model year 2004-2006 Forenza and model year 2005-2006 Reno vehicles manufactured from September 23, 2003, through March 7, 2006. Increased resistance due to poor contact between the terminals of certain wires can generate heat that can melt the splice pack used to connect the power circuit …

Is your vehicle included? Check with your VIN at NHTSA, or ask a dealer. This page is an independent copy of the notice, kept so you can see what changed after it was published. It is not the authority, and the authority’s own text is the one to act on.

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What owners ask about this recall

Which vehicles does recall 12V397 cover?
Suzuki Forenza, Suzuki Reno, model years 2004-2006.
What is wrong with them?
Suzuki is recalling certain model year 2004-2006 Forenza and model year 2005-2006 Reno vehicles manufactured from September 23, 2003, through March 7, 2006.
What can happen if it is not put right?
If the headlamps fail to function, this will lead to reduced driver visibility, increasing the risk of a crash.
Is there a fix yet?
Yes, and it is free. Suzuki will notify owners, and Suzuki dealers will reconnect the affected wires with two heat-shrink crimps, free of charge. The safety recall began on September 25, 2012. Owners may contact Suzuki at 1-877-697-8985.
What should I do now?
Check your own vehicle by its VIN with NHTSA, which is the record to act on.

Answered from the register this site holds. NHTSA is the record to act on.

What the authority says can happen if this is not fixed: “If the headlamps fail to function, this will lead to reduced driver visibility, increasing the risk of a crash.”

101,688vehicles potentially
affected
2models named
in the notice
0rewrites we have
caught
reported 14 August 2012owners told 25 September 2012today
The defect reached the regulator on 14 August 2012. Owners were written to 42 days later, on 25 September 2012. The median across the 14,869 American recalls that carry both dates is 41 days, and nine in ten owners are written to within 107. This campaign took longer than most.
Campaign12V397
Filed byAMERICAN SUZUKI MOTOR CORP.
System at faultElectrical System:Wiring:Interior/Under Dash
Reported to NHTSA14 August 2012
Model years2004-2006
Vehicles namedSUZUKI FORENZA, SUZUKI RENO

What the notice says today

The consequence

If the headlamps fail to function, this will lead to reduced driver visibility, increasing the risk of a crash.

The remedy

Suzuki will notify owners, and Suzuki dealers will reconnect the affected wires with two heat-shrink crimps, free of charge. The safety recall began on September 25, 2012. Owners may contact Suzuki at 1-877-697-8985.

What it said before

This campaign is in the register but not yet in the dated wording archive, so we cannot yet say whether its text has moved. It enters the archive on the next pass.

This is one of 1,836 notices in the record whose component field names electrical system. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 41 days.

Last checked . No change has been recorded in the wording.

How to cite this record

Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:

CarsMultiverse, recall 12V397, wording as read on 17 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/12v397/

The cross-border matches used on this site are deposited as a citable dataset: doi:10.5281/zenodo.22087136. The recall wording itself is published by the national authority named above and is theirs, not ours.

The recall record and its wording are published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and are US Government public domain. The dated archive, the comparison and any before-and-after above are CarsMultiverse. How fresh every engine behind this page is, is public on the status page. To check a specific vehicle, use NHTSA’s own VIN lookup.

Other Suzuki notices we hold

All 48 Suzuki campaigns we hold · Every manufacturer in the record

The fingerprint of this notice

We take a SHA-256 of each of the three blocks of text the authority publishes and keep the first eight characters. As we last read campaign 12V397 on 23 August 2026, they were:

We first read this notice on 21 August 2026. It has not moved since. If it ever does, these characters will not match, and the change will be dated here.

The wording we hold for 12V397 · how the whole register is watched

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