Blue Bird L4re, Nabi Brt, Nabi Clfw, Nabi Lfw, Optima Opus, model years 2000 to 2011. Filed by North American Bus Industries, Inc. and reported to NHTSA on 19 September 2013. 4,061 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says North American Bus Industries (NABI) is recalling certain model year 2000-2011 LFW, CLFW, BRT, 2007-2009 Blue Bird L4RE, and 2000-2009 Optima Opus transit buses equipped with Sure Power battery equalizers containing a particular epoxy sealing, aka 'potting', compound. The specific potting compound used in the subject …
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.
The maker's own number for this recall: 20136. That is the number on the owner letter and on the dealer paperwork. 13V457 is the number NHTSA gave the same campaign, and the number this page is filed under. They are one recall, written two ways.
What owners ask about this recall
- Which vehicles does recall 13V457 cover?
- Blue Bird L4Re, Nabi BRT, Nabi CLFW, Nabi LFW, Optima Opus, model years 2000-2011.
- What is wrong with them?
- North American Bus Industries (NABI) is recalling certain model year 2000-2011 LFW, CLFW, BRT, 2007-2009 Blue Bird L4RE, and 2000-2009 Optima Opus transit buses equipped with Sure Power battery equalizers containing a particular epoxy sealing, aka 'potting', compound.
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- Once electrically conductive, the material is capable of melting and burning, increasing the risk of a fire.
- Is there a fix yet?
- Not yet, on the wording NHTSA publishes today. NABI will notify owners, and dealers will replace the equalizers, free of charge. An interim letter was mailed to owners on January 27, 2014. Owners may contact NABI at 1-256-831-4296. NABI's recall number is 20136.
- What should I do now?
- Check your own vehicle by its VIN with NHTSA, which is the record to act on. The maker calls this recall 20136, which is the number on the owner letter and the dealer paperwork.
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: “Once electrically conductive, the material is capable of melting and burning, increasing the risk of a fire.”
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 13V457 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | North American Bus Industries, Inc. |
| System at fault | Electrical System |
| Reported to NHTSA | 19 September 2013 |
| Model years | 2000-2011 |
| Vehicles named | BLUE BIRD L4RE, NABI BRT, NABI CLFW, NABI LFW, OPTIMA OPUS |
What the notice says today
The consequence
Once electrically conductive, the material is capable of melting and burning, increasing the risk of a fire.
The remedy
NABI will notify owners, and dealers will replace the equalizers, free of charge. An interim letter was mailed to owners on January 27, 2014. Owners may contact NABI at 1-256-831-4296. NABI's recall number is 20136.
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.
The models named here, across their whole recall history
How to cite this record
Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:
CarsMultiverse, recall 13V457, wording as read on 17 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/13v457/
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.
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 13V457 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
d8ce21f7 - Consequence
9480ab94 - Remedy
a806f07b
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 13V457 · how the whole register is watched
This was filed with the regulator 4,746 days ago and the register carries no date for the letter to owners. At that distance the blank is far more likely to be a gap in the record than a letter never posted, so it is counted apart from the recent ones: every notice still without one.
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Owners of these cars
No register publishes what happens after the letter. Owners do: tell us, in two taps.
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